Joy at Occupy New Paltz
I live in the Town of New Paltz, which encircles and encloses the Village of New Paltz. In the Village there is a lovely park, called Hasbrouck Park, that has a baseball diamond, excellent playground, and pretty gazebo.
The park had been "occupied" for several months, with sexual assault, garbage, drumming circles, and the usual silliness.
At the beginning, the Mayor of the Village of New Paltz supported the Occupiers, giving them a free electric hookup from Village Hall across the street. The Mayor, named Jason West, became somewhat famous several years ago when he "married" a host of gay couples in New Paltz in contravention of NY State law at that time. Mayor West is an enthusiastic Occupier, having participated in the Wall Street games as well.
Several times, the Village Board has expressed their great joy at having a local Occupy movement, and encouraged citizens to visit and bring soup, or stay overnight and get some learnin' from the youthful enthusiasts.
However, the joy was not shared by St. Joseph's Church, also seen in the satellite image, which has some very nice toilet facilities in their Parish Center which have been soiled by the homeless and grubby tent-dwellers.
Nor has the love been felt by parents afraid to take their little tykes to the park to play at the playground -- the stench, garbage, and crime are troubling to anyone with a brain.
This past week, even Mayor West had had enough. The police evicted the last tents from the park the other day.
West declared, "It is my personal opinion that the Village Board has bent over backwards in every possible way for you, and at every turn you backed us into a corner. I went to the Park six times last week, and not once did I see another human being from the Occupy movement. I saw no political action, no workshops, no speeches. But what I did see were parents who told me they were frightened to have their children play at the park, some of whom said that they wanted their children to learn more about the movement, but that people there just slept in their tents all day. This is not a movement, but has become camping out in a public park."
Wouldn't you agree that the children who saw the "movement" learned plenty about it from what they saw?
I can't stop chortling to myself. Common sense wins out. Even in New Paltz...
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Dec '11
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
Thank you for sharing. I strangely can't get enough of this Occupy nonsense. It's a guilty pleasure. I find it just absurd. Truth > fiction.
Jul '11
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
Nice post Mama Toad. Last fall our family walked past occupy Sacramento. My then 8 year old asked what they were there for. I told him they wanted the government to steal my money and give it to them and other people they thought should have my money. He responded,"They should get their own job and make their own money"
Feb '11
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
DocJay, you are clearly teaching your son well.
And thanks, Rex Mottram. I may have had enough of the nonsense myself!
Feb '11
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
My only regret about this closure is that today, for the first time in a long time, it is snowing. I kind of wish it had snowed on the Occupiers. A lot. That might have cleared them out earlier of their own free will?
Mar '11
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
Do you suppose that Mayor West has learned anything from this?
Me neither.
Feb '12
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
Fine reporting. Thank you.
Jul '10
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
Vagranting New Paltz
Dec '10
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
Better that the Mayor had to come to grips with the situation and order them out. It puts him on the record, and it may even put him on the path trod by many a liberal who's been "mugged by reality."
May '10
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
This is kind of a tangent, but New Paltz is kind of a low-rent version of Berkeley; there's a minor NY state university center (I can still smell the college catalog from 1980 college shopping!)
I was just writing to someone, a very nice interesting woman about possibly getting together. She mentioned about all the NO FRACKING signs in New Paltz, then my non-liberalness came out.
Oy, dating, as a conservative in NY is just so depressing. It just does. Maybe I'll move to Texas (the CPAC sampler was nice) ;-(
Edited on February 16, 2012 at 11:53pmNov '11
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
That is great. May Hasbrouck Park remain long unoccupied.
Dec '11
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
He might have, had he bothered to look at the $2 million dollar NYPD overtime bill, the $1 million dollar tab for additional sanitation services and the estimated $10 million dollar loss in business revenue incurred by the OWS in Zuccotti.
MasterCard should produce this commercial-- Cost of aiding and abetting deviant behavior in one of the country's high-rent districts for months: unaffordable
Jan '11
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
Is there some replicable measure of stupidity? It would be useful for predicting outcomes/consequences for actions taken - particularly by politicians. It would certainly help communities budgeting, for example, the cost of hosting an occupy encampment.
It would be especially useful for making estimated costs of presidential budgets more realistic.
Jan '11
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
Sigh, the mayor sounds like a Gullible Putz from New Paltz
Jun '10
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
They're still looking for those non-capitalist car salesmen to make the idea work:
Oct '10
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
Let one pose a simple question, are the parks occupied by the OWS folks equipped with automated lawn sprinkler systems ? If so there are control boxes with timers. Some solutions are obvious, figure out the rest.
Mar '11
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
Workers World Party? The Wobblies are still wobblin' about? I thought they went out with the St. Louis Browns.
Dec '10
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
Anon: Is there some replicable measure of stupidity? It would be useful for predicting outcomes/consequences for actions taken - particularly by politicians. It would certainly help communities budgeting, for example, the cost of hosting an occupy encampment.
It would be especially useful for making estimated costs of presidential budgets more realistic. ยท 35 minutes ago
I believe the quantum of stupidity is the moron. Morons are often charged (not electrically, but criminally).
Dec '10
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
Percival
Workers World Party? The Wobblies are still wobblin' about? I thought they went out with the St. Louis Browns. ยท 3 minutes ago
I am not certain that the WWP is the same as the IWW. I believe the WWP is affiliated with the Communist International.
Dec '10
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
As Emily Lettella used to say "Never Mind".
By the way Public Parks are just that for the Public. In a Republic that means law abiding citizens. I recommended to Blumberg that he take the OWS people to the middle of the Tappan Zee bridge and drop them into the Hudson. If they chose to swim back to NYC you could do it again. Why not do something you really enjoy a second time.
Regards,
Jim
Edited on February 17, 2012 at 7:30amFeb '11
Re: Joy at Occupy New Paltz
James Gawron -- I think you posted in the wrong thread! Either that, or you are hoping to give us a surreal experience this evening....