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--- Begin Message ----Caveat Lector- Vendor bill passes NY State legislature (see three news articles below)Yesterday I sent you the text of this awful bill. It's in the archive of our website in case you deleted it. Among the blatant issues of unfairness, illegality and unconstitutionality of this law, it gives preferential treatment to 60 disabled vets while denying all other disabled vets including those coming home from Iraq the same rights. It actually calls it an exclusive right to vend, reserved to this handful. It sets up a governing body over all disabled veterans that only 60 disabled vets who had licenses before 1998 are even allowed to vote in. It bans vets and all First Amendment-protected vendors from an area more than four blocks from ground zero, yet still allows newspaper vendors and food vendors to sell there. It restricts these 60 "privileged" vets from ALL avenues in Midtown, limiting them to just one per block on the side streets. It also bans them and street artists from one strip of 42nd street between 7th and 8th avenues, the headquarters of Giuliani Partners. Gee, do you think there's a connection? If allowed to stand this law sets up an entirely new rational for banning vendors. That rational is that someone might be "offended" by their very presence. Be assured, we are going to seek an injunction to stop it. If we don't get an injunction and it is enforced, we will do civil disobedience against it around ground zero so as to immediately put it into the Criminal Court system. The enemy had its way, now we get to challenge them. On the positive side, the letters, faxes and calls you all made to elected officials had a very significant effect, causing them to delete numerous sections of the law they were trying to pass which were aimed at street artists. In that sense it was a victory for artists. This law does not attempt to place any limit on the numbers of First Amendment vendors, it creates no permit for us and there is no fingerprinting provision. We retain the right specifically noted in this law to vend anywhere that is restricted to all other vendors, even around ground zero, so long as we do not use a display. We come out with far more rights than the vets do as a result of this law. That's because we worked to defeat this bill, refused any compromise and stuck to our principles 100%, those being the full freedom of speech guaranteed to us by the Constitution and the rulings in our lawsuits. However, don't celebrate just yet. Next the City will try to pass Intro #48, a permit for artists in Parks, then they will try to apply that on all NYC streets. The WAR ON VENDORS never ceases. ARTIST POWER -RL] NY Post POLS OK BILL TO SHOO VENDORS By KENNETH LOVETT ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- March 2, 2004 -- ALBANY - The state Legislature yesterday finally passed a new city peddler bill that officials say should clear the congestion that has clogged city sidewalks over the past year. The measure is expected to receive quick approval from Gov. Pataki. "This legislation will help to protect pedestrians and tourists walking along congested city sidewalks while preserving the opportunity for disabled veterans to sell their goods," said Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. The city vending law expired last March, causing a flood of peddlers not only in the usual Midtown spots but also on previously off-limits areas like Fifth Avenue. The new law will reinstate restrictions on veteran vendors in Midtown. In lower Manhattan, peddling will be outlawed around Ground Zero. Food vendors will be permitted only on Broadway between Murray Street and Battery Place and on Park Row between Ann and Spruce streets. The legislation also creates a new no-peddling zone on 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues. It seeks to clear crosswalks and subway entrances by prohibiting peddlers from setting up within five feet of street corners. NEWSDAY Legislature passes new New York City street vending law By MARK JOHNSON Associated Press Writer March 1, 2004, 5:10 PM EST ALBANY, N.Y. -- A year after allowing restrictions to lapse, the state Legislature on Monday approved a permanent bill to reimpose limits on where street vendors can hawk their wares in Manhattan. City officials complained that vendors, free of previous restrictions, were crowding the most heavily traveled New York City sidewalks and at times forcing pedestrians to step off the curb and onto busy streets. "This agreement very much provides a delicate but needed balance for the city to have control of city streets with an ongoing commitment to disabled veteran vendors," said Assemblyman Steven Sanders, a Manhattan Democrat who sponsored the legislation. "This keeps our historic commitment to give disabled veterans exclusive rights to vend where no one else can." The legislation, which is expected to be signed by Gov. George Pataki, expands the regulated areas to include a stretch of 42nd Street and the area surrounding the World Trade Center site and bans vending within five feet of a street corner. The law also increases the number of vending licenses given to disabled veterans, a group that has been given special licensing consideration for more than a century. The original state law was passed 110 years ago to help Civil War veterans by exempting them from city statutes limiting street-side peddling. Other vendors, dubbed "First Amendment" vendors because they sell constitutionally protected art and printed material, are legally allowed to set up anywhere sidewalk vending is permitted. When the 1991 state law lapsed 11 months ago, restrictions on the number of disabled veterans allowed to move into certain banned spots were lifted. Wherever disabled veterans moved, "First Amendment" vendors could follow. The expired law had restricted vendors to side streets, away from the busiest pedestrian arteries. When it came up for renewal, lawmakers failed to negotiate a compromise between different versions introduced in the Assembly and Senate and the law died. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno had sought to require the fingerprinting of vendors, but later agreed to drop the proposal to reach a deal. "We didn't get everything we wanted, but it's something that works for everybody," said Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Business Improvement District, a group that lobbied to get new rules in place. "It's a great step forward." There are 2,531 general vendors licensed to operate on city streets, according to the city Department of Consumer Affairs. Of those, 374 are disabled veterans and 1,304 are non-disabled veterans. The remaining 853 are non-veterans. Veteran vendors do not have to pay a license fee. The number of vendors selling items protected by the First Amendment is unknown since the city does not require them to be licensed. "Now the city has to step forward and work on fixing a number of other elements of the regulatory system," Tompkins said. "There are whole swaths of categories not regulated at all. It's damaging to our small businesses because of safety and congestion issues." Tompkins said a Times Square sanitation worker last year was clipped by a taxi cab as he tried to negotiate his way around vendor tables. A count at a Times Square intersection in December found about 5,000 people had to walk in the street to get around nearby peddlers, he said. "We totally understand vending is a part of New York and something a fair number of tourists like about Times Square," Tompkins said. "This isn't a matter of no vending. It's about having a sensible regulatory system." New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg last week said he supported the new legislation. Copyright � 2004, The Associated Press DAILY NEWS 3/1/04 OK curbs on vendors ALBANY - Legislators voted yesterday to limit the number of vendors who can hawk their wares on crowded Manhattan sidewalks, and to ban street sales near Ground Zero. The bill, approved in the Assembly and Senate, also boosts the number of vending licenses reserved for disabled veterans. "This measure gives to the city the authority it needs to regulate street activity, so that visitors and pedestrians may travel our city safely," said Assemblyman Steven Sanders (D-Manhattan). The bill, which Gov. Pataki is expected to sign, would lift the number of licenses for disabled veterans selling goods in midtown Manhattan to 105, from 60. Joe Mahoney ---------------- 9/11 families: "Bush exploiting ground zero" [NOTE: yesterday afternoon the NY State legislature voted in favor of the disabled veteran vendor bill banning disabled vets, artists and written matter vendors from an area more than four blocks from ground zero on the absurd notion that vending by disabled US combat veterans might "offend" the families who lost relatives on 9/11. As I've written numerous times in reference to this bill, this was done at the same time Bush, Giuliani and the GOP made it public they intend to exploit ground zero to the max in the election. -RL] SEE: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/03/02/ground_zero/ Bush plays politics with 9/11 Republican speculation that Bush may use ground zero as a convention backdrop has some 9/11 victims' families appalled. ------------------- Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics) [EMAIL PROTECTED] (201) 896-1686 Street artist information http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NYCStreetArtists/ http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
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