As I have discovered in my experience as a street performer, Federal Govt. property itself is pretty much off limits to any activity (even something as innocuous as balloon sculpture, go figure !)
However, the public sidewalks not directly on Govt. property are precisely that. Public property.
But the city is still the agency in control and a lot is left up to the discretion of the local beat cop, so it’s basically a crap shoot.
However, since you aren’t selling anything it can’t be considered as “vending”.
Generally, if you’re not being really obnoxious or blocking normal people traffic on the sidewalks, you should be OK.
It’s not necessarily a question of what is strictly legal or not either. It’s what a cop is willing to tolerate in his territory. You might technically be permitted there legally, but I guarantee that if you take advantage of it, they will find something nebulous to charge you with
that you cannot disprove as it’s a judgement call (disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, whatever)
So that obviously means no bullhorns or shoving stuff in peoples hands or harrassing them.
I’ve seen plenty of cases where folks were politely offering advertising flyers for local restaurants, nightclubs, etc. with no problems.
Demeanor and placement count for a lot. Most cops are not looking to hassle peaceful people doing a fairly boring job in a non-confrontational manner (it just means more paperwork for them)
Attitude and common sense is everything. Just don’t be an ass about it and make certain where the Govt. property boundary line is. If you don’t know, ask. It’s obviously a definite point somewhere. Stay away from it and don’t insist on being a jerk about passing out your pamphlets and it should be fine.
Don’t hassle people, dress sensibly, be polite and don’t give the city authorities any particular reason to take special notice of you and don’t act like a hysterical lunatic and chances are nobody will bother you.
The people who failed to be sensible about it were the ones being cuffed and taken away by the cops. The Moonie selling roses, the stridently yelling guy promoting his political candidate, the hostile guy begging for change and cussing people out who didn’t give him anything, all got carted off right in front of my eyes.
Just don’t be like them and do your thing in peace and quiet. Don’t give them a reason to cart you off and in all likelihood they’ll leave you alone.
But if you’re looking for a confrontation hoping it will help get your point across, you won’t like the way it ends. Just be smart about it.