Occupy Wall Street general assembly inside the central fountain in Washington Square Park shortly before 11PM yesterday.
Mic-check is the call and repeat technique that sprang-up out of the necessity because NYC law prohibits the use of bullhorns or any amplified sound without a permit. Here they are announcing their plan to occupy Washington Square Park. The park officially closes at midnight. And they did strategically disperse at midnight, but a few remained. See Josh Harkinson‘s video below. He was reporting for Mother Jones and barely escaped arrest doing so.
This land was made for you and me. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
An oak leaf cluster. In the immediate aftermath of Irene passing through my East Village neighborhood, I seized the opportunity to gather samples of leaves from fallen branches, getting them before the sanitation and parks department bagged them up for mulch or whatever. I’m doing a tree identification project and close up details of the leaves attached to the branches, and their arrangements are critical to species identification. And most of the samples come from branches high-up and into the wind, normally inaccessible to my camera. Unfortunately, I could have used an intern or two to take note of location and individually bag the samples, but no, I stuffed them into a single bag and will have to go all forensic to match them back to their tree. Full resolution
London Planetrees are common in New York and I saw many large planetree branches fallen. Their distinctive mottled bark makes them easy to identify. They provide good shade and their branches form dramatic shapes. But from below, their leaves always look shabby and unhealthy. It must be their heavy venation, on the reverse of the leaves, and their ragged outline that gives that effect. Up-close they are quite beautiful and interesting. Planetrees are known for being able to deal well with soot and in general the stress of city life. Full Resolution
Tompkins Square Park was still closed this morning. From what I can observe from the perimeter, the park had significant tree damage from Irene. A large oak near the park offices fell over. Another large tree, I’m not positive but I think it is another oak, the one that was in the middle of the path on the west side of the central grove, has fallen. I have heard that there was some damage to the Hare Krishna Elm but it is still standing. Another elm, near 9th Street and Avenue B, lost a limb. A medium sized locust fell near the center entrance on 7th Street. I also noticed that a few small trees also fell over.
Update: The park opened at noon. Sadly, the large tree in the center of the park that fell was one of the magnificent elms. But I’m glad to report that there was no damage to the Hare Krishna Elm. Photos coming soon.
Washington Square Park was open. There was minimal damage to the trees from Irene here. One large branch of a London Planetree came down. Elms and Planetrees seem the most likely to lose large branches. Ginkos dropped a lot of small branches.
Adopt don’t shop. Riggs, a male beagle mix, was severely underweight when rescued, but is now fine. Contact earthangelsnyc.org for adoption information. times-up.org
On West 3rd Street. Not FDNY. Before 2006 the New York Fire Patrol was paid by insurance companies to preserve property, mostly by deploying tarps and pumps on the floors below the fire. Now it may be the home of Anderson Cooper. New York Fire Patrol on Wikipedia
Wacky Doodler, my favorite Torontonian and street art enthusiast, visited NYC this past weekend. I took her on an in vain search for some remnants of the Manhattan street art scene on the West Side. But by blind luck we did stumble upon the Giant Os Gemeos schoolboy with the international pants.
With the rain melting the paper mache, the mechanism for making my jaw hinge up and down lasted until 14th Street. But the costume still gathered a lot of appreciation.
The rain thinned out the numbers of participants and audience, but the parade was still well attended.
