When we think of Wall Street tourism, the first thing that typically comes to mind is that bronze bull statue, with balls rubbed smooth by the palms of thousands.
But original Occupy Wall Street member and seasoned city tour guide Michael Pellagatti has been offering something new in the neighborhood since mid-March, in the form of Occupy Wall Street tours. He's led three tours so far, starting at the Museum of the American Indian, and ending at Foley Square, near the Brooklyn Bridge, sight of mass OWS arrests in October 2011. In Zuccotti Park, you can expect anecdotes that only he who spent many a night shivering there could provide. Colin Moynihan at the NY Times recently accompanied Pellagatti:
He pointed out where the park's library, kitchen and recycling center had been. He curled up on a granite bench to show where he had slept. And he described certain well-known visitors to the park, like the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who linked arms one night with a group of protesters to stop the police from removing a tent there; and Kanye West, who Mr. Pellagatti said once mistakenly interrupted a meditation session in the park by walking through a group of people sitting quietly in a circle.
Today, Pellagatti told us how the idea for these tours came about: "I go to Zuccotti Park almost every day, to read a book or eat my lunch, so I see a plethora of tour guides coming through who give one or two mentions to Occupy. The rest is all 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11. Since I was involved in Occupy from the very first day, when we were just 70 or 80 people who sacrificed our jobs for our convictions, hearing those two sentences felt kind of hurtful almost."
In February, some Occupy Wall Street participants voiced support for Pellagatti's tours: "We couldn't be happier that our movement brother Michael (Pella) Pellagatti is launching an Occupy-focused walking tour of lower Manhattan."
Unsurprisingly, the bronze ball rubbers are not Pellagatti's target audience. "As a tour guide, I know the curve of this business," he told us. "In the morning time, tourists leave Times Square and head downtown to see the World Trade Center and Wall Street and the Statue of Liberty. Around 4:00 they go back up to Times Square, leaving a wide-open lower Manhattan for me to guide a tour through."
And while out-of-towners pay $30 for the two-and-half-hour jaunt, "I do not charge activists." How does one prove his or her activism? "Contact me ahead of time. I oblige an honor system."
You can schedule a tour with Pellagatti by request (although he prefers Wednesday and Thursday afternoons) here. School tours are $15 per person, here.
