Occupy Wall Street dealt a victory with clean-up cancellation

Steve Chiotakis: The folks who have been protesting near Wall Street in New York City were facing a deadline to get out of Zuccotti Park at the
top of the hour. Owners of the park wanted to have it cleaned — but that cleaning has been postponed indefinitely. There is a strong police presence there.

And Marketplace’s Alisa Roth is there as well, live from Zuccotti Park with the latest. Hi Alisa.

Alisa Roth: Good morning, Steve.

Chiotakis: Describe the scene. What’s going on over there?

Roth: Well it’s just starting to get light here. I’m right across the street form the park, and the crowd has really been growing since I’ve been here — over the last hour, hour and a half.

The police are being strict about keeping people in the park — they’ve got some of those crowd control fences up. You can hear chanting, maybe, in the background — there’s been a lot of yelling. But so far, the police presence has been very calm — no riot gear, I’ve seen the plastic handcuffs, I’m seeing some motorcycles now — but no full-on riot gear.

Chiotakis: What’s happened — you said the crowd has been growing the past few hours?

Roth: I think it’s partly there was a 7 o’clock deadline to get out of the park, so people have been showing up — the call to action was for 6 and 7 this morning, so it’s been growing that way. Yesterday, several members of New York City Council wrote a letter to the mayor saying that they support the protestors. I think that’s probably helped bring out the mainstream. And the unions have been have been calling their members out — the most recent was yesterday, the AFL-CIO called for its members to come out. I’ve just seen some signs from the UAW as well.

Chiotakis: Marketplace’s Alisa Roth in New York with the latest from Zuccotti Park. Alisa, thanks.

Roth: You’re welcome.