Takin' it back to our birthplace

[Federal_flashes]

With NATO & G8 coming up, we need numbers. Numbers are going to be easier to get if we are accessible and visible. Our occupation needs growth to succeed and move forward. We need that place where we can just talk and get to know one another and share ideas. A spot where everything doesn't have to be so formatted, and can be organic and free flowing. A spot that we don't have to have a leaseholder for, or deal with a landlord. We have that spot already. That spot is HQ where I met 90% of you all for the first time.

With hundreds of Occupiers and well over 20 committees, it's hard to figure out why there are times when there is zero people at the corner of Lasalle and Jackson. Especially since this has been one of the mildest winters Chicago has had. It's important we have a community space. Once we heard the possibility of an indoor location, and the workload got heavy, we lessened our hours and days spent at Jackson and Lasalle.

This proposal is simple. We simply take GA back to HQ. we don't have hundreds of people at GA anymore, so there is no need for it to be at the horse. Many spend more time there than we do at our headquarters. If you disagree with this proposal due to blocking the sidewalk at HQ for GA, remember most of the buildings close down at 6 or 7 anyway, and there isn't much foot traffic by then. Also, remember the days when we had 100 people at our 1:30 GA's during lunch rush? It will be ok. 50-100 people on the sidewalk blocking hardly any traffic at 7pm won't kill anyone. It's not like we are blocking peoples civil liberties or anything.


We told people they can find us at Lasalle and Jackson, but since November our street visibility has decreased dramatically for different reasons. This is not fair to visiting occupiers who are looking for us, or people who want to get involved with Occupy who we tell to come see us at the FED 24/7.

There needs to be a place other than cyberspace where people can find us. We pushed the housing issue so that we could have an indoor space, but we are still waiting. We should just utilize the space we already have at Hq, while the weather is still fairly nice, and until we get housing figured out.

I say that by moving GA back to HQ, we bring people back to the hub. For at least 4 days out of the week, people will actually see a decent sized group at HQ doing something productive. People walk by and can get involved and listen. They don't do that at the horse because it's so far away from the sidewalk, Its not as likely for passersby to get involved.

Also, by moving GA back to HQ, it will inspire people to spend some time there before or after GA and get to share ideas, goals, plans, and aspirations with there occupy family. If people see a big group of us having fun on the street corner, holding signs and getting stuff done on Jackson and Lasalle, they know It's occupy. Its not so clear who we are, or what we are doing at the horse, unless you are an occupier who is already familiar with the horse.

Hq really needs to be revitalized for so many reasons. We owe it to the dedicated individuals who hold down Hq in the cold and rain, with empty stomachs, and heavy hearts when the the rest of us can't to simply be there for the length of GA at least. Occupiers in Chicago and across the world. People are working so hard on projects and proposals, and all of these great things, that along the way, we forgot about the community we created at that corner. Let's bring it back. With it will come energy, inspiration, and numbers. With numbers comes strength. With
strength comes power. With power comes endless possibilities.

Again, this proposal is simply to move GA from Congress and Michigan back to Jackson and Lasalle in hopes that the spark reignites the revolution flame in all of us, so we become more visible, and increase our numbers, and impact more lives.
*please forgive any typos. I am creating this proposal via phone because I can't afford the Internet at this time to type it up on a real computer.

[BenBurton]

Yeah, the movement's in motion with mass militant poetry. We gotta take the corner back.

[Quincy]

Amen, in the beginning I supported OC. I walk by several times a week on my way to school from the train. I gave you all money and a blanket. This is when you were outside the Fed building. Then I started reading through this site. You guys don't like each other. Too many ppl trying to be boss. The final thing for me was when I read and saw pics of the Cermak location. It looks like a fancy ad agency, not a spot for a grassroots organization with people coming together for a worthwile cause.

I read that it's too cold and windy for you to stand outside. Seriously, man if you believe in something, stand up for it. This has been such a mild winter and you all can't handle it. Doesn't make any sense.

Jackson and LaSalle is a ghost town. No one is there anymore, no one is waving banners, the cabbies don't honk. This is best Occupy Chicago can do? Hang out there for one or two months during the Fall and then say screw it, it's too cold, let's hang out in a yuppie, loft building for the rest of winter. So sad.

[Blaise Sewell]

It would be cool to have a temperature trigger: on days/nights that the temperature outside is above 50 degrees then we hold GA outside at HQ instead of indoors, or something along these effects.