A meeting with City Hall official Robert Smuts (CC'ed) took place today (see article)
Occupy is looking for the following:
- A place to build some parmanent structures
- An option to engage in small-scale agriculture.
New Haven has an opportunity to set itself apart from other cities around the country by approaching and addressing the issue of the OWS occupancy in a way that very few other cities have considered. The city has offered to take Occupy organizers on a tour of the area, to determine an alternative space where permanent structures and small-scale agriculture would become possible. I address this as the most positive approach to a permanent solution for the following reasons:
- If the protesters are working hard to be seen so that we as a society can provide every member with the necessities (food, clothing, shelter), an organic farm could be a welcomed alternative to the Green.
- Organic farms assist the city by providing more locally grown agriculture for the region.
If the city could grant the New Haven Land Trust a new community garden specifically for protesters, with the option of allowing the tent encampment occupants to relocate to that location where they would be able to set up permanent structures and have raised beds to grow organic vegetables, the result would be better than to continually engage protesters over the use of space on the Green.
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