DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE
Readings rule not foreseen
By JOHN RILEY
Staff Writer
NORTHAMPTON --
It's "gypsy" in name only, but one city business has been tripped up by an old law aimed at nomadic fortune tellers.
For the past seven months, George Larkin has read Tarot cards for clients every Saturday afternoon in the second-floor shop of Gypsy Heart on Main Street.
Then, last Tuesday, the police came. At first, Sasha Berman, owner of the used clothing and belly-dancing emporium, said she thought the officer wanted his cards read. But she said he wanted to see her fortune telling license. She doesn't have one, and neither does Larkin, and when Berman inquired about getting a license for him, she found he didn't qualify because he is not a Northampton resident.
Massachusetts General Law Chapter 140, Section 185(i) requires people in the state who tell fortunes to hold a license. The only requirement is that the person applying must have lived for the preceding 12 months in the town where he or she is planning to look into the future. "I just can't believe that's still in the books," Berman said of the residency rule.
The law has impinged on Berman's business, where she believes the Tarot readings added to the ambiance, as well as to the customer base. She can only speculate on the law's original intent, but certainly it prevented itinerant psychics from offering their services, at a time when most were known as gypsies.
"I'm only a gypsy in my heart," said Berman, who moved her shop to Northampton in February, after having outgrown a basement location in Amherst. "I came to Northampton because I love the city. I'm not psychic enough to know that this all was going to happen," she said.
The one year license costs $2 in Northampton, where there are, as of now, no licensed fortune tellers, although Northampton Astrology, Readings by Vandela, recently opened in a second floor shop at 200 Main St., next door to City Hall. That business is owned by Nancy Nicholas, who like Berman, didn't foresee the problem. She said she didn't know a license was needed. According to a business certificate filed with the city clerk's office, Nicholas gave her home address as Damon Road, where a sign out front advertises psychic readings. Asked whether she has lived in the city for a year, as the license requires, Nicholas said, "I'm not sure if I should tell you."
Larkin, Berman's Tarot reader, freely admits he doesn't live in Northampton, and takes pride in having lived in Lake Pleasant, a village of Turners Falls for 20 years. He says he is in the dark about why must live in Northampton to work here as a fortune teller. "I could pick up the phone and pay up to $4 a minute for a psychic reading, and that's OK. Where is the public interest being protected, if that's the issue?" he said.
Larkin has been charging $15 for a half-hour Tarot reading and was usually booked from 1 to 6 p.m. His biggest fan is Berman, who has taken lessons from him. "He's the real thing," she said.
While Larkin explains that reading the Tarot is a craft that can be taught, readings can be enhanced by a reader's "intuitive powers." "I believe I'm psychic. There is an intuitive process and I use it broadly," he said.
Nicholas, by contrast, says readings should be considered a form of entertainment.
Either way, Berman says she believes the licensing rule's aim and result -- restricting fortune telling -- is wrong, and she intends to pursue the matter further.
DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE
Fortune teller license law questions curb enforcement
By GREG KERSTETTER: Staff Writer
NORTHAMPTON --
Two months ago, a Northampton police officer stopped a tarot card reader's work on Main Street because the Amherst man had no fortune teller's license. The police action convinced one Northampton tarot reader to go to City Hall and get a fortune teller's license.
"I don't want to be arrested," said Rebecca Macauley of Hayes Avenue.
Now, though, the city has changed course -- and police officers will quietly let fortune tellers go about their work, after a Northampton lawyer questioned the constitutionality of the state law. The law requires that fortune tellers must live in a city or a town 12 months before being eligible for a license. Lawyer William Newman of Northampton said the residential requirement of the law prevents people from exercising their right to free speech. He considers that portion of the law requiring people to have lived in a particular place 12 months before practicing their craft "unconstitutional."
"Residential requirements are about as popular as poll taxes in the law," said Newman, who often takes cases for the American Civil Liberties Union. Poll taxes were once used in some parts of the country as a precondition for voting. Newman said he knows of at least six instances in federal courts where laws designed to prevent the movement of fortune tellers were overturned because the laws infringed on a person's right to speak freely wherever they wanted. Newman said he sent a letter to the city Solicitor Janet Sheppard detailing his objection to the state law.
