Costs: Occupy vs. Recession

17 Responses to “Costs: Occupy vs. Recession”

1. Tamarleigh on December 11th, 2011 at 3:15 am #

   In the face of certain people whining about the $$$ spent by the city and the Greenway association, everyone please remember: the city and the Greenway can make their expensive choices, and they are responsible for those choices and the dollars they spend as they see fit. We are working to improve the community in any and every way we can think of. There are now 61 different working groups on a wide range of topics. We who support OccupyBoston would have maintained the space and left it better than we found it, when we were ready to move into OccupyBoston Phase Two. We weren’t ready, but they’ve forced it now, and so we’re moving into a new phase. We had plans for Earth Day to plant that grass–I remember that proposal passing with overwhelming support. So don’t let anyone guilt-trip YOU about choices someone else made. The money spent on evicting us and so on, was completely unnecessary, and the city should have left well enough alone and allowed the police to help us keep the camp free of crime. They were doing a great job at that. If the city chose to pay them to do unnecessary things, that is NOT our fault. Just bear it in mind when people whine about that money…
   • matthew dunham on December 11th, 2011 at 7:45 am #

     Awesome! you guys and gals are great. Keep up the good work!!! And God bless.
   • Barry on December 11th, 2011 at 11:25 am #

     Occupy Boston also made some expensive choices – namely, to attempt to set up a permanent encampment in a public park. You folks were well aware that your presence was tenuous, and you now have to take responsibility for your actions. That’s what the 99% actually want from the financial sector – why should Occupy Boston immune from that requirement?

     You were seriously planning to replant the grass on Earth Day? That’s a nice idea, but Earth Day is many months from now, and the courts ruled that you had to leave. Now you should immediately help contribute to the cost of repairing the park.

     The police pretty much had no choice but to patrol the encampment. And you have to admit – some of that was due to Occupy Boston’s decision to create a very high density camp in an exposed area. If there had been a fire, if there had been a violent crime, and the police had not been there, it could have been a disaster.

     You were never denied your right to protest. You were denied the right to appropriate a public space, with a clear plan to apparently not leave for months, and to build a semi-permanent infrastructure. If you had been allowed to stay in Dewey Square forever, what would the precedent be? Could I build a home on the Commons in protest to Boston’s ridiculously high rents?

     I have to admit – I’m angry at the Occupy movement. This nation faces damn serious problems, the public is outraged at the corruption in the political and financial sector, but now much of the conversation has been turned to dealing with your encampments. You may have 61 (!) working groups, but you’ve successfully provided ammunition for the enemies of the 99%. Great job. You may feel good and wonderful about your community, but there was far more at stake than your egos.
     • LoveIt on December 11th, 2011 at 11:38 am #

       You’re thinking too small Barry. After less than 3 months Obama’s “populist” speech was full of OWS rhetoric, and now the republicans are trying to appeal to the middle class and trying to play down their ties to Wall Street and corporations… Occupy and it’s nationwide show of outrage changed the political conversation in this country and the changes will play out in local and national politics.

       Most of the people who were on these comment boards complaining all the time were ranting about the cost to the taxpayers (which the graph here puts into perspective) or lots of uninformed name calling or stereotyping, or whining about their OWN inconvenience- of having to SEE the camp every day, or delays in commuting during a march.

       We may be on to Phase 2, but in a very short time, Occupy turned politics as usual on it’s head. We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!
2. Accountability on December 11th, 2011 at 8:00 am #

   What good are apples and oranges without footnotes?
   • Accountability on December 13th, 2011 at 1:23 pm #

     http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2011/12/12/after-occupy-boston-repairs-greenway/MiNPudIIOWRa4Jmin4cw7I/story.html

     Repairing the stretch of the Greenway damaged by Occupy Boston’s two-month encampment will cost as much as $60,000, officials estimated yesterday.

     save me the part about what wall street cost me/us/you.

     This is about accountability.
3. LoveIt on December 11th, 2011 at 11:29 am #

   Thank you for posting this! I keep responding to people who complain about the cost of police details by trying to explain how insignificant that amount is in comparison to the waste and greed that Occupy is exposing and fighting against. Now I have an awesome graph to show it- hooray!

