An Easy Guide to Racial Politics on the Council
Here, from the memo, is a list of the officials that can help him do that, and of what they do -- and don't -- bring to the table :
Dan Garodnick: extremely proactive in support of reclaiming the streets of his district;
Alan Gerson: Active on the lower east side and in Chinatown and looking to put together comprehensive peddler legislation. Gerson will also be able to bring a number of Chinese merchant groups into the expanding coalition;
Hiram Monseratte: A key player for us since his support for our position will go a long way towards reducing the anti-immigrant chants of the street vendor cohort. Monseratte is also looking to actively recruit Hispanic store owners in the Roosevelt Avenue corridor, another helpful contribution towards the creation of a multi-ethnic coalition;
Jessica Lappin: Has shown some interest in the issue but more so out of a concern to placate her East Side community/block associations. It remains to be seen just how active she will be on the entire question;
Joe Addabbo: Solid, pro-business legislator who will help us recruit a multi-ethnic merchant contingent in the Ozone Park community;
David Yassky: Chair of the council's small business committee, he will be an articulate spokesperson for controlling vendor proliferation. His staff will also be helpful at reaching out to the city's small business groups;
Leroy Comrie: Chair of the Consumer Affairs Committee, he is someone who may play a key role in the legislative process. Not necessarily a forceful leader but, if he is given enough cover by his colleagues, can be instrumental in carrying legislation forward;
John Liu: Chair of the Transportation Committee he has staked out some strong positions on street safety. His advocacy on the peddlers/street safety issue, given his constituency, would be very valuable (also has ties to key Chinese business groups);
Vinnie Gentile: Bay Ridge lawmaker who is extremely supportive local business interests;
Jimmy Vacca: District Manger of a local community board for over twenty five years, Vacca is a strong supporter of local businesses and street safety. He has ties to about five or six local merchant groups in the East Bronx;
Miguel Martinez: Important potential ally who has ties to the Bodega Association as well as to the National Supermarket Association (independent Dominican supermarket owners).
The memo, which was passed on to me by email, goes on to say:
This is just a brief overview. It would be my suggestion that we look to create a diverse umbrella coalition that has the financial support of the major real estate organizations. In this way we will be able to generate strong public support for beleaguered (and often minority) shopkeepers while at the same time generating enough resources from larger behind-the-scenes business interests.
In a brief interview, Lipsky confirmed that he wrote it, and explained what he described as the necessity of demonstrating diverse backing for the measure. "There's been a sense from certain elements in the council that if we're to be successful, we have to demonstrate the depth of support we have," he said.
As for how the crackdown on largely immigrant peddlers could possibly be presented as pro-immigrant, he said, "There are 9,000 food vendor licenses. There are only 4,000 food cart licenses, which means in all likelihood, there is a pool of contract labor that is manning the car for people who own the carts."The whole email is after the jump.
-- Azi PaybarahMemorandumFrom: Dr. Richard Lipsky
To: Mike Weiss (MetroTech BID); Tim Tomkins (Times Square Alliance) Subject: Peddler Compliance Coalition Date: 02/22/2007
In order to effectively challenge the peddler status and the concomitant mythology that surrounds their activity, it will be necessary to expand the current coalition so that we are able to present a diverse city wide coalition in support of a common agenda that stresses the rights of store owners and communities to reclaim their Main Streets in all of the city's neighborhoods. We have begun to do just that but the active participation of the BIDs all over the city is a necessary step in the creation of the needed coalition.
On the political front, we have garnered the support of the following council members:
1.Dan Garodnick: extremely proactive in support of reclaiming the streets of his district; 2.Alan Gerson: Active on the lower east side and in Chinatown and looking to put together comprehensive peddler legislation. Gerson will also be able to bring a number of Chinese merchant groups into the expanding coalition; 3.Hiram Monseratte: A key player for us since his support for our position will go a long way towards reducing the anti-immigrant chants of the street vendor cohort. Monseratte is also looking to actively recruit Hispanic store owners in the Roosevelt Avenue corridor, another helpful contribution towards the creation of a multi-ethnic coalition; 4.Jessica Lappin: Has shown some interest in the issue but more so out of a concern to placate her East Side community/block associations. It remains to be seen just how active she will be on the entire question; 5.Joe Addabbo: Solid, pro-business legislator who will help us recruit a multi-ethnic merchant contingent in the Ozone Park community; 6.David Yassky: Chair of the council's small business committee, he will be an articulate spokesperson for controlling vendor proliferation. His staff will also be helpful at reaching out to the city's small business groups; 7.Leroy Comrie: Chair of the Consumer Affairs Committee, he is someone who may play a key role in the legislative process. Not necessarily a forceful leader but, if he is given enough cover by his colleagues, can be instrumental in carrying legislation forward; 8.John Liu: Chair of the Transportation Committee he has staked out some strong positions on street safety. His advocacy on the peddlers/street safety issue, given his constituency, would be very valuable (also has ties to key Chinese business groups); 9.Vinnie Gentile: Bay Ridge lawmaker who is extremely supportive local business interests; 10.Jimmy Vacca: District Manger of a local community board for over twenty five years, Vacca is a strong supporter of local businesses and street safety. He has ties to about five or six local merchant groups in the East Bronx; (11) Miguel Martinez: Important potential ally who has ties to the Bodega Association as well as to the National Supermarket Association (independent Dominican supermarket owners). In addition, he is also close to Peter Walsh, the owner of Coogan's Restaurant-and a knowledgeable opponent of vendor proliferation.
