As "Occupy Wall Street" Protest Enters Third Week, Local Businesses Suffer

On the Huffington Post blog, Alicia Ciccone wrote an interesting article on the unintended economic consequences of the "Occupy Wall Street" Protest movement now in its third week. Local businesses, surely part of "the 99%" the protesters seem to be advocating for, have suffered from vandalism and a significant reduction in business due to the protest.
Here is an excerpt:

At Zuccotti Park, just south of the World Trade Center site, hundreds have set up camp and show few signs of dispersing. The ground is littered with cardboard signs, awaiting new revolutionaries to pick them up and join the movement. There are information tables, newsies calling out to the crowd and a congregation of musicians beating bongo drums. Bystanders gather around the park's perimeter, attempting to navigate the crowded sidewalks and police barricades, but to no avail -- they are compelled to stop and read or just stare.

Zuccotti Park is more of a granite-clad pedestrian plaza than a park. On a normal weekday, pre-protest, the area would be crowded with "suits" eating their lunches or drinking their coffees, courtesy of the nearby food trucks, sandwich shops and pizzerias. Today, it's difficult to navigate the area moving north to south, as pedestrians and onlookers encounter human roadblocks once they hit the Liberty Street and Broadway intersection. Double-decker tour buses roll by the park to allow patrons to snap pictures of a "real New York City protest," while clogging crosswalks and slowing traffic. These days, the sidewalks opposite the park are empty except for camera crews setting up their shots, and the few people walking by have their backs to the businesses, their eyes fixed on the growing commotion across the street.

Check out the full article here