The mayor didn’t have a “change of heart” - he
incorrectly calculated that Occupy L.A. would be a
short-lived event that would peter out in a couple of
weeks, and that if he feigned support for the
occupation and allowed the movement to fizzle out on
its own it would be a win-win for him.

Many mayors across the country made the same
miscalculation. That’s why were seeing this backlash
now rather than when the occupations began.

I’ve visited Occupy L.A. seven times. All the trees
surrounding City Hall are old and very large; they
don’t require irrigation. And the grass was killed
after the first week of the occupation; there’s no
more grass to kill.

The mayor’s comments smack of someone looking for any
excuse he can drum up to justify getting rid of the
encampment.

The grass and the trees will survive the occupation and
the sprinkler system can be repaired but human survival
is in question and the rest of the earth’s ecosystem is
in danger also. We need systems that nurture our planet
and ourselves to bring out the best in us instead of
the dog-eat-dog environment we exist in that requires
most of us to be phony panderers to the elite who got
to the top because they have no conscience.

It is hard to believe that the entire country of politicians, professors, talking heads, economists, leaders of one kind and another, preachers and priests,editors and reporters, find no creative ways to meet this vast non-violent congregation of young citizens enthusiastic for change, and join in their efforts to build a liveable future.
  So far Wall Street itself is powerless to suggest anything constructive, and is therefore self-consciously mum. The government is holding its breath. Media are scratching their heads. Messages from authority either disperse a viral undemocratic gas of violent suppression or trickle out in the form of irrelevant whimpers about not being able to water the lawns!
  Longterm and deliberate isolation from both reality and opportunity has ushered in a callous official “knownothing-ness” as profound as the ignorance of naked kings.

This is not going to end well.

Typical response for another corporatized Democrat. “Liberal” adults let the kids have a party, but the weekends’over, back to business now. The mayor knows money is more important than popularity votes, for those can always be bought.

Whining about the f__ing grass! Talk about your disconnect with the plight of the (unemployed) working class. The right to assemble is meaningless without the right to ‘occupy’ a public venue.

Not surprising. Villaraigosa has always been an empty suit. Just a lesson well learned in why you simply cannot trust the capitalist state.

“The lawn is dead, our sprinklers aren’t working … our trees are without
water.”

Another illustration of the sad fact that even well-meaning “liberals” still don’t get it: people are more important than good-looking lawns.

The grass lawn at LA’s city hall is an ornamentation to cover the fact that Los Angeles is actually a desert. But it does speak volumes when a bunch of a domesticated weeds has higher priority than the First Amendment.

Wildeye - I think there has been a long, quiet growth of “permitting” and “ordinance” restrictions in this country. Naomi Wolf mentioned this last week. I think those “free speech zones” are very real and, frankly as unAmerican as it gets.

But of course, everyone in the U.S. is so pumped full of high-fructose-syrup and Fox News that the vast majority couldn’t pick up their lard asses to protest anything.

G20, Toronto, June2011

After the popo coneniently discovered their own cars on fire just where they’d left them they over-ran the declared “free speech zone” with a full onslaught of riot cops, including many on horseback.  The way the whole thing was inevitably spun was pretty impressive PR.

The way in which the MSM is now reporting the clearing out of Occupy Oakland is quite telling.

And typical.

Unfortunately.

“The Times reports that officials are looking for an alternative location for the
encampment (maybe somewhere in the Mojave Desert?).”

Yes, I’m just waiting for cities to setup free speech zones where you can peacefully
gather and not be heard.