City Cracking Down on Performers in Washington Square Park

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/nyregion/city-cracks-down-on-washington-square-park-performers.html

Central Park ban angers NYC buskers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14963159

BART Musician Adam Young Shares Tips on Busking for a Living

BART Musician Adam Young Shares Tips on Busking for a Living

by Caroline Chen, blogs.sfweekly.com
July 7th 2011 11:46 AM ​Adam Young was playing in the Powell BART station yesterday. But it wasn't the Owl City lead singer Adam Young. The Bay Area's own Adam Young is a cellist who has just started his first year at the S.F. Conservatory of Music. During the summer months, he busks in BART stations to earn his living.

When Young plays, he is serene -- his eyes half-closed, he cradles his cello as his bow weaves back and forth. Yesterday, in his black-and-white outfit, Young matched the monochrome floors and walls of the Powell BART station so that he seemed more like an art installation made for the space than a street musician.

As a BART regular, Young has a small local following. As I watched him play, a little old lady stopped to listen and began rummaging through her handbag. After dropping a donation in Young's cello case, she shuffled up to me and whispered, "Look how hot he is!"

But there aren't always adoring fans in the BART, and there are bad days as well as good ones. Young tells SF Weekly that it's important to have a cheerful attitude when busking.

See Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zU3xnXQOSY


When did you start playing the cello?
I began playing cello when I was 10 years old in the Davis Joint Unified School. As soon as I started playing, it was like learning a foreign language, a secret language. I was really into it, I loved it. My parents had to get me to stop practicing and go outside to play with friends or to eat dinner.

What do you like about playing in the Bay Area?
I've been in the Bay Area for about three years, two of which I took off from school to be part of the classical music industry here in the Bay Area. I moved from Portland, where I was studying cello, but the competition wasn't fierce enough. Since I've been at conservatory, every subject has improved tremendously. Also, my interests have been further developed, and I'm exploring new territories, new crafts.

Such as...?
I recently started taking ballet, which is something I've always wanted to do, and that's something that's really wonderful about being in the city -- you can find these amazing opportunities. I've also been doing some sewing, my own clothes and stuff, a lot of sweaters, jackets, shirts ... no pants yet.

Do you still want to be a professional cellist?
You know, it always has been [my goal to be a professional cellist] and one thing that I envy about people who haven't had something that they've wanted to do their whole life is that they have so many things to explore.

Now I'm starting to be more interested in other tracks; I really like sculpture and building and sewing and origami and drawing. Cello as a profession isn't really lucrative -- you never really know where your next gig is going to come from, or [if] you're going to make that audition or when auditions are going to be available. So I've been thinking about maybe going into architecture.

​How long have you been playing in the BART?
I've been playing in the BART since high school, and I've been busking since I can remember. I just remember being in a park with my parents as a little kid, and taking my cello out to play.

What have you learned from playing here?
Playing in public has affected two major things. My performance anxiety, because I'm just playing for hundreds of people a day. The other thing is my sound production. See that wall over there? [gesturing to the back of the BART station] It's way farther than the back of a concert hall. And so I'm sitting here trying to get my sound to ping off the back wall so a person over there can get a chance to listen to it and potentially tip me.

How much do you make on an average day?
Oh my goodness, it's so different, always. It's good enough that I don't have to flip burgers -- it's more than minimum wage. But it's hit or miss. Weekends are usually good, and days after festivals. The day after Pride was one of my best days all year.

Sometimes you get people that give you only change, and sometimes you get people who give you fives or tens or twenties. I've even gotten a 50 once before. And so you just never know. Yesterday I played for two hours and only made $10, but today I played for about two hours and I probably made over $60.

What advice would you have for a musician who's just started busking?
Don't let the hard times get to you! You can sit out here and be ignored by the people who are walking by. They aren't obligated to pay attention to you, and that can be really disconcerting. You're out here really trying to work hard and really putting your emotions into it and they can pick up on that. So if you're happy, they can feel it, and they can feel when you're angry too.

----
Follow us on Twitter @SFAllShookDown, and like us at Facebook.com/SFAllShookDown.



Original Page: http://blogs.sfweekly.com/shookdown/2011/07/adam_young_street_musician.php

Shared from Read It Later

Council draws up code of conduct for buskers

Council draws up code of conduct for buskers

by DAVID McCANN, news.scotsman.com
June 27th 2011


• Owen Moore says complaints are rare when performing on the city's streets.

Under the council-devised scheme - dubbed 'Hit the Right Note' - street entertainers will soon receive credit card-sized guidance notes outlining best practice for considerate busking in Edinburgh.

If they fail to comply, the matter can be referred to the courts and equipment seized.

