What Went Wrong at Duarte Square?
Yesterday morning Duarte Square seemed like a perfect backup for Zuccotti Park’s displaced Occupy Wall Street occupiers. It’s a roomy open space just a mile from Zuccotti, with good access to public transit, local shops, and City Hall. Best of all, half of the empty square is owned by Trinity Church, an Episcopalian congregation that’s been supportive of OWS in the past. (The other half is city property.)
So when OWS organizers gathered at Foley Plaza after the late-night raid on the Zuccotti Park encampment and proposed a march to Duarte, it made a hell of a lot of sense. Several hundred people, including myself, made that march. We arrived not long after nine o’clock and gathered in the city-owned half of the plaza, on the other side of a locked fence from the Trinity-owned area.
Before the march left Foley Square word had gone out that a judge had ordered the police to allow OWS back into Zuccotti, though, and there had already been some sentiment in favor of marching back there. That sentiment grew after we arrived at Duarte, but organizers told the group that a delegation of interfaith leaders was on their way to meet us, and that prospects were good for Trinity Church to give permission to occupy. A