There are some who contend that the Occupy Wall Street Movement has had a bigger impact that anything that the Tea Party has had. I wouldn’t argue with that. Consider the impact that the occupy people have had on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston. Here is the story in the Boston Herald.
The Utopian dreamers of Occupy Boston are leaving behind a disgusting field of filth on the formerly scenic Rose Kennedy Greenway, where trees will have to be replanted, grass resodded, sprinklers repaired or replaced and the entire area power-hosed in a massive cleanup that could take weeks.
“We’re close to the end of it, which is very good news. Soon, the park can be repaired and open to the general public,” Nancy Brennan, executive director of the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, said late yesterday. “We hope everyone makes a voluntary decision, and this can be a good, dignified end.”
The conservancy has been pushing the city to take action to remove the protesters, sending a letter to Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s office last month expressing frustration at rampant deterioration of the site, plus health and safety issues, including “disturbing” instances of drug use and interference of a farmers market. A judge this week lifted a restraining order on the city, giving it the green light to boot them out.
And none too soon, as far as Brennan is concerned.
“Occupy Boston was really good about listening and moving tents that encroached on plant material, but there were some days where there were tents where they shouldn’t have been,” she said.
Conservancy maintenance and landscape workers have inspected the Dewey Square encampment almost daily since the protesters set up their tents more than two months ago.
Brennan said the grass, which has turned into a mud pit, will need to be completely resodded, and she fears several trees that have been damaged will have to be replanted.
“Three or four trees might be lost. There’s browning of the foliage, and there are some broken and bent limbs,” she said. “Part of what we need to do is check on the root systems, and that is just going to take a little bit of time.”
Brennan also expects that the sprinkler system was damaged so much it will have to be repaired or replaced. Also in need of replacement are about 20 percent of the shrubbery and the pebbles from a pedestrian walkway that runs along Purchase Street.
She also said the wall of the large air intake tower for the O’Neill Tunnel will have to be power-hosed to remove markings and messages left behind by the squatters.
“The grass crete has really taken a beating,” said Brennan, referring to the concrete-type material covering the delivery truck driveway that allows grass to grow through. “We need to see if we can restore or replace it.”
Brennan couldn’t provide an estimate for what the final repair bill will be, but local landscapers pegged it at upward of $50,000.
If you live in Boston and would like to visit the Rose Kennedy Greenway, too bad. You’ll have to wait until the city can clean it up. And, you will get to pay for the cleanup through your taxes. I guess that is the motto for the Occupy Movement, someone else can pay.
Don Surber has some words about these cretins.
As Glenn Reynolds noted: “By contrast, I’ll note once more that the Tea Party protesters left things cleaner when they departed.”
Perhaps because the Tea Party crowd actually knows what work is like and that city workers are not “maids,” but rather expensive clean-up crews. Working has a way of teaching one the value of money, which is why on their 16th birthday, we should hand every teenager in America an apron and a mop and assign them to work at the nearest fast-food joint for $7.50 an hour, 40 hours a week.
Now let us get a few things straight about who these loony goons are. For the most part they are spoiled rotten brats who took out huge loans to pay for four years of self-indulgence at some over-rated liberal arts college. Somehow, they were able to spend a few months in the fall camping out and protesting against the working class while not working themselves.
They are in that upper 1% who do not have to work.
Wall Street brokers do. 12-16 hours a day, 5 days a week. Maybe they do some work at home over the weekend. Much of their pay is based on merit — called bonuses as if the money weren’t earned. It’s a tough business. The risks are many. The rewards great.
I get a paycheck every week. Guess what? How big a bonus some stockbroker gets or doesn’t get has zero impact on my pay stub.
The Democratic Party indulged the Occupy Army this fall. Let’s not reward the party with a re-election next year, no matter how hard we must pinch our noses in the voting booth.
Meanwhile in Los Angeles, these fighters for social justice and income equality left 30 tons of debris for someone else to clean up. I think that it is interesting that these people claim to be fighting for the 99% against the evil, greedy 1% and yet their antics are hurting the working people. Here is a story from last month.
For the 99% — and the 1% too — the dawn-to-dusk demonstrations from Zuccotti Park to Union Square made getting around lower Manhattan a 100% disaster.
Truck driver Bill Crespo found himself motionless for an hour at the corner of Pine and Nassau streets as the demonstrators surged toward the stock exchange Thursday morning.
“I’m praying they don’t ro
“This is the most annoying thing ever in my life,” a frustrated Reignold, said. “I couldn’t get into my building. I couldn’t get through the crowds.”
“If you want wealth equality and income redistribution, you might as well live in a communist country,” she said.
The massive disruptions and civil disobedience didn’t play well with some of the men in suits.
“Out of my way!” barked another businessman swimming upstream against the demonstrators on Nassau St.
Another approached a cop for help.
“I’m all turned around,” he explained. “How can I get to Chase Bank?”
Indeed, the widespread angst among both bulls and bears had little to do with the Dow Jones on this brisk November morning.
Workers exiting the Wall Street subway stop found a maze of NYPD barricades before they were forced to show IDs for access.
“I’m going to lose my job if I can’t get to work,” griped Allen Fenton, 54. “These people are a disgrace.” He asked a cop, “Aren’t you going to do anything?”
The officer responded with a shrug as protesters shouted, “Wall Street is closed!”
Trashing public parks, preventing people from going to work, leaving hazardous messes for sanitation workers to clean up, harassing small businessses, they are the true and authentic voice of the People. I say they are a disgrace.
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