02Logo WFAN 1010WINS WCBS tiny WLNYLogo

News

Bloomberg: Wall Street Protests Trying To ‘Get Rid’ Of Jobs, Hurting Tourism

Zuccotti Park Not Cleaned In 3 Weeks; Local Businesses Getting Annoyed

View Comments
Wall St. Protest (credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images) ; Bloomberg (credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Wall St. Protest (credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images) ; Bloomberg (credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Dave-Carlin-headshot

Reporting Dave Carlin

Check These Out

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — On the 20th day of the “Occupy Wall Street” protest, Mayor Michael Bloomberg weighed in on the movement. He mostly criticized the group and said their actions are hurting the economy and tourism sector.

On his weekly radio show Friday, Bloomberg said long-term chaos and a prolonged money drain are bad for the city. He said he is sympathetic to some protestor complaints, but certainly not all.

“What they’re trying to do is to take the jobs away from people working in the city. They’re trying to take away the tax base we have because none of this is good for tourism,” he said. “There’s no easy solutions here.”

The mayor continued his criticism saying “if the jobs they are trying to get rid of in this city, the people that work in finance — which is a big part of our economy — go away, we’re not going to have any money to pay our municipal employees or clean the parks or anything else.”

However, he showed no inclination to put a stop to what has been going on.

“From a practical point of view, I think we want to let some of this not ‘play out’ isn’t quite the right word, but let them express themselves,” Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg Says There Aren’t Any Easy Solutions. 1010 WINS’ Stan Brooks Reports.


When asked if he would allow the demonstrators to stay, the mayor replied “we’ll see what happens, we’ve got to focus on making things better.”

The cramped and noisy protesters in Zuccotti Park does not appear to be going anywhere soon. To date, the occupation has cost the city an extra $2 million in police overtime alone.

The owners of the private park, Brookfield Office Properties, cannot simply eject the demonstrators because the charter for the park allows 24-hour public access. But the owners never counted on this and appear to be getting fed up.

In a statement they said “because the protestors refuse to cooperate…the park has not been cleaned since Friday, September 16th and as a result, sanitary conditions have reached unacceptable levels.”

“They’re just making life miserable for the working guy,” bar owner Mike Keane told CBS 2′s Dave Carlin.

However, demonstrators insist they are being good neighbors, making an effort to be quiet in the overnight hours and cleaning up after themselves.

“The people that have been here, have been making sure to clean up. You can walk through and see, but I’ve seen multiple people sweeping,” demonstrator Michelle Rafic said.

Demonstrators have also taken issue with Mayor Bloomberg’s statements that the occupation is detrimental instead of positive.

“I think the more we talk about and get all the issues out there that need to be discussed, need to be confronted, obviously whatever we’re doing right now isn’t working. So until we figure out something that leads to a better America for everybody not just a small percentage of Americans,” Joshua Durham said.

Agree with Mayor Bloomberg’s comments?  Share your thoughts below…

View Comments
  • Rico

    The protesters don’t have it that bad. If they get really smelly, they can drive up to Mommy and Daddy’s house in Greenwich for a hot shower,

  • tom

    Right from Obama’s bible, Communist Manifesto, “Overwhelm the System”

  • mark

    Bring on the ’12 elections.

    These socialist dems are out’a here.

    • nightsong

      sooner the better.

    • EMC

      And when the Evangelical facists load you and your family into boxcars to the camps , let’s hope you remember your words!

    • noway

      Amen buddy. I CANNOT WAIT for this clown of a president to get his butt kicked

  • Warrior 07

    I feel like I am living in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged! Where John Galt?

  • Big Bear

    My dad was an intern at Oakland/Alameda hospital in 1966-7…yep…the Summer of Love. He related the same stories, but worse, from the front lines. Sanitation nightmares, women (girls) being raped, VD, OD, Black Panthers prowling the hospital with AK’s on their shoulders. I guess not much has changed. Scruffy Idealism = Epic Fail.

  • Rachel

    Looks mostly like a bunch of radicals, commies, alinsky-ites and bored kids. They don’t represent anyone I know or care about.

