For anyone who hasn't seen the park it's a rather tiny island plaza sandwiched tightly between 4 streets. It's no wider then the single office b
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But for two months (September 17th to November 15th) the park became a center of attention, achieved National and even world name recognition. The events that transpired in Zuccotti park inspired copy cat events across the continent and as far away as London. This will be an event that sociologists and anthropologists will study for the next decade.
An event so disruptive as to cause people to leave the comfort of their homes and take to the streets in favor of sleeping under tarps on a granite slab is worth noting and studying. People gave up heat, hot water, shelter, indoor plumbing, and hot food in favor of urban camping in an early October Blizzard. Exceptional and unusual behavior like this is a population is worth understanding.
Capitalism relies on a relative stability for function. Democracy is the most conducive environment for capitalism and a market economy to flourish. Routine elections ensure an orderly transition of power. A system of checks and balances ensured that policy changes are somewhat muted and moving too quickly in any direction. This stability encourages investment because the investor can predict risk and return with reasonable certainly. When functioning properly the workers feel that they are compensated fairly and they invest back into the economy in the form of purchasing consumer goods and services driving the economic engine. For the workers stability means the ability to predictably forecast their earning, which encourages them to spend more and drive the economy further. An over simplified example, and investor builds a factory providing room for economic growth. The workers buy the factory's widgets allowing the growth to be realized and a return on the investment to be generated. The factory then in turn hires workers who buy more widgets and growth is realized. Despite the underlying and always present proletariat and bourgeoisie conflict, the system functions as long as both parties are reasonably happy. When people leave the system to shout and bang on drums, this is disruptive and worth noticing. Very similar to a labor strike this behavior is disruptive to both parties and encourages them to reach an equitable agreement.
As the population in the park grew they became a microcosm for society it's self. Staring off as a band of wandering nomads they quickly realized the need to setup camp. At first they slept in sleeping bags under tarps. As the population grew they began to erect tents. As the population grew even further basic services became an issue and an organizational structure emerged to meet these needs. Meals and medical services were soon introduced. Sanitation was addressed by volunteer cleaning crews, porta-poties were brought in, and volunteers formed security patrols. The availability of free services increased the need for security intervention as the park started to attract individuals that were drawn there by the free meals and a place to sleep rather then it's core mission. As the population grew further and became more organized higher level services such as a library where created.
The city as a whole attracts an broad range of individuals with diverse backgrounds, economics, and beliefs. individuals occupying the park demonstrated this diversity as well. Many of the underlying social problems the city has such as drug abuse and homelessness where thrust into a national spotlight in front of news cameras and reporters when this group became a minority in the occupation. Walking through Penn station or riding any subway train we can easily see the endemic problem New York has with homelessness. Drug problems exist in every neighborhood, but most people can walk right by as the problems linger in the shadows.
The movement will often be criticized for not having a specific set of goals or achievements. One of the most interesting things about the parks occupation was that it was open to anyone unhappy with the current status quo. For almost two months a standoff existed between the City, the property manager, the police, and the protesters. The stalemate was periodically broken by protesters provoking the police or marching outside the park. Police occasionally provoked or retaliated harshly against the protesters. For the protesters attempts at getting them evicted were as essential to their occupation as being able to occupy the park for their protect. The whole occupation of the park relied on a protracted us vs. them conflict perpetuating the occupation. Without repeated arrests and eviction attempts there were no national news headlines promoting their cause. Pictures of being maced and beaten by police drew support and sympathy. In many ways the inevitable goal of the occupation and it's antics was to establish conflict and get evicted. for example an attempt by a drumming circle to occupy the sidewalk in front of the mayors house on the upper east side.
The park it's self lent it's self very easily to being occupied. As an island surrounded by streets events could transpire there without overly affecting the neighbors. The construction noise across the street is clearly more intrusive then any shouting or drumming. The granite paving proved resilient to all of the traffic, leaving no mud or grass to need replanting. As far as crowds go, I would challenge that it could be no worse then Times Square, Herald Square, or Rockefeller center between late November and January. The truth is that New York is often crowded with people some might wish weren't there.
The protesters are gone now and their noise has been replaces with the rumbling of the city around it. The noise they made continues to echo. That these people were dissatisfied enough with their current condition to ignore the adds to buy the latest cellphone or trendy widget and rally their cause behind the collective dissatisfaction of their cohort was a notable event.
Our economy has seen a significant relocation of jobs to lower cost centers of production. The cost savings have not been passed on to the consumers. Increased profits have not been passed onto the share holders. Instead executive compensation has risen to record levels. Still the primary consumer of the finished goods remains the same, but the consumer has less economic potential to buy those products. Removing the consumer from the means of production will have significant effects on the capitalist structure in the long term. Civil unrest likely being one of them.
