Representatives of various working groups from Occupy Philadelphia met with Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and a team of about 15 city employees at the American Friends Service Center at 15th and Cherry Streets on Sunday.
The agenda was planned by representatives of the working groups prior to the meeting and four members of Occupy volunteered to facilitate the meeting.
On the agenda for the meeting was Occupy Philadelphia’s response, approved by the General Assembly (GA), to the letter it received from the city on Oct. 16. This letter identified several concerns, including fire safety and sanitation concerns as well as a previously scheduled construction project due to begin around Dilworth Plaza as early as Nov. 15, 2011.
Read the letter from the city, click here: http://www.scribd.com/...
The mayor looked tired and a little sad but he shook hands with many of the Occupiers in attendance before the meeting began. He spoke very softly and appeared to weigh his words very carefully throughout the meeting.
The meeting opened with introductions of everyone in the room. Each person in attendance stating their name and which working group they were representing, if any. City officials in attendance also stated their name and which branch of city government they represented. There were approximately 45 members of the Occupy movement and 15 members of city government including the mayor. The last peron to introduce himslef was Mayor Nutter who simply said, "Hi, I'm Michael."
Following these remarks a question and answer session followed, allowing Occupiers to ask questions of the city as well as additional time for Occupiers to elaborate on the response letter to the city. The city was given 15 minutes to respond and future correspondence was planned.
The facilitators made clear that no decision made at this meeting would be binding and any issues discussed would need to be brought back to the general assembly to go through the process of direct democracy practiced by the GA. Nutter and his colleagues were then given time to read the letter.
The GA approved response given to Mayor Nutter and his team yesterday:
Greetings from Occupy Philly!
Trumpets of change are being heard loudly all around the world. Our silence has been broken by the strength of solidarity and nonviolence. Two weeks of protesting, marching, and occupying have left our City of Brotherly Love buzzing with questions: Who are these protesters? What do they want? Please allow us to introduce ourselves. We are people first, diverse in belief and background, crushed beneath the burden of economic injustice. We are appalled by the greed of banks and corporations that steal wealth without regard. We are forced from the voting booth into the streets by the repeated failures of elected officials to represent our interests. The people have been promised change, and while patience is a virtue, we are wearing thin. We are working to make real the great dream of this city - the promise of freedom and democracy.
Philadelphia today is the poorest big city in the entire U.S., with over a quarter of the population living in poverty. Our systems of education, housing, and healthcare are failing. Many of us are trapped beneath mountains of student debt. We are struggling to provide decent lives for our families. We gather to address problems that can no longer be ignored. Our occupation shines, though faced with internal challenges, as a community where all are welcome to share, learn, and discuss the great issues that affect us. Some of us are homeless, and have been sleeping on Philly’s cold concrete for years. Others have voluntarily left the comforts of our homes. Some stop by between classes and working multiple jobs. Many are unemployed and can’t find work, but all of us have found a home and a place within the Occupy community. Meals are served three times a day by the food committee. Children play with their parents in the family zone, and creativity flows from drum to paintbrush in the art area. Critical discussion and compassionate action are alive throughout this space.
City Officials recently delivered us a letter through our legal team. The letter named a number of concerns, which we will publicly address here. First, we would like to thank city officials for setting a national example in support of free speech, and for allowing us to exercise our Constitutional rights to assemble peacefully and seek redress for grievances. We appreciate the City’s invitation to meet with our group. We welcome open lines of communication between the residents of Philadelphia and City Hall.
We may request a recorded meeting with city leaders soon in a neutral location. Please understand that lines of communication will not be instantaneous. We are practicing direct democracy, and decisions that affect us all, must be carefully considered, debated, and decided on by all. We believe we are operating in a manner consistent with the purpose for which City Hall itself was designed: addressing the needs of the people of Philadelphia, finding solutions, and taking action.
The city has cited some nuisances around our encampment. In terms of public urination, we strictly condemn that behavior. This problem could be solved easily by granting access to the City Hall public restrooms. Regarding graffiti, volunteers have scrubbed off all of the marker.
