Occupy a Four Bedroom at 75 Wall Street for $22,950 a Month
This is a neat bit: Mayor Bloomberg gets to respond to the letter sent by four officials who represent downtown Manhattan and agree that Occupy Wall Street is a Menace 2 Society in the Hood. But the letter has three claims: drumming is too loud at night (that's already fixed), there's public urination (likely not that fixed, but then, welcome to New York), and there are too many police barricades. WHY WON'T OCCUPY WALL STREET TAKE DOWN THEIR POLICE BARRICADES? So Bloomberg's response? “It’s an occupation of a growing, vibrant residential neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, and it’s really hurting small businesses and families." With police barricades.
Also, not really. If you have been to Zuccotti Park—and you should!—you know how many families live right there (barely any). Battery Park City and the Financial District have, according to conflicting accounts, between 40,000 and 60,000 residents now. (I believe the 46,000 number, which I think excludes the South St. Seaport; the financial district is technically anything south of City Hall Park. ) 10,000 of those live in Battery Park City, which is nowhere near the park.
Although! If you wanted to live actually RIGHT there, and be annoyed by barricades (and if you lived right there and you wanted to push your baby in a stroller, would you seriously take the most crowded route UP BROADWAY? No you would not!) you could be home at Occupy Wall Street right now! Here are the 399 rentals currently listed; that $18,000 two-bedroom at 40 Broad Street sounds real nice. Or you could get a $1,795 studio at 160 Front Street. Anyway, sounds like Occupy Wall Street ended up in the right place.
i went to the CB1 meeting a couple of weeks back when they passed this resolution. i have to say most of the community board were cool, there were a couple on the board that were dicks but not many. the greater surprise were the residents against OWS that turned out (a small, small minority!) who kept trotting out 9/11 and "how can you vilify cops after 9/11!!11111!!111!" while in the same breathe hating on the barricades. when one other resident pointed out the barricades were the fault of the POLICE (you fucking idiots) not the protesters, the little angry residents were stumped and one even resorted to complaining that somebody had shown her his genitals that week. the rub: this was on wall street itself, which as anyone who knows downtown knows, is far from the occupywallstreet movement. FML.
@my_piru That is the best community board report I have ever read.
@Choire Sicha Why thank you, and from the great choire himself no less. i came to hate on the CB, but what was interesting about the mtg was how many of the anti-OWS people directly came from old SDS movement structures and how willing they were to compromise on everything (and very antipolice, as they should be) except for the drumming. the goddamned drumming was a sticking point for everybody, curiously. the racial tension around that particular expression form was veeerry palpable.
I had to sit between two people in a taxi cab earlier who had obviously just read Bloomberg's statement and that Post garbage about a cafe that isn't particularly anywhere near the protest "being forced" to fire some of its staff "because" of OWS and just absorbed it, no questions asked! One of them even trotted out the "they SHOULD be protesting the government!" as if that means anything or the two aren't connected? Sigh. These are people I generally think of as smart, thoughtful individuals, I wasn't sharing a cab with two juicehead academy drop-outs or anything (in case people were worried).
But yeah, so, OWS, no questions asked, is hurting all the thousands and thousands of residents of the vibrant Zucotti Park community and their children and closing down their cafes I guess? It's weird to me that people who live in Manhattan no less actually believe the idea that there is a large, booming community of residents right there!
And don't forget stories like this one (from the NY Post, no less!) about downtown businesses that are thriving because of the protestors:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/favored_pizzeria_making_big_dough_9j5G8H1kVQMCQgrPPL7rWO
Won't anyone speak for the residents of Modell's and Century 21?