Interesting Facts Regarding Occupy Wall Street

INRM

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As far as I know I'm not quoting excessive large lines of text. I am quoting multiple sources, though only small segments.

Wikipedia on Zuccotti Park
Zuccotti Park, formerly called Liberty Plaza Park, is a 33,000-square-foot (3,100 m2) publicly accessible park in Lower Manhattan, New York City, privately owned by Brookfield Properties.
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Reuters' Description of Brookfield Properties
Brookfield Office Properties Inc., formerly Brookfield Properties Corporation, owns, develops and operates commercial office properties in select cities in North America and Australia and develops residential land. The Company is a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (BAM).
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Reuters' Description of Brookfield Asset Management
Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is a global asset management company focused on property, power and infrastructure assets. The Company operates and manages assets in the areas, such as Renewable Power Generation, which include power generating operations, along with a small number of co-generation and wind energy facilities; Commercial Properties, in which the Company owns and operates commercial office and retail properties on behalf of selves and its co-investors; ...
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What I'm wondering is this: Why are they allowing the protestors there at all? It's private property, they don't have to; furthermore, why have they allowed it to continue for as long as it has. You would think that most Wall Street companies wouldn't want an Anti-Wall Street protest performed on their property, right?


INRM
 
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Basically New York City gave developers the right to build higher or other bonuses in return for providing open spaces. But they also required that those open spaces be open to the public.

Among the better spaces is Zuccotti Park. The developer never received a floor-area bonus for the 26,000-square-foot park, although it did receive other valuable zoning concessions. The current owner, Brookfield Office Properties, voluntarily installed trees, seating, lighting and art over the last decade. (It also changed the space’s name from Liberty to Zuccotti Park, after John E. Zuccotti, one of its co-chairmen, creating a personal interest in the park’s quality.)

Nevertheless, the events at Zuccotti Park highlight the continued inadequacy of the laws regarding privately owned public spaces. Other than the requirement that this space remain open 24 hours a day, the owners were left to promulgate their own rules; the only limit is that they be “reasonable.”
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INRM said:
As far as I know I'm not quoting excessive large lines of text. I am quoting multiple sources, though only small segments.

Wikipedia on Zuccotti Park


Reuters' Description of Brookfield Properties


Reuters' Description of Brookfield Asset Management



What I'm wondering is this: Why are they allowing the protestors there at all? It's private property, they don't have to; furthermore, why have they allowed it to continue for as long as it has. You would think that most Wall Street companies wouldn't want an Anti-Wall Street protest performed on their property, right?


INRM
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Zuccotti park is a 'bonus plaza' and it was built with the proviso that it had to be open to the public 24 hours a day. From AP:

But the rule established in 1961 called for developers who want to build a tall building to construct a plaza to provide "light and air" that otherwise would have been blotted out by a towering skyscraper. The bigger the plaza, the more zoning concessions a company could reap.
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So, I don't think Brookfield can do much without breaking the terms of this agreement.

Although:

Brookfield could apply for an authorization from the city to close the plaza overnight, but that would have to be approved by the City Planning Commission.
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However, looking at the Privately Owned Public Spaces webpage of the City Planning Department, this is mentioned:

Hours of access / nighttime closing
By default, all privately owned public plazas are open to the public day and night, 24 hours. Nighttime closing of public plazas is permitted via City Planning Commission authorization.
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So, it seems that Brookfield could apply for a permit to close the park at night, but if you can imagine the task of trying to evict these protesters; by the time that would be accomplished the park would be open again (I believe the minimum opening time is currently from 7am to 10pm), so I don't think that is particularly feasible. I don't know if Zuccotti Park was a strategic choice for OWS, but it is proving to be a good one.
 
Why do I get the feeling that this was intended to somehow pin the OWS movement as being organized by Brookfield?
 
SezMe said:
I dunno know. I get no feeling along that line at all.
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I suppose a conspiracy about the movement being used to create riots so that martial law can be declared would be more likely.
 
My understanding from sources I dare not reveal (it's more terrible than you think), the police asked them not to take any steps to close the park in hopes they could control any problems better.
 
JihadJane said:
Would you prefer they ask for donations for fraudulent political campaigns?
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I would prefer they ask for donations for a voter registration campaign in New York State (which really needs one) and for lobbying politicians that support their goals and agenda....oh wait, that's right, they have no goals and agenda. I guess that explains the puppets.
 