We share the city’s concerns about fire hazards and are contacting the fire union to provide us with training. We can monitor our own safety. Our technical experts consistently check electrical equipment, especially in our tech tent. We are acquiring fire extinguishers, have agreed to no open flames, and our safety team is constantly patrolling the grounds. In terms of the pallet structures, lovingly dubbed the City Hall Row Homes, we have determined they are not a fire hazard. They are occupied by disabled homeless people. When the city provides housing for the thousands of homeless in the city, we will remove the structures. Fire safety is important, therefore it is startling that city officials have closed fire stations and enforced rolling brownouts throughout the city - choices which directly led to the deaths of at least three children.
Police overtime costs are mounting. We will remind the city that we are nonviolent and there have been no incidents to warrant such heavy police presence. We are not fond of the undercover agents sent to profile activists. Being committed to transparency, we respectfully ask that law enforcement agents abstain from the use of hidden cameras, CC-TV cameras, morning patrols, youth curfews, and plain clothes detectives. Please understand we have our own internal security. If city officials or anyone else would like to watch us, we suggest they visit us in person or view our livestream online at [www.phillyoccupation.org]. We suggest these law enforcement funds be allocated for better use elsewhere, such as education. Pennsylvania has suffered budget cuts of over $600 million to education, while that money has been redirected to build three massive new prisons in the state. Philly has the highest incarceration rate in the entire country, disproportionately locking up people of color. We say fund education, not mass incarceration.
Finally, let us address the most critical issue, our end date. When our legal team submitted a permit application there was clearly no stipulated end date. However, when our permit was issued, to our surprise, it stated that our end would coincide with new construction at City Hall in November. Both the application and permit are available online for all to see.
In the poorest big city in the country, we believe that it is morally bankrupt to consider spending $50 million on the redevelopment of Dilworth Plaza. Who made that decision? To whom are Paul Levy and his Center City District accountable? We believe that money can be better spent on education, healthcare, and housing for the many in this city who are desperately in need. The people of Philadelphia did not vote for an ice-skating rink and more coffee shops. We refuse to allow the federal government, unaccountable local institutions, and the wealthiest 1% to privatize our city’s public spaces and control decisions that affect us all. We hope to discuss this matter with union workers whose jobs are affected by this project. We support workers’ rights, and condemn the city’s record of attacking workers. Union workers are within our ranks, and we know it is critical to have their input, participation, and support before finalizing our decision about whether to relocate.
We call on the people of Philadelphia to unite for change. We invite workers, students, the poor, the disappearing middle class, and all people of conscience. As residents of the historical birthplace of free speech, liberty, and democracy, we believe that we have a moral and social obligation to make this city finally live up to its noble creed. Like those peaceful demonstrators who stood in Tahrir Square, like those who marched in Montgomery, Alabama, like those struggling tirelessly worldwide, we know that change does not come easily, but requires sacrifice. It’s not enough to talk, it’s time to be courageous in our actions. Together we can win. We are the 99%. Join us and let freedom ring!
Love,
Occupy Philly
A concern was raised by a member of Occupy about Deputy Mayor Richard Negrin, who the member said had engaged in “Twitter wars” about the movement and had otherwise contributed to a negative environment. The speaker asked that Negrin be asked to “step back” from his role in communicating bout the occupation on behalf of the city and that someone else from the city fill in his position.
The mayor responded for Negrin saying he had personally been keeping track of the Twitter messages and was generally aware of what was being said. He suggested that “we might all step back and de-escalate.”
“We can’t just allow folks to beat the shit out of us and not say anything,” he said. An Occupier pointed out that there are some people on Twitter that may claim to be speaking for the Occupy movement without the authority to do so. Nutter expressed the challenge that he faced in knowing who was who.
“We will be mindful, and we ask that you be mindful if you see someone saying something that does not represent you,” he said.
