December 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 29

and elected leaders due to intense media attention, increasing pressure applied
by some business and civic leaders, and
growing health and public safety problems resulting from the encampments.
Parks administrators in cities with
Occupy encampments been placed in
difficult positions. While trying to remain
respectful of the right to free speech and
protest, many directors have expressed increasing concern about the damage being
done to infrastructure and natural resources as well as the loss of public use of the

occupied parks. Some Occupy encampments have made efforts to not harm park
resources but in others damage has been
significant. Los Angeles, for example, estimates damage in excess of $200,000.
OWS will inevitably take its place in
the history of American protest movements, much as the Bonus Army protest
by unemployed WW I veterans in the
1930s. Whether OWS accomplishes its
yet-to-be articulated goals remains to be
seen. Perhaps more than any other protest movement in U.S. history, however,

OWS will be indelibly identified with
public parks-those public places that
are the most traditional forums for the expression of First Amendment free speech
rights. We in parks and recreation proudly defend the right of free speech in the
public square-but we also work tirelessly to ensure it is not at the expense
of the public's right to use and enjoy its
parks.
RiChARd J. dOLeSh is NRPA's Vice-

President for Parks and Conservation .

Excerpts from Nick Fish's
letter to occupy Portland
[I]t is my responsibility to express my growing concern with the
impact your occupation is having on Chapman and Lownsdale
Squares. These historic downtown parks in the heart of the city
serve all Portlanders.
Chapman and Lownsdale Squares are part of a complex and fragile
urban ecosystem-an ecosystem now threatened by your
continued occupation. The parks were not designed to support
encampments.
The cost to restore the damage to our parks will not be borne by
Wall Street bankers but by Portland taxpayers. These are the very
people Occupy Portland is attempting to engage and represent.
In the battle for civil rights a generation ago, the Freedom Riders
took their civil disobedience directly to the core of injustice,
including segregated buses and lunch counters. In Portland,

parks are in no way related to your demands for justice.
Damaging [them] is frankly inconsistent with your stated
goals of renewing our democracy and restoring power to
ordinary people.

approach Portland's leaders took to the
protest is, in part, why donations are
now flowing in to the Portland Parks
Foundation. Donations, he says, that
are coming from both Occupy Portland
supporters and residents who simply
want to see the parks restored.

" Portland, " Fish says, " has a tradition
of great acceptance and tolerance of the
speech of all individuals....Our parks,
though, belong to the 100 percent. And
that has to be considered. "
-Maureen Hannan

w w w . N R P A . O R G    D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 1    Parks

& Recreation

23
December 2011 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of December 2011 - Parks & Recreation
