ATLANTA — More than a dozen people in bright red shirts with signs stood gathered in a parking lot across from the Georgia Dome on Saturday afternoon.

But they weren’t Louisville Cardinals fans killing time before their team’s Final Four matchup. They were street vendors and their supporters protesting a city ordinance they described as a “scorched earth” policy against their way of making a living.

“We’re not asking for handouts, all we want to do is be able to operate our businesses in peace,” said Larry Miller, president of the Atlanta Vendors Association, the group that organized the protest. “An injustice to us is an injustice to everybody.”

Organizers protested Atlanta’s crackdown on street vending. The Atlanta Police Department began enforcing a city ordinance last week that prohibits the “obstruction of city sidewalks through the sale or display of goods,” according to a March 28 news release from the mayor’s office of communications.

The protest took place at 130 Northside Drive NW right across from the front of the Georgia Dome. Syracuse plays Michigan on Saturday at 8:49 in the dome in a chance to advance to the NCAA national championship game on Monday.

Vendors weren’t able to set up near Turner Field for the Atlanta Braves’ home opener against the Philadelphia Phillies last week, according to the Atlanta Vendors Association website, and are barred from selling near the Georgia Dome.

Miller, the president of the Atlanta Vendors Association, said he has been vending for more than 25 years in Atlanta, and has put children through college and bought a home.

He questioned what was really going on with the ordinance, and said vendors weren’t given any notice.

The city was caring for NCAA Tournament guests better than the people who live there, he suggested.

“These people — the Final Four people — were invited into our house,” Miller said. “It’s our house, and they’re treating them better than they treat us — the taxpaying citizens here of the city.”

A city cleaning initiative took effect before the start of the tournament, which involved removing unauthorized street vendors, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said in an interview after an NCAA press conference Thursday.

“If you go outside, I think you can see the difference,” he said, addressing the city’s efforts as a whole. “The streets look better, they’re cleaner, and we invested a great deal in beautifying our city.”

Reed didn’t attend the protest.

Vendors and their supporters all wore bright red Atlanta Vendors Association shirts and held signs with slogans such as “We want to feed our families” and “Save our jobs.” They chanted “Let us vend” and “Work, not welfare” at various points during the 20 minute demonstration.

Two times during the protest — held mostly in front a small group of reporters — Miller asked demonstrators who were veterans to raise their hands. Miller said the group is mostly made up of people who have disabilities, veterans and veterans who are disabled.

“If were in Russia, I could understand that,” one vendor protesting said, referring to the ordinance. “But I can’t understand given in the great democracy that we live in — are we a democracy? Or a hypocrisy of a democracy?”

Christina Walsh, director of activism and coalitions at the Institute of Justice law firm, came out to show support of the vendors. The institute is a nonprofit that advocates for entrepreneurs across the country and against arbitrary, burdensome laws that keep people from working, she said.

The Atlanta Vendors Association and Institute for Justice worked to challenge a city contract that gave one company “exclusive right to occupy and use all public property vending sites,” according to the association’s website. The court struck down this plan last December, according to the website.

Walsh said the city is lying about its reason for removing the vendors, as the court decision says the city’s vending program is allowed to proceed.

“The city is being vindictive in response to losing this lawsuit that the Institute for Justice brought, and using that decision to wipe the city clean of vendors,” Walsh said.

Sonya Summers also came out to the protest. Her brother, Raymond Summers, is a vendor in Atlanta.

She said the vending program has been going on for 35 years, and isn’t new. Summers said the venders association is looking to get an injunction to see if the city’s actions on removing vendors are legal.

“The main thing that we’re trying to do is seek the reason why,” Summers said. “Why all the sudden, after 35 years, is this a problem?”

Published on April 6, 2013 at 7:48 pm

Contact Dylan: dmsegelb@syr.edu | @dylan_segelbaum