A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics)

New York Times, April 16, 2010."Street vendors who have become fixtures at some of Manhattans busiestparks — hawking paintings, kitschy souvenirs and all sorts of ephemera— may find themselves a lonelier crowd, as the Bloombergadministration proposes to cut their numbers by 75 percent. On Friday, the Department of Parks and Recreation is scheduled to holda hearing on a proposal to slice the number of vendors allowed inparts of Central Park and all of Union Square Park, Battery Park andthe High Line Park. If the proposal is approved, as expected, therestrictions would begin to take effect in a month."

New York City is not a hospital operating room, yet Mike Bloomberg is continuing the sterilization campaign that Rudy Giuliani started in Times Square, said Robert Lederman, a longtime foe of Mr. Benepes and the founder of A.R.T.I.S.T., an advocacy group with approximately 2,000 members. And the parks commissioner, Adrian Benepe, sees himself as a real estate agent whos trying to get the maximum price per square foot for all of our public parks.

There will be an artists protest rally this coming Friday at 10 AM, at the Chelsea Recreation Center, 430 West 25th Street, in Manhattan. Following that will be a public hearing and then a decision by the Parks Commissioner on the proposed rules.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Artists
• Illegal
• State
• park
• NYC
• street artists
• activism
• human rights
• NYC new park rules
• manhattan parks
• democracy
• Mayor Bloomberg
• NYC arts
• Manhattan artists
• gallery
• New York policies

[dandunn57]

Artist, Dan Dunn with Paintjam here.

I made my living as a caricaturist for YEARS. I stand with you my brothers. I wish I could be there. Fight the power, man!

[russellcusick]

Spam is a garbagy meat by - product faux food thing-a-ma-jig...What Robert Lederman and other 1st amendment advocates are doing is invaluable to not only those artists who choose to sell or share their work in NYC, but for everyone in this entire country.....GO ROBERT....YOUR BIGGEST FAN....russ

[VNRose3]

Flagged as spam? Free Speech activists objecting to someone expressing a opinion? Hypocrisy will be your downfall. Spam is unsolicited commercial e-mail , perhaps you misunderstand the word.

[artistpres]

Friday April 23, 2010 10 AM (Rain or Shine)

Chelsea Recreation Center, 430 West 25th Street in

Manhattan.

500 NYC street artists will protest outside a public hearing

on the proposed Parks Department rules for street artists.