The Cost Of Occupy Boston

The Occupy Boston camp at the Dewey Square section of the Greenway has been removed. Across the nation, the rap sheet on the Occupy Wall Street movement reached 417 as of December 9th according to Big Government. So what is the legacy of Occupy Boston?

The Boston Herald reports today that 46 of the Occupy Boston protesters were arrested as the camp was closed.

The Boston Herald reports:

Brennan (Nancy Brennan, executive director of the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy) said the grass, which has turned into a mud pit, will need to be completely resodded, and she fears several trees that have been damaged will have to be replanted.

“Three or four trees might be lost. There’s browning of the foliage, and there are some broken and bent limbs,” she said. “Part of what we need to do is check on the root systems, and that is just going to take a little bit of time.”

Brennan also expects that the sprinkler system was damaged so much it will have to be repaired or replaced. Also in need of replacement are about 20 percent of the shrubbery and the pebbles from a pedestrian walkway that runs along Purchase Street.

She also said the wall of the large air intake tower for the O’Neill Tunnel will have to be power-hosed to remove markings and messages left behind by the squatters.

“The grass crete has really taken a beating,” said Brennan, referring to the concrete-type material covering the delivery truck driveway that allows grass to grow through. “We need to see if we can restore or replace it.”

Brennan couldn’t provide an estimate for what the final repair bill will be, but local landscapers pegged it at upward of $50,000.

My first question is who will pay for the restoration. There were never any permits for Occupy Boston, so there was no deposit to the city for sanitation fees or police detail fees.

WCVB TV5 reported on November 30:

Crime in the Dewey Square encampment of “Occupy Boston” is out of control, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis told Newscenter 5.

“(There are) drugs, vandalism and assaultive behavior,’’ Davis said.

As of Wednesday, taxpayers had paid $723,000 in police overtime to patrol the tent city protest.

I believe in free speech, but what happened in Dewey Square was ridiculous. The Occupiers should have been removed at the end of the first day–not allowed to set up camp and destroy public property. As a taxpayer, I resent having to finance the activities of people who decided it was their right to camp out on public property at my expense without proper permits or sanitary facilities.

 

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