Since the Occupation of a small patch of lawn at Irvine City Hall began in late October, the OccupyOC movement has cost the City of Irvine more than $8,600 according to a post in the Irvine World News.
The costs cover legal counsel and electronic signs to discourage honking. The signs are costing the city $450 a week. Additionally, the dead lawn is maintained by the Westpark Homeowner’s Association and will likely have to be re-sodded. Negotiations are underway to have Occupy protesters pay for the new grass when they leave.
The latest agreement to allow the Occupy movement to camp expires on Dec. 21. The OccupyOC group is not engaged in voter registration, has not endorsed any candidates for local, state or federal office and has not raised any significant money to back candidates or ballot measures that support the 99 percent.
For our friends at OJ, this three paragraph story is completely factual and written straight. It doesn’t contain the words “could” “might” or “potential.”. Say what you want of the Tea Party but they did back candidates and got several of them elected who are having an impact on the political process. Perhaps Occupy could improve on this model on behalf of the 99 percent. Hollering at the rain isn’t going to change anything
We’ve got plenty of time to get behnd political candidates between now and next Fall, if any of them prove worthy. I think Julio Perez has.
Where do you get that “we don’t do voter registration?” Did you walk up to our welcoming tent? I’ll check again next time I’m there, but they’ve always done it there before. So you’re maybe not so factual.
Aside from that, I assume you read Greg’s riposte to you. It was rife with good points.
Vern, only one question for you on the voter registration. Have you signed up Mickey Mouse and Adolph Hitler yet, like your counterparts did in the recall petition in Wisconsin?
Well, I really doubt it, smart aleck, for two reasons: 1, we’re not morons, 2, we’re not being paid by signature.
Since I can see you’re an ACORN hater, you DO realize, I hope, two other things: Mickey Mouse and Hitler never showed up to vote, and ACORN themselves alerted the registrar to names they thought were phony?
Vern,
Have you forgotten about the Priary Elections this June? Also, On the matter of voter registration, I think Dan was refering to voter registration outside the Tent City of Irvine.
It is good to know that at least your registering the folks living at and visiting the protest to vote. Any idea how many so far?
Lawn Negotiations
“Negotiations are underway to have Occupy protesters pay for the new grass when they leave.”
Note: (From the Agreement with Occupy OC).
“Area approved for overnight camping, adjacent parkways and other portions of the front lawn used by the Occupy OC demonstrators to be cleaned and restored by them to their preexisting condition as of October 25, 2011”
http://www.irvinequickrecords.com/sirepub/cache/0/wrpwah45wjxmde55rcz2a5yh/1290182212192011124817491.PDF
The Lawn Restoration Solution
Candidate for Congress – Mayor Sukhee Kang should hire the “campers” and Linda Schwartz the representative of Occupy OC Demonstrators (and the person who signed the agreement) as “Kang for Congress” consultants and dock their salaries 50% to pay for the lawn restoration.
Conflict of Interest?
Mayor Kang (while a congressional candidate) & Councilman Larry Agram were appointed to head the subcommittee for the “Agreement of Understanding” with the Occupy group. As long as the Occupy Irvine group pays to restore the lawn,I will have no problem with any perceived “conflict of interest”.
The issue is the lawn, – not “Kang for Congress”.
With the collaboration of the Irvine Congregational Church, Irvine has enjoyed free screenings of high-quality topical movies for six or seven Fridays in a row. Add in our holiday food drives. Soon we’re going to be moving on to occupying/protecting the foreclosed homes of whoever wants us to, including in Irvine.
Subtract these benefits from the cost, please.
I was right. We have been doing voter registration at our welcoming table for nearly two months. You just made that part up.
So you might want to take that sentence out of your post. Or else stop calling it factual.
I think 8600 dollars is apretty good price for allowing your citizens to gather and practice their 1st ammendmant rights. Irvine should be grateful its cost so little.
