The following was distributed by Robert Lederman, president of A.R.T.I.S.T.

STOP THE PRIVATIZATION OF UNION SQUARE PARK (USP)

Union Square Park has a long and venerable history as a location for First Amendment protected activities. These include protests, union rallies, artists displaying their work and musicians. In recent years it has also become home to a wonderful Greenmarket providing fresh organic produce to thousands of New Yorkers.

Unfortunately, the Parks Department's agenda of privatizing public parks now threatens to eliminate or seriously diminish many of these activities. A wealthy board member of the Union Square Partnership BID, who is also a personal friend of the Parks Commissioner, plans to build a big restaurant in the North end of USP. This plan will result in the Greenmarket permanently losing much of the area it has occupied.

The restaurant and the thousands of daily customers it expects to have will also take space away from the playground, eliminate the area where most large protests have traditionally been held, diminish the number of trees and displace many of the local residents who now use the park for recreation. Considering that the area around USP has more restaurants than any in NYC and less open green space, there is no reason to locate any restaurant there.

Many local residents are communicating their disapproval of this plan to the Parks Commissioner, Adrian Benepe, whose own father, Barry Benepe, founded the Greenmarket. A lawsuit to stop it is in the works. You will also notice that street artists are displaying signs and protesting about this planned restaurant/park renovation.

The Parks Department has temporarily relocated the Greenmarket to the South side of USP. They have also attempted to illegally evict all the artists from the park.

In 2001 members of A.R.T.I.S.T. won a Federal lawsuit, Lederman et al v Giuliani, establishing their right to sell art in any NYC park under First Amendment freedom of speech. Please note that this Federal ruling protects the sale of visual art in the form of painting, prints, sculptures and photographs. It does not protect the sale of general merchandise such as jewelry, batteries etc.

The park privatization agenda is partly due to the Mayor deliberately under funding Parks. The Parks Commissioner is forced to seek other means of raising money to make up for this, which he does by selling space in NYC Parks to restaurants, allowing huge months long "Holiday Gift Markets," and corporate promotions by companies such as Disney, Sony and BestBuy, and by completely turning the operation of parks over to private corporations such as the Union Square Partnership BID, the Central Park Conservancy and the Bryant Park Conservancy. These corporate Business Improvement Districts  or BIDs are run by the city's largest real estate interests. They privatize our public parks, hire private security guards to patrol what they consider "their" private property, take a big cut of the multi million dollar permit fees for corporate events and gradually eliminate the public's right to use the parks for free expression, relaxation and play.

Public parks are not the same thing as real estate or other private property. They cannot, or at least should not, be bought and sold like any other commodity. They belong to the public, and are held in trust by elected officials. When those elected officials privatize our public spaces, they are violating the public trust.

The artists who sell in USP are members of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics). We urge you to help us defend the entire public's free expression rights in this and every other NYC park. We also fully support the continued operation of the Greenmarket, which is one of the best things ever done in any NYC Park. Help us defend your public park.

ARTIST POWER!

Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T., artistpres@gmail.com
A.R.T.I.S.T. website: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NYCStreetArtists/

To subscribe send a blank email to NYCStreetArtists-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Reply to that email and you will a member

For videos about how we won these rights see: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=artistpres

Contact the Parks Commissioner, Adrian Benepe at:
The Arsenal Central Park NY, NY 10021
Tell him No Privatization of Union Sq. Park!