Why Do They Want to Get Rid of Artists and Vendors?

Here's another answer to the question, "Why does the Parks Department so badly want to get rid of First Amendment protected artists and disabled veteran vendors?" All the evidence shows that it is 100% about protecting the privatization of public space agenda. Admittedly, it is difficult to sell someone a space for $600,000 a year when others can sell there for free. The answer: stop selling public space. The City also wants to privatize all the streets and replace independent vendors with privatized concessions and corporate ad billboards on the sidewalks at similar astronomical prices. Until you fully grasp what the privatization agenda is about you can never understand why the City wants to eliminate you so badly. Whether it's corporate owned art replacing artists or corporate owned concessions replacing food and merchandise vendors, the City's agenda is all about privatization of public space to the detriment of the public and of free expression. When artists pay to show in a Holiday Market, they are destroying their own rights by supporting this privatization agenda. Note that the Post refers to corporate concession vendors as "legitimate" meaning that disabled vets and artists are somehow, "illegitimate." http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bitter_vend_at_met_jfp9OGU0lD4qagMrQORxzK Legit cupcake vendor closing down over Met food-cart wars By JESSICA SIMEONE and DAVID SEIFMAN August 27, 2012 An upscale cupcake vendor has thrown in the icing as another victim of the food-cart wars raging in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Post has learned. Cake & Shake quietly ended a five-year deal with the city in December, saying it couldnt keep up with $10,000-a-month rent payments because of illegal competitors that authorities couldnt remove. The Parks Department pretty much put us out of business, charged Derek Hunt, a co-owner of the organic-treats company. He said Parks officials refused to renegotiate his contract despite a precipitous 40 percent drop in revenues.

I paid probably the highest [per square foot] rent of any space in New York City, he noted. Hunt and his partners lost what he described as a pretty tremendous deposit along with most of their investment. Taxpayers lost a large chunk of the $659,000 Hunt was going to pay through 2015. Hunt said officials feared theyd be setting a precedent if they gave him a break. His isnt the first business done in by one of the longest-running food wars in town. In 2008, a hot-dog peddler named Pasang Sherpa bid an astonishing $643,000 a year for the right to station two carts in front of the Met, where thousands of tourists head each day and the nearest restaurant is a block away. A year later, Sherpa was out of business, claiming disabled veterans with special vending permits spelled the end. The vets pay no rental fees. After several court battles, the city agreed to let two vets set up near the cupcake bakers and a pretzel seller paying $89,722 a year. But other disabled vets dug in and wouldnt move even after getting hundreds of summonses. Last Wednesday, the Parks Department removed all the unauthorized carts. The next day, the carts were back. Armando Crescenzi, whose cart was among those seized, said he intends to keep up the fight. The citys not playing fair and is driving us out of business, he complained. They give us a license. They say we can work. They want us off the plaza. These spots are very valuable. Parks officials say judges are beginning to rule in the citys favor and that state law limits what they can do. It is a reality of the situation, said Parks spokeswoman Vickie Karp, adding the vets legal and illegal are making it tough to attract high-paying non-vet vendors. We continue to enforce the laws and rules. We also hope that the

state Legislature will work to clarify the laws to make sure they are helping the intended beneficiaries and not private businesses exploiting loopholes for purely private profit. ---------------***Still skeptical that the City's real reason for wanting to get rid of artists is that it makes it harder for them to sell space to corporate concessions at inflated prices? Here are actual quotes on it from the past 2 Park Commissioners: NY Sun August 14,2002 Parks Commissioner Planning a Crackdown On Venders of Artwork They're `Out of Control, `He Says But Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe sayshe sees the permits as a quality of life issue, not a First Amendment one."The proliferation of private commerce in a public park has gotten outof control," Mr. Benepe told the Sun. "We're getting complaints fromconcessionaires who say their business is dropping." Newsday 2/26/98 Artistic Licenses; City plans to limit art vendors outside MetWhile denying that the new permit policy has anything to do withcreating additional city revenue, Parks Commissioner Henry Stern said:These are extremely valuable spaces, and people who sell hot dogsthere pay $150,000 a year for the privilege, and may not want to setup next to an artist who is there for free. Read the full story of park privatization here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/32399532/Lederman-Testimony-Submitted-to-Parks