Art Murmur cracks down on street vendors
Excerpt from sign posted at 23rd and Telegraph. See the full sign at the bottom.
Street vendors at the July 6, 2012 Art Murmur were in for a surprise. As many were setting up their tables on the Telegraph Ave. sidewalks between West Grand and 25th Street, security officers came by with flyers informing them that next month Oakland Police will be handing out tickets to people tabling and selling art and food on the sidewalks. 23rd Street was no longer blocked off for food vendors in July, and food vendors are restricted to the new "Eat Up" food pod at 21st and Telegraph.
The sign and flyer handed out to vendors instructs those who sell art, jewelry, books, and other hand-made items to sell them in Rock Paper Scissors or the 25th Street Collective. The issue with this is that both of those mixed-use spaces are full of vendors, and there's likely a waiting list to get in. These two venues couldn't hold the dozens of additional street vendors, which typically line Telegraph Ave. the First Fridays of each month. In fact, the street scene has become so big, that some people attend Art Murmur not to go to the galleries (because they're overcrowded), but to buy the art and wares sold by street vendors.
CCA students selling their art at July's Art Murmur
Enforcing these 'clean street' policies could could be a blow to the artistic movements that’ve been organically springing up in Oakland, documented in my book Oakland in Popular Memory. Joe Sciarrillo's Art Murmur photos feature the many art vendors and street musicians that make up the colorful street scene. Art Murmur in recent months has seen bikes shooting fire, Carnival flashmobs, and Occupy Oakland artists silkscreening Occupy posters.
What’s pulling the street vendors to Art Murmur is not just the thousands of people in downtown Oakland for First Fridays, but that it’s a buying public. Speaking with vendors, many expressed that they're there to share their work and to make some extra cash to help get by during the recession. Some sell tamales, others sell earrings, jewelry, drawings, and whatever they can create to help get by.
Street vendors selling handmade art at April's Art Murmur
The city has a public information-sharing session for Art Murmur vendors on Wednesday, July 18th at 6:00pm at City Hall in Hearing Room 2. The city first cracked down on food vendors in December 2011, only to overturn the policy and allow food vendors to set up first at 23rd Street, and now at the Eat Up food pod. It will be interesting to see if the city really supports the artistic renaissance happening today in Oakland and opens an additional lot for artistic vendors, similar to what it did for food vendors.
Occupy Oakland protester atop bus at July Art Murmur
Man holding Occupy Oakland sign on a bus double-parked on Telegraph Ave., July 6, 2012.
Another factor for the city to weigh is that if the Oakland Police crack down too hard on street vendors at the next Art Murmur, they may need to contend with an Occupy Oakland backlash. People in the Occupy Oakland movement double-parked a bus on Telegraph between 23rd and 24th at July's First Friday event. This bus and adjoining street party blocked two lanes on Telegraph Ave. from 8pm-11pm. We'll see what happens at Wednesday's session for vendors at City Hall, and if Occupy Oakland will respond at August's Art Murmur.
Poster at 23rd and Telegraph, on July 6, 2012, where food vendors had previously set up.
Click here for more photos from the July 2012 Art Murmur
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Update to blog post:
Hiroko Kurihara emailed me on July 17, 2012 clarifying that the 25th Street Collective isn't a formal member of the Art Murmur organization, and she wasn't notified about having the 25th Street Collective put on the flyer handed to street vendors. She wrote "we believe in the streets being open to all." She stressed at the same time that people's safety is her utmost concern. Due to the amount of pedestrian traffic for August Art Murmur, they will be "placing cones and blockades at both ends of 25th street asking, kindly, for car drivers to seek alternate routes."
