Occupy Wall Street gets surprising rebuke
SEAN STANLEIGH - The Globe and Mail
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Small-business owners have their say
Occupy Wall Street may claim small-business owners as members of the 99 per cent, but from Oakland, Calif., to New York, some local U.S. enterprises are asking the protesters to pack up, The Christian Science Monitor reports.
On Tuesday, members of the commercial district in downtown Oakland sent a letter to Mayor Jean Quan, demanding that the protesters go. Five city council members held a press conference Wednesday reaffirming the demand. "The impact of the urban encampment has been very negative," says Paul Junge, public policy director for the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.
"We are aware of dozens of small businesses in and around Frank Ogawa Plaza where the tents are, reporting 40- to 50-per-cent losses in the past three or four weeks," including clothing stores, coffee shops, and conference spaces, Mr. Junge told the Monitor. "People don't like walking around down there, it makes them nervous ... they are taking their business elsewhere."
Oakland protesters have formed an outreach committee to liaison with local businesses. "We feel terrible if any of these small shops are hurting," says Occupy Oakland media team member, Allan Brill.
The problem is that the movement is not hurting the big banks, but rather the small-business owners that are fighting to survive in a recession, entrepreneur Carol Bloom Stevens says. While her business is located in Rye Brook, N.Y., an hour north of New York City, she is sympathetic to all small-business owners. "The Bodegas, coffee shops, food trucks, restaurants ... These people are not part of the 'elite' or '1 per cent'. They're simply trying to earn a living and are seeing a significant portion of their customer base being blocked from entering their premises for fear of being caught up in a chaotic situation they don't really understand."
Even in locales where the occupation is not in a business sector, there are impacts, says David Fiorenza, an economics professor in the Villanova University School of Business in Philadelphia. Most of Occupy Philadelphia is concentrated near City Hall, away from busy shopping areas. But, Mr. Fiorenza adds, "City Hall is a tourist site, used by neighbouring school districts for day class trips. So, this could alter some of their plans to see the public sector at work."
Then again, some would see it as a good learning opportunity for them to see protest in action.
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