I wonder what the protests in Tienanmen Square cost? What did it cost the Chinese to keep Ai Weiwei in prison? Were the Egyptians who protested in Tahir Square ever billed? Did Hasan Ali Akleh’s heirs have to pay to clean away his ashen remains?
There is ONE good suggestion toward the end of your post, Dan. There are already at least two great INITIATIVES that tie in perfectly with our themes, and I think I will try to talk the movement into backing them and getting signatures for them.
I’m thinking of the millionaires’ tax, and the Corporate Accountability Act.
http://www.tulchinresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Millionaires-Tax-Public-Poll-Memo-12-11-final.pdf
http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/initiatives/pdfs/i1042_11-0097_(corporate_accountability).pdf
Meanwhile, I’m sure you don’t know, since what you don’t know about it could fill the Grand Canyon, but we have just, by consensus, decided to totally get behind the Move To Amend movement – a long process led by Bernie Sanders and Jim Hightower to finally End Corporate Personhood.
There, now the Grand Canyon of your ignorance is a little smaller. And you did give me a good idea.
Vern —
Since you have been involved with Occupy from the beginning and just discovered there is some voter registration going on, it clearly isn’t a priority. Insert the word “meaningful” in front of the words voter registration and even with that — Fail.
I will say this about the Tea Party, as wrong as they may be, they got behind candidates and got people elected who affected the political process. Greg asks ” didn’t we try partisan politics before?” Yep, in 2008..and then the Tea Party came in while we dismissed them. There is now a chance to out Tea Party the Tea Party to affect change back to what we wanted in 2008, and the idea of just camping out ain’t going to do it.
Free movies! That’s awesome. Bet you get 20-40 people tops.
And my post is factual. It’s not about what happened in Oakland, or LA, or Cleveland. It’s here. Sorry you guys are so thin-skinned about this that any criticism calls out the torches and pitchforks.
Lotta news coming soon, Dan, from the collaboration of Occupy Irvine and your council. You will be the last to know, and it will blow your mind.
Meanwhile, we’ve been keeping a constant vigil at a foreclosed Irvine home, to the great appreciation of the unfortunate Vietnamese woman tenant who requested us there. This will be an ongoing project, as your town has two foreclosures a day.
Yeah, you can start admitting we are f–ng great any day now. Or not, who really cares.
“…the last to know.”
Don’t be so sure Vern.
I heard a rumor that Prius parking at the Occupy Irvine site is tough during the daytime but widely available during the night.
You guys should write a blog to discuss how the latest REI or North Face camping gear is holding up in Irvine.
Include a review of the Starbuck’s Christmas Blend, as well.
What is the consensus at Occupy Irvine: Whole Foods or Trader Joes?
Has the Occupy Irvine group endorsed the Winter Solstice decorations at South Coast Plaza or are demonstrations planned there yet again?
Can’t wait for the answers? Would especially enjoy having Ed Schultz do a live remote from Occupy Irvine with these important issues.
Funny stuff… I guess…
Although the choice of the tough, blue-collar Ed Schultz doesn’t quite fit your satirical fantasy of effeteness. Try again…
Sorry for the slight – sort of like Cabernet with fish, huh? Rachel Maddow fit your taste better? Effeteness? Are you a university lad then?
Just trying to help you do your satire better, young man. No, we love Big Ed. And you don’t know nothin’ about us.
No, Rachel doesn’t fit either, she’s a funny unpretentious chick. Probably best for your story would be KPFK’s Amy Goodman. (No disrespect to her.)
Oh man, does she have it or what?
Many seek it but few are that ‘progressive.’ I think I get it — organize the longest most sustainable Occupy and maybe,just maybe – Amy will show up?
Sorta like that baseball field in Iowa..”build it and Amy will come” Brilliant, Vern.
Will you be serving Earl Grey at the tea party when she shows up?
I’m only trying to help you make fun of us, dude. It doesn’t mean any of it’s true.
I’m pretty sure everything goes past you anyway. I bow out.
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2011/12/occupy_santa_ana_backs_off_occ.php#more
Yes, those Santa Ana kids were a hardy bunch, great guys and girls. A lot of them are with us now.
