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By JULIE JOHNSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Nearly 200 people marched through downtown Santa Rosa Sunday to recognize the one-year anniversary of Sonoma County’s Occupy Wall Street movement.
Led by the Hubbub Club marching band, the group rallied at Santa Rosa City Hall, banging on pots, pans, tambourines, drums and empty water jugs.
“I don’t think anybody thought we would still be here,” organizer Carl Patrick, 25, of Santa Rosa said through a bull horn.
Last year, Occupy Wall Street began as a sit-in staged by activists in a New York City park.
The movement grew to cities across the world as people united over a belief that the superwealthy held too much influence over politics and the economy.
In Sonoma County, Occupy groups took over patches of public ground during monthlong encampments on the Santa Rosa City Hall lawn. Groups also camped in Petaluma’s Penry Park, Sebastopol’s town plaza and in other cities.
Although the camps have long since disbanded, people took to the streets Sunday in part to remind people that the problems of last year remain.
The looming election also drew people to the streets, including Christina Zapata, 34, a Santa Rosa therapist who brought her two daughters to the march.
Politicians “are detached from the reality we live every day, those of us who rely on public transportation, send our children to public schools,” Zapata said.
But the ultimate premise held by both stalwart activists and newcomers was clarified by Zapata’s 6-year-old daughter, Paola Lopez.
“People fighting for justice,” she said.
With the camps gone, organizers have been able to stop waging battles with local governments and focus on other activities. But the visual presence is also gone.
“We’re doing more things, but it’s not visible,” said organizer James Curtis, 68, a Santa Rosa muralist and art teacher.
About 10 local “working groups” have for a year focused on speaking out for the rights of workers, tenants and the homeless on a small, local scale, Patrick said.
A group of activists continue to stage protests against ordinances prohibiting homeless people from sleeping outside on public property. On Tuesday, they plan to picket outside Santa Rosa City Hall and attend the council meeting.
Another group is starting a newspaper to cover Occupy movement’s continued efforts with a bilingual English-Spanish publication called Occupy Press/Prensa Ocupada.
Activists also are planning an Oct. 30 protest aimed at a local construction company’s alleged labor violations.
Patrick said a team of eight people organized Sunday’s event.
“We’re moving away from a loose-knit spontaneous movement and becoming more of an organization that makes concrete changes,” he said.
On Sunday, poster slogans reflected anger toward banks, called for people to speak out and took stands on local issues facing voters in the November election, reflecting the broad swath of issues championed by Occupy activists.
The messages included phrases like “Campaign Contributions are bribes” and “The boss needs you, you don’t need the boss.”
Marchers briefly blocked traffic lanes as they headed west on First Street to B Street, past Santa Rosa Plaza down Fourth Street, then E Street and back to City Hall.
The hubbub caused storekeepers and waiters to step outside and stopped passersby. Some cars honked in support, a few others to clear the road.
The marchers passed Robert Payne, 44, of Santa Rosa, as he left Russian River Brewing Co.
“I appreciate they are drawing attention to what’s going on, especially during the election season,” said Payne, who runs an Internet marketing company.
Running errands, Carmet Trippo, 53, of Santa Rosa stopped to watch the march.
“I just wanted to see how many people were supporting it,” said Trippo, who is studying to be a drug and alcohol counselor at Santa Rosa Junior College.
She said she thinks protests are still useful as a way to draw people’s attention to issues, “because not everyone reads the paper or watches television.”
A relative newcomer to the Occupy movement, Brianna McGuire, 19, said she felt Sunday’s anniversary march was a chance to get involved in an historical event.
“This is important to a generation,” said McGuire, a Santa Rosa Junior College student.
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The Socialist vs. The Free Citizen.
The Socialist sees a fat/abundant looking guy and a skinny/impoverished looking guy standing on the corner.
The Socialist ass-umes that the fat man is abundant at the expense of the skinny impoverished man.
However quite often, if you offer the skinny man employment, you will discover why he is skinny and impoverished.
I see two individuals that made choices.
One tenet pays homage to the individual.
The other is a communal/collective kind premise.
Socialism always fails.
The unmolested capitalism/free market model made us the most prolific, admired, free society ever.
If the free market was set free there would be enough abundance to assist the skinny man if he could not care for himself.
Oppressors like Socialism.
