7/30/2019 City Promises Clearer Rules for Park Performers After Busker Crackdown

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City Promises Clearer Rules for Park Performers After Busker Crackdown

DNA INFO May 3, 2013

By Andrea Swalec, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

GREENWICH VILLAGE The city is fine-tuning its rules for where

musicians can jam out in public parks.

Amid rampant complaints from musicians who say public-performer

regulations are unclear and inconsistently enforced, the head ParksDepartment administrator for Manhattan said at a recent meeting that

buskers can expect to see clearer rules soon on where they're

permitted to play.

Parks Department Manhattan Borough Commissioner Bill Castro told

dozens of concerned performers at a community meeting Wednesday that

that Parks Enforcement Patrol officers who oversee the park will be

given new guidance on what musicians and other street performers areallowed to do.

"We are going to make it clear within a matter of a few days," he

said. "You will not have a problem."

Castro assured Washington Square Park performers that they will not be

ticketed for performing within 50 feet of the park's arch or fountain,

as they were in 2011.

"You don't have to be X feet away from this or any of that jazz," he

said. "You can be next to the [arch and fountain], as you've alwaysbeen. It's not going to change."

He also introduced a rule that will go into effect May 8 requiring

anyone selling CDs to place them on a table 2 to 8 feet long."You can sell those without a permit, but you have to get a stand so

people don't trip over them," he said.

But musicians and Community Board 2 members said they want the ParksDepartment to put all the policies clearly in writing, rather than

enforcing only a portion of the laws that appear in print.

"What Commissioner Castro told you is so opposite to the actual text

of the park rules," said artists' advocate Robert Lederman, who has

battled the city in court for 20 years over rules for "expressivematter" vendors.

Pianist Colin Huggins, who has received dozens of tickets for playing

in the park, agreed.

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"We want to make sure there's something in the rules to clarify so

that it doesn't happen again," he said, referring to the 2011crackdown.

Longtime local Gil Horowitz, founder of the Coalition for a BetterWashington Square Park, urged Castro not to strip the character of the

park by restricting artists.

"Washington Square Park is magical, and we want to keep it magical," he said.

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20130503/greenwich-village/city-

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