Occupy All Streets

I'll be able tell them apart from the people who wanted me to accept a free gift from Mastercard, right?

They already tried to give me something at Union Sq this morning, and I turned them down.

Gothamist is giving a play-by-play of the events

gothamist wrote: Shortly after 9 a.m., there was jubilant cheering from protesters under the impression that the NYSE opening bell had been delayed. But the bell is rung daily at 9:30 a.m., and that just happened, as usual.

source: http://gothamist.com/2011/11/17/occupy_wall_street_tries_to_march_o.php#photo-1

From what I have been reading on the various OWS sites, they are just going to occupy that stations, but not try to shut down service.

If they tried to shut down service, I think they would lose the sympathy of most NYers.

...if they tried to hold the doors, some NYers might even take matters into their own hands and throw them off the train.

Yeah, I normally depend on the 4,5,2,3 trains which could be delayed with the "occupations" listed. Woopee.

...if they tried to hold the doors, some NYers might even take matters into their own hands and throw them off the train.

I tend to agree with that. It would only take a couple well placed "sick passengers" to seriously gum up the system though. Like last night when a sick patient at 96th street made the 6 trains run express from 125 to 42nd. But no one told the people on the platforms waiting at local stops.

Maybe this would be too subtle a method, but toss some sick passengers into the city, flood areas with people, hoards in business suits, it could actually get interesting.

I have to get from Crown Heights to the Upper East Side, and then in the early evening to Tribeca, and then return home to CH. So, I'm hoping that all goes well.

Thanks for the suggestion about the R or F. I think those lines will be very hard for me to get to one way or the other.

Carmen said:

i have to go into the city later (around 6) and I'm planning on taking the F to avoid union sq. I actually had some errands to run around there today but I'm going to postpone, totally not worth the hassle...

You might be able to avoid hassle and not change your route of preference. From the news reports, the police are arresting people who are breaking the law and the disruptions are minimal.

So far, it seems those who believed today would be "the day of the revolution" were over reaching.

There seem to be a few wanna-be revolutionaries on the streets today.

I don't know where they get this shit from. ....there ain't gonna be no revolution with them as the revolutionaries.

No organizers claimed that. No major group attending claimed that. None of the planning materials circulated claimed that.

I been told OWS is leaderless.

...doesn't that mean that the idiots who came out today to revolt are as much a part of the movement as the educated people who joined it for an hour at lunch?

Has OWS seen the light and appointed organizers, major groups and created planning materials?

Did the eviction of 200 people sleeping in a park have a good effect?

I was not expecting a revolution or revolt.

I was expecting a few idiots to try to make this the day they could be disruptive as possible among a large crowd, with the hopes that others would join them.

So far, so good.

You may have missed them; I think most of the real idiot wanna-be revolutionaries have already been arrested.

Remember, they are a minority of the people who out demonstrating. Most of the demonstrators seem to just want to stop or reverse our growing disparity in wealth and income.

Rest assured, I have not forgotten about the idiots or the majority. In fact, many intelligent organizations are successfully using OWS rallies as fertile recruiting grounds.

Consistent with the tired rhetoric of the far left, some in OWS insist that they are being victimized by these organizations.

However, they simultaneously refuse to do what they can to help themselves. It's not our fault the OWS movement has decided not to exclude idiot revolutionaries, or flakey idealists. It is not our fault that intelligent people are interested in playing only bit roles in OWS as a result of idiots and/or flakes being present.

To the extent that OWS has leaders, intelligent people have tried to meet with them to show them the error of their ways, but too many of the "leaders" continue to be either "utopian flakes" or "rage without a cause revolutionary anarchists".

Despite this, I remain optimistic that OWS will become more productive, and patient....

I remain optimistic that OWS will set up a hierarchical system based largely on hard work, qualifications and merit.

In today's society, such a system would be revolutionary.

....too many people are in power due to merely having money and connections.

armchair_warrior said:

!@#$ delay traffic in manhattan for hours.

Make your voice heard Armchair! Call and email your representatives.

This way, the police will have all of the information they need to effectively balance your right to get around the city, with the rights of people to assemble and exercise free speech.

Overall, I think the city did a pretty good job yesterday. For the most part, the city continued to function and demonstrators were able to demonstrate.

Traffic in NYC seems to always suck for some reason.