Wall Street’s bull is about to break free from his corral.
The NYPD on Monday will remove barricades that were erected around the “Charging Bull” sculpture to protect it from the Occupy Wall Street protesters who spent two months camped out at Zuccotti Park.
The Post reported last week that the unsightly barriers have kept tourists away, hurting local businesses. A Post editorial called on Mayor Bloomberg to take the barriers down.
“We don’t need to destroy the appeal of a world-famous icon and symbol,” said Arthur Piccolo, chairman of the Bowling Green Association, a downtown community-activist group.
“I’m happy and relieved. The bull is for the 99 percent; it’s the bull for the people. Anyone who says the bull is for the 1 percent is making a big mistake.”
The bronze bull was penned in when the Occupy Wall Street protest began in mid-September — and the barricades have remained in place for more than a month since the NYPD cleared out Zuccotti Park.
A community-affairs officer from the 1st Precinct told Piccolo that cops have installed two security cameras facing the sculpture, allowing the NYPD to monitor it 24 hours a day.
Tourists and local business owners had been fuming over the barricades. The bull normally draws large crowds of tourists, especially during the busy holiday season, but the number of visitors was drastically down this year, Piccolo said.
“I’ve lived here with the bull since the day that it arrived in 1989,” Piccolo said.
“Until the September demonstrations, the bull had never been barricaded. It wasn’t barricaded after 9/11.”
Law-enforcement sources told The Post that police were worried that protesters might vandalize the icon, which was given to the city by Italian sculptor Arturo Di Modica in 1989.
Arturo Olivares, 40, manager of the nearby Cafe Exchange on Broadway, says that the barriers have been hurting his business and that he can’t wait for them to come down.
“Customers are not coming. Tourists see barricades and don’t want to be bothered,” he said. “A lot of my friends own restaurants around here and have a lot of problem with the barricades.”
The Bowling Green Association plans to celebrate the freedom of its beloved bull at noon Monday with music and words in Bowling Green.
They will also use the occasion to honor the Italian-American community by placing flowers on a marker celebrating the first Italians to come to New York City.