Occupy protesters return to Zuccotti Park

Wall Street occupiers are back in Zuccotti Park now that police have removed barricades from the lower Manhattan site.

The band of protesters hadn't been far from the park Tuesday when they learned from the Internet that the NYPD had taken down the barricades about 6 p.m., said Zack Zimmerman, 22, of New Jersey. He and other occupiers had been meeting at the Wall Street Atrium when they got the news.

"It was pretty awesome coming back here," said Zimmerman, a graduate of Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., who stayed in the park all night. "People were rejoicing, and by 5 a.m. there were about 15 of us left," he said.

In November, the NYPD and sanitation workers removed several hundred occupiers, their tents and belongings from the park, in which they had camped since Sept. 17. Evicted protesters found refuge at nearby Charlotte's Place on Greenwich Street, which is owned by Trinity Church.

"Charlotte's Place has been wonderful. It's a warm and calming place," said Christine, 23, of North Carolina, who did not give her last name. "I don't want to give out my last name because as a group, we don't want any one person to be the face of the movement."

The cafe-style storefront offers free wireless Internet and computers where occupiers can use bathrooms, rest their feet, see a nurse at the first aid station, and even have a cup of tea.

The Rev. Mary Caliendo of Brooklyn works at Charlotte's Place, where she supervises the first aid station. Caliendo said the occupiers were mostly recent college graduates, some of whom have colds, sleep deprivation and sore feet.

"A lot of them are sleeping on people's couches or at churches," she said. They "traveling long distances to get here so there is an emotional and physical adaptation they go through."

Caliendo said the atmosphere inside Charlotte's Place "is very peaceful. There are really a lot of good people that come in here. You hear a lot of great conversation of spirituality and politics."

Back at Zuccotti Park, Carol Brown, 49, of the Bronx, a temporary office worker who was laid off from her Manhattan job, said: "When I heard the barricades came down, I came back and now I feel liberated and re-energized for the American spring."

Laid-off electrical worker Bob Broadhurst, 54, of Boston, said he came back "hoping that the 99 percent will finally have a voice in a real democracy."