SEATTLE — Occupy Seattle protesters have voted to move their operational base to Seattle Central Community College.
The Seattle Times reports that the group plans a tent ceremony Saturday and plans to camp there overnight. Protesters say they will continue “occupying” downtown Westlake Park during the day.
A livestream broadcast from the protest site showed the group’s general assembly getting sufficient votes Monday night to support a move.
There was no immediate response from the school.
The newspaper says many protesters feel moving to the college will attract more students and lessen tensions with city police. Dozens of protesters have been arrested during the past three weeks, many over the issue of banned camping in city parks.
About 30 of those protesting what they say is undue corporate influence in politics and other issues have accepted Mayor Mike McGinn’s invitation to camp overnight at City Hall Plaza.
In Spokane’s version of the Occupy Wall Street protest has dwindled to only a handful of demonstrators, just a few weeks after a march through downtown drew some 300 people.
While the protests have drawn big crowds and led to mass arrests in some cities, no more than a dozen activists at a time have occupied a small downtown traffic island in Spokane since early October.
The group’s numbers shrank to just one or two people during early morning hours this week as colder weather moved into the area.
Also present on the traffic island — a large statue of Spanish-American war hero John R. Monaghan, which protesters have been using to prop up their signs.
More significantly, Occupy Spokane is set up on city land in front of the posh Spokane Club, which for decades has been a gathering place for the city’s movers and shakers.
The proximity to the red-brick club was intentional, said Cole Cummings, 40, who has shown up regularly for the past month to hold a sign on the corner of Monroe and Riverside.
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