There was a collective sigh of relief — and good riddance — from the residents and business owners surrounding Zuccotti Park yesterday.
After two months of impenetrable barricades, aggressive panhandling, public urination and seemingly interminable drumming — locals were beaming over getting back their lives and livelihoods after cops cleared the park.
“Its a glorious day. I take my hat off to the police,” said Marc Epstein, owner of the Milk Street Cafe at 40 Wall St., two blocks from the former encampment.
“I‘m grateful to the police that they did it without any serious injury. There is a reason they are called New York’s Finest,” he said.
Epstein laid off 21 staffers two weeks ago as the raucous demonstrators coupled with necessary police barricades stifled breakfast and lunch crowds and cut his revenue by 30 percent.
“I just hope it’s not too late for us, that we can bounce back and still be in business,” he said.
And things are already looking up.
He hired back Shamil Cepeda, 23, the ace panini maker he had let go when his cash flow crashed.
“They were causing so much of a hassle, so it should have been cleaned out. It was getting pretty stinky over there,” a back-at-work Cepeda said. “Next time [the protesters] should be more conscious of where they are — they are the reason I had two weeks without work.”
Then she resumed her post behind the front counter, smiled and said, “It feels great to be back at work.”
And Epstein says once the police barriers come down for good he’s likely to bring the other 20 staffers back as well.
“We’re encouraging everybody to come back to the restaurant. Its our goal to bring everybody back. But the danger is still there — the barricades are still up,” Epstein said.
Residents were likewise relieved to see that the rabble had been cleared from their streets.
“When I am sure it is over, I will be much more thrilled. But I am thrilled they are out of the park,” said David Stanke, 52, a father of four who lives down the block from Zuccotti.
He said over the past two months the demonstrators grew “noisy, aggressive and at times intimidating.”
The drumming and chanting, he said, reverberated right through his seventh-floor, soundproof windows.
Initially, he brought his kids to the park — using the demonstrations as a learning experience — but he said the tenor of the protests changed.
“It is hate speech; they are trying to rally hatred for the ‘1 percent,’ ” he said.
“They are taking advantage of free speech as a cover for aggressiveness.”
The enthusiastic support for the cleanup was echoed by other business owners tired of threats and vandalism.
“Bloomberg did the right thing — we lost all our regular customers. Nobody wanted to cross the park; there was too much noise,” said Angelo Tzortzatos, owner of Panini & Co. at 115 Broadway, right across the street from the formerly occupied park.
“There were people harassing my customers. They broke my bathroom — it cost $3,500 to repair.”
At one point, a crazed squatter burst into his restaurant with a 10-gallon jug and demanded that staffers fill it with water — then threw a violent temper tantrum when they refused.
Other times protesters would scare away customers by shouting, “Boycott! Boycott!” in front of his door when he refused to allow them to use the restroom, he said.
Another business owner, Alex Ferkov, of the Cafe Health Exchange, also across from Zuccotti Park, went from sympathizer to opponent after he felt the protesters took advantage of goodwill — like use of restrooms and water taps.
“They were using the bathroom without spending any money. Some of the kids were nice, [but] others were anarchists,” he said. “I’m relieved.”
“They made their point initially, but then they just wanted to make trouble.”
Like many in the area, he thought the city took too long to act.
“It’s about time. I want to ask the mayor what took him so long to take action,” he added. “He saw every other city in the country clear them out.”