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Is Occupy Wall Street NYC's Hottest New "Tourist Attraction"?
By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 21, 2011
Modified Oct 21, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 21, 2011
Modified Oct 21, 2011
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Mayor Bloomberg performed a bit of verbal jujitsu this morning on his weekly radio broadcast—he called the Occupy Wall Street protests down in Zuccotti Park "a tourist attraction." Just two weeks ago, Bloomberg said on the same program that protesters were "trying to take away the tax base we have, because none of this is good for tourism"—despite the fact that tourists have been flocking to the park to see it in person (or join in).
Maybe this means Bloomberg thinks Zuccotti Park is becoming the seedy underbelly of NYC, as Eric Kuo put it: "things can both be a tourist attraction and bad for tourism: porn shops in times square circa the 80s?" We think Bloomberg's about-face might stem from a more poetic place—it's just like Walt Whitman once wrote: "Do I contradict myself? Very well then I'll just run for a fourth term and make it up to you because you people need me, do you even realize how much you need me?"
Speaking of tourists, the Post featured an out-of-towner today who has decided to make Zuccotti Park her semi-permanent home—and every graf in the story seems to scream "BAD MOM" reading between the lines. Mother-of-four Stacey Hessler left her banker husband and kids—son Peyton, 17; and daughters Kennedy 15, Sullivan, 13, and Veda, 7—in Florida to come support OWS here, and is pretty intense about sticking around: "I’m not planning on going home...“I have no idea what the future holds, but I’m here indefinitely. Forever," she said.
The Post seems to get off on what they call her "obsession" with OWS: “Military people leave their families all the time, so why should I feel bad?” a defiant Hessler told them. “I’m fighting for a better world.” They are particularly interested in the details about her relationship with her family, like the fact she's only spoken with them three times in the 12 days since she arrived in NYC and got dreadlocks: “[My husband] says he’s working for ‘the Man,’ and I’m fighting against him...My mother told me I was being very selfish."
Tagged
mayor bloomberg
occupy wall street
ows
tourist attraction
tourists
Zuccotti Park
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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