“Right now, we pray for our future,” said Asif Javed, standing beside his display of framed photos and sketches—vistas of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan skyline and the like joined with the images of Jonas Brothers, Michael Jackson and a host of other celebrities. Every day for more than nine years, Javed has been bringing the pictures to the east entrance of Battery Park to sell to tourists. Like the two- to three-dozen other art vendors in the park on any given day, Javid fears the passage of a new law could put him out of business.

The city’s Parks Department is proposing a change to its rules, limiting the number of such merchants—referred to as “First Amendment” or “expressive matter” vendors that can sell inside four  city parks. The sellers, who now line the tourist-filled walkways would be confined to the sidewalk along the perimeter of the park, and only nine of them would be allowed to set up shop at one time.

Art vendors also will be limited in Central Park, Union Square and on the High Line.

“It’s designed to address something that’s become a growing problem,” said  Parks Manhattan Borough Commissioner William Castro, asserting that the vendors “are totally taking over sections of the park.” No fees or permits would be required, Castro said.

The nine designated vending spaces would be located on the sidewalk along Battery Place and State Street, in clusters of three at West Street, Broadway and Bridge Street. The spaces would be allotted on a first-come basis.

Most local elected officials have not weighed in on the proposed change, but several parks conservancies and business improvement district groups, including the Downtown Alliance and Battery Conservancy, support it.

“It’s not about the freedom of expression; that is their right,” said Warrie Price, president of the Battery Conservancy. “It’s just the number of [vendors] that makes it not as much of a park as we believe it should be.”

After a presentation from Price on the rule change, Community Board 1's Financial District Committee was hesitant to support the Parks Department's proposal during its May 5 meeting, and instead passed a resolution favoring "some sort of regulation" of expressive matter vendors in the park, but not the drastic reduction sought by the city.

On April 23, the Parks Department hosted a public hearing on the proposed change, drawing hundreds of protesters opposed to restrictions on art vendors. In an interview with the Trib, Castro said the new law was driven purely by his department’s desire to ease congestion on pedestrian walkways.

 

“We’re not requiring them to get a permit, and we’re not charging them a fee [to operate,]” Castro said. “We’re just limiting the time, place and manner, which we have a right to do.”

 

But advocacy groups backing the vendors ardently protest the law, calling it a thinly veiled swipe at both artistic expression and independent enterprise.

 

“The claim that it’s solely about congestion really has no relevance at all, specifically as it relates to Battery Park,” said Ali Issan, an organizer for the Street Vendor Project. “I was just down there two days ago, and the number of art vendors that were there in no way congests the walkways. We think this is in total opposition to the public’s interest and will.”

 

“They want to eliminate us under the guise of protecting public safety,” Robert Lederman, president of the ARTIST (Artists’ Response To Illegal State Tactics) advocacy group. “The real question here is whose parks are these? Do they belong to the business improvement districts, to the parks conservancies? Or do they belong to the people of New York City?”

 

For many of the art vendors in Battery Park, who depend largely on the tourist traffic fed from attractions like the nearby Staten Island and Liberty Island ferry services, Fritz Konig’s Sphere sculpture and Castle Clinton, the opposition to the rule change is about making a living. Asif Javed said he not only fears a curtailment to his livelihood, it could also lead to unintended consequences.

“If they do this, it’s going to make for a lot of cutthroat competition for those spots," he said. "You’ll have people sleeping on the sidewalk to get them.”

 

“I think they’re just trying to make a living,” Staten Island resident Melissa Brenman said while reading on a bench outside Castle Clinton last week. “It’s a little congested, sure, but it’s New York. I feel like we’re used to that.”

“If you really want to make the park better, go after those guys,” he said.