Polarization helps create a society fertile for Socialism.
Through ICLEI adherence our own ‘public servants’ align our politics with the 1%.
Kinda ironic, huh?
@Critic: I could have been more specific about my heroes, among who are Thoreau, Rilke, Einstein, MLK and Jesus. They lived for the full expression of their genius and were not in it for the money, which was my point. I see the value of life as being something you can bring to the table, not how much money or power you can grab.
Regarding the clowns: I shuddered when I saw that. Those people may be making a statement, but I don’t think their target audience is going to take them seriously, unless their audience is simply other radical occupiers. The Press Democrat often gives unctuous headlines and photos; this was one. The reaction a lot of commenters had about the clowns shows a lack of thought or at least a lack of depth in understanding. They could have seen past the photo into the more serious matter at hand, but it was too easy to put people down who want a different life than the one you’ve signed onto.
Shame on the PD for being so stereotypical and provincial. They could have done an article on what has happened to the conditions which compelled worldwide dissent in the first place. But that doesn’t suit their game plan.
OCCUPY your BRAIN! OCCUPY HEALTH. Visit a child dying of cancer with your clown outfit & bring a smile to their face. Lead by EXAMPLE, judge by results. Try GIVING as opposed to TAKING. Be PROACTIVE, instead of throwing a tantrum.
A fool and his money are soon separated.
If you are whining and sniveling in California, the bankrupted hand out (Cal Fresh) CAPITAL of America, then you are by far a hugh part of the PROBLEM. You want a HAND UP, I’ll help you up. You want a hand out…wait in line and stand on the side of the street with your illegible cardboard sign.
As a young man, fresh out of the God awful Vietnam War, the harder and smarter I worked, the luckier I got, but hay, that’s just me and the way America was built. Long before democrats stole from the productive and gave to the unproductive. Hence thousands of job providers have LEFT THE BUILDING!!! Times change rapidly in this era of technology. Time for a CHECK UP… FROM THE NECK UP. Be the Change you desire. The buck starts and stops one person at a time. Use what you have and be grateful for it. Take positive corrective ACTION. Be here now, with a vision for the future. Double up and catch up. Contribute and you will be thanked and missed. Count your BLESSINGS & soon you will have plenty to share with someone that will appreciate your benevolence. Giving is a POSITIVE ADDICTION.
Liberalism is dead.
Occupy is the headstone.
Services will be held Wed. Nov. 7th.
@ Noah
The heroes you believe in are all relegated to the ash bin of history. Marx, Lenin, Mao and Stalin are all long dead and their philosphy proven false. Millions had to die because of what they believed.
And now the little occupy movement of leftists and anarchists try to tell us they have the vision and we are to follow these leftist prophets to the distruction of our economy and society.
Wearing clown and mime costumes and pounding on pots in the street will not change the fact that the occupy movement is irrelevant and not really worth the time the left wing press writes about its demise.
For the sake of public health, I hope they were all wearing flea collars.
If being like you guys is the price for living on Mount Olympus, then I’m glad I don’t live there. Not everyone wants to spend their life chasing money or trying to prove ourselves by dominating others. Yeah, I know it’s the popular thing to do, but I’d rather think for myself than follow such psychologically impinged ideas as yours.
The Occupy movement represents a significant chunk of Americans who are saying NO to the corporate paradigm and YES to a cooperative and creative life. If you think that makes them stupid, try thinking about all the heroes from history who did exactly that. And, it wasn’t “business” that invented all this technology, it was “genius.” But far be it for me to assume you understand that.
Early Halloweeners come out for Obama.
What exactly did “Occupy” accomplish? What solutions did they propose? Did any of them get jobs yet?
Some of the hippies who live in Sonoma County have a hard time letting go of the past. Exhibit A…the little occupy movement that was.
I guess demonstrating to amuse themselves is better than getting off the streets and getting a real life with work and a real future.
Let’s see-they started out as trying to change the abuses of big corporations. Now they are going after a local construction company because of “alleged labor violations?”. What’s next? The corner grocery store because they won’t extend them credit? Who really thinks this is valid anymore?
I notice that the writer does not provide a comparison to the number of people who marched a year ago… I imagine that would reflect negatively on the Occupy “movement”, and we wouldn’t want that!
Yawn.