This list is certainly not complete; and council members Gallagher, Fidler, White, McMahon, Ignizio (newly elected on Staten Island), Felder, Gioia, Sanders, Nelson and Recchia are all potentially strong allies for us. We are looking to create a council support group for our outside coalition and we will ask the supportive members to engage business and civic groups within their districts to become part of our expanding organization. Currently, we will have the support of the Bodega Association, the Small Business Congress and the Korean-American Small Business Service Center in our effort to demonstrate the diversity of our coalition. We will also add a number of the Hispanic and Caribbean Chambers of Commerce to this group.
What we need to do now is to identify the various legislative and enforcement strategies that we can utilize as we continue to add allies to our coalition. As I mentioned, we are looking to create a separate enforcement unit at DCA, while simultaneously also examining how we can strengthen the existing law so that peddlers aren't in a position to unfairly compete with tax paying store owners.
In addition, we will be asking the council to investigate the peddler supply chain to determine the extent to which these vendors are fronting for wholesaler cartels. As part of this investigation we will also ask for the council to examine the exploitation of the peddler work force to underscore the extent to which the peddlers do not represent a true entrepreneurial class.
This is just a brief overview. It would be my suggestion that we look to create a diverse umbrella coalition that has the financial support of the major real estate organizations. In this way we will be able to generate strong public support for beleaguered (and often minority) shopkeepers while at the same time generating enough resources from larger behind-the-scenes business interests.
When we lost saw Mr. Lipsky, he was working to keep new supermarkets out of poor neighborhoods.
He won that fightwon in part by going to White neighborhoods and claiming supermarkets would attract "outsiders" who would cause "crime," and to minority neighborhoods to claim the proposed zoning liberalization was a White conspiracy to put minorities out of business.
Here's the good thing about term limits: they increase Lipsky's operating costs by forcing him and his to buy a whole new Council every eight years.
Vinnie Gentile: Cause it's perfectly ok to double park if you have a reason
Lipsky is currently trying to buy off the community in West Harlem on the Coulmbia expansion. Lucky for him, Scott Stringer enjoys getting bought.
I love street vendors and they are such a great part of NYC.
They also provide great entreprenurial opportunities for poor and immigrant people to move up economically and socially.
Keep the vendors, damn it!
A wayward email is never fun, but it coulda been much, much worse for Lipsky. Fortunate for him, he stayed away from sarcasm and didn't talk financial support, otherwise I wouldn't want to be him.
Lipsky has no conscious or shame. He is so obviously pro big business, anti minority. It
Richard Lipsky is a walking contradiction. He represents unionized food workers as well as the owners. He is full of shit. He feels he gets to make the decision on where poor communities have the option to shop.
What is puzzling here is the extent that Azi feels that the strategy memo is untoward in some way. The reality is that defending legitimate tax paying store owners is treated, as some of the comments here underscore, as a defense of privilege. It is the underlying anti-business attitude that permeates much of the political narrative in this town. It is also why Republicans have won the last four mayoral elections. Our neighborhood businesses employ hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and pay tens of millions of dollars in taxes, while making communities intereesting and safe places to shop. The real question here is why it is so difficult to mount a defense of this vital sector, and why we need to make sure that we remain sensitive to street peddlers who aren't paying any real estate taxes, rent or normal business overhead. But the fact is that the store owners in Washington Heights or in Corona or the South Bronx are no different than the street vendors who are competing with them on a very unlevel playing field.
I really hope that Lipsky's analysis of what role these particular Council Members might play is off the mark.
As a non-Asian who lives near Chinatown, I really appreciate the richness that these immigrants bring to our community and I appreciate their hard work to make an honest living.
Lipsky is full of shit. And I'll be following this issue closely - and what the council members do. Thanks for leaking the memo Azi!
I'll be watching out for anonymous and his ghost minions
rich got caught!
Lipsky (6:36 above) calls bloggers "minions"! so much for the little guy. we can see the stuff he's made of, once again.
The Fifth Avenue Association was the first business protection group in NYC to go after vendors. Back in the early part of the 20th century, they were formed to keep Jewish businessmen and street peddlers from selling on Fifth Avenue. During the ensuing hundred years, business groups, like the one attempting to form itself here, use false premises about protecting rent paying stores to promote racist and anti constitutional efforts to destroy vending.
