Near as I can tell, someone at Occupy Seattle has decided to shoot the movement in the foot today by pissing off just about every Puget Sound commuter who has to cross the water:
Rush-hour traffic could be a nightmare Thursday if an Occupy Seattle protest continues as planned.
Protesters involved in the weeks-old demonstration plan to block the University Bridge sometime after 3:30 p.m. and may also block the Montlake Bridge.
Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson said officers are aware of the plan and are in discussions with organizers. Thursday morning, Seattle Department of Transportation spokesman Rick Sheridan was putting together a traffic advisory so drivers can avoid the mess that could come to the Montlake Bridge, the University Bridge and Ship Canal Bridge, which would be used by both regular and Interstate 5 express lanes.
“If any one of those bridges are obstructed it will have a ripple effect on the other bridges and traffic,” he said.
Still think this is a great idea? More past the jump.
There was an initial call to blocking traffic on the Montlake Bridge, which would severely disrupt traffic to the University of Washington Medical Center. Occupy Seattle protesters were debating on the group’s Facebook page about blocking another bridge.
A city traffic advisory said the planned blockage of the University Bridge could impede traffic to Seattle Childrens hospital.
Great idea, folks. Because nothing gets the 99% on your side like making their commute a living hell in order to make a point, or making it difficult for patients to get to and from a hospital. Something that a large number of commenters on their Facebook page have attempted to point out in vain, many of whom are owners of small businesses which will be harmed by this action.
Sandy Brown: @Elissa - do you really think OS is ready to make medical decisions for sick patients? Do you really feel qualified to decide which patients will be allowed to have treatment at which hospitals? Also, do your research on bridges. The Montlake Bridge is already scheduled to be repaired in the upcoming SR 520 interchange project which is funded through gas taxes and upcoming 520 tolls. It is NOT an example of needed infrastructure repairs. Plus the Sound Transit station being built at Montlake and Pacific is a POSITIVE example of federal investment in infrastructure repair. Montlake is the wrong location for this action.
Mary Jo Thomas: I am the owner of the small business, Curtsy Bella, that my son, Josh Thomas just commented on. We are struggling in this economy, but still try and give back to the community. We are hosting a holiday shopping event this evening where we will donate 10% of our total sales to Susannah White's Three Feet of Sunshine Guild at Children's Hospital. Due to this planned march, most of the people who had said they were coming are now staying away. There are other ways to make your voices heard that don't hurt others.
Sweet Chris Bell: Why is Occupy Seattle ATTACKING the 99% by attempting to block bridges that we ALL use. I have protested with you, I have supported your actions, however if you do this you will just be hurting the people you are trying to help. You will lose all support from the community. Please consider.
These are just a sample. It goes on like that at great length.
According to the comments, this was originally organized by a local union. Occupy Seattle, for whatever insane reason, has chosen to put the entire movement at risk by being a part of it.
Let me be perfectly clear: if OS, as an organization, takes part in this action, you will lose the support of the very people you are trying to reach and help--myself and many, many others. You can take all the measures you like to ensure access for emergency vehicles, but you will not escape the terrible optics of backing up traffic across the water during rush hour. It will be all over the news, and I can guarantee you that the coverage from the corporate media will be focused on snarled traffic and angry commuters, not income inequality and jobs.
It will erase much of the goodwill and sympathy generated by the recent unlawful actions of the Seattle PD, and it will turn the tide of public opinion against you.
There is still time to rethink this. Pull out of this action. Do not allow Occupy Seattle to be associated with it. Put out a press release stating that Occupy Seattle does not endorse actions that will harm working- and middle-class commuters, and ask that your supporters do not take part.
You can still salvage this if you do the right thing.
2:55 PM PT: Update:
I have been accused of intentional inaccuracy in two ways: in calling out Occupy Seattle in the title when the action is being organized by Working Washington, and in stating that the resulting traffic snarls will "[make it] difficult for patients to get to and from a hospital".
Let me address both points so that there is no misunderstanding.
First: I stand by the title of this diary 100%. Nowhere does it say that Occupy Seattle are the organizers of this protest. Rather, I am calling out Occupy Seattle for officially participating in it.
Why direct so much ire at OS, then, when WW are the organizers? A good question. The answer is that I have no real opinion about WW, other than that someone there didn't think this through clearly. I am broadly symathetic to their goals, but I know very little about the organization and don't feel strongly about whether or not they score an own goal with this. I am not personally impacted by this--I don't commute across the water or own a small business in the area--and I wouldn't have written a diary about that alone.
But I do care--strongly--about the Occupy movement. As I said in the comments, I desperately want you to succeed. I am 100% behind the goals of Occupy Seattle and the national Occupy movement in general, and I am angry about this action precisely becauseofficially taking part in this, Occupy Seattle shares ownership of the outcome, regardless of who organized it.
And that will happen. It is already happening--the headline of the Seattle PI article, for example, describes this as an "Occupy protest". Is that inaccurate? Partially. But that is what the public perception is going to be. Working Washington doesn't have a lot of visibility--but Occupy is all over the news right now, and whether fairly or not, OS is the more visible and "newsworthy" group.
I don't have to agree with that in order to understand that it is so.
Second: if you do not think that snarling rush hour traffic in that area will impact the speed with which ground vehicles can access the hospitals there, I submit that you either don't know the area we're discussing or have not given much thought to the potential unintended consequences. All it takes is one single case of a patient being delayed, and that is what the media will focus on. Even if you think this action is the right thing to do, the payoff is not worth the risk.
3:03 PM PT: See also some good information in atheistben's diary.
3:33 PM PT: Anecdotal comment from a close friend on Facebook: "Well this will fuck my commute, today. I'm for the spirit of the movement, but they can fuck right off for this asshattery."
This person is even more liberal than I am, and is just as politically aware. He knows that Working Washington are the organizers, and that OS is only a participant. If that's his response, how do you think this is going to play with the average commuter who isn't really paying attention to politics and just sees on the news that their commute was hell because of an "Occupy protest"?
3:49 PM PT: It's too long to include in its entirety, so I'd recommend that anyone who isn't very familiar with the geography and traffic patterns of the Seattle area to read Christy1947's comment here. It's worth it to understand just how disruptive this sort of thing can be.
4:38 PM PT: Time for me to head home. I will have intermittent access after this but I'll do my best to answer replies.