Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Occupy Portland Cleanup Requires 70 Dump Trucks

Rob Port • November 14, 2011

Well, I guess we can safely say now that the “occupy” movement isn’t a green movement (via Jim Hoft).

A dozen city employees today plan to finish clearing Chapman and Lownsdale squares of debris and trash so engineers and horticulture experts can survey damage to the parks’ structures and trees.

City officials expect the parks to be closed for at least one week. Weeks of camping by Occupy Portland at the two downtown parks have torn up grass and damaged plant beds.

Bob Downing, central services manager for the parks bureau, said he’s walked through the two parks periodically since the occupation began.

“I’m not really surprised,” Downing said. “It was what we expected it to be.”

Downing said about 70 dump trucks hauled trash and debris from the camps over the weekend. He said about 30 city employees worked Sunday to clear the parks.

I was going to write that this amazes me, because you’d think that picking up your own trash isn’t really an ideological thing. Except, maybe it is.

The tea partiers, for the most part, cleaned up after themselves. The occupiers? They expect someone else to clean up after them.

Which illustrates perfectly the fundamental divide between the two movements, I think.

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