Is Occupy Wall Street NYC's Hottest New "Tourist Attraction"?

Mayor Bloomberg completely understands now why tourists would flock to see protesters—just look how cute those two are! (scoboco's flickr

Mayor Bloomberg performed a bit of verbal jujitsu this morning on his weekly radio broadcast—he called the Occupy Wall Street protests down in Zuccotti Park "a tourist attraction." Just two weeks ago, Bloomberg said on the same program that protesters were "trying to take away the tax base we have, because none of this is good for tourism"—despite the fact that tourists have been flocking to the park to see it in person (or join in).

Maybe this means Bloomberg thinks Zuccotti Park is becoming the seedy underbelly of NYC, as Eric Kuo put it: "things can both be a tourist attraction and bad for tourism: porn shops in times square circa the 80s?" We think Bloomberg's about-face might stem from a more poetic place—it's just like Walt Whitman once wrote: "Do I contradict myself? Very well then I'll just run for a fourth term and make it up to you because you people need me, do you even realize how much you need me?"

Speaking of tourists, the Post featured an out-of-towner today who has decided to make Zuccotti Park her semi-permanent home—and every graf in the story seems to scream "BAD MOM" reading between the lines. Mother-of-four Stacey Hessler left her banker husband and kids—son Peyton, 17; and daughters Kennedy 15, Sullivan, 13, and Veda, 7—in Florida to come support OWS here, and is pretty intense about sticking around: "I’m not planning on going home...“I have no idea what the future holds, but I’m here indefinitely. Forever," she said.

The Post seems to get off on what they call her "obsession" with OWS: “Military people leave their families all the time, so why should I feel bad?” a defiant Hessler told them. “I’m fighting for a better world.” They are particularly interested in the details about her relationship with her family, like the fact she's only spoken with them three times in the 12 days since she arrived in NYC and got dreadlocks: “[My husband] says he’s working for ‘the Man,’ and I’m fighting against him...My mother told me I was being very selfish."

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By Ben Yakas in News on October 21, 2011 5:45 PM

Comments [rss]

Fern Cohen

And now a Canadian disrupted the whole thing and made OWS look even worse, when he climbed up a sculpture and threatened to stop eating and drinking until Bloomberg "steps down"..why didn't he sit on top of the Canadian side of Niagara Falls? So thanks, you stupid visitor, for using our police force to help you avoid an accident. We should have just let him starve and dehydrate, or called the Canadian Mounted Police to help one of their own.

chee1rs

open air theme park

chee1rs

open air theme park

U.N. Owen

I'm so sick of the fat-assed bus loads of these damm tourists, here, in NYC...

GO SOMEWHERE ELSE, ALREADY!!!

Fern Cohen

Yeah, what do you care if all the workers in hotels, restaurants and Broadway theaters lose their jobs and end up in Zuccotti Park? Fat-assed busloads of revenue-bringers...who needs them?

U.N. Owen

I'm so sick of these frakkin' bus loads of fat-assed tourists here, in NYC.

Go SOMEWHERE ELSE!

lpsteve72

I have known this family for 14 years and watched their kids grow up. All of their kids are awesome and very respectful. Yeah mom is a hippie, so what. They are great parents and the kids have been raised a hell of allot better than many other people I know. The media is once again making a simple story sound negative.

lpsteve72

I have known this family for 14 years and watched their kids grow up. All of their kids are awesome and very respectful. Yeah mom is a hippie, so what. They are great parents and the kids have been raised a hell of allot better than many other people I know.

whatidsay

I can see the T-shirt now:
"My Mom Went To Zuccotti Park And All I Got Was Abandoned"

R

"Bad Mom" like it's the 1950's or something. What propaganda. She left her family behind and got dreads. I can see the 1950's propaganda film in my mind right now, hahahaha!

moocow

I rode by today and it was mobbed, no stop in jaywalking tourismo, there was a constant flood towards the park.

RewardAndConsent

What do you say we BUYcott the responsible businesses? People who are
boycotting irresponsible businesses sometimes want to know where to spend their
money. We can use positive reinforcement on the businesses who are responsible.

For example, Subway offers a lot of healthy food, so if we boycott McDonald's
for being loaded with fat, sugar, and salt, we can BUYcott Subway for offering many
varieties of fresh vegetables in their low-fat sandwich.

For more on the
BUYcott, google "Reward and Consent." of visit my blog at http://rewardandconsent.blogsp...

Fern Cohen

So Subway is healthy and uses fresh vegetables? You must be kidding, or you must work for Subway. They stuff their sandwiches with processed cheese and nitrite-infused processed meat! As I said, you must be working for Subway to make a claim like that.

RewardAndConsent

Dear Fern, I don't work for Subway, but I eat there often. I don't get a penny for saying this. I order the veggie delight and add fresh spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, cucumbers, and avocado. I'll say it again, Subway has many fresh vegetables and it is a healthy alternative to McDonald's. So let's BUYcott Subway when we boycott McDonald's.

For more on the BUYcott, visit my blog, http://rewardandconsent.blogsp...