Alt+F4 said:
I would prefer they ask for donations for a voter registration campaign in New York State (which really needs one) and for lobbying politicians that support their goals and agenda....oh wait, that's right, they have no goals and agenda. I guess that explains the puppets.
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I've seen you and others make this claim constantly in every thread even tangentially related to the OWNs protests, and it's a bizarre claim. Yes, they differ immensely over what specifically to do, and their stated goals/agenda thus also vary hugely. However, it's pretty clear that the overall goal is to express the idea that business, and banking specifically, messed up horribly and something needs done about it. It's big, big tent right now, so of course things will appear muddled.

There are many valid criticisms of the OWN protests, of specific protesters and their suggested solutions (many, many, many valid criticisms), but 'they don't have a goal', simply isn't one of them.
 
tyr_13 said:
However, it's pretty clear that the overall goal is to express the idea that business, and banking specifically, messed up horribly and something needs done about it.
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No mention of banking at all at the last OWN general assembly, lots of talk about drumming. Instead today they are going to protest against NYC's "stop and frisk" policy and later have a teach-in to protest labor conditions at The City University of New York.

This morning a protestor climbed up a 40 foot scuplture in the park and said he wasn't coming down until Mayor Bloomberg resigned. It took the police four hours to get him down.

Also, if the protestors spend all their time trying to figure out something to do about bad banks, who's gonna give out the free condoms?
 
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I heard no mention of taxes at the latest Tea party assembly either. Guess they really don't care about taxes.
 
tyr_13 said:
I heard no mention of taxes at the latest Tea party assembly either. Guess they really don't care about taxes.
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Which Tea Party group? Can you link to the minutes of their assembly? Thanks in advance.

Perhaps you're right, Tea Party Nation describes itself as a:

user-driven
 group of like-minded people who desire our God-given individual
 freedoms written out by the Founding Fathers. We believe in Limited 
Government, Free Speech, the 2nd Amendment, our Military, Secure 
Borders and our Country.
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Alt+F4 said:
No mention of banking at all at the last OWN general assembly, lots of talk about drumming. Instead today they are going to protest against NYC's "stop and frisk" policy and later have a teach-in to protest labor conditions at The City University of New York.

This morning a protestor climbed up a 40 foot scuplture in the park and said he wasn't coming down until Mayor Bloomberg resigned. It took the police four hours to get him down.

Also, if the protestors spend all their time trying to figure out something to do about bad banks, who's gonna give out the free condoms?
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What do you mean no agenda? They're all, like, against the man, and stuff.
 
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Alt+F4 said:
Which Tea Party group? Can you link to the minutes of their assembly? Thanks in advance.
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Chautauqua county one, and no, they don't keep minutes. At least not that I can find.

Perhaps you're right, Tea Party Nation describes itself as a:
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You might want to talk with Wildcat, as he dismissed the idea that Tea Party Nation was the largest Tea Party group. But are you suggesting that the Tea Party isn't about taxes? The only thing the various tea party groups seem to agree on is that taxes and Obama are bad and wrong. Badong even.

I'm betting you can also link to a hundred different OWN groups with messages from more money for colleges to full blown communism. What do they agree on? Business, specifically banking, messed up and it needs addressed. That it isn't the sole grip of all the various people (some of whom are obvious nutters, like some who showed up at Tea party stuff were obvious nutters or obvious racists) doesn't change that.
 
tyr_13 said:
I'm betting you can also link to a hundred different OWN groups with messages from more money for colleges to full blown communism. What do they agree on? Business, specifically banking, messed up and it needs addressed. That it isn't the sole grip of all the various people (some of whom are obvious nutters, like some who showed up at Tea party stuff were obvious nutters or obvious racists) doesn't change that.
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My labor union (The United Federation of Teachers) have gotten pretty tight with this group and one of my co-workers has spent considerable time down there. His take on it is that the reason why the protestors don't have goals is because they really don't want to fix anything, they want to reinvent society into some sort of direct democracy where all decisions are based on consensus. This is why so much of their effort has on building their new society in the park rather than demanding the big banks show their books.

Now of course there are marxist/socialist/communist (whatever you want to call it) elements to their plan, such as redistribution of wealth. What the 99% doesn't seem realize is that 99% includes the drug addicts and thieves that that now occupy the park with them, Nazis, Republicans and Tea Party folks. Their utopia can’t work when everyone's voice is seen as valid, unless of course you make over $325,000.

It's already starting to fall apart. They are having disagreements over money and have difficulty making even the simpliest decisions.

It was an all-male government that passed women's suffrage. History shows us that popular pressure can beat money and machine politics. It's just something this movement doesn't want to do.
 
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