Advice will be offered on playing music at respectable volumes and include instructions to move to another pitch at least 50 metres away after every two hours.

Buskers will also be urged not to perform near doorways or cashpoints and should stop performing when requested by "anyone who is inconvenienced or disturbed" by the entertainment.

Unless permission is granted by the council or Fringe Festival chiefs the use of amplifiers will be banned.

David Beckett, convener of the City Centre Neighbourhood Partnership, said: "Edinburgh is a vibrant and colourful city all year round and street entertainers add great character to our city streets. However, noise from buskers can cause distress, particularly in highly populated residential areas of the city centre.

"Noise nuisance from busking is one of the top complaints from local residents and the council has been working with police to address the problems associated with this type of antisocial behaviour. We want to ensure buskers have good, clear advice so everyone can enjoy a pleasant and entertaining local environment."

Owen Moore, 24, a professional busker and student who often performs on the Royal Mile and Rose Street, welcomed the move.

"It seems to me there's little difference from what they are doing now but I'm pleased there will be some clarification about busking here," he said.

"To be honest it's pretty rare that somebody does complain because Edinburgh is a tourist city and a pretty noisy city.

"As long as it's enforced as it is now, which seems to be in keeping with what the card says, I won't have too many complaints."

Inspector Dianne Bruce, who spearheads the city centre policing team, said: "Entertainers such as buskers add real val

ue to the atmosphere of Edinburgh City Centre, and are fantastic for furthering Edinburgh's tourism industry.

"We know, however, that it can sometimes be a different story for the local residents and business workers who can be disturbed by noise and crowds gathering.

"We came up with the idea to provide this guidance so residents and workers can have a peaceful atmosphere, while preserving Edinburgh's tradition as a hub for fantastic entertainment."

IN TUNE WITH CONSIDERATION

DO: Busk only between 9am and 9pm. Play at a considerate volume so passers-by can hear you but nearby businesses and residents are not disturbed. Move on to another pitch at least 50 metres away after two hours. Stop busking if anyone complains about what you are doing, or if asked by a police or council officer

DON'T: Set up your pitch within 50 metres of another busker. Use amplifiers unless permission has been granted by the council or Fringe. Spread out equipment or other items that could get in pedestrians' way. Busk near doorways or cashpoints. Act or speak aggressively to people asking you to stop.



Original Page: http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Council-draws-up-code-of.6791803.jp

Shared from Read It Later

Buskers asked to keep the volume down

Buskers asked to keep the volume down

m.stv.tv | Jun 27th 2011 11:58 AM

See Video: http://www.vimeo.com/null

They are an integral part of life in the capital and festoon the streets of the city every summer but now buskers in Edinburgh are being asked to be more considerate in an anti-social behaviour crackdown.

The campaign Hit the Right Note will provide advice to buskers playing in the city centre, asking them to only play between 9am and 9pm, stay away from doorways or cash machines and stop busking if asked to.

The City of Edinburgh Council, who have organised the campaign with Lothian and Borders Police, said that residents are often disturbed by the noise coming from street performers.

After an hour on one spot, performers will have to move to another location at least 50m away and amplifiers cannot be used.

Councillor, David Beckett, convener of the City Centre Neighbourhood Partnership, said: “Edinburgh is a vibrant and colourful city all year round and street entertainers add great character to our streets. However, noise from buskers can cause distress, particularly in highly populated residential areas of the city centre.

“Noise nuisance from busking is one of the top complaints from local residents and the Council has been working with Police to address the problems associated with this type of anti-social behaviour.

“We want to ensure buskers have good, clear advice so everyone can enjoy a pleasant and entertaining local environment.”

Buskers will be handed credit card-sized information with the new guidelines printed on them.

Inspector Dianne Bruce, of Lothian and Borders Police, said: “Entertainers such as buskers add real value to the atmosphere of the city centre, and are fantastic for furthering Edinburgh’s tourism industry.

“We know, however, that it can sometimes be a different story for the local residents and business workers who can be disturbed by noise and crowds gathering.

“We came up with the idea to provide this guidance so that residents and workers can have a peaceful atmosphere, while still preserving Edinburgh’s tradition as a hub for fantastic entertainment.”



