[sensation]

You can see the entire history of this issue at:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=artistpres

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_...saypolice.html

VILLAGER

Art vendors say police get picture all wrong

Volume 76, Number 44 | March 28 - April 3, 2007

Villager photos by Jefferson Siegel

Skyler Aronson, 4, watched as Patrick Stecher made a wire sculpture of
her face on W. Broadway near Spring St. last weekend.

Art vendors say police get picture all wrong

By Chris Bragg

Although she's a comedian, Whoopi Goldberg said there was nothing
funny about police treatment of Soho's famous street artists as she
walked down W. Broadway Saturday morning.

"I think it's atrocious what they're trying to do," said Goldberg, a
Soho resident. She had just passed a group of sidewalk artist vendors
who were staging a protest against what they charge is harassment by
the First Police Precinct.

In recent weeks, long-running tensions between police and art vendors
on W. Broadway have heightened. While residents, business owners and
the art vendors themselves agree a crackdown on illegal street
peddlers is needed, there's concern police are targeting the wrong
vendors.

On Saturday morning, 10 police officers came to W. Broadway and Spring
St. around 10 o'clock, and asked a number of art vendors to move their
stands, witnesses said. Vending laws require stands to be 20 feet from
business entrances.

Robert Lederman, president of A.R.T.I.S.T., or Artists' Response to
Illegal State Tactics, said police were harassing street artists, even
though they have the First Amendment right to sell on the sidewalk.
Meanwhile, Lederman said vendors selling bootlegged art and jewelry
were largely left alone.

"Every single person they went after was selling their own work," he said.

In the end, no one was arrested, no art confiscated and no one issued
a summons, according to witnesses.

Lederman shot a video of his interaction with police and posted it on
the video-sharing Web site YouTube. The video shows Lederman talking
to an officer whom he later identified as Lieutenant Jack
Konstantinidis, in charge of First Precinct special operations.

"I assure you, no hard feelings either way," Lederman says on the video.

"It's only a game, I know," Konstantinidis replies.

On the video, Konstantinidis goes on to explain why the officers came
to W. Broadway on Saturday: "The residents here, you know they keep
complaining…. Whether they're right or wrong, whatever it is, they
don't want people in front of their residences or their commercial."

Lieutenant Konstantinidis did not return calls seeking further comment
on the police action.

Many residents and business owners are concerned about the congestion
of Soho streets, which can make it difficult to walk or do business in
the area. On the other hand, artists say street art has historically
given Soho its unique flair.

Lawrence White, a dance photographer who is a leader of the Soho
International Artists Cooperative, said the real problem is illegal
vendors. He said he saw 20 to 25 illegal displays in a quick walk
around the area just an hour after police left on Saturday. But
instead of dealing with those vendors, he said police instead harassed
Lederman.

"Why not just go right across the street to the people selling
illegally?" White said, adding that he felt police did not have the
proper training to determine who was legal. "They can't tell the wheat
from the chaff." Instead, he said, artists were being targeted based
on which businesses or landlords had called the police.

White added that business owners needed education about vendor rights.

"They need to be told, 'On this block, food vending and art vending
are allowed,'" he said.

Sean Sweeney, director of the Soho Alliance, who has fought congestion
in the area for years, said he also couldn't understand why police
were focusing on W. Broadway.

"I'm happy the police are doing something," he said, "but I wish
they'd focus on Prince and Spring Sts." On these narrower streets,
First Amendment sellers are banned on weekends, yet the sidewalks are
still jammed with illegal general-merchandise vendors.

C.B. 2 unanimously passed a resolution on Jan. 18, addressed to the
First Police Precinct, praising it for actions against illegal vendors
and calling for further action. But C.B. 2 District Manager Bob
Gormley said the board only encouraged police action against illegal
peddlers.

"We have no problem with street artists," he said.

After police left on Saturday, the situation on W. Broadway calmed.
But at noon, an employee of a new gallery at W. Broadway and Spring
St., the Delorenzo Sculpture Gallery, opened its doors. The employee
asked Lederman to leave the area in front of the store. That prompted
Lederman to organize an artist protest in front of Delorenzo.

In a stirring oratory, Lederman, who claims to have been arrested 40
times and to have received 100 summons for art-related protest,
proclaimed, "If you don't like artists selling in front of your store,
we'll give you something you'll like a whole lot better," threatening
to bring 100 artists outside the store next weekend, rather than the
10 that protested Saturday.

Lederman blames the gallery for calling police each weekend since its
opening and prompting the recent police presence. But Sweeney doubts
that's the case.

"If the Soho Alliance can't get any police down there and the
community board can't, I don't know how an art gallery would," Sweeney
said.

The gallery employee, who did not want to give her name, said she was
unaware of any calls made to police.

White, who has a narrower view about what constitutes legitimate
street art than Lederman and has clashed with him over the years, said
he respects Lederman for standing up for artists. Still, he says
protests are not the long-term answer: "It isn't necessary," White
said. "Somehow, logic must prevail."

City Councilmember Alan Gerson is currently working on a bill to deal
with the problem, which he says could be finished in several weeks.
While he didn't speak about specifics, he said in an interview that
the bill "seeks better enforcement and regulation through the
clarification of ambiguities and the closing of loopholes.… Right now,
it's just so confusing." Gerson said First Amendment-protected vendors
were only "the smallest part of the puzzle" in the scope of the whole
bill.

Since 2001, the City Council has considered legislation to require
permits for artists in city parks and proposed a cap of two artists
per block, though neither has passed.

Gerson, a First Amendment expert himself, said lawyers were looking
over his legislation to make sure it's constitutional. He said this is
important, since Lederman has helped lead street artists to four
victories in federal court, overturning city rules requiring vending
licenses and permits for street artists.

Sweeney said he had been kept in the dark about the legislation.

"What, Gerson speak with his constituents?" said Sweeney, adding that
even as the head of the Soho Alliance, he rarely consults with Gerson.

Meanwhile, White, who is also an art gallery owner, said that a new
law isn't necessary — what's needed is proper enforcement of the
current law.

"Just the simple thing," he said. "Nobody's tried that yet."