Occupy Park Avenue Recap — Extinction Rebellion NYC

Greed is destroying our planet’s capacity to sustain life. The rich and powerful see themselves as the global elite. We call them the POLLUTER ELITE.

Together with climate allies from across the city, hundreds took to the streets for five consecutive days of protests including 49 arrests. We blocked Park Avenue (several times) and took our demands to the front doors of those in power and to screens across the country and the world.

Check out coverage of the week of actions in Democracy Now and The New Republic.

Here’s a day-by-day recap for those who couldn’t join in person, including press highlights of our events:

Monday, October 24 - ABC’s The View

Climate activists disrupted The View to demand ABC News tell the truth about the climate crisis and communicate to its audiences the real risk of climate inaction. Activists disrupted the show while climate-denying Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz was on air. See our Twitter post as well as coverage on CNN, The Washington Post, and Business Insider and even an SNL skit!

Tuesday, October 25 - Shut Down Park Avenue

Fifteen climate activists were arrested for shutting down Park Avenue. Together with 60 more activists, they blocked the street next to BlackRock’s headquarters in order to call out the world’s largest financier of fossil fuels and demand that Governor Kathy Hochul use a tax on the wealthy to fund climate measures in New York. Read the coverage in The Independent and CBS news.

Wednesday, October 26 - BlackRock Protest

Ten climate activists were arrested today in a protest that shut down the lobby of BlackRock’s headquarters. They were joined by 40 additional climate activists to call out the company for being the world’s largest financier of fossil fuels. Protesters blocked the staircase and escalators up to the employee entrance and dumped coal across the lobby to call out BlackRock’s financing of coal. See the Twitter post and coverage in Fox Business, The Independent, and Think Advisor.

Thursday, October 27 - Shut Down 740 Park Avenue

Eight were arrested as we shut down the entrance of one of the ritziest buildings in NYC and home to Stephen Schwarzman, a key Trump donor and CEO of Blackstone (owner of 11 fossil fuel companies and the world’s largest private landlord). We came as zombies and brought tomato soup. See the Twitter post plus coverage in The Observer, The Independent, and The Daily Mail.

Friday, October 28 - Shut Down Park Avenue (Again)

We shut down Park Avenue again with two tripods and sixteen arrests as part of a protest calling out Chase as the number one bank funding fossil fuels. See the Twitter post and coverage on Bloomberg.

Saturday, October 29 - Hurricane Sandy Anniversary March

Ten years after Sandy, we marched on Park Ave and held a die-in in front of BlackRock while listening to first-hand testimony from those impacted by the hurricane. In addition to the march, vigils were held in Far Rockaway and Long Beach. See coverage in The Guardian, NBC New York, and Patch.

A huge thank you to all those who participated, supported, and shared.