    • heatherfeather

      The 99%? LMAO! More like the 9%. They can knock off the front 9, or the back 9…oh wait, that’s a golf analogy that only the 1% who is fcuking everyone else can understand, right?

      • Kevin Pearson

        Obama would get it.

  • Eric

    Squatting on private property and leaving piles of filth? If I didn’t already know they were hippies that would have been my first guess.

    • Kevin Pearson

      Or hip hoppers. This happens every year on South Beach on Memorial Day Weekend, only it only take them 3 days to make a mess. These “OWS”er are clean in comparison.
      I an begging the Tea Party to stage a convention on South Beach next Memorial Day so that there would be no room for “Urban Beach Weekend” down there.

  • flackjacket5

    They (the occupiers) are the perfect liberal storm…when you combine their arrogance, ignorance, and a little help from their sugar daddy/money bag mama (George Soros). Their they are, reliving the 60s, stinking up the neighborhood, passing roaches-hippies with nothing to do until next year’s Burning Man…would love to see someone from a Wall Street building dump a large bucket of liquid feces on them.

  • jimmy

    The majority of the comments are stupid and ridiculous comments by losers who happen to be republicans. So much ignorance, by people who are being ironic to the protests. Stay at your houses and keep watching trash tv!!!!!!!!

    • ronPaulResource.com

      Especially after all of the respect your side showed the tea party. How dare these people? /s

    • RuRu

      Hey Jimmy, you and your fleaparty should go get cleaned up, things are beginning to stink in New York City

  • El Fease Shabazz

    Play a constant stream of Slayer and all the hippies will disperse. South Park is prophetic.

  • schatzi

    Everything old is new again. Same anarchists, same whine, same smell, same protest.
    Let’s all share a yawn for deja` vu.

  • Resistance is Futile

    Being Anti-Establishment isn’t going to get you a job because it’s the Establishment who create the jobs.

    • rachel

      Amen to that.

    • Jim Busse

      It got the community organizer in chief a job and he screwed it up.

    • Kevin Pearson

      It ain’t about “getting a job” it’s about making sure that no body else has one That’s the basis for environmentalism

  • Moon Them

    Give each of them Spacesuits to sleep in, er, sleeping bags.

  • ERIC THE RED

    I dub the protesters THE FLEA PARTY

  • Moon Them

    Give each one of them a Spacesuit to sleep in, er, I mean sleeping bags.

  • Mandy

    I have lived 60 years and never heard of a President not a political party resort to calling out their dogs to violence against our country. How vile and disgusting the Socialist Democrat party has become. They are heartless and desperate and care not for anyone but to continue to hold power. Shame on them and anyone who votes Democrat ever again.

  • Brer_Orabbit

    May Obama and his minions rot in hell.

    • ronPaulResource.com

      These people don’t realize Obama’s connection to Wall Street? We have truely fell down the rabbit hole.

      http://www.ronPaulResource.com

  • Tvljay

    Seriously, let’s crash Wall Street so ALL the corporations that UNION workers pensions are invested in are all WIPED OUT! The union elites and the Democratic Party clearly want that so all their members are dependent on the government, but is this really what the individual members want???

  • Dude

    Time to send in the Tanks and run them over. Toss the corpses into dump trucks and Soylent Green the remains.

    • Ty Harris

      Where’s Douglas MacArthur when we need him. He took care of those “Bonus-Marchers” in short-order.

  • liz

    Lame, Crybabies, get off your butts and go to work. YES there are jobs!!!!!!!!!!! Stop waiting for handouts. Start by cleaning up the park. You are all a bunch of filthy SLOBS. Stop blaming others because life is not going your way. You are all disgusting.

    • Human Cesspool

      The East River is going to look like the filthy Ganges River pretty soon. They’ll be swimming in that filthy human cesspool.

  • Billy

    Regarding the park being clean or not; doesn’t this ‘news’ channel/website employ what we used to call, “reporters”? Why don’t they “report” on whether or not the park is clean?

  • JHarnes

    Far too many of the Great Banks are always ready to screw consumers. But it’s the politicians who changed the laws that protected consumers who are responsible. When your government bails out these bankers who continue to feel they should continue policies that wrecked our economy – such as credit cards charging rates that would see loansharks arrested, it is hard to feel anything but loathing for bankers.

