Occupy Wall Street
After Sandy, a great and complex city reveals traumas new and old
Now it's the aftermath—businesses without power, days without work, cars without fuel, homes without heat or light, shops without food, sick without medical care—that is taking its toll, and making new, often shocking, demands on the city and its citizens. More
(3)At Red Hook Houses, an enclave of fast-moving, efficient altruism
The condition in the Red Hook Houses, as with project developments in flooded areas across the system managed by the New York City Housing Authority, has been an intense focus of the local media. It's used sometimes as a parable of the disparate effects of the storm on rich and poor. And the whole system has been roped together in several articles describing fear and crime in the projects in the wake of the storm. More
Cuomo, in McDonald's corner and Grisanti's ad
Cuomo is featured in an ad called "Independent", for Republican State Senator Mark Grisanti. [Youtube, h/t Nick Reisman]
Democratic state senators Malcolm Smith and Kevin Parker gave last-minuted donations to Shirley Huntley, before she lost her Democratic primary to Councilman James Sanders. [Glenn Blain]
"It would be my honor to stand with you" Cuomo said. [Lucian McArty]
Cuomo is upbeat about state government, the G.O.P. is down about Romney
2013
Vogue on Scott Stringer's spokeswoman: "chicest get-out-the-vote organizer." [Laura Nahmias]
John Liu's spokesman defends the comptroller's decision to rehire a company he fired in 2010 for "poor performance." [Sally Goldenberg]
City Hall
More complaints from reporters about the NYPD. [Christopher Robbins] More
Video shows Councilman Jumaane Williams getting pushed off a bench
Around the 2:45 mark in this video, you see City Councilman Jumaane Williams standing on a seat in Liberty Park, and a police officer pushing him, telling him to "get down".
Williams, a vocal critic of the New York Police Department, can be heard saying "I'm a Council member" and "I'm observing." More
'Getting it back': This time, Occupy Wall Street rallies to show it still exists
One problem with a movement based on rhetoric is that when people stop talking about it, it ceases to exist. More
(1)Romney talks to donors about the 47 percent, the San Remo tilts G.O.P. and Occupy returns
2012
The San Remo apartment building on Central Park West, unusually, is producing lots more donor dollars for the Republican presidential candidate than the Democrat, mostly because of Robert Wilson. [Elizabeth A. Harris and Jo Craven McGinty]
Mitt Romney is scrapping is original campaign plan. [Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei]
Secretly taped video of Romney at a fund-raiser. [via David Corn] More
Mayor Bloomberg sees reason for hope in the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been complaining a lot lately about the generally inefficacy of Washington D.C., but today he said he sees reason for hope in both Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street.
"I probably don't agree with a lot of the things that both of those groups promote and believe in, but I do think that you can change democracy, and you do it from the grassroots," he said today, during his regular Friday morning appearance on the John Gambling radio show. More
(1)The NYPD's News Corp. detail
Here's Rupert Murdoch arriving for work at News Corp.'s headquarters in Manhattan yesterday morning just before 8:30 a.m. More
(1)What is the new protest music? On May Day in Union Square, a vague idea takes shape
The idea of an interactive concert on May Day had a wide-reaching appeal. Chuck Park, a 49-year-old union activist, came in all the way from Cleveland to play— “[the Guitarmy is] where I fit in,” he said. The chance to play with Morello “didn’t hurt,” 19-year-old Carlos Cabeza said, in making the decision to make May Day the first protest he'd ever attended. Yet the confusion that reigned during Morello’s time onstage was indicative of the tenor of this Occupy concert—a somewhat scattershot, not-quite-organized attempt to celebrate solidarity, and in doing so to please everybody. More
(1)The May Day protest march, line by line
After yesterday afternoon's free concert in Union Square, thousands of demonstrators flowed out of the crowded park and south down Broadway to continue their protest in lower Manhattan.
All told, there were thousands representing traditional union-backed demonstrators, Occupy-affiliated protestors and advocates for causes like the DREAM Act and increased funding for higher education.
At first many of the groups were finely divided between clearly defined unions, but gradually gave way to a scattering of grassroots causes, homemade banners and vibrant street theater. More
Pictures from a demonstration, May 1, 2012
These pictures were taken in Union Square on the afternoon May 1, 2012. More
(1)Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello and the 'Guitarmy' fill Bryant Park with old protest songs
As what looked to be a hundred guitar-wielding protestors filled the Upper Terrace of Bryant Park, no less than 17 cameras were currently trained on activist and Rage Against the Machine guitarist, Tom Morello.
“There’s certainly a preponderance of journalists here,” he said after a reporter asked whether the day would be a success. “In some regard it’s already happened.”
Morello was at the park leading the “Guitarmy,” which was a stri
Occupy Bushwick deploys to Manhattan, with police escort
It was a gentle start to May Day in Bushwick, as Occupy Wall Street protestors sought to reinvigorate the movement that quieted down over the colder months. The weather was raining, a bad sign.
Still, there was some activity this morning in Maria Hernandez Park, a patch of green in this mostly working-class Brooklyn neighborhood. Around 8 a.m., a dozen protestors were standing in a tight circle wearing ponchos and holding umbrellas; they were one of the mini-groups that would be cycling into Bryant Park and Union Square for protests through the day. More
(1)Occupy Wall Street gets the rainy day it didn't want
Some Occupy Wall Street organizers are hoping to disrupt business as usual today, blocking traffic and distrurbing commutes in an effort to demonstrate that the protest movement that grabbed worldwide attention last year is still intact, despite having been unceremoniously evicted from its makeshift home in Zuccotti Park. More