As stated in the letter from the city, (link above) a construction project has been planned to begin at Dilwoth Plaza in the fall of 2011. The mayor answered questions about this saying that he felt this project “had the same elements that the occupation is talking about”since the project would put 1,000 people to work and would provide improved wheelchair access to the area. Nutter said that the project would not take money away from other projects because it was specifically earmarked for this project only. If the project were cancelled, the mayor said, the money could not be used for anything else.
While Occupy has not yet made a decision about whether to comply with the city's request to relocate, possibilities of relocating and options were discussed. The city has identified a couple of places that it feels have many of the same benefits of Dilworth Plaza and they expressed hope a solution could be found between the two sides in cooperation and support of each other.
The Facilitation Working Group is currently working on a way to bring the issue to the GA for a vote. Their plan, as a member of this group explained yesterday, is to create a rubric to judge other possible sites and to compare their pros and cons. This process is similar to the initial process through which Occupy picked Dilworth Plaza at its second GA on Oct. 4. The mayor asked that he be informed of what those choices were so that the city could share information that the Occupiers might not have about those locations. The Facilitation representative responded by saying that the group's choices would eventually shared with the public on the web site, but that the group would not commit at this time to any direct communication about these sites otherwise.
There are several repairs to City Hall that need to begin this week, both of which require large equipment to be moved onto the plaza in the next few days. Everett Gillison, Deputy Mayor in charge of Public Safety and the new Chief of Staff, explained the repairs and what the city needed in order to accomplish these.
Several Occupiers raised questions about the police and the money that the city is spending on overtime for them. A concern was voiced that this was perhaps a public relations campaign coordinated by the city designed to discredit the occupation. Mayor Nutter insisted that none of his staff wanted to release this information but members of the press asked them multiple times. He said that because this information is public his office was obligated to share those numbers with those who asked.
One member of Occupy stated that in their opinion, these costs were not necessary since the occupation has been peaceful. Nutter responded by describing what it was like to try to respond to the news that an occupy group was going to occupy Philly when his only gauge at the time was what was happening at occupy Wall Street.
“We didn’t have a lot of time and our job is to be prepared,” he said. He acknowledged that the Occupiers have been peaceful and that Occupy has been very good about letting the city know when and where they planned to march. However, he said, because has primary concern as mayor is public safety, he felt the city had an obligation to have enough officers in place in case of an incident.
A related concern was expressed that since the police were on the periphery, it was unclear what their role should be regarding keeping the Occupiers safe in the event of internal problems.
An example was brought up of an incident when a member of occupy resident allegedly asked a police officer standing nearby for help after being threatened with a knife by a person at the camp, this member was given no assistance. In general, the Occupiers said, they have been successful at resolving their own conflicts and deescalating people who get out of hand. But the question arose as to what the police role actually is in that case.If there ever is a need to seek help, and particularly since there are so many police officers standing close by, will that help be there? Should that help be there?
The mayor looked exasperated at this point and spoke of “tremendous mixed messages” from the speakers in the room, some of whom seemed to suggest that the police were doing too much while others complained that they weren’t doing enough.
Nutter expressed concern about the reactions of the police in the space and a desire to make their directives clear.
"The police have a sworn obligation to protect public safety," he responded. "If they go in on a complaint about a knife, there was a concern that things would get out of hand, and then people will say what the hell are they doing and we would look like assholes.”
The tone of the meeting, while tense, was tempered with many expressions from both sides about their appreciation of the peaceful behavior of the other. More than once, it was noted that the city of Philadelphia had not had the kind of confrontations between Occupy and the city's police force that other cities had experienced. Both sides expressed gratitude for the mutual cooperation and a willingness to continue a peaceful dialogue.
Two proposals, about providing for future communication on a weekly committee and a decision about relocation were brought back to GA. A representative from the Legal working group reminded the mayor that they could be contacted any time via email: occupyphillylsg@gmail.com.
This article was originally posted in the Occupied Pennsylvania Gazette
http://occupiedpennsylvaniagazette.wordpress.com/