Original Page: http://m.stv.tv/news/scotland/east-central/260306-buskers-asked-to-keep-the-volume-down/

Shared from Read It Later

Buskers Bounced from North Division Street

Buskers Bounced from North Division Street

mdcoastdispatch.com | Jun 24th 2011
OCEAN CITY- A street performer accused the Ocean City Mayor and Council of retaliation this week as they passed an ordinance to restrict performance of any kind on the Boardwalk at North Division Street due to the street’s key role as an emergency access point.
The ordinance prohibits, “exercise or perform such activity or display in any area of the Boardwalk other than within the area encompassed within the extended boundaries of the street ends, except for the area encompassed within the extended boundaries from the south side of the Boardwalk ramp on the south side of N. Division Street to the north side of the Boardwalk ramp on the north side of N. Division Street, where such activity is also prohibited.”
The council approved the ordinance in a unanimous vote. The council also asked Mayor Rick Meehan to sign the ordinance as an emergency ordinance and he concurred. The law went into effect has soon as the mayor signed, which he did on the spot during the Mayor and City council meeting on Monday evening.
Spray paint artist Mark Chase later approached the Mayor and City Council to discuss their final vote. Chase has led the argument that the city has no right to remove performers from North Division Street or forbid them from being vendors because it is against his right to exercise the First Amendment.
“I ponder why the council wishes to abandon American values and make North Division Street a constitutional free zone,” he said.
Chase accused the city council of ignoring his offering in assisting the council in amending the ordinance to eliminate North Division Street and the problems that would incur. Last month, Councilman Brent Ashley and Doug Cymek met with a group of street performers, representing the council in the form of a “street performer committee,” to discuss the busker’s concerns over the rules and regulations proposed restricting the performers on the Boardwalk.
“The so called street performer committee was really nothing more than a joke,” Chase said. “It was you guys trying to validate what you wanted. We feel, as street performers, our concerns were really never taken into effect to begin with.”
Chase said to ban North Division Street as an area of expression is unconstitutional. He added that if the police enforce the ordinance, they will be held liable for deprivation of rights, and the council will be in violation of conspiracy against rights. He added that he felt the council was retaliating against him because he had been the most vocal over the proposed law and the most successful performer on the Boardwalk, which has gone unnoticed.
“You have the rights, but you don’t have the right to take our rights away,” he said. “Just because someone complains or disagrees with our performance or what we are expressing does not allow the police force to remove them from the public or ban them from the public, which I witnessed over the weekend.”
Chase concluded by asking the council to stop hiding behind public safety because that is nothing more than a misnomer then a true agenda to remove the successful expressionists from the city.
Councilwoman Margaret Pillas responded to Chase by saying the town’s effort in public safety, egress, and access has been active long before he had come to Ocean City.
“This is an effort that has taken place for years and years on record before there was you doing your thing on the Boardwalk,” she said.
Councilman Doug Cymek referred to the two hour and 45 minutes that he and Ashley spent meeting with a group of street performers to address their concerns in response to Chase’s accusation that the town ignored him and others.
“I know you hang your hat on your First Amendment right, but the community and our people we are here to serve and protect have a right to have an emergency access to the Boardwalk and the beach unobstructed,” Cymek said. “So, as you’ve heard tonight, we’re not letting anyone set up under those arches anymore, it’s not just artists.”
Mayor Rick Meehan made clear that Chase’s comment over the council ignoring his concerns was his own opinion.
“I suggested the committee and the reason I did that is so that you would have direct dialogue with members of the council that were representing us and they were to bring back information to us and hopefully in that atmosphere have open dialogue,” the mayor said.
Meehan added that the council recognizing Chase’s success is not retaliation but a compliment, nonetheless because large crowds gather around his area of his performance creates an issue if it is the area of emergency access.
“Why don’t you respect that…if you were out on that beach and you were in the midst of a massive heart attack you would appreciate that access,” Cymek concluded.
In an email submitted to The Dispatch on Wednesday Chase wrote, “I can promise you, Americans will have their freedom of expression returned on North Division Street and all areas of the city…simply have patience while Ocean City continues to make impractical, unconstitutional, and immoral actions of segregation and discrimination toward street performers.”
Chase said that on Tuesday June 21, the same day the council eliminated North Division Street from performances of any kind in an emergency ordinance, he was shut down in a non-designated area when the restaurant Caruso complained to the police that they smelled Chase’s spray paint and it was bothersome. Chase said that he hadn’t fully set up his performance area nor had he used his paints yet at that time.
“The police force has over stepped their bounds by forcing artists, magicians, and any form of expression to be removed for any form of complaint whether founded or unfounded,” Chase wrote. “I can guarantee the police will arrest me this summer unless they begin to back down and stop enforcing unconstitutional laws that the council haphazardly make.”

Original Page: http://www.mdcoastdispatch.com/articles/2011/06/24/Top-Stories/Buskers-Bounced-from-North-Division-Street

Shared from Read It Later

Vendors, performers flout law, crowd Strip walkways

Vendors, performers flout law, crowd Strip walkways

lvrj.com | Jun 30th 2011

Edgar Saul jolts when he hears the siren.

