“Occupy Garlic”
Crop Going In

What a dump! Those Yalies pay $50,000 to go school accross from a landfill. That must go over well when mom and dad visit Buffy and Chad.

The productivity of Sara, Audrey, Ian and the rest of Occupy New Haven makes me very proud to know them. A beautiful group.

Cooper, we at Occupy New Haven are helped by many of the Yale Students and their parents. You do not pretend to speak to them and I appreciate that. You might even remember when those parents protested in New Haven. Vietnam? Civil Rights? Women's Rights? Taking Back the Night. One of the reason parents pay fifty thousand a year to send their kids to Yale is to learn how to choose good choices, protest and tolerate. Especially good causes. Populism was not born this morning. Happy New Year!

How long is this BS going to continue!?

Get them off the green. I pay taxes in this city and, although it isn't city property, I want to play on that green on the weekends.

I pay to support the infrastructure of this city twice a year with my home and cars.

Why doesn't the city address this with the land owners and have them evicted. It looks awful!

You are welcome to go down and play there. They are pretty good with Frisbees and hackeysack. They want the money out of politics. They pay taxes, too. Perhaps you can help get money out of politics.

May you please expand on your comment regarding productivity? From the limited information offered in this article, it is my only understanding that the named individuals are attempting to start a small garden.

Apparently this is a forum for Irv PInsky's Urban Garden, since the NHI isn't posting all of the comments that are against this farce. Or maybe NHI decided this was a cute piece, and don't want to let everyone know how many people are against this. Great journalism there.

Irv, how does two homeless people living in a tent stack up against someone who owns property and motor vehicles, as far as who gets more of a say in what happens with taxpayer dollars?

Maybe the property-owning citizens of New Haven should just stop paying taxes. Oh wait, they would go to jail for that, but it's okay to take their money and spend it on making a homeless commune in the middle of town a reality.

First, Attorney Pinsky. What really does "helped by many of the Yale Students and their parents" imply? Is it 3? Is it 3000? I'm curious to know since that's a vague statement. I'm also amused by the fact that many of those Yale students will go on to run multimillion dollar corporations in the future. Exactly what you're "protesting" against. That it's somehow evil to attain a goal and be successful (and/or wealthy) in America. Maybe they'll ditch their Ivy League diplomas to sit on the Green with you all. Don't see that happening.

And yes, my generation (and yours) protested loudly. But...important word there, it was pretty much defined at a target. The war. And we didn't get dinners delivered by the local police, we got our heads kicked in. Remember Chicago?

My second thought is why LCI, NHFD and Mario Garcia at the Health Dep't. are not looking into this. LCI should be looking at dwellings that are not fit or legally allowed to exist. Food is being served. Where is the scrutiny that Health Dep't. gives every downtown restaurant? Fire Dep't. should be ordered to examine the conditions (wood pallets for floors, hay for insulation, canvas tarps, and I'm sure, in 12 degree weather, a heating source). It's a lawsuit waiting to happen, that NH taxpayers will be on the hook for.

Occupy New Haven is made up of very productive individuals. Many of them provide food and homes for the homeless. Including veterans. There are engineers and veterans Occupying the Green. They also provide security for People who find themselves in that neighborhood. Citizen patrols have stabilized an often lawless part of New Haven. Individuals there have built solar heat, clothed and fed our needy, built roofing etc. These Occupiers often pay taxes from the jobs they work at. All over this region. Such as EMTs electricians, chefs, carpentry, medical, security, religious services, etc., Etc. Of course, like every group the range is broad. For the record, Yale is not against Occupy. They get help from Parents, students and faculty. As far as I can tell, every Ivy League school has an Occupation. They were given an area where the grass is worn. They have ordered seed to regreen the Green. C'mon down for a Couple of games of ultimate Frisbee. Pardon my terrible typing?

Curious wrote, <blockquote>Irv, how does two homeless people living in a tent stack up against someone who owns property and motor vehicles, as far as who gets more of a say in what happens with taxpayer dollars?</blockquote>
Good point; we should probably bring back the poll tax. That would put these people in their place, with their socialist garlic garden and their tents. Why don't they sleep on benches, under newspaper, and eat from Dumpsters like any self-respecting person without a fixed address?

William Kurtz,

Private citizens should do whatever they want to help whoever they want. Build homes for them if you want. Just don't take taxpayer money for it without getting the consent of the taxpayers. The Occupy movement uses City resources, plain and simple, resources which no one voted to use in this way.

Too many questions for now. We should do a TV show on this. I will get a studio. This is an exceptionally good movement and the 20% of our national wealth that was squandered, circa 2008 was a good reason to protest. So another 20% doesn't go up in smoke.

Unfortunately, there's no direct approval process for city, state, and federal expenditures. Elected officials are voted in and thus given the authority to oversee their respective budgets. If you don't like how the money is spent, vote differently next time around and convince enough people to do the same to change the policies.

Believe me, I often wish it were different. There are lots and lots of local, state, and federal expenditures--'farces' to use your word--to which I did not give consent, but my tax money is spent on them anyway. And lots of others on which I would like it to be spent which remain un- or underfunded.

I find your suggestion that homeless people living in tents somehow "stack up" as less than "someone who owns property and motor vehicles" deeply offensive, both as an American and as a human being.

And as far as the use of resources . . .

In my observation it's been standard practice for several years for the city to maintain a couple of porta-potties on the Green. These are intended, presumably, both as a benefit for the casual visitor to downtown and as a tacit acknowledgment that there are homeless people who spend a lot of time on the Green outside of business hours. This seems like more of the same.