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"They’re disrupting a lot of people’s lives.”
Wall St has and will continue to disrupt/bankrupt millions of peoples' lives.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/08/ny...pagewanted=all
Panini and Company Cafe normally sells sandwiches to tourists in Lower Manhattan and the residents nearby, but in recent days its owner, Stacey Tzortzatos, has also become something of a restroom monitor. Protesters from Occupy Wall Street, who are encamped in a nearby park, have been tromping in by the scores, and not because they are hungry.
“I’m looked at as the enemy of the people,” she said.
The anticorporate participants in Occupy Wall Street, which began three weeks ago, say they have no intention of leaving soon. The protest has been building in size, with sister demonstrations erupting in other cities, and politicians, labor leaders and celebrities adding their support. But for many neighborhood businesses, the protest’s end cannot come soon enough. In interviews, business owners said they were especially annoyed that the organizers of the grass-roots movement neglected to include portable toilets in their plan to bring down Wall Street.
Residents, too, say they are losing patience.
Mothers have grown weary of navigating strollers through the maze of barricades that have sprouted along the streets. Toddlers have been roused from sleep just after bedtime by chanting and pounding drums.
Heather Amato, 35, a psychologist who lives near the protest area, said she felt disturbed by some of the conduct of the protesters. She said she had to shield her toddler from the sight of women at the park dancing topless. “It’s been three weeks now,” Ms. Amato said. “Enough is enough.”
Local politicians have expressed sympathy for the residents’ complaints, even as they try to avoid offending the protesters. The speaker of the State Assembly, Sheldon Silver, a Democrat whose district includes Zuccotti Park, the site of the protests, said on Wednesday that the neighborhood had been burdened enough by the protesters’ takeover of one of the few parks in the area.
“I would suggest that they move their message to other parts of the city and state,” Mr. Silver said.
Zuccotti Park is privately owned but open to the public. Melissa Coley, a spokeswoman for Brookfield Office Properties, which owns the park, said in a statement that sanitation conditions had reached “unacceptable levels.”
“We continue to work with the City of New York to address these conditions and restore the park to its intended purpose,” the statement read.
Brookfield apparently has not asked the police to remove the protesters. On Friday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that the authorities were somewhat limited because Zuccotti was not in the city park system, which usually bars people from sleeping overnight in parks.
Still, Mr. Bloomberg expressed sympathy for residents. On his radio show, he received a call from a woman whose apartment overlooks the park.
“I want to know about my rights to use that park,” the woman said. “This is our little sliver of greenery that we reclaimed after Sept. 11. It’s now unusable. There is a general presence of incivility down there.”
Mr. Bloomberg responded, “We are trying to deal with this in a way that doesn’t make the problem grow and protects everybody’s rights.”
Several businesses said they had no choice but to respond to the influx of protesters by closing bathrooms.
Mike Keane, who owns O’Hara’s Restaurant and Pub, said that the theft of soap and toilet paper had soared and that one protester had used the bathroom but had failed to properly use the toilet. Both Ms. Tzortzatos, owner of the Panini and Company Cafe, and Mr. Keane said the protesters rarely bought anything, yet hurled curses when they were told that only paying customers could use their bathrooms.
Steve Zamfotis, manager of another nearby store, Steve’s Pizza, said: “They are pests. They go to the bathroom and don’t even buy a cup of coffee.”
Mr. Zamfotis closed his bathroom after it repeatedly flooded from protesters’ bathing there.
Kira Annika, a spokeswoman for the protesters, wrote in an e-mail that she had not heard such complaints: “We were under the impression that the local business community appreciated our patronage.”
In a widely distributed pamphlet, “Welcome to Liberty Plaza: Home of Occupy Wall Street,” participants were instructed where to find relief. “After you’ve dined,” it reads, “feel free to refresh yourself in the restrooms of neighboring businesses like Burger King and McDonald’s without feeling obligated to buy anything.”
A manager of the Burger King in question said he had no trouble with the protesters, though a maintenance worker at the McDonald’s, Deon Cook, said that in recent days he had been forced to clean the bathroom every five minutes.
“I’m looking forward to it being over,” Mr. Cook said.
Some businesses do welcome the newly arrived neighbors.
A woman who tends the Dunkin’ Donuts kiosk a block from the site said coffee and doughnut consumption had jumped.
Yves Delva, a manager at a nearby Modell’s Sporting Goods, said sales had been brisk for sleeping bags, sweatshirts, hand warmers, sweatpants and goggles — that last item presumably bought to protect the eyes from pepper spray, which has been used by the police in response to the demonstrations.
Some residents said the noise, the crush of out-of-towners and the resulting delays were to be expected in one of Manhattan’s most famous neighborhoods.
Julie Menin, chairwoman of Community Board 1, which serves Lower Manhattan, said that the protesters had been responsive to concerns from the board and had agreed to stop drumming at 10 p.m. and to enforce quiet hours.
Even so, it appears that many residents are ready for Occupy Wall Street to occupy somewhere else.
“I do believe in the right to protest,” said Karen McMann, 33, a mother of two young daughters who lives across from the New York Stock Exchange. “But in other cities, the financial district is separate. Here, this is a neighborhood they’re coming into. They’re disrupting a lot of people’s lives.”
"They’re disrupting a lot of people’s lives.”
Wall St has and will continue to disrupt/bankrupt millions of peoples' lives.
What do you propose, Darrin? Do away with the freedom of assembly?
What's the point of disrupting the lives of your fellow citizens? What's the point, for example, of blocking the Brooklyn Bridge?
lol every five minutes
What's the point of every demonstration, other than to call up attention?
I'm asking you what do you think should be done about this displeasure from the locals. Should the freedom to assemble be outlawed? What other solution is there?
As long as their freedom doesn't restrict the freedom of others. I'm pretty sure if a group of people came into my neighborhood and started chanting into megaphones, they'd get arrested.
Didn't the people that walked into the Brooklyn bridge get arrested too?
So, what's the problem?
Darrin prefers rallies over protests
well it is a mcdonalds and mcdonalds does not look good coming out the other end
So you're saying the Tea Party was being a bunch of inconsiderate assholes?
Kay.
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