An Occupy Los Angeles organizer says city officials have pulled back on an offer that would have given protesters a downtown office space in exchange for their removal of encampments.
Occupy organizer Ryan Rice told the Los Angeles Daily News that staffers in Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office were unhappy about the media attention the offer got.
The offer would have leased a 10,000 square foot office space in the Los Angeles Mall to the protesters for $1 a year.
Rice says other departments were also unhappy because they hadn't been briefed in advance of the offer. The mayor's office declined comment.
Occupy LA demonstrators were debating the offer Tuesday night.
“Basically they’re offering us a 10,000 square foot building at a $1 a year, along with some farm land,” said Pam Noles, an occupier who attended a meeting at their encampment where the offer was laid out.
In addition to two empty lots on the eastside of downtown Los Angeles for a community garden, the National Lawyers Guild said the offer would have given occupiers access to a storefront inside the city-owned LA Mall, an aging development under the Civic Center.
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“If they use it only as an office, we have no problem, said Salim Virani of Elite Cleaners, a dry cleaners located across the walkway from the storefront. “But if they put up camps here, that will be a problem.”
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa hopes incentives will persuade Occupy Los Angeles protesters to decamp from downtown’s City Hall lawn.
One Angeleno said the office space and vacant lots offer was “pretty absurd,” but recognized a potential upside if protesters were to accept.
“If it will get them away from the city hall and get our farmers market back on Thursday there, I’m all for it,” said LA County employee Hubert Yun.
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