Is this the beginning of the end for Occupy Boston? A letter from the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway Conservancy has been leaked on OB’s website asking the City of Boston to “remove the occupiers from the Greenway.” This is a major change to the Conservancy’s initially supportive position (See Occupy Boston “Messy But Democracy at Work” According to Greenway Conservancy). The Greenway Conservancy is a private, non-profit organization that leases the public park land that is owned by the state; specifically MassDOT.
The November 8th request was made before the recent clearing of Occupy Wall Street from Zuccotti Park in New York City on November 15th. After the NYC clearing, OB pursued and obtained a temporary court order to avoid eviction through December 1st.
Click on the thumbnails to read the letter.
I hope the occupiers realize their continued (illegal) presence is have a tangible negative effect on the surrounding community, while offering up no real positives in return. do you know how much money was spent to create these public squares? not only that, but none of the taxpayers (like me) who paid for the park (and are currently forking out hundreds of dollars a day for the occupiers to stay there – not to mention the anticipated future repairs) can even enjoy the park. as stated in the letter, small businesses (whom I would assume 99 percenters would want to support as part of their movement, especially in economic conditions such as these) are losing much-needed income as a direct result of their presence. I work 7 days a week and am probably not even in the top 30%, but when I walk to work in a suit I get yelled at as I walk by. last week they blocked my way home from work. when will they realize that they need to find a better way to get their message across, and to start enacting real change?
It is the Greenway Conservancy, which is not an environmental or park-advocacy group but simply a corporate lobbyist for downtown real estate developers and other business interest, that has "occupied" our public space. It did not create the park, nor does it own or control it. It has also wangled millions of public dollars while pretending to be a struggling "non-profit" (paying its Executive Director a quarter million dollars a year) steward of the park. I've been trying to oust the Conservancy ever since it formed, knowing that it is absorbing millions of taxpayer dollars while it privatizes this state land for the benefit of its corporate members.
The Occupy movement, exercising its Constitutional rights of free speech and free assembly, is a rightful user of this space. Occupy, unlike the Conservancy, welcomes all, and keeps no one out. In fact, this manicured but largely deserted prairie, dependent on laborious event staging to attract people, is finally getting some use. Trampled grass is easily fixed; repairing our broken economic system is a far greater priority.
This is truly an example of the unfair society Occupy is exposing: the 1% takes away our assets – and then takes away our rights to protest.