Occupy Mandarin

I'm thinking everyone in Jax we can get should occupy the sidewalks of San Jose Blvd. near Wal Mart on a busy day/time. Let's discuss what time will be best. Imagine San Jose lined with people, and all of that traffic seeing the movement! We will pick a date after. One that won't overlap with other Occupy Jax events.

I wish we could have some NY-style protests, but that isn't going to work because a. we have no money for permits and insurance b. campers will be arrested c. there is almost no visibility downtown. That part of our city is dead. Half of the buildings are vacant, there is not much entertainment and as a result people to not usually congregate there except for Art Walk.

I think we should organize this Friday at Hemming Plaze. (Unfortunately I won't be able to make it, I am literally the only person at my job who can work this Saturday or the store would be closed and I'd be unemployed like many others!) I think we should have demonstrations in more high visibility places after that such as Riverside, Jax Beach, Mandarin, Orange Park, etc. Thousands of people come through San Jose Blvd. at the right time.

Anyways, we can help organize Occupy Mandarin here and on the FB page "Occupy Mandarin"

Probably a Saturday? Wonder what the best time would be though. Again, we will pick a date after.

I agree with you. When we did the Equality march in 2008, we didn't get nearly as much coverage and visibility as we should have. We should definitely do another march through a populated, high traffic area. Or several high traffic areas. I SECOND THIS IDEA!

I think that occupying heavy-traffic areas like San Jose Boulevard poses a safety risk, not only to protesters but to drivers.

I understand that many people feel like the occupation of downtown is less likely to garner attention, but you have to take into consideration that our brothers and sisters in NYC didn't have immediate media coverage, either; they were well into their third week by the time the news outlets started paying attention. It was their perseverance and their sheer force of number that caused people to notice, to check out their situation, and ultimately to join them.

i agree with this

Our ideal goal should be creating a permanent center where people could come and go and there would always be protesters there. Ideally, the center would grow in size with time. This is the model that NY followed and it has worked quite well for them. In other words, I think we should just stick to downtown and be patient.

I would argue that where the protesters are in NYC is in the middle of NYC. They didn't really follow a model about picking a place. They picked the BEST place and stayed there. But the place they picked is quite a busy and popular place.

newmoonlullaby wrote:I think that occupying heavy-traffic areas like San Jose Boulevard poses a safety risk, not only to protesters but to drivers.

I understand that many people feel like the occupation of downtown is less likely to garner attention, but you have to take into consideration that our brothers and sisters in NYC didn't have immediate media coverage, either; they were well into their third week by the time the news outlets started paying attention. It was their perseverance and their sheer force of number that caused people to notice, to check out their situation, and ultimately to join them.

As to the safety issue... the area in front of Wal Mart I'm thinking of has plenty of grass away from the street with a sidewalk in front of it http://g.co/maps/kr38r

We were just having this discussion in the OCCUPY EVENT 10/15 thread. Swayda brought up the point that shopping malls and retail outlets are privately owned and subject to curfews, and our taking up space there--potentially illegally, since we do not have permits--could lead to arrests. Here's what I had to say about it:

Zuccotti Park/Liberty Park where the Occupy Wall Street group is established is a privately owned property that allows for public access. Protesters are allowed to inhabit the park because it is privately owned, and therefore not subject to ordinary public park curfews (the way that Hemming Plaza is). So, if we are interested in finding a place for semi-permanent occupation, we need to look for privately owned, 24-hour public access areas.

My parents suggested the vacant lot owned by Dolores and Wayne Weaver that is opposite the Maxwell Coffee building. It may smell awful, but it's large enough to house a tent city. I think that it is sometimes used for supplemental parking on Jaguar game days... but I'm not sure. Also, I don't know what the legal ramifications are for using it. Maybe someone from our legal team can look into this?

newmoonlullaby wrote:We were just having this discussion in the OCCUPY EVENT 10/15 thread. Swayda brought up the point that shopping malls and retail outlets are privately owned and subject to curfews, and our taking up space there--potentially illegally, since we do not have permits--could lead to arrests. Here's what I had to say about it:

Zuccotti Park/Liberty Park where the Occupy Wall Street group is established is a privately owned property that allows for public access. Protesters are allowed to inhabit the park because it is privately owned, and therefore not subject to ordinary public park curfews (the way that Hemming Plaza is). So, if we are interested in finding a place for semi-permanent occupation, we need to look for privately owned, 24-hour public access areas.

My parents suggested the vacant lot owned by Dolores and Wayne Weaver that is opposite the Maxwell Coffee building. It may smell awful, but it's large enough to house a tent city. I think that it is sometimes used for supplemental parking on Jaguar game days... but I'm not sure. Also, I don't know what the legal ramifications are for using it. Maybe someone from our legal team can look into this?

We should definitely research a privately owned area not subject to curfews. And the San Jose Blvd. demonstration isn't meant to be a 24/7 camping thing, just for a day to raise awareness.

The Legal team and Events teams have this on our list of things to accomplish first. We need to reach out the community through everyone we can in order to either find an area that's relevant to our cause and at least moderately traffic'ed and legal to camp at, or we need to contact business and land-owners in significant areas until we find one willing to allow us to use their property for the protests and occupations.

Yeah, I really hope we can get an actual Occupation going. It is becoming apparent why that is such a key aspect of this.

I really like the idea of setting a day protest along some of the roadways

I have to change my avatar, I just can't be taken seriously with that picture up there, haha. But yes, the Event Coordination team is working on finding occupation hot-spots and places where legality won't be an issue.