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March 6, 2012
The monthly Community Board (CB) meeting for the BPC region was held tonight, and the main topic was the review of the application from “Occupy Wall Street” (OWS) to host their six-month anniversary march through Battery Park City that has been named “The American Spring”, similar to the “Arab Spring” that led to the violent overthrow of much of the Middle East and Northern Africa. Three people representing OWS gave a PowerPoint presentation (video to come).
The planned march would take place on St. Patrick’s Day, Saturday, March 17, beginning at Zuccotti Park and crossing West into BPC, stopping at the Irish Hunger memorial for at least several hours. There was no planned departure. Therefore, concerns were raised that the real agenda of OWS was to encamp in the region around the Irish Memorial near Goldman Sachs, World Financial Centers, and numerous residential high-rises.
Despite this imminent threat of chaos to the community, and of BPC becoming the next site of encampment for thousands of OWS, the leadership of the Battery Park City Authority was absent from the meeting. BPCA Chairman Bill Thompson and CEO Gayle Horwitz were not present for the meeting. BPCA employees Anne Fenton and Matthew Monahan were in attendance.
The OWS presentation began to drag on into a lengthy digression about hunger and social injustices when CB member Jeff Galloway interrupted and began to ask questions. Most members of the audience and the CB began by politely throwing their support for the causes represented by OWS, but then mentioning the bad experiences at negotiating with the Zuccotti Park OWS “representatives”. Jeff Galloway and Anthony Notaro mentioned that brokered deals were not honored last year, and then the excuses used were, “OWS has no leadership”.
Other concerns raised were the differences between the parks in BPC and the urban Zuccotti park. Wild birds nest in the Irish Memorial. Fish are in the nearby pond, and children play in the nearby parks. In addition, the Irish Memorial is surrounded by thousands of residents living in apartment buildings.
An edited video of the meeting will be posted shortly.
BPC South dodges a bullet but seriously this cannot stand. The PEPs will not be able to evict these protestors if they squat in this area, adjacent to the playground that everyone in BPC with kids uses. Guaranteed if they plan to stay there will be violent clashes between the NYPD and OWS protestors. Not going to be pretty.
Paraphrasing Mark Twin, “Life in Battery Park City is just one damn thing after the other.”
CB1 should say “No! No! No!” to OWS’s request to march through BPC.
It is quite obvious from drumming circle and public sanitation “negotiations” that it is not possible to make agreements with OWS. They will do as they please.
As noted at a recent BPCA board meeting, the Irish Memorial is leaking and is in need of repair. The last thing it needs are hundreds of people trampling on it and disturbing its wildlife. And how convenient for OWS that the Irish Memorial is near Goldman Sachs? Once in BPC, OWS will not leave. Just like when it lost its court case in London regarding the St. Paul encampment. Did it leave? No, it had to be forcibly removed!
I’ve walked around the neighborhood late at night on several occasions during OWS’s encampment in Zuccotti Park. In one instance, a group of OWS individuals were yelling at the top of their lungs while horsing around. One occupier yelled to her friend, “Are you going to jump in the f*ing Hudson?” Another night I saw a group that pretended to be on a tour of buildings (yeah, at 11pm with backpacks!) when I passed. It was obvious they were looking for a place to sleep and looking out for the BPC Park Rangers.
Protests are not allowed in Central Park and they should not be allowed in BPC. Not that OWS cares, but the birds that inhabit BPC have started building nests. This is not a concrete park. BPC is full of wildlife that should not be disrupted by OWS desire to occupy another park.
I don’t want BPC looking like this:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2053463/Occupy-London-90-tents-St-Pauls-protest-camp-left-overnight.html
Its completely peaceful . The outside forces have caused the violence. THe pepper spray video is just one of many violent actions by the NYPD. Let’s hope it leads to the overthrow of the BPCAuthority and the PEP Enforcement. Civil disobedience !! CB1 allows any walkathon EVERY weekend sometimes multiple, don’t discriminate.
Just another example of the BPCA board ….ABSENT, they couldn’t care less about BPC…gotta do the mayor gig now.
Reply to “Adam”
You are confusing political theory with reality. You claim that this St. Patrick’s day march will be a peaceful event and that they thousands of marchers will not encamp and stay. There is no reason whatsoever to believe that that will be the case. Moreover, the regions is not suitable for large groups, due to the children’s parks and wildlife. And lastly, OWS is not achieving any of the goals that you and I desire.
Editor
Hello! I LIVE HERE along with all my BPC friends and neighbors! This is my neighborhood and I pay through the nose for it. Would an OWS demonstration be permitted in Summit, NJ or Manhasset or Bridgehampton?
Wasn’t it bad enough that we had OWS wondering over here smoking pot in Rector Park and sleeping on the North Lawn?
I really wonder about the intelligence and just plain common sense of the BPCA. And obviously, Chairman Bill Thompson and CEO Gayle Horwitz don’t give a rats tail as they were not present for the meeting.
P.S. I submit that BPCA ask Lloyd Blankfien how he feels about an OWS demonstration a block from his office. Perhaps he can knock some sense into the BPCA!
This is in the same vein as the bill Obama recently signed into effect, HR437 which makes it a crime to protest in close proximity to a public official. Couldn’t the citizens of Washington DC make some of the same claims most of you are? Would that have stopped Martin Luther King? I am not looking forward to protesters in my neighborhood, however I do defend their civil liberties and their right to peaceful protest in any form they so choose. The people opposed to this are wasting their time trying to shuffle these protesters out of their “backyards” (NIMBY) instead of listening to the earnest and common complaints of the people who are fed up with a corrupt system of crony capitalism and a government that seemingly continuously tramples our constitutional rights. But who cares about our rights anyway? We let the BPCA rob us blind and distribute our hard earned money with no thought, but god-forbid our parks aren’t as pretty.
We are living in one of the greatest and most powerful cities in the world in the greatest democracy in history. We should be able to easily tolerate and accommodate OWS who are engaging in one of America’s greatest and most important democratic activities ever devised by mankind: the freedom to protest and express oneself. The burden of tolerating and accommodating a protest march is minute relative to the awesome and great benefits we enjoy, and appear to take for granted living in this great city in the greatest democracy in history.
Elements of OWS want to engage in odious behavior as they exercise their right to peaceful protest in any form they choose. Watch this video of OWS protestors literally throwing human excrement in a bank lobby and down public steps.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/video/#!/on-air/as-seen-on/OWS-Protesters-Pour-Human-Waste/143723756
…And this video of an OWS protestor cursing at a father and his child while following them.
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/11/17/ows-protesters-chant-follow-those-kids-as-small-children-try-to-go-to-school-on-wall-street/
OWS has a right to peaceful protest. I have a right to a safe and healthy environment. It is blatantly obvious that OWS does not care about the collateral damage it inflicts on neighborhoods. Consequently, I will never welcome them to my neighborhood.