   Even the O.B. police I’ve chatted with understand this! And I wish them all happy holidays and may they “spur the economy” by doing extra shopping with the money they made for Occupy details!
   • Steph on December 11th, 2011 at 2:40 pm #

     Yeah it’s actually a good thing that low level cops have so much extra money now. It’s like a form of stimulus. Thanks again, Occupy.
   • platypusrex256 on December 12th, 2011 at 9:42 am #

     You should look up the broken windows theory of economics. It would argue that paying police to do something of zero social value (watching occupy) does not help the economy. Sure, money is changing hands but its like rearranging cookies on a platter. You don’t have more cookies because you rearrange them. I go further to say that the police details were unconstitutional because there was no probable cause to be watching occupy. They were using their freedom to assemble. It would be no different if cops stationed themselves outside your window and spied on you when you came and left your house.
     • Steph on December 12th, 2011 at 1:12 pm #

       The point is those cops are more likely to spend that money than the state, and thus create demand for goods and services. We should applaud any transfer of money from state to individual citizen. It’s the only way the economy can possibly turn around.
4. Scott11b on December 11th, 2011 at 2:51 pm #

   Yes that stimulus money that kept fathers from their families. Working 16 hour days.
   The damage to the greenway was way more than the $2,800 OB had in the fund. Has OB donated that money to the conservancy or to the city yet?
   • Steph on December 11th, 2011 at 6:05 pm #

     Why are you so obsessed over some grass? Reasonable people know killing grass is a small price to pay to practice freedom of assembly.

     You’d be able to raise your concerns over the grass if you actually participated in occupy’s GAs. Stop thinking of this as some dastardly third party organization and start thinking of it as YOUR movement. Because that’s what it is. You can propose anything you want to the GA, so do it. We’d love to hear from you.
     • Scott11b on December 12th, 2011 at 3:00 pm #

       I’m saying things about the grass because what was done was damage to public property. Est cost of 40-60k that number comes from the conservancy.
       Second point. You are not my movement. I disagree with your actions, redistribution of wealth, immigration reform and the way the movement goes about business. So no Occupy anything is not my movement. I am my movement. I work harder I make more money. I go to school I better my life. I pay my bills. I do all of these things because no one owes me anything. I’m a veteran because I wanted to serve my nation. I AM MY MOVEMENT.
   • dan on December 12th, 2011 at 10:14 am #

     oh please, cops sign up for a hell of a lot worse than standing around dewey square and i’ve never met one who dislikes overtime, which was voluntary.
5. Losif Crumb on December 12th, 2011 at 1:03 am #

   All they need to do is put seeds of something nice like wheat grass down in the early spring. I killed a lot of the grass in my tiny front yard for growing tomatoes and stuff this year. After I pulled everything out in October I put down some winter wheat and it is fabulous. I never want to go back. I still can make wheat grass juice even after the hard freezes we have had. If you stood in the Occupy Boston camp facing the building they have the General Assemblies in front of, on your left is this long space about 15 feet wide maybe that the Occupy folks did not touch or trample. It is a failed garden of bare dirt and sickly stunted plants. That should get some type of grass seed too. Everything is fine. Just plant in the early Spring. Most farming involves plowing or use of herbicides to kill weeds, including grass, and then planting seeds.
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   The Occupy camp certainly lowered the rate of crime and human suffering. Many homeless folks were concentrated there instead of disbursed all over the city and concealed in secret locations. They were provided social services, and the situation was policed, by the folks of Occupy Boston who had the wherewithal and willingness to do so.
   .
   Decades ago the Universities used to be cool. There was a whole community surrounding them and there was a spirit of sharing with the people. Now all that is gone. This is why Boston is nothing now socially and spiritually. But New York is still New York. I was thinking today I would rather go to the Wall Mart in New Jersey than go into town to do something in Boston. But for the first few weeks of Occupy Boston we had it back, like it must have been 35 years ago I felt. I want to keep finding this. Most people have no clue what to do about the government and the economy. There is a part of the Occupy movement that acknowledges this. I tend toward a Ron Paul approach to the situation. But then I wonder if there always will be an overreaching central government and it is impossible to try to turn it off.
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