As the representative of the city's First Amendment protected street artists I have spent the past 13 years fighting and exposing such efforts. So far we've won four Federal lawsuits and changed three laws about vending. Be assured, we are already working on exposing this one before it gets out of the gate.
Those businesses and councilmembers that align themselves with it will be tainted for many years to come.
This plan has far more to it than the article suggests.
1. Tricking vendors into supporting their own elimination including
using a fake vendor advocacy group representing immigrant vendors.
2. Pretending to pass a law aimed at helping immigrant vendors
and street artists, a law actually
intended to get rid of immigrant vendors and street artists.
3. Tricking councilmembers into believing they are helping the
very vendors they are eliminating.
4. Using public relations to deceive the public into thinking a
vendor elimination bill was a "help the poor vendors" bill.
Imagine elected officials taking bows for helping immigrant vendors
when in reality they are working to eliminate them. It's as if
Karl Rove (Bush's brain) was working on the vendor policy.
This plan is as sinister as it gets, and YOU are
the target of this plan.
If you are a street artist, disabled veteran vendor, food vendor
or general vendor this leaked memo should be a gigantic wakeup call.
All of the councilmembers on the committee are pawns of real estate interests.
Not one word they speak, write or vote for in terms of "helping"
any vendor can ever be trusted. But watch them try....
You can expect that now that this memo has been leaked
these councilmembers will be doing everything they
can to distance themselves from it, to denounce it,
and to disavow ever having such ideas.
They will try to claim they are every vendors'
BEST FRIEND. They will hope you have a one second memory.
DON'T BELIEVE IT.
No vendor group "working with" these councilmembers can be trusted.
They are either innocent pawns or willing fronts or both.
Front groups are these councilmembers specialty.
This same corrupt Consumer Affairs Committee that
plans to get rid of vendors funds one of
the largest "vendor advocacy groups" in NYC. This group is co-funded
by the BIDs, the US Department of Justice and some of
the city's largest corporate law firms. I've written about it
more than 100 times since 1999. Where did I get this info
on their funding?
From the vendor groups own annual report.
You can expect them to be out in front right besides the
corrupt councilmembers denouncing this same plan...
a plan they are an integral part of.
In 2004 this "vendor advocacy" group publicly supported
a bill this very same committee and Alan Gerson wanted
passed requiring a license for artists, limiting all vendors
to two per block and creating thousands of vending licenses
specifically for immigrants. I denounced it as a front
and a trick aimed at exploiting immigrant vendors at that time.
ARTIST had a leading role in defeating that bill.
PRIVATIZATION
You might reasonably ask:
Why would the anti vendor city council fund a group asking for thousands
of new vending licenses to be issued to immigrants?
They need to boost the total
number of food and general merchandise licenses and permits
before selling off all the vending spots to corporations.
Right now there is a cap on the total number of licenses and permits.
If they sold off all the spots today, they could not sell any more than
the current number. The immigrant vendors are going to be
exploited by these corporate interests, who themselves plan to
get control of all the legal vending spots by outbidding all other vendors.
What should we do? Start by getting your own understanding
of the vending issue clear.
If you don't even know what game you are playing,
you are not playing to win.
If your focus is totally on other vendors who you imagine
are the cause of all your woes, you are missing the point.
Robert Lederman
artistpres@gmail.com
I've spent 55 years in NYC, and grew up with the occassional hot-dog street vendor--Remember? The guys with the pie-slice orange & colored umbrellas? While, I was OK with that, I've had it with the book-sellers who take up up the sidewalks in my neighborhood, and all of whom work for a major wholesale distributor--they lay claim to the First Amendment, and the courts swallow that BS,with no regard for pedestrian traffic, fair-commercial competition or simple esthetics. This of course is beyond the trinket sellers, the T-shirt hawkers, etc.
I miss my candy-store operator on the corner of 86th street and CPW who complained to me daily, and was ultimately run out of business by a street peddler who parked his "cart" right outside her store. The candy-store proprietors are East Indian immigrants, and the peddler said to be the owbnner-operator of several such carts. The street peddler started innocently enough just selling coffe, but within weeks, bottled water, sodas, sandwiches, pastries, etc. No he didn't sell cigaretts or newspapers, but that is not all candy-stores can sell to making a business viable. Of course, the candy-store operators paid rent, insurance, utilities, etc. The street peddler: NADA!
PS: While I assume not many Observer readers travel much to East Harlem, perhpas they should--and see the street peddlers who cook all sorts of things without any checks or control by the City's Board of Health. Supporters of these proliferate street peddlers should eat some of their wares, risk becoming ill--perhaps then, they may agree to the need for control.
Get rid of them, I say!