Robert Lederman was permitted to sell his art on the High Line last Saturday after having been arrested twice in recent weeks for selling his art there without a permit.
After the first arrest on November 21, Mr. Lederman, who is president of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response to Illegal Scare Tactics), said he would file suit as he had previously won "vending rights" lawsuits against the city.
In 2001, he won a lawsuit in which he won a consent order that it is legal to sell art, as a form of free speech, in all the city's public parks without a permit.
Last Friday, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe personally assured Mr. Lederman that he would not be arrested again for vending his art on the High Line Park, according to an article in The Villager by Lincoln Anderson. Mr. Lederman and three other artists had been selling their art on the High Line at 14th Street and Tenth Avenue and their display stands were within regulation size of not larger than 8 feet long, 5 feet high and 3 feet wide, the article said,
Mr. Lederman sent an editorial supporting him and the other artists to Mr. Benepe, who subsequently met with him December 11 and told him the charges had been dropped.
According to the article, Mr. Benepe said that his department was proposing three locations for "free-speech" vendors with only one artist or book vender in each location. The article said that Mr. Lederman told The Villager that such a plan was "an insult to the First Amendment," adding that he conceded that artists should not vend along narrower pathways.
After the first arrest on November 21, Mr. Lederman, who is president of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response to Illegal Scare Tactics), said he would file suit as he had previously won "vending rights" lawsuits against the city.
In 2001, he won a lawsuit in which he won a consent order that it is legal to sell art, as a form of free speech, in all the city's public parks without a permit.
Last Friday, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe personally assured Mr. Lederman that he would not be arrested again for vending his art on the High Line Park, according to an article in The Villager by Lincoln Anderson. Mr. Lederman and three other artists had been selling their art on the High Line at 14th Street and Tenth Avenue and their display stands were within regulation size of not larger than 8 feet long, 5 feet high and 3 feet wide, the article said,
Mr. Lederman sent an editorial supporting him and the other artists to Mr. Benepe, who subsequently met with him December 11 and told him the charges had been dropped.
According to the article, Mr. Benepe said that his department was proposing three locations for "free-speech" vendors with only one artist or book vender in each location. The article said that Mr. Lederman told The Villager that such a plan was "an insult to the First Amendment," adding that he conceded that artists should not vend along narrower pathways.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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