He chose this spot on the pedestrian walkway between the Tropicana and Excalibur specifically for the vantage point it gave him of the Strip. He'll see the cops coming, and he will have a chance to run.

False alarm, this time. It's only an ambulance trying to cut through Strip traffic. Saul laughs, his teeth a gleaming white strip in his suntanned face.

He cheerfully returns to breaking the law.

"Water, $1," he calls out to passing tourists. Every fifth or sixth person stops, digs in pockets or purse for change or peels dollars off of wads of bills. In return, Saul reaches into his blue cooler and pulls out a dripping, icy bottle of water. Drinking it on a scorching day like this recent Thursday must feel like hitting a royal flush.

Saul, 39, is one of a small army of unlicensed vendors that has invaded the Strip's pedestrian walkways in recent years. Sometimes they line up three or four in a row, their attempts to hawk their illegal wares, play their music or perform drowning each other out.

Hawkers, water pirates, criminals. Buskers. Unlicensed vendors. Whatever you call them, they were largely nonexistent during the Strip's adult Disneyland heyday. Now, they are a sign of the times.

When the first pedestrian walkway was built at Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard in 1994, it significantly improved traffic flow and decreased pedestrian accidents, Clark County public works director Dennis Cederburg says.

Over the years, a total of 14 elevated walkways have been constructed along the Strip. A 1996 county study estimated that as many as 100,000 pedestrians a day will use a walkway during peak hours.

While the walkways help keep problems from developing on the streets, these sky-high sidewalks have come with their own set of issues.

"They're elevated, so some of the criminal element believes they can conduct their activities up there and out of sight," Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sergeant Chulawudt Baker says. "They'll see us coming; they'll take off running."

True, Saul says. If he sees the police, he packs up, hides his blue cooler and extra bottles of water in the bushes and waits for the all-clear. When the police are gone, he goes right back to selling his water.

Saul is a jumpy fellow. Originally from El Salvador, where he served in the army, Saul left his country, his wife and three children 11 years ago in search of a better life in the United States. Every week, he sends money home to them.

"Before I left, I prayed. I said to God, 'You're my Father. I need a different life. Give me a chance. If you no help me, I hang myself,' " Saul says.

He started selling water on the pedestrian walkways last year after losing his construction job. He knows it's illegal; Saul's been ticketed and even arrested for doing business without a license.

"Last week, I stayed in jail for four days," he says.

The fine is $200 for such a charge, but Saul has no steady income, assets or even identification. He always ends up back on the walkways selling water, even knowing that the police will come again. The money is too easy. On a good day, he'll make $100.

The walkways are veritable gantlets of people trying to make a buck: dancers, singers, guitar players and vendors. Some sell T-shirts for concerts or sporting events, while others sell sunglasses and tickets to shows. Their presence is taking income away from valid businesses and public coffers because they pay no licensing fees or taxes. The water vendors are unique in that they present a health hazard. Some have run a scam in which they refill empty plastic bottles, glue the lid on and sell it as a new bottle of water, Baker says. When customers open the lid, it snaps and can seem like the seal is being broken for the first time.

There was a time when police didn't hassle the water sellers, says Steve Pleasant, 43. He started hawking bottled water for $1 in 2007 after losing his job in construction. He had taken his wife and kids to the Sirens of TI and saw a guy with his cooler on the Strip.

"I asked him how much he made. The next day, I was out here with my own cooler and water," Pleasant says. That guy told Pleasant he made $200 a day.

Pleasant says he makes $400 to $500 on average during the summer. His best day was last year when he raked in $1,000.

In 2009, a water seller hit a homeless man while they both vied for money on a pedestrian bridge. The man later died of his injuries. After that, Pleasant says, the police started citing him for doing business without a license. Last June, he went to jail 21 days in a row for selling water.

"I've got a stack of tickets at home. I've got a stack of failure-to-file letters from the D.A.," says Pleasant, who has gotten off with little more than a fine for breaking the law.

It's a daily battle for police, Baker says. They receive complaints from casinos and people about aggressive tactics employed by some unlicensed vendors or performers. Right now, there is little to deter people from coming back again and again after getting arrested. The money they make is too good.

But the police are working with the district attorney's office to start prosecuting some of the worst offenders, Baker says. Eventually, they hope that a person's arrest or citation record will follow him so that when he is detained multiple times, the punishment can be increased accordingly.

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564.



Original Page: http://www.lvrj.com/living/vendors-performers-flout-law-crowd-strip-walkways-124558929.html?ref=929

Shared from Read It Later