Friday 14 October 2011

Zuccotti Park.


Zuccotti Park, formerly called Liberty Plaza Park, is a 33,000-square-foot (3,100 m2) privately owned, publicly accessible park in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The park was created in 1968 by United States Steel, after the property owners negotiated its creation with city officials, and named Liberty Plaza Park and situated beside One Liberty Plaza. It is located between Broadway, Trinity Place, Liberty Street and Cedar Street. The park's northwest corner is across the street from Four World Trade Center. It has been popular with local tourists and financial workers.The park was one of the few open spaces with tables and seats in the Financial District. Located one block from the World Trade Center, it was covered with debris, and was subsequently used as a staging area for the recovery efforts after the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. As part of the Lower Manhattan rebuilding efforts, the park was regraded, trees were planted, and the tables and seating restored.On September 17, 2011 the "Occupy Wall Street" protest began using Zuccotti Park as a campground and staging area for their actions. Some of the protesters displayed a placard welcoming visitors to "Liberty Park an informal return to a version of the park's original name. The organizers had originally planned to occupy One Chase Manhattan Plaza, but the plaza was closed.
Because Zuccotti Park is not a publicly owned space, it is not subject to ordinary public park curfew. New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said on September 28, 2011 that the NYPD could not bar protesters from Zuccotti Park since it is a public plaza that is required to stay open 24 hours a day.On October 6, 2011, it was reported that Brookfield Office Properties, which owns Zuccotti Park, had issued a statement which said, "Sanitation is a growing concern... Normally the park is cleaned and inspected every weeknight... 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. To protect and clean the park, protesters volunteered to sweep the areas of the plaza and posted signs urging each other to avoid damaging the flower beds.

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