From Foster Kramer of the New York Observer
WE HEARD IT FROM THREE BLOCKS AWAY. The Observer left North Brooklyn sharing a cab with a neighboring journalist who had also been covering the protests shortly after 5:30 AM. By the time the cab pulled onto Broadway, after a quiet ride into Manhattan, traffic was at a standstill. It was around then we heard the noise, seeping in through rolled-up windows: yelling and shouting in a distant, chaotic baritone. The loudest chants of previous protest days paled in comparison. It started, we thought, fearing the worst, and without much discussion, the fare was paid, we jumped out of the cab, and ran toward the commotion, our adrenaline beginning to surge.
Zuccotti Park—a city block-sized privately-owned “public space” in the Financial District most New Yorkers had little to no familiarity with only a month ago—has been the home of Occupy Wall Street for 27 days, now. Over the last week, Zuccotti’s now-world-famous occupants faced the threat of a cleanup by the park’s owners, the publicly-traded Canadian real estate firm Brookfield Office Properties. The cleanup was presented by Brookfield as an effort to resolve unsanitary conditions in the encampment; but many pointed out that it conveniently served as a de facto eviction of the protesters.