Occupy Wall St. Tied To 21 Job Cuts

Their goal was to improve the ecnomic log of the "other 99 percent" of Americans.  To call attention to the 'plight' of the average citizen. Now, they may be the culprit for 21 jobs cut near the protest site.

Tuesday, Mark Epstein, owner of the Milk Street Cafe at 40 Wall St, cut 21 employees from his payroll.  Epstein, who has run a very successful restaurant in Boston for years, opened the Cafe in June; at the time it was the only restaurant on the Wall St. Strip.   Business boomed, he expanded to add some catering and other services.  Then, came Occupy Wall Street.  Because of multiple police barricades, closed or restricted subway and other access, his business plummeted.  At first he thought nothing of it, but then after six or seven weeks, things began to hurt financially.  So, in order to preserve the business, he had to cut....jobs!   Epstein does not completely blame the protestors, he says some of the issue is how the city reacted.  But NYC had to react the way they did because of the unruly behavior of the OWS bunch.  The media are filled with stories of protestors panhandling and expecting free food from nearby establishments-to the point where some shops hired security guards to turn them away.  Protestors fornicating and defacating in alleyways,  and OWS also turned into a hiding place for hundreds of felons wanted by the NYPD...hardly the type of people you want around your business.   The protest has killed pedestrian traffic near Wall St. and the Milk Street Cafe is not the only one feeling the pinch.  Maybe they should send the bill for lost revenues to OWS, after all, they've received hundreds of thousands of dollars from 'supporters.'