Thomas MacMillan Photo
Chicken soup for the occupied soul.
While occupiers in Boston and Hartford have been forcibly removed from their tents, Occupy New Haven is still going strong with an estimated 30 to 75 campers per night — fueled in part by Kenny Manteau’s chicken soup.
“I’m trying to make people feel better,” Manteau (pictured) said Wednesday as he stirred a big bubbling pot of yellow stew in Occupy New Haven’s outdoor plywood kitchen. He said a flu has been going around the camp on the Green. He thought soup might help.
New Haven’s coughs and sniffles are nothing compared to the difficulties faced by occupations in other cities. While cops and bulldozers have cleared occupiers out of several cities recently, Occupy New Haven was a picture of domestic tranquility on Wednesday afternoon. Soup simmered on the camp’s stove. Upside-down flags fluttered in a gentle breeze.
Thursday marks the two-month anniversary of Occupy New Haven, the local off-shoot of the Occupy Wall Street protest movement. Since its birth in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, the movement has tapped into a groundswell of nationwide frustration with corporate greed and income inequality.
As it has grown, the Occupy movement has faced the companion questions of: What do you want, exactly? and Just how long can you keep this up?
While the former remains an open query, the latter question has been answered in some towns — like Boston and Hartford—by eviction notices and police actions. Elsewhere, like in New Haven, the question of sustainability has become increasingly pressing as the weather turns cold.
The Cost Of The Occupation
Canadian and American flags fly upside down, signaling the nations are in distress, but an American flag with corporate logos is right-side up. Corporate America is doing fine, occupier Sean Conlon said.
Since the march that kicked it off in October, Occupy New Haven has cost the police department $64,861.54 in overtime.
That’s according to Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts. He said most of that money was spent in the first three weeks of the occupation, when the city was first figuring out how much policing was needed. During that time, the department sometimes had officers stationed at the occupation overnight, Smuts said.
“At the beginning we were staffing out much more than we do now,” Smuts said. “After that, we got into a groove.”
The city has worked with the occupiers to minimize costs, Smuts said. The campers know to call police when they have trouble, and there’s no longer a need for overnight cops, he said.
In the last couple of weeks, the occupation has led to between $120 and $2,000 in overtime costs per week, Smuts said.
Another cost to the city is trash removal. The camp has trash and recycling containers provided by the city. Bob Levine, head of the parks department, said picking up occupation trash is costing the city $1,600 per month. The camp’s portable toilets cost $275 per month.
Smuts said that monthly $1,875 should be considered in the context of other public events that cost the city money, like parades and road races.
“Even a parade like St Patrick’s that pays some of their costs still leaves us with costs of about $25 – 30,000 that are not covered,” Smuts said.
“Events build community and demonstrations are part of our democracy,” Smuts said. “They cost money, but reasonably accommodating them seems like a fundamental responsibility. What constitutes ‘reasonable accommodation’ is subject to some interpretation, granted, but that’s why I think it’s useful to look at the costs for ONH in context of other events.”
Food And Shelter
Conlon makes a sign to remind people not to mess up the teepee.
On Wednesday, occupier Sean Conlon said a number of campers have taken refuge indoors on some of the recent frigid nights. The number of overnight occupiers has dipped to the mid-30s at those times, he estimated. The occupation comprised about 60 tents and multi-tent compounds.
But people aren’t leaving for good, Conlon said. They leave their tents set up while they take a night off indoors, he said.
“It’s a natural progression,” he said. Weather gets cold, people leave, then they come back. “I’m not concerned about it. Not yet.”
The first real snow will pose the real test, he said. “That’s when we’ll figure out who’s here for the long run.”
Thuraisingham, Costa, and Furtado drop off food.
While the cold might be an obstacle to occupation, a lack of food does not seem to be. Three people showed up just after 2 p.m. Wednesday with boxes and bags of food. Chrishan Thuraisingham, of Sri Lanka, and Marcelo Furtado, of Brazil, are finishing up their four-month tenures at Yale as world fellows.
Furtado, who stopped by with his wife Thais Costa, delivered some organic pasta and tomato sauce and ice cream. He said it was the second day in a row he’d dropped off food.
On Friday, Lt. Rebecca Sweeney, the top downtown cop, dropped off some hot pasta from Tony and Lucille’s restaurant, made special for the occupiers.
“There is a ‘reclaim’ energy in the air,” Furtado said. Around the world, people are working to reclaim their governments and financial systems, he said. Occupy New Haven is part of that.
The Occupy movement sends a message that people need to keep looking for ways address the roots of crisis in the world. “Nobody’s going to search for the answers unless we stop the machine and re-think,” Furtado said.
Someone new shows up almost every day with food donations, said Dona Taskey, who coughed carefully as she washed dishes outside. She said she’s recovering from bronchitis, which she was taking in stride. “I lived in the woods for a year and a half,” she said. “Off the Boulevard.”
Nearby, a collection of stuff (pictured) was strewn in the middle of the camp. Conlon said it was an unfinished reorganization project that someone had left mid-stream.
The United Tents of Super Amurrica, revealed.
Other signs of hiccups in the occupation system were around. The “United Tents of Super Amurrica,” a compound of several tents joined together, was missing its patchwork tarp roof. Conlon said another occupier had taken the tarps that morning to settle a debt he felt he was owed. The matter has been resolved, Conlon said. But Super Amurrica still lacked its protective stratosphere, leaving belongings open to the air.
Conlon said he had also found trash in the occupation’s teepee, which is supposed to be a common area and not for overnight camping.
The next big event on the occupation calendar is a march on Saturday, Dec. 17. Occupiers are teaming up with other activists to protest police brutality in New Haven.
Previous coverage of Occupy New Haven and Occupy Wall Street:
• 3 Arrested At Occupy New Haven
• Occupation Rejects “Victory” Declaration
• New Haven Occupiers Clash With NYC Cops
• Who’s In & Who’s Out At The Occupation?
• “I Knew It — He’s A Scumbag”
• “Occu-Pies” Arrive
• Occupation Weather(ize)s Its 1st Storm
• Clergy Bless The Occupiers
• Occupiers Eye Clock Factory
• In New Haven, “Occupiers” Embrace The Cops
• Midnight Drug Warning Sparks Soul-Searching
• Emergency Session Poses Democracy Test
• The Password (The Password) … Is (Is) …
• 1,000 Launch New Haven’s “Occupation”
• Klein: Occupation Needs To Confront Power
• Whoops! Movement Loses $100K
• New Haven’s “Occupation” Takes Shape
• Occupy Branford: Wall Street Edition
• Anti-Bankers’ Dilemma: How To Process $$
• Labor, Occupiers March To Same Beat
• Protests’ Demand: A “World We Want To See”
• Protesters To Occupy Green Starting Oct. 15
• Wall Street Occupiers Page Verizon
• New Haven Exports “Free”-dom To Occupiers