MARILYN PENN: DERELICTION OF DUTY
http://politicalmavens.com/
The Occupy Wall Street Performance is a perfect example of what happens when people in charge deign to make tough decisions promptly and put their collective fingers to the wind instead. At the outset, Mayor Bloomberg wholeheartedly supported the encampment under the rubric of freedom of speech and assembly. Despite the fact that the squatters at Zuccotti Park had hijacked private property, the mayor insisted that their right to protest trumped all other considerations.
As the weeks wore on and the mayor realized that his refusal to exercise his authority had succeeded in growing the numbers of Woodstockers, he devised a plan to get the squatters out under the guise of health and sanitation. Overnight, that plan was sacked as the mayor caved once again, letting the squatters clean up after themselves, rather than risk their ire at being even temporarily displaced. For weeks on end, the neighborhood was swamped with crowds of onlookers, sympathizers, hangers-on, the homeless and special interest groups exploiting the situation for their own agendas. Local stores and businesses were sorely affected – one restauranteur had to lay off 20% of his staff because foot traffic was diminished by the barricades lining Wall Street. Eventually, even the mayor began to acknowledge that other people in the city had rights that needed to be protected as well. The matter was taken up by Community Board 1.
Headed by Julie Menin, Community Board 1 consists of 50 members appointed by the Manhattan borough president, half of whom are recommended by the City Council member of that district. According to its website, the function of the community board is to be ”concerned with the quality of life and the delivery of services to the district and to advocate on behalf of those who live or work in the district.” Since the Zuccotti squatters do not fall into either of these categories, it’s more than puzzling that the community board voted in favor of allowing them to remain with requests for minor adjustments in their behavior, such as no drumming after midnight. By this decision, they showed their utter disregard for their actual mandated purpose – to consider the needs of their specific constituency – and instead took on the distorted mantle of the American Civil Liberties Union, championing the right to protest as some sacred cow that can never be compromised by the needs and rights of conflicting forces. The shopkeepers and restaurant owners who saw their bathrooms trashed by hundreds of people who bought nothing should be incensed at this betrayal by their community board. The residents and employees of Tribeca and the Financial District have been equally ignored by a board that put its personal political beliefs above their responsibility to the people dedicated to living in and building businesses in this community.
Now, almost two months into the occupation, the mayor admitted in a speech to the Association for a Better New York that he doesn’t agree with the tactics of the squatters, stating “it doesn’t get better by disrupting commerce; it doesn’t get better by vilifying people and scaring them away from taking risks.” Mayor Bloomberg has a long history of changing sides: he has been a Democrat, a Republican and an Independent; he first championed term limits, then eliminated them; he endorsed the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in our city, then realized how expensive and risky that would be. He and the community board have done a great disservice to the people who have invested in living downtown. After the tragedy wrought by 9/11, the people who moved back or moved into the neighborhood deserved special consideration for their willingness to live through difficult times and rebuild their homes and businesses. Instead, they have now been demoted to second class citizens subordinate to a motley crew with no clear agenda that has taken advantage of media publicity, the generosity of naive enablers and the capitulation of an ineffective mayor and a community board confused about where its allegiance belongs. The residents, businessmen and shopkeepers of Community Board 1 are the people who should be protesting now.
Comments are closed.
