LIKE MOST NEW YORKERS, I was happy to see Occupy Wall Street arise.* We need more of that spirit in the neighborhood and preservation battles against the Lords of Real Estate that are welling up all across the city.
When I wrote Occupy Main Street for the Berkshire Record, I didn’t realize that the Record had already published a piece with the same name, at the time of Occupy Wall Street. And in Dallas, Texas, Reoccupy Main Street focused on the battle between Big Box retailers and local stores and commerce. That’s a natural issue in the home of the Berkshare and the Schumacher Institute for a New Economics.
Even though it talks about the intersection of Broad and Wall Streets, my post Occupy Broad Street is not about the 1% versus the 99%. But Broad Street in New York City and Main Street in Great Barrington share a common issue, which is how we reclaim the street for everyone, after giving it to the car the last 50 to 100 years.
Reclaiming Broad Street includes taking the streets around Broad and Wall, many of which are still dominated by cars, and occupying them for people.
