Did You Know Union Square Is Farther West Than Port Authority?

A New York City street artist known for fighting restrictions regarding how to display and sell his work in Union Square lost a fight Wednesday in the 2nd Circuit, where decades earlier he had licensing requirements declared unconstitutional.
Robert Lederman, the founder of Artists’ Resistance to Illegal State Tactics (ARTIST), said one year ago police arrested him 44 times for challenging policies he calls unconstitutional.
Prosecutors have allegedly never been able to convict him. In a challenge to former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s “quality of life” campaign, for example, Lederman once won the right to hawk art on the steps of the Capitol Building without a permit.
Lederman and his colleague Jack Nesbitt also filed a lawsuit in 2010 that claimed New York City had “waged a counter-movement to quash” the advances they had made in their First Amendment battles.
The suit accused New York City of showing favor to city-sanctioned vendors around Central Park, the Union Square Greenmarket, and Holiday Markets at Columbus Circle and Union Square.

Did you catch the NY Times raving about Union Square? Good for real estate values.

Save it from commercial interests setting up shop at the north end of the park that is. Here are all the details.

This finding from the Union Square Partnership:

The Union Square Partnership analyzes and promotes visitor activity by conducting pedestrian and bicycle counts every two years over several Fridays and Saturdays in July.  Working with BFJ Planning, counts were taken from 8 AM to 10 PM at 26 locations around Union Square Park. To gain the most accurate account of how many people move through  Union Square on a typical summer day, the data gathered was then combined with transit turnstile information for the 14th Street – Union Square station. The station is the fourth busiest subway hub in NYC on a weekday and skyrockets to second position on weekends. Based on turnstile count patterns, it is estimated that during the summer a record-breaking 383,000 people visit the area on a Greenmarket Friday over a 24-hour period, a 10% increase from our last survey.

Find the full 2014 Pedestrian Activity Report here.

Next week (May 21 to May 25), Superstructure work will continue at the 18th floor level. The superstructure concrete work will be completed on the building buy the end of the month. Deliveries for the internal systems of the building have been ongoing and will continue, although they should not greatly affect the flow of pedestrian and road traffic.

The following week (May 28 to June 1), we will be working on the machine room levels on the 18th floor. Additionally we will have another crane on the Northwest corner of the site to help with a steel truss installation. This should not greatly affect pedestrian or road traffic. Deliveries for the internal systems of the building have been ongoing and will continue, although they should not greatly affect the flow of pedestrian and road traffic. The site will be closed on Monday, May 28th for the Memorial Day Holiday.

This weekend the site will be open on Saturday, May 19th for superstructure related activities between the work hours of 7AM and 5PM as permitted by the City.

To control noise levels within the site, work activities will be limited to the placement of formwork and concrete, plumbing and electrical work, rebar for concrete placement, using the crane and equipment to support all activities. Safety horns are used, and required by law, to coordinate lifting with the crane and to alert the workers of the danger overhead. We have directed the operators to limit the use of horns to one short sounding and to use the crane later in the day so as to avoid any excess noise. In addition to the normal work there will be a crew on 14th st. working on the Con Ed site connections.

The former Manhattan Kids’ Club on East 13th St. on our block is being renovated and will become a branch of Utrecht Art Supplies, perfect for all those New School students who study art in that same building.