Turner Field vendors file suit against the city over right to sell

By Ernie Suggs

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Two vendors, with a combined 60 years of experience selling souvenirs outside of Atlanta Braves’ baseball stadiums, have sued the city of Atlanta over its new vending laws.

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Phil Skinner, pskinner@ajc.com Larry Miller sells merchandise outside Turner Stadium before Thursday’s game. He and another vendor, Stanley Hambrick, have filed a lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court against the city of Atlanta in objection to new vending laws.

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AJC file Vendor Larry Miller ws selling shirts in 1996.

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Larry Miller and Stanley Hambrick, who sell snacks and baseball-related items outside Turner Field during Braves games, claim the city is driving them out of business by forcing them to rent kiosks and pay from $6,000 to $20,000 annually in rent.

“My business is run by my family,” Miller said. “Now they want to come and take away my limited source of income.”

Atlanta is on the verge of entering the second phase of a program designed to regulate the city's outside vending. In 2009, the city entered into a contract with a private company, General Growth, to manage its kiosk program.

For years, downtown residents and business owners complained that the vending stands around town -- usually tables spilling with merchandise -- were eyesores. General Growth opened 20 metal vending kiosks, mainly around Woodruff Park, to establish vending rules and define its look.

Vendors in the kiosk program are being charged between $500 and $1,600 a month to sell their wares. Miller and Hambrick pay $250 a year to the city to vend outside of Turner Field for the 81 home games. Miller said in a good season, he can earn $30,000 selling hats and t-shirts.

“Atlanta has the worst vending laws in the entire country,” said Robert Frommer, the attorney representing the vendors. “Atlanta should be encouraging entrepreneurship in these tough economic times, but Atlanta’s vending monopoly stifles the economic growth that the city desperately needs.”

The second phase of the program would include building the kiosks around Turner Field and Five Points.

City attorneys would not comment on the lawsuit.

At a press conference to announce their lawsuit, there was an orange outline of a box in front of Miller’s white tent.

“That might as well be my coffin,” Miller said of the pending kiosks. “I am fighting for my right to be left alone. Not placed into a kiosk.”