A group of area residents and activists have gotten an injunction to stop any further work at the pavilion in Union Square.
The city has hoped to put a new, high-end restaurant in the area that was previously a children’s play area.
Residents fear that putting part of the park in private hands could cut into space for the famed Union Square Greenmarket.
“The restaurant would take away the opportunity to reclaim thousands of square feet of additional play space in a community with the lowest amount of playground space and highest concentration of restaurants in the city,” said Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates.
The suit alleges that if the city is going to take away park land in order to give it to private interests, it must receive permission from the state legislature.
“Less space for kids to run around means that they have to stay indoors and play video games or play somewhere where they can’t be supervised,” said Jonathan Borock, 29, who used to play on the playground by the now-fenced off pavilion.
“It was a rare place for kids in the city to experience something other than buildings, to experience the outdoors.”
City lawyer Ramin Pejan disagreed with the court’s ruling.
“We are disappointed that the court enjoined construction for one week. The city is confident in its legal position and the merits of this project.”
-- David Freedlander
Comments (4)
Parks Dept goes on the attack!!!
An amazing confluence of events is taking place right now in NYC Parks.
A Federal Judge just issued a restraining order, stopping the renovation
of Union Square Park. The first thing next morning (today Wed) a small army
of NYPD and Park police descended on USP, cited exigent circumstances
and again evicted the artists. As I'm writing this (8 AM Wed) the USP artists
are loudly protesting in the park.
NOW is the time for all street artists to get serious about defending
our rights.
Artists in other parks are suddenly being confronted and threatened like
no time since 1998. In 1998 as soon as we filed our park lawsuit, the park
police and NYPD began massively arresting artists.
When the enemy gets desperate, they get sloppy. We can use this to
expose them in the media and get the public 100% on our side. It is a huge
tactical mistake on their part. The more they persecute street artists the more
the public, the media, elected officials and all New Yorkers will all
come to our side.
Spiritually speaking, when the city engages in harassing and persecuting
artists like they are doing right now in USP they reveal their real nature
as enemies of free speech and they lose the war for public opinion. The
very newspapers that previously criticized us as congesting the sidewalks
will suddenly start attacking the Mayor and Parks Commissioner as violators of
the First Amendment.
Make those signs. display them prominently.
Bring them to USP for the artists there and display them in every park
and on every street where artists sell. If we show them our resolve
this can end up
being a great thing for street artists. If we look weak, if we look
like we are just,
"business as usual" people, they will step up the harassment citywide.
Think big picture, long term.
Do not wait until there is a problem in the 8 foot space where you sell.
The entire city of NY, every street, every park, is YOUR rightful place
to show and sell art.
It is now legal to sell your art on the streets
and in all NYC parks without a license or permit.
Join A.R.T.I.S.T. the group that spent 14 years
winning you this right.
Subscribe to ARTIST
Here's the subscribe info to our group website
where you will find everything legal, political
and historical on the issue of vending art on the streets
and in the parks of NYC, including updates on new vending laws,
police enforcement etc...
TO SUBSCRIBE...
To subscribe send a blank email to
NYCStreetArtists-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Reply to that email and you will a member of ARTIST
At the website, please set your email preferences for either
daily digest OR individual emails and please
make sure your computer does not
redirect them to a spam file.
Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T.
artistpres@gmail.com
To visit the ARTIST website go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nycstreetartists/
(only subscribed members can access the materials)
NYC Street Artist Videos
For videos about how we won our rights see:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=artistpres
ARTIST WEBSITE (current)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NYCStreetArtists/
NYC VENDING LAWS
A link to the entire NYC vending law with legal citations of special
value to street artists.
http://www.savefile.com/files/519498
At the page click on the orange button in the lower right hand part of
the page that says
NYC Vending Law with legal citations DOWNLOAD
Be patient, it's a 50 page PDF file.
Thank you for your good coverage! The scariest thing about the Union Square Park issue is that the park is now basically run by the BID aka USP(Union Square Partnership). Union Square Park is not the only case. What this essntially means is that unelectable, unaccountable groups of rich businessmen are running important parts of our city. It is not a coincidence that the successful restaurateur Danny Meyer is first choice to get the cafe planned by an org. of which he is co-chair, the USP/BID. The restaurant was forced upon the public so that one of their own could benefit. Is this democracy??
The idea of taking a public space, building for private purposes is just plain offensive. We sont have enough public space as it is and what we so have is going fast.
Public parks should be free.
Restaurants tend not to be.
Which is accessible to all citizens?
Proper park-funding negates pressure to privatize.
Perhaps that is the way to go.