Capital New York

'It's that time': Coney Island hangs on, but the view from Surfside Gardens is grim

There’s a sandy ring, about chest high, on the office windows of Coney Island USA, signifying the ocean’s high-water mark. More

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By Matthew Wolfe

'Millionaires live here': Breezy Point, unrecognizably

To buy a house in Breezy Point, a person needs to put 50 percent of the money down at the time of sale, or 40 percent if the buyer has a relative living there. More

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By Matthew Wolfe

'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

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By Matthew Wolfe

Occupy Wall Street diaspora prepare for re-entry

On Friday, Sept. 2, Chantal O'Brien was sleeping on the couch in her living room when she awoke to the report of gunshots, two of them, one just after the other. She went to her window, which overlooks Richman Plaza, in the Bronx. Eight stories below her, she saw a man stumbling through the dusk, clutching his chest. He walked a few feet, then he fell. O'Brien knew the man. It was her ex-boyfriend, Ramel Shepard. More

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By Matthew Wolfe

After Zuccotti Park, it's decision time for Occupy Wall Street organizers

When the NYPD cleared out Zuccotti Park, they dismantled a residence, a recruiting tool, and a central hub for meeting and communication. But they did not destroy the protest’s governing structure: Since Monday’s raid, Occupy Wall Street’s organizers have continued to assemble, taking stock and attempting to figure out what they now want the movement to become. More

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By Matthew Wolfe

Anatomy of a temporary disruption: A defiant march on Wall Street, many arrests, then business as usual

The sun was just rising over lower Manhattan, but the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway was lit like high noon by a row of klieg lights.

The march was due to start at 7 a.m., in 15 minutes, and a bank of cameras, aimed into the heart of the financial district, was waiting for first occupier to make his move.

A loose crowd of police officers, half in riot gear, half in regular blue shirts, slouched around a row of barricades. Beside them, a man was hawking copies of the Daily News. The headline read "DO OR DIE FOR OCCUPY." More

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By Matthew Wolfe

Raid on Zuccotti: Scenes from the end of an occupation and the middle of a movement

The raid began at 1 a.m. on the dot. Eric Smith, a member of the kitchen crew, was sleeping in his tent, still wearing his chef’s toque.

“I heard ‘Get the fuck up! Get the fuck up! Everybody get the fuck up now!’ ” said Smith, 38. “And then the lights came on and we were surrounded.” When Smith opened the flap of his tent, he saw hundreds of police officers and sanitation workers, backlit by spotlights, streaming into the park. More

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By Matthew Wolfe

Occupiers weather a winter preview at Zuccotti Park, contemplate the real thing

Brendan Burke, 41, a bald man with a heavyweight boxer's build, has been coming to Occupy Wall Street since the first week of the movement. He is a near-constant presence at the park, having acted as a sort of security minder for the demonstration before the protest-organized security "working group" even existed. He believes the occupation should pull out of Zuccotti Park before the winter sets in, for reasons of safety and politics.

"I don't think it's a question of commitment," said Burke. "We've been tested before and won, so I don't know how necessary it is to hold the park." More

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By Matthew Wolfe

How the Occupy Wall Street cleaning crew raced to head off Brookfield

At 7 p.m. on Thursday night, 12 hours before the city was to facilitate a scheduled “cleaning”of Zuccotti Park by its owners, Jordan McCarthy, the de facto head of Occupy Wall Street's Sanitation Working Group, was at work making the place shine.

The park's owners, Brookfield Office Properties, had, with the city's blessing, directed that the protesters make way for a day-long cleaning. Brookfield had promised that the demonstrators would be able to return after the cleaning, but that they’d have to abide by a new set of rules that precluded, among other things, possession of sleeping bags and laying down. More

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By Matthew Wolfe

After a showdown at Zuccotti Park is put off, an Occupy Wall Street march gets messy

It was a mostly celebratory moment for Occupy Wall Street demonstrators and their political supporters this morning, as word came through from the city and the owners of Zuccotti Park that a scheduled "cleaning"—which they had spent the night nervously preparing for—would be postponed.

At about 7:15, a part of the Zuccotti Park crowd numbering in the hundreds decided to celebrate—and make a statement—by marching down Broadway.

Around the time they reached Wall Street, they moved off the sidewalks and into the street, which was empty. No cars, no police. More

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By Matthew Wolfe