Northampton police Chief Russell P. Sienkiewicz said officers will not go out looking for fortune tellers without licenses. "We're not going to bring anybody to court," said Sienkiewicz. He said, however, that the city's position -- knowing the state law, but not rigorously enforcing it -- puts him in a difficult situation. As a police chief he is supposed to uphold the law, not ignore it.
Sienkiewicz can hope for a swift legal change. And, in fact, Mayor Mary L. Ford's office will work to get the state law amended, said Michael Vito, the mayor's executive assistant. The amended law, said Vito, would not contain any residency requirement. Sienkiewicz said that if the law is changed, he still would prefer that fortune tellers register with the city, as a precaution for consumers. It does not happen all the time, he said, but some people use fortune telling as a way to bilk unsuspecting people of their money. If fortune tellers were registered with the city, even those just traveling through, that would give investigators information as they try to catch up with the fraudulent readers, said Sienkiewicz.
The fact that police officers are allowing out-of-town fortune tellers to do business here is good news to Sasha Berman, who owns Gypsy Heart, the Main Street business where Tarot reader George Larkin works regularly. Larkin was shut down for three weeks after the police officer first came into Gypsy Heart in September. Berman said that Larkin, of Montague, has returned to reading Tarot cards.
Macauley, who said she has been reading Tarot cards for nearly 30 years, applied for a $2 fortune teller's license two weeks ago and received it without a problem. She has been living in Northampton for years. Macauley, though, said she still does not like the idea having to register. "To get special permission from God and the city of Northampton to do this seems excessive," said Macauley, 42. Macauley said she went ahead and got the license, despite her misgivings, because she felt she needed it in order to do business.
Susan Stone, who works as secretary with the city's Licensing Commission, said that now Macauley is the only licensed fortune teller in Northampton. Three years ago, Jessica Janes of Roe Avenue received a fortune teller's license, said Stone. Janes moved in 1994 and was not eligible to get the license again.
Macauley said that for certain people, a Tarot card reading serves the purpose of problem solving, almost like counseling. "People want this so much I turn people away," said Macauley.
DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE
Fortune telling bill off to House
By LAURA LONGSWORTH
Staff Writer
Legislation that would seek to eliminate a residency requirement for fortune tellers seeking license to predict the future was approved by the state Senate Tuesday. That is good news, said Sasha Berman, the owner of Gypsy Heart of Northampton, where forecasting life is part of business. "Every little bit helps," said Berman.
In September, police temporarily put a stop to Tarot card reading at Berman's Main Street business, saying that George Larkin, the card reader, did not meet licensing requirements to read cards because he lives in Lake Pleasant, which is part of Montague. After William Newman, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, challenged the requirement, the police agreed to let Berman keep doing business.
Meantime, Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, filed legislation to eliminate the requirement that a person must have lived continuously in the city or town in which they are seeking a fortune teller's license for one year before the date of application. The Senate approved the legislation yesterday.
Rosenberg said that as the sponsor of the bill he was asked to explain its purpose on the Senate floor Tuesday. "I stood up on the floor and I said 'I could foresee the question coming' and therefore I researched it for hours," said Rosenberg.
Looking to the future, the bill now moves on to the House.
Valley Advocate:
Crystal (Ball) Clear
by Stephanie Kraft
The Bill of the Week award goes to a plan to ditch the state's residency requirement for fortune tellers.
Filed by Senate Ways and Means Chairman Stan Rosenberg (D-Amherst) at the request of the Northampton city government, the bill has gotten thumbs up from the Government Regulations Committee, and at press time was making its way toward the House and Senate floors.
Who would benefit from this bill? Well, take George Larkin, an employee at Gypsy Heart, a fortune-telling establishment in downtown Northampton. Last year, Larkin had to appeal to the American Civil Liberties Union to keep his job. The problem was that he lived in Lake Pleasant instead of Northampton. It seems a little irrelevant that fortune tellers should ever have been required to live in a town for a year in order to work there. After all, clients find their psychics, their Tarot readers, their astrologers, through reputation, not location, and the qualifications at issue in these professions have very little to do with business addresses or other credentials that can be looked up in the Yellow Pages.
Consumer protection regulations are important, but bureaucratic safeguards do have their limits. If a reading goes wrong, do you advise disgruntled customers to sue and require psychics and palmists to carry practice insurance? Give us a break.
© 2002 Gypsy Heart / Fiddlestick Graphics - Donna Hébert