Local Businesses Terrorized By OWS

[Dave]

Its a shame that the OWS protesters are so disrespectful to other people... it would probably go a long way to wider acceptance of the general public if they were. Sadly, they apparently have the mentality that they deserve things... which they don't. I got a feeling that the Occupy encampments wont be around much longer, with winter coming in I think the cities will make the Occupiers finally go home as they don't want to be responsible for the protesters if a bunch of them froze to death. With the problems that have been arising at the different encampments of late, I don't see how the cities can do anything else but move the protesters along.

 

A business owner near the Occupy Wall Street encampment claims she has been repeatedly harassed and threatened with bodily harm by protesters after she and her employees refused to give in to their outlandish demands.

“I’ve been told, ‘Watch your back!’ 10 times,” Stacey Tzortzatos, owner of Panini & Co. Breads, located across from Zuccotti Park, told The Post yesterday.

She and her employees are terrified by the constant threats, which she said began after she demanded the protesters stop using her shop’s restroom as a place to bathe every day.

The final straw came about two weeks ago, when the demonstrators broke a bathroom sink, flooding the shop, and clogged the toilet -- setting her back $3,000 in damages.

TZORTZATOS

She put up a sign that said the bathroom was out of order, but they tore it down shortly afterward, she said.

PHOTOS: WALL STREET PROTESTS

“I have the police in here 10 times a day, [and] I’m the bouncer. I’ve been called the spawn of the devil. “It’s unbelievable what goes on in here every day, ” Tzortzatos said.

And on Friday, she said, a crazed squatter burst into the shop and demanded that workers fill a 10-gallon container of water.

When they refused, “he banged it on the ground and started yelling” and threatened the staff, she said.

“He said he was entitled to have it for free.”

Tzortzatos said the unsafe conditions begin at around 5 p.m. every day, when “they come from the park drunk, under the influence of something.

“They use one of our doorways as a bathroom, and we have to scrub it down every morning.

“I’ve had people come in here and yell, ‘Boycott! Boycott!’

“They unplugged my ATM machine and plugged in their computers,” Tzortzatos said.

Another businessman, who complained to The Post about the squatters’ behavior last week, said yesterday that the situation has since deteriorated, adding, “You don’t know the half of it.”

But the protesters appear to be digging in, erecting three of what will eventually be more than two dozen, 16-by-16-foot military-style tents that will help them stave off hypothermia in the coming winter.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/occupiers_terrorize_us...

[XLFD]

Dave said:  "I have a feeling that when the occupiers finally do go home that if you went and knocked on their door and told them that you was going to occupy their bed that they probably wouldn't like that"

 

They just may if they took a fancy towards you and you brought a gift and some kind words.  I do admire your dating style, Dave, LOL.

[Sweater Cows!]

The best thing they could have done and simplest as well would have been to double or increase somewhat the income limits for programs like medicaid and MiChild. Then institute a reasonable monthly spend down(deductible before medicaid kicks in to pay) and a co-pay program for doctors visits.

 

AS an example, Since anyone can get medicaid with a spend down I applied when I thought the kid needed her tonsils out, she did not end up needing them out.

Here are the numbers (everyone in the family is on the application so each gets their own spend down number, one persons is not related to the others), Each Month medical bills have to reach a certain amount then medicaid kicks in, remember this is MONTHLY that EACH one of us would have to pay the amount out in cash before medicaid would start to pay.

Kid, $3645.00 (per month before medicaid would pay)

Mom $ 1366.00  (per month before medicaid would pay)

Dad $1045.00(per month before medicaid would pay)

 

When it was time this year to review the application I found out why the childs number is so high. The reason her dad and I are so much less is because we are (18 yrs this April) happily not married so only our individual incomes count for ourselves, but for the kid since we both live together she is based off both our incomes.  Now that makes sense financially of course, but she is a child, so i would think that would count for a reduction.

 

I have no problem paying *something* , I got some basic quotes for insurance for the daughter and I and it ran about 185 a month w/ 2500 deductible and a doctor visit co-pay.

 

The kid went to the hospital last month for a ankle injury and the bill ended up totally around $900.00. If I had the insurance I still would have had to meet the $2500 so I would still had to pay for it myself. And I would have been out (1850premiums + 900 ER if I started the policy last January)$2750 total. AS of now it's only 900.

 

Considering nobody in the family goes to the ER much(that was the 1st time for the kid in 5 years), by the numbers it is still cheaper for us to not have insurance than it would be to have it.

 

I would not mind paying about $125 a month for all three of us with a $500 deductible each and a 30% co-pay on family doctor office visits, vision and dental and a 5% co-pay on specialists and anything not family doctor and also has no limits. At this point it seems a waste to buy medical.

 

If there is an insurance man out there who can give me the above stated policy or better I'll take it, until then why bother.

 

[masonco]

Based on being over 55 I pay almost $600 a month just for major medical. Those spend down amounts are accurate  that's why we could not get Medicaid help

 

Now I need to get packing so I can move and pay for my $100,000 in medical expenses that I was forced to put on charge cards because our great local hospital broke down the bills enough to prevent me from making payment arrangements.

[Sweater Cows!]

I don't understand why medicaid would not help you unless the bills totaled up to your spend down in different months so that you would still have to pay most of it?

I know it doesn't matter if each bill is only $100 and you have 1000 of them as long as they add up to your spend down for that month the medicaid will kick in once they total more than the number of the spend down.

And then the next month you can have 1000 bills that total  up over the spend down amount and then it will pay for that month as well.

 

So what I am saying, it does not matter how they are broken up as long as the total is over the spend down amount for that month(when the service was provided) the medicaid will kick in.

 

You can also apply up to 90 days I believe After the service was provided and could maybe get an extension if you had a good helpful case worker.

[Sweater Cows!]

Wouldn't the hospital just let you make payments on the bill? That is what I am doing for the kids bills.

[masonco]

For those who believe that the OWS movement is wonderful, here is an example of unnecessary cost and consequences of their movement. From Yahoo news Reuters section.

http://news.yahoo.com/200-arrested-occupy-los-angeles-50-philly-134...

 

 Yep OWS did a great favor to the rich and famous not the poor and jobless while disrupting local businesses and costing local taxpayers unnecessary tax dollars. I can guess where those funds will come from...and it won't be the city office workers.