A non-polemical observation of OccupyLA

Preliminary observations of the Occupy LA movement on a Thursday Oct 20 2011. A few polemics mixed with simple descriptions of OLA, it's campsite at LA City Hall, and it's relation to the surrounding LA dwtn landscape.

Abbreviations
(OLA) OccupyLA
(CH) LA City Hall
(Camp) tent city put up around CH
(LT) Little Toyko
(LA) City of Los Angeles

I parked my truck at a convenient fee parking site at Alameda and first st and took my 10 speed bicycle to the OccupyLA site at Main and first st. Biking thru dwtn LA not as problematic as i thought. Traffic in LA Dwtn Civic Area was fairly light. There were police units here and there but not a big presence. The OLA camp itself occupied a narrow green strip at north side of CH and the main south plaza side of CH, which fronted First St between Main and Spring St.

The camp was actually fairly well kept up & not the dirty Pigsty hovel viewed by many commentators on other OWS sites. The entire OLA camp( tucked beneath CH) is overshadowed & surrounded by some large Government agencies such as the massive Parker Center( LAPD), US District Courthouse, General Services, LA Transportation dept, Edward Roybal Blvd, and a host of other massive Gov agencies.

There is a long line of sidewalk food courts set up along both sides of main st next to the OLA camp, and right between the main CH bldg and the adjoining CH annex or East Bldg. Included is a long line of vendors selling fresh fruit. There is also a hamburger/ hot dog stand set up at corner of main and First , complete with heavy-duty portable oven and other grill equipment. These sidewalk food stalls/stands are something normally seen in third world cities and is evidence of LA being transformed into an immigrant-inundated 3rd world megalo-polis.
I had no trouble passing thru the south side OLA camp. It was a collection of mostly youthful folks of all races. I saw idealist hippies reviving the 60's and hippy commune living. Also young beatnick anchor brats of latino immigrants, a few bandanna-clad anarchists, a few older LA street homies & homeless, teenage runaways, even a few high school ditchers. Did not see a lot of over 40 folks. Signs were everywhere and even posted on tents facing the sidewalks. They spouted a variety of leftist slogans which made absolutely no sense and are indeed quite irrelevant in a gritty, illegal alien-overrun ghetto-polis like LA which is already a socialist- welfare city pandering to 3rd world immigrants and illegals.

There are virtually no shops around LA Civic Center for the kids to walk too but the LA Dash Bus System makes it easy to get around LA dwtn very cheap( last time i did the dash bus ride it was a quarter a ride). The closest collection of shops & eateries is in Little Toyko, which is about a block away from south side camp. I don't know if LT will be a Merchant- rich target if the OLA anarchist elements go berserk but LT has lots of low paid(and rather fat) private security guards and has guard kiosks situated at all entrances to the malls.and shop galleries.

It's quite odd to see this OLA camp enveloping CH. LA City DWTN is mostly about really tall fortess-like bldgs and not easily accessble to the public. And Los Angeles gets fairly ragged and impoverished a few blocks north, east and south of OLA camp as you head South toward the old seamy LA industrial district or north into Chinatown or Oliveras St district. A 3-4 block walk south toward the decrepit produce/ warehouse district and you run into legions of homeless.
Directly west of CH along Temple ave or First st it's all hi-rises & apt/condo bldgs, with no shops. South & West of CH more tall inaccessible hi-rises till you get to pedestrian-clogged 5th & 6th streets .

LA dwtn has no main accessible focal point for protestors to mill with the general public, except maybe Pershing Square. CH itself is a monumental, early 20th century fortress of a building as are most other adm blgds around Civic Center. These bldgs are difficult of access as you have to go thru platoons of low-paid security guards( entire LA dwtn has a small army of mostly young low-paid hispanic security guards working in nearly every dwtn bldg).

Summation of OLA: they are camped in a zone literally walled off & hemmed in by LA Civic Center hi-rises ( including the ominous spanking new state-of-art LA Police Headquarters bldg just a block away to the east) and with sporadic interactions with dense dwtn LA pedestrans & crowds. Very poor cramped site for getting out their message, foolish as it is.


This preliminary post on OccupyLA will likely expand and i will insert additional observations and make a few changes to the post to keep pace with the OLA movement, or add some polemical insights onto post. (I may also add more to my observations of OccupyLA in a future separate posting)


NOV 24th 2011 update on situation at OWS-LA Camp: The camp is poorly situated to have much effect on LA City operations and business activity because most LA pedestrian activity, shopping,and dining occurs well south & west of camp, along 6th st, at fashion district, along/atop bunker hill district, and along Figueroa St. The only way OLA can effect disruption is by going out of their camps to disrupt business activity elsewhere, say along Figueroa st where the big LA mega-corporations, banks and shops are located. Arco Plaza could be a inviting target but it takes a bit of legwork, negotiating arduous stairways and plaza terraces to get to main plaza. Always you have to deal with legions of low- payed mainly Hispanic & African-American security guards posted at every stairwell, building entrance, and behind office bldg desks. OWS would have to deal directly against mostly minority security guards who are barely getting by and have families to support. Another words, OLA disrupts & clashes directly with low-payed 99 per centers

OLA is the most poorly situated large OWS camp in USA and poses little problems in the mammoth, spatailly spaced-out and vertically imposing LA dwtn district. They might occasionally get help from the real dirupters, the big LA CA labor unions who can really organize an effective dwtn protest with powerful union muscle like the SEIU and Teachers Unions. However, these unions dislike clashing/confronting the powerful LA police union representing LAPD, who are a legionary imperial guard which protects the powerful city business interests , as well as the sleazly LA politicians who really don't give a crap about OLA but only about maintaining thier power and offices.

Thats why OWS-LA has been allowed to stay at their camp so long. They are regarded more as a minor pestilence/niusance/embarassment to LA City and its politician hacks. What really concerns LA City officials and depts are the negative enviromental effects & health/sanitary hazards of OWS-LA. There is no doubt that if the OLA camp was regularly sanitized by LA's health dept it would be allowed to stay. As I have documented all over my blog, LA is a fairly dismal crapped-out third world ghetto-hole anyway so OLA camp really does not mar LA's image in any way. It is solely the issue of health and sanition which is determining factor over whether LA will or wil not evict OLA