This leaves IRVINE and NASHVILLE as the two longest continuous occupations in the nation. And neither of those will go on forever, at least in their present forms.
But as can be gathered from my comments above, even without a tent city we are bigger and better than ever.
and as soon as Occupy comes out for the policies offered by the president and helps get Democrats elected who can enact laws and policy that benefits the 99 percent, I’m right there with you Vern. But camping out along doesn’t affect change. It’s camping.
and as soon as Occupy comes out for the policies offered by the president…
THAT is never happening. Even *I* can’t defend a lot of the guys’ policies, especially the recent Defense Authorization Act, officially codifying indefinite detention of anybody any President wants indefintely detained. I’ll be voting for him as the lesser evil, but it’s hard for me to convince anyone else to do that.
Let’s stop arguing. You do your thing and we’ll do our thing.
So which of the Occupy activities do you “progressives” support the most? Is it the rapes, or the smearing of feces on banks and then urinating on them, or is it the lying that they are the “99%” when their support is 30% at best? How about their filthy, unkempt appearance, rather like bums? Or is it their pathological lying, that “this is what democracy looks like” when only half of them voted in the last election? These lying hypocrites badmouth “greedy big business” with signs and words, but with their deeds and pocketbooks, they support “greedy big business” big time, as shown by their laptops, cell phones, smart phones, and bank accounts. Hypocrisy, thy name is Occupy and “progressive.”
ALAN TRAVIS, huh? So you are the anonymous commenter I sliced and diced on the Voice of OC yesterday. It’s nice to be able to put a name to the BS.
Of course I see you still haven’t responded to my demolition of you yesterday,http://www.voiceofoc.org/oc_south/article_5cc33ffa-2b29-11e1-8ee4-001871e3ce6c.html so you’ll force me to repeat myself a bit here.
I guess you’re one of those trolls who shows up, throws a rock and runs away, so I don’t expect you to respond to this either. Nice to have a name now, though. Alan Travis…
Okay, which of these things do we progressives and Occupiers support most?
“The rapes…”
I’d say definitely not that, we are always against rape. Are you referring to one or two instances out in urban camps in high-crime areas late at night where there was no protection from criminal and homeless/schizo elements? And quickly addressed and reported? Hey, you know what you forgot about – that shooting that happened in downtown Oakland, a couple hundred yards from Occupy. Wasn’t that our fault too?
…the smearing of feces on banks and then urinating on them…
That really does sound like one of your fantasies. I’m pretty sure not even the obnoxious Black Bloc anarchists who attach themselves to us do that. But for the record, we are against scat play as political statement.
…or is it the lying that they are the “99%” when their support is 30% at best?
We dealt with this yesterday, doofus. I knew you wouldn’t listen or learn. Our support may be 30%, nobody ever said it was 99%, but we ARE fighting for the interests of the lower 99% even if they don’t all realize it yet.
How about their filthy, unkempt appearance, rather like bums?
I think I’ll pick this one. I do support the right of some of my comrades to look slovenly. Of course if you’d ever been to one of our events, you’d know that most of us don’t. In fact we probably look a lot like you, except for the telltale mongoloid forehead.
Or is it their pathological lying, that “this is what democracy looks like” when only half of them voted in the last election?
Touche. More good people should have voted in 2010, then we wouldn’t be having the problems we are having with this Republican Congress of crooks and saboteurs. I agree with you there. It won’t happen again.
These lying hypocrites badmouth “greedy big business” with signs and words, but with their deeds and pocketbooks, they support “greedy big business” big time, as shown by their laptops, cell phones, smart phones, and bank accounts.
Again, we are not as simplistic as you, and are not against all business. Not even all big business, but against some practices of some big businesses. And not against banks, but against what the four largest banks have done to our economy and our homeowners.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Occupy and “progressive.”
What a lame-ass cliched way to sign off. Pompousness, thy name is Alan Travis. Now stop wasting our time.