Occupy Santa Cruz Addresses Sanitation Concerns

Occupy Santa Cruz has provided its own portable toilet and handwashing station since the second week of the occupation, and soon will be placing more toilets in the park itself (photo by Alex Darocy)


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OCCUPY SANTA CRUZ ADDRESSES SANITATION CONCERNS

Generous donation of portable facilities puts city concerns to rest

November 15, 2011 – Santa Cruz – While city administrators exaggerate sanitation concerns at the site of Occupy Santa Cruz, generous citizens have made portable facilities available at the courthouse occupation for several weeks now. Since late October, the occupation’s general assembly agreed to use treasury funds from community donations to pay for portable toilets and a hand washing station. Last night, the OSC general assembly decided to add two more portable toilets which are currently en route and a dumpster service to handle trash.

“We talked in the general assembly about our commitment to keeping the space clean, sanitary, and safe,” said Andre Llana, a camper at the Occupy Santa Cruz. “We didn’t want to overuse the facilities in the park or the courthouse, so we paid for a porta-potty for the site.” Others in the assembly pointed out that this is consistent with the occupation’s commitment to self-organization.

Campers offered tours of the camp, pointing out that food is highly organized and labeled with dishes carefully washed after each meal. Visitors to the site have been surprised at how neat it was, particularly after hearing quotes by city administrators in the local press citing sanitation concerns.

“This puts to rest the city’s largely exaggerated claims around sanitation,” said Shauna Gunderson, a member of Occupy Santa Cruz, “Now we can work together as a community to address the much larger issues that are plaguing the 99%.”

Similar to occupations in Wall Street and elsewhere throughout the world, the general assembly serves as an open consensus-based decision-making body for the occupation. Much of the work of the occupation is done in smaller working groups who bring reports and proposals to the general assembly.

Occupy Santa Cruz has gathered 24 hours a day everyday since October 6th currently occupying the county courthouse steps on Water Street. Occupy Santa Cruz is part of the worldwide Occupy Movement. According to the website at http://www.occupysantacruz.org: “We present a united front in our non-violent approach to addressing the problems we face and generating solutions beneficial to all. Please join us in creating a better world.”

Occupy Santa Cruz General Assemblies are held daily at 6pm, and on Sundays at 2pm at the county courthouse steps.

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