Martin Austermuhle
Photo by Bullneck
In one of the most dramatic signs of escalating tension between the District and the Occupy D.C. encampment at McPherson Square, Mayor Vince Gray penned a terse letter to the National Park Service yesterday asking that occupiers be moved to Freedom Plaza so that the city could clean and rehabilitate the park.
The letter, which was first reported by the Post, was accompanied by a memo from Dr. Mohammad Akhter, the director of the D.C. Department of Health, in which he raised concerns about everything from rats to hypothermia and an increase in the number of homeless individuals mingling with the protesters.
“At a minimum,” wrote Gray in the letter to NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis, “the Occupy D.C. sites at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza must be consolidated at Freedom Plaza to allow for the elimination if the rat infestation, clean up, and restoration of McPherson Square.”
The Department of Health memo serving for the foundation of Gray’s plea was based on a January 5 meeting of five city agencies and a series of visits to McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza dating back to mid-November. (In late November, we reported that city officials were monitoring health conditions at the two sites; more recently, the kitchens have been the focus.)
But while the memo stresses that visits to the encampments have uncovered an increase in the amount of trash and rats, it also admits “there have been no reported outbreaks of communicable disease, hypothermia or food borne illness” to date. Still, wrote Akhter, “[A]s the cold weather approaches, it is only a matter of time before these issues present themselves.”
Today Occupy D.C. tweeted a response to Gray: “If the feds evicted us for a rodent problem, they’d have to do the same for Congress (& every other city park and the Metro)”.
A number of practical roadblocks remain before the McPherson occupiers can be moved, though. First, the District doesn’t have jurisdiction over the parks, and WTOP reports that the National Park Service doesn’t seem overly enthralled with trying to move the protesters. (And even if they are moved, they have to be given 24 hours notice — and one lawyer wants to prohibit the feds from moving on the encampment altogether.) Second, as the Post writes, the campers at Freedom Plaza aren’t too excited to be mixed with their younger and more impulsive McPherson Square counterparts. Third, if the occupiers have to go, they certainly won’t go quietly. (The Occubarn seems to have proven that point.) Finally, next Tuesday is Occupy Congress, a demonstration that is being billed as one of the movement’s biggest pushes for, well, whatever it’s pushing for. Now wouldn’t be the best time to move anyone.
Regardless, in an combination of odd bedfellows, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who has demanded explanations from the park service as to why the occupiers have been allowed to stay for so long, quickly came out in support of Gray’s request yesterday.
“Mayor Gray’s description of the conditions at the McPherson Square Occupy D.C. encampment is a blunt assessment of the situation created by the National Park Service’s decision to ignore laws designed to protect the public,” he said in a statement.
“The public health and safety situation is in itself disturbing and the refusal to provide documents about the Park Service’s decision making leaves a lingering perception that long-standing prohibitions against encampments have been ignored to avoid a politically embarrassing situation for the Administration. The city is trying its best to protect the health, welfare, and safety of people in and around the campsite. In this situation, the National Park Service has so far been more interested in making excuses than protecting the public.”
It seems somewhat politically convenient for Issa to be using the District’s concerns for his own dirt-digging expedition, though, especially when he seems to want to prove that the Obama administration is being nicer to the Occupy protesters than it would, say, their Tea Party counterparts. (We should remember Issa’s deference to us on this the next time we request budget autonomy, right?)
Gray’s letter is a surprising turn for a city that has so far remained very welcoming to the occupiers. In November, members of the D.C. Council sided with allowing the McPherson Square encampment to remain, and even as other related camps in other cities have been evicted, MPD and U.S. Park Police have largely left local protesters alone.