    But the core of these protestors are professional protestors. What are they trying to do? Well, Democratic leaders are shouting encouragement trying to gather political support at a time 2012 is looking like a big GOP win year. But these politicians are owned by the international corporations and bankers who finance their election campaigns.

    These protests from the left are not going to spark an Arab-style revolt in the USA. Hard working people can’t understand this nonsense of folks seeking to protest when they should be finding work. With Unions now backing these protestors it is getting clear they are using these folks to help protect the rules that keep public service unions in place.

    We need changes in this country. We need politicians of vision and courage – not game playing idiots that sadly hold far too many House and senate seats. I feel 2012 is going to be a very bad year for incumbents!

    • Kevin Pearson

      It’s the Politicians, the LIBERAL DEMOCRATS that have screwed the customers and have destroyed the economy.

  • Dryden01

    What a big surprise: just when Obama enters full time re-election mode a new movement called the flea party emerges to help him get votes. These flea-baggers will see to it that the communo-socialist-Maoist-Marxist-Chaves-Guevara-Progressive talking points are captured by the media to energize the imagination of American envy worshipers and anarchists. It’s almost as if the Obama re-election campaign had nothing to do with it? Don’t forget to tell them to pick up after themselves Barack!

    • Artist

      Flea Party!!!!!!! hahahahahahahaha
      that’s GREAT I LOVE it!

    • ronPaulResource.com

      OMG!!! Flea baggers!!

      Dude, stop making me laugh, I have bruised ribs!!!

      http://www.ronPaulResource.com

    • rachel

      Fleabaggers! Excellent name. That is going to catch on. That’s what they look and smell like.

  • jay Pee

    They do not protest early in the morning they sleep late. Poor babies

  • yiddishlion

    Nothing is better than watching liberal ideology and left wing indoctrination resulting in anarchist chaos that devours it’s host.

    • ronPaulResource.com

      These people don’t realize that when you tax the rich, the rich charge more for their products and services, and then we all end up being the ones who pay the tax.
      Read about Ron Paul’s tax plan at http://www.RonPaulResource.com

      No income tax, less spending, no bailouts!!!

      Dr Paul has predicted all of this BS years in advance and is telling us what will happen next.

      • Mace

        No, let’s not read about Ron Paul’s tax plan. He’s a bozo and isn’t going to get any better. Let him go and move on to a conservative that can be elected.

        • ronPaulResource.com

          Ron Paul is the ONLY conservative running. I will not vote for another big spending , war mongering neocon.

          Why is he a bozo?

          The whacky ideas of Ron Paul

          > Restoring Constitutional Liberties

          > Ending Illegal Foreign Wars of Aggression and Imperialism

          > Restoring the Rule of Law for all govt officials and organizations (Executive/CIA)

          > Restoring Sound Money

          > Right-sizing Government with lower spending AND taxes.

          > Reducing the Nanny State

          Are those the positions of a bozo?

          Turn off the TV and read a book!!!

          • Marie

            Sorry, but until Dr. Paul gets real about a TRUE foreign policy, he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming President Paul. What he DOES have a chance of is becoming the reason Obama will achieve a second term . . .

            • ronPaulResource.com

              Free trade with all nations, and non-intervention ARE a real foreign policy. giving ten of billions of dollars to our enemies, propping up dictators, intervening in internal and local conflicts has gotten us what we have now. 14 trillion in debt, endless wars, and a nation rapidly and happily headed toward socialism.

              What do you consider a REAL foreign policy. I patiently await your response, this should be good!!!

              • ronPaulResource.com

                The silence is deafening!!!

    • Hman

      Well said, it goes to show how little these people know of how their world works. They know so little of what’s going on and what their doing that they are breaking quite a few laws doing so. From what I’ve heard about them, I believe we should try them for Hate Crimes and public indecency before we let them continue. These fellow country men are allowed to protest however much they like, but they should try following our civil society’s basic laws before they have right to exercise their Constitutional Rights.

1 2 3 4 5 6
blog comments powered by Disqus
Listen Live!

Latest News Video