Giuliani: No sleeping in Zuccotti Park
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, seen here in a file photo, addressed a group in Woodbury on Oct. 11, where he talked about the Wall Street protests. "My rule was you can't sleep on the streets." (Sept. 6, 2011) Credit: Getty Images
At the Long Island Association's annual lunch in Woodbury Tuesday, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani stepped into the controversy over the protests at Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, where hundreds have been gathered for weeks to speak out about what they see as economic inequality in America. And, as usual, Giuliani was blunt.
"I would never have let them sleep there," Giuliani said, to applause from some of the 1,500 people at the lunch. When he was in office, Giuliani said, he "got rid of this crazy idea people had that it was OK for other people to live in the street."
"My rule was you can't sleep on the streets," Giuliani said. "I think we deal with this whole homeless thing in a silly, romantic way."
Giuliani was responding to a question by LIA president Kevin Law, who asked how the former mayor thought Mayor Michael Bloomberg was handling the Zuccotti Park protest. He generally gave Bloomberg high marks.
Updated now Newsday travel writer Scott Vogel took the ferry over to Block Island for a weekend of fun.
