Last winter, Zach Ott celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas outdoors in downtown Syracuse, surrounded by office buildings and a bustling Centro transportation hub on Salina Street.

As a member of the Occupy Syracuse movement and former spokesman for the group, Ott camped out in the park throughout the fall and winter with dozens of others. Strangers showed up with food during the holidays, and downtown workers and shoppers were hard-pressed to pass through without seeing a picketer.

Monday marked the anniversary of the beginning of the national Occupy movement in New York City, and these days, the Syracuse Occupy movement is less visible. Occupy members attribute this to individuals finding more specific advocacy groups to work with.

“We’re still around and we’re doing different things,” said Ott, 21, who worked during the summer on a campaign against hydrofracking. “Occupy hasn’t gone away, it’s just evolved.”

Anniversary events passed peacefully in Syracuse, where about 50 members of Occupy Syracuse met in Perseverance Park at 5:30 p.m. Monday. They marched for several blocks to City Hall before returning to the park, shouting, “We are the 99 percent!” and “We are unstoppable!”

Several Syracuse Police Department cars and uniformed officers arrived at City Hall when protesters entered the building waving signs and shouting, “Evict Mayor Miner!” The building is normally locked after 5 p.m., but was left open for a meeting, and an SPD officer inside the building called his supervisor when he was surprised by the disturbance.

After the protesters marched out of City Hall, the building was locked. Occupy members did not intend to stay more than a few hours in Perseverance Park on Monday evening. Some members began to put away signs when they returned from picketing outside City Hall after 6 p.m.

The Syracuse events were comparably quieter than those in New York City, where news outlets reported more than 125 people were arrested on disorderly conduct charges in connection to the Occupy Wall Street anniversary demonstrations. Hundreds of protesters were reportedly kept behind barricades or watched by police.

The national Occupy Wall Street movement, the group behind the phrase, “we are the 99 percent,” began last September when demonstrators converged on Zuccotti Park in New York’s financial district to protest corporate greed and the connection between big business and government.

The anniversary served to reunite members of Occupy Syracuse who had since branched out and joined separate causes and groups, such as the Syracuse Peace Council, Syracuse Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition, Green Party and Party for Socialism and Liberation. During the event, protestors distributed brochures for the various groups and held signs relating to the upcoming presidential election, the conflict in Syria, in addition to “the 99 percent.”

Occupy Syracuse member Eric Block, 27, said the next step is to build upon the awareness raised for various causes during the first year.

One way to bring small but significant change to the city would be establishing a public vegetable garden in Perseverance Park, which the Occupiers are no longer formally occupying, Block said. The Occupiers said they have not heard from the mayor regarding the garden and said the garden’s name did not need to be associated with the Occupy movement.

“The second year needs to be working for change,” Block said during Monday’s events.

Not all Occupy members said they considered the Syracuse movement to be a success.

Laura Brown, 23, who held an “Evict Mayor Miner” sign during the march, said she thought the strength of the movement was in creating a sense of community and inspiring others to become involved.

“I’ve always been an activist, I’ve always wanted to be an activist,” said Brown, who has spent less time with the Occupiers in recent months due to her job in a restaurant, but was often in the front of the pack during the march through the downtown.

David Beatty, 73, of Syracuse and a 1961 graduate of Syracuse University, said he thought the Occupy Syracuse movement was successful during its first year because of the “hundreds of issues discussed” during his time with the Occupy Syracuse movement.

Occupiers may not have solved these issues, he said, but did encourage larger discussion regarding topics such as employment and distribution of wealth.

“The whole idea is to raise public awareness,” he said. “And we’ve had a lot of fun doing that.”

Published on September 18, 2012 at 1:50 am

Contact Dara: dkmcbrid@syr.edu | @daramcbride