The protesters have had their say — and now hard-working New Yorkers want to be heard.
Backlash against the chaos caused by Occupy Wall Street intensified yesterday, as outraged family-business owners near Zuccotti Park complained that their rights were being trampled on in the name of free speech for the ragtag demonstrators.
Marvin Raffelin, who has owned Fourteen Wall Street Jewelers for 31 years, was one of many merchants who claimed the out-of-control demonstration has made it hard to keep his business afloat.
“I didn’t realize what was going on until the middle of October. I looked at my ledger from the October before, and my customer account was off by half,” said Raffelin.
“They’re hurting the people they want to help. Every businessman is off.”
The cries of starving business owners follow pleas from local residents, who say the park occupiers have made their neighborhood unlivable — by urinating and defecating in the streets, and leaving mounds of rotting garbage.
Angry neighbors have flocked to a series of Community Board 1 meetings, demanding something be done to stem the filth, stench and constant noise from drumming and speeches that go late into the night.
And they’re tired of being threatened by thuggish protesters when they complain.
Now the board and local lawmakers have pressured the city to rein in the protest.
Mayor Bloomberg appeared to get the message.
He ordered cops to clear hundreds of metal barriers from Wall and Broad streets, and bluntly told the motley masses that their unruly antics were making life miserable for the people who live and work in the neighborhood.
“This isn’t an occupation of Wall Street. It’s an occupation of a growing, vibrant residential neighborhood in lower Manhattan, and it’s really hurting small businesses and families,” Bloomberg fumed.
“We’ve worked hard to protect the demonstrators’ First Amendment rights, but other people have rights, too, and I am very concerned about the other people’s rights as well,” said Hizzoner, who warned that tougher action could be coming if the situation continues to deteriorate.
“No one should think that we won’t take actions that we think are appropriate when . . . they are appropriate,” Bloomberg said.
Merchants cheered the removal of the barriers, which started yesterday morning, even as they bemoaned the damage already done.
Jason O’Brien, owner of Trinity Place Bar and Restaurant on Cedar Street, said, “We’re down about 30 percent. We feel like we’re still in August, when everyone’s away.
“We’ve gotten a lot of calls for lunches and dinners with people saying, ‘Are you right opposite the tent city and the protestors?’ People don’t want to be down here,” said O’Brien, who has laid off three workers and found vile graffiti scrawled by protesters in his restrooms.
Doug Smith, owner of the Business World Trade Art Gallery at 74 Trinity Place, said that wary customers are afraid to come near his place — and that some of the Zuccotti mob even tried to break into his shop.
“Art sales are zero; we’re not selling. It stopped on the dime,” said Smith, whose family has owned the business for 30 years.
“The staff has felt very uneasy. I watched [protesters] on the camera trying to break into the back room. When I approached them, I got yelled at.
“The worst is when you see your merchandise is not selling. To buy art, it’s foot traffic. They have to be walking by, and they’re not,” said Smith, who has taken to dressing down for work after he was harassed when he wore his usual suit.
The complaints came a day after Marc Epstein, owner of the Milk Street Cafe on Wall Street, revealed that he was forced to lay off 21 workers after his business had plunged 30 percent since the protest began Sept. 17.
After the barricades were removed, Epstein saw a ray of hope.
“We’re so busy here — we haven’t been as busy as this in seven weeks,” he said, even as one of his laid-off staffers, Rachel Ortiz, a Queens mom, applied for welfare benefits yesterday to support her family.
Tom Comerford, a tour guide with The Wall Street Experience, was excited to see the barriers removed from in front of the steps of Federal Hall, a popular tourist destination.
Bloomberg finally took action to reopen the Financial District streets a day after receiving a letter signed by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, state Sen. Daniel Squadron and Councilwoman Margaret Chin — whose districts all include Zuccotti Park — demanding a crackdown on the protests.
In other developments:
* The 78 protesters arrested in the Sept. 24 march on Union Square will be arraigned today in Manhattan Criminal Court.
Prosecutors will recommend the charges be dismissed in six months if they’re not rearrested within that time.
* Some 200 uniformed military veterans — angry about what they called police brutality that left a Marine seriously injured in Oakland — marched with protesters past the New York Stock Exchange last night.
* In Oakland, demonstrators shut down the city’s busy port.
Additional reporting by Laura Italiano