By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
FINANCIAL DISTRICT — The art vendors in Battery Park are out of luck.
While the city agreed this week to relax the new limits on vendors in Central Park and Union Square, it is still going to allow just nine art vendors in Battery Park starting next month.
“That is outrageous,” said Ro Sheffe, chairman of Community Board 1’s Financial District Committee. “It’s a violation of freedom of speech.”
The Parks Department, which released the revised regulations Friday, argues that the city is allowed to restrict vendors selling artwork if they are clogging paths and creating a safety hazard.
Sheffe agrees with the city that there are too many vendors in Battery Park, but he said the 20-acre green space can clearly handle more than just nine artists.
After criticism from vendors and First Amendment activists, the city agreed this week to add 19 more spaces for art vendors in Central Park and 40 additional part-time spaces in Union Square. A Parks Department spokeswoman did not comment on why the number in Battery Park did not increase as well.
Warrie Price, president of the Battery Conservancy, said she is glad the city stuck with the plan for just nine vendor spaces around the park’s perimeter. Price said the vendors take away from the public’s enjoyment of the park by blocking views and trampling the gardens.
“They’re using public land for private gain,” Price said.
The nine spaces will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, and vendors predicted that people would start lining up well before dawn to sell their wares in the highly trafficked park.
Jin Cao, 21, a Brooklyn resident who has been selling hand-lettered name banners in Battery Park since he was 16, said he did not know what he would do once the new rules go into effect on July 19.
“I think I’m going to lose my job,” he said.
