With placards that said “No Licenses for Freedom of Expression” and “Justice for Veteran Vendors,” scores of street artists and vendors held a demonstration yesterday across from City Hall Park to oppose a bill which, if it passes, would require all vendors and street artists to have licenses, fingerprinting of all vendors and, among other provisions, would limit the number of vendors to three per block.

When Councilman Phillip Reed, who introduced the bill, Intro 621, to the City Council, appeared before the demonstrators, they immediately began shouting, “Take his fingerprints,” holding up a drawing of a hand with a finger pointing up.

Reed, who explained that “the artists don’t have to be fingerprinted,” stated that “there is a lot of misinformation about this bill.” The councilman then invited the artists to present their testimony before the Consumer Affairs Committee which he chairs.

Boris Vyatkin, a Battery Park photographer who has been photographing and selling cityscapes of New York for six years, said yesterday during the demonstration that he feels threatened by the system, “which is trying to control the artists’ freedom.”

“This is very familiar to me. I come from the Soviet Union. In totalitarian countries they try to regulate artists, telling them what they must do, which pictures to show and which they can’t show,” said the photographer, who listed the points in the proposed bill which he opposes, among them the obligatory license for artists who sell their work in the streets.

“The worst part of this regulation is the one that establishes three vendors per block; one of them must be a food vendor, another a merchandise vendor, and maybe the third a First Amendment vendor (an art vendor),” said Vyatkin.

Asif Javed, another demonstrator who sells paintings in Battery Park, said the proposed law “is against the vendors, and we are here to make sure it does not pass.”

Under current regulations, according to Javed, artists need no licenses to sell their art, “only a taxpayer identification number.”

The painter Carolyn Weltman of Soho said that “artists need no license to sell their art, and this is set forth in the First Amendment to the Constitution. With this law they want to force us to have licenses; they want to take our fingerprints, and they want to decide how many artists there can be on each block; they want to take away the rights we have under the First Amendment to the Constitution,” said Weltman.

At 1:00 p.m. yesterday a public hearing was held to study the bill and artists as well as regular vendors gave their testimony. During the hearing, Councilman Reed outlined the proposed law, mentioning the points that the artists had pointed out earlier.

In a note to the press it was also revealed that in Intro 621, “to increase uniformity, the regulations which now affect general street vendors” would also apply to food vendors and the First Amendment group.

“Vendors classified as First Amendment will be given an independent license denoting their unique status,” reads the communiqué.

The next public hearing was announced for May 4.