WINICK PRODUCTIONS LLC

250 West 103rd Street, Apt. 4C

New York, NY 10025

Phone:(212)663-5564

Comments on Proposed Rules – Street Activity Permit Office

August 8th, 2016

My name is Elliot Winick and am the President of Winick Productions, a special event producer. I have been involved in the production of special events in New York City for over 40 years. My office is the applicant for about 500 Street Activity permits per year – for a wide variety of events. We also obtain permits from a variety of other City agencies such as the Mayor’s Office of Film, NYPD, Parks Department, FDNY, NYPD, Dept of Health, Department of Environmental Protection and the Dept of Buildings.

I welcome this opportunity to comment on these proposed regulations and commend CECM and SAPO in their attempt to better codify the rules and regulations.

One general comment I have is that it is not clear when these rules go into effect. That information is critical so that we may communicate this to our clients.

Regarding the proposed new definitions and stratification of pedestrian plazas – I support those efforts in general. More clarity on the size of events and proposed fees is something I support. I have some confusion as to some definitions. For example, on page 7 – a “pedestrian plaza. Level A” refers to the entire pedestrian plaza area – for instance in Times Square it means Broadway between 41-53rd Streets, over 100,000 square feet (based on the table). Yet on page 8, the definition of “Plaza event, large” – it defines large as over 50% of the available space. Was this really intended to be over 50% of a plaza block, rather than the entire plaza? If so this should be made clear.

I also think that the breakdown of plazas events by 4 Tiers (A,B,C,D), 3 sizes (large, medium, small) and by borough (Manhattan, boroughs) may be too detailed and complex. I think this could be simplified – for instance reducing the zones to 3 and boroughs (Manhattan and the others).

I strongly disagree with the trend to requiring a longer deadline to submit SAPO applications for both the pedestrian plazas and street events. It wasn’t that long ago (early Bloomberg) that SAPO applications were submitted on 8-part carbon forms, faxed to NYPD and other agencies and meetings were set up by phone calls. Since then applications are now filed and paid for electronically, accessed by agencies on a Citywide database, and most communications and documents sent via email. I have always praised CECM on these ongoing technological improvements but if anything these advances should be having the SAPO office and other agencies working more efficiently, not less.

There should be no logical reason why a small event (or any size event) should take 60 or 90 days to process in pedestrian plazas. Even 30 days processing time for a small Street event in a plaza is excessive. In these days we should be striving to make these processes more efficient, not less. Perhaps the Street Activity Permit office should review their internal processes and procedures rather than encumber thousands of applicants with a delayed process. Or, if understaffed – hire more people, with more authority. The costs for additional staff would certainly be covered by the amount of events which would be denied by these earlier deadlines.

The special events industry has grown enormously in NYC in the last few years and has great positive economic impact for the City. The City should be encouraging special events and their role in the advertising, communications, fashion, entertainment, financial and cultural segments of the City, not making it harder. These onerous deadlines will, in many instances, discourage clients from investing in special events and spending money in NYC. While in fact, most major events have a lot of lead time (ie. NFL, Super Bowl Blvd, New Year’s Eve, Olympic promtions, etc),many clients, especially in marketing related events (product launches, etc) do not have the lead time that the City wants to require. If these deadlines were implemented I believe that there will be a negative financial impact to SAPO, local Business Improvement Districts and the local economy.

In these days when you can get a “Rocket Mortgage” in minutes, or even a Temporary Place of Assembly (TPA) permit from the DOB in 10 days, I believe that SAPO can do better than proposed. Perhaps the DOB-TPA model should be considered. Even though they have a 10 day deadline for applications, they will consider applications filed late, for a late fee. Perhaps SAPO could consider this as an alternative - $ xxx/day late filing fee?

I feel similarly regarding the filing deadlines for “Street Events” – I recommend a 15 day deadline for small events and a 30 day for medium or large events. Notwithstanding that, there has always been the issue of trying to get permits in for last minute, very small elements – most notably when someone wants to put up an entry canopy to a venue, because of forecast rain.

For the record and speaking on behalf of most of my fellow permit applicants – we do not intentionally wait until the last minute to file applications. We try to file as soon as we have enough accurate information from clients to submit an application.

Even though SAPO states that they need more time to “properly review the application and provide the applicant more time to plan and organize their event”, there has been no evidence that this additional time will help clients in any way. There is no reciprocal rule or regulation requiring the SAPO office to provide appropriate feedback to clients once their application has been processed. All too often, meetings, permit assessment fees and the actual permit have been received by clients at the last minute. It is all too common for clients to get their permit at 5 PM the day prior to the event, which frankly “freaks them out” (even with my explanations about the process). More often than not – production supplies are loaded onto trucks and on their way to NYC when these permits are just being reviewed.

If these early filing deadlines are implemented I would request that reciprocal deadlines are added to the propose regulations (i.e. amount of time allowed for initial permit application feedback, time after the application filing for any production meetings (if necessary), time prior to the event for an assessment fee invoice, time prior to the event for the actual permit being issued).

My additional comments are similar to my comments from the last public hearing on proposed rules and regulations. On page 9 there are the definitions of the sizes of small, medium and large events. These are terrible definitions which does not do enough to give any client or producer any criteria as to what will differentiate different size events. These definitions allow the definitions and assessment fees to be relatively arbitrary and provide little guidance in planning an event. The language used on these three definitions is almost identical. Large event uses the phrase “extensive impact” and “includes full street closure”. Does that mean if there is no full street closure, by definition is cannot be a large event?

We have had this problem for years – when does a small proposed event become a medium, or a medium become large? What elements trigger (other than the obvious – closing a street) these changes? These changes in definitions are critical since the permit costs go up by a large multiplier when the definition changes. I believe more work needs to be done to better clarify how event size is categorized.

My last comment is about the definition of a “production event” – which states “no more than 15 consecutive days”. I believe that this should be extended to 30 days. There have been many events in NYC that need production support for more than 15 days – i.e. Big Apple Circus on 62nd Street, Fashion Week (at either Lincoln Center or Byrant Park). Nobody wants to rent generators, office trailers or other production equipment for a longer time than they need but they do need the ability to support the events they are related to. For those events that need it longer than 30 days, if necessary - the permit should be renewable, with the payment of an additional fee.

Special Events Production, Management and Permits