Occupy Cedar Valley Breaks Camp in Cedar Falls; Members Say the Movement is Far From Over

After over a month in Overman Park, Occupy Cedar Valley broke camp Thursday evening, but members said their movement will go on.

“We have decided it is time to move to more action oriented tactics,” protestor Brandon Long, 24, said. “We have exhausted the camp idea, and it is draining our energy, energy we feel could be put to better use.”

Plans for that energy include door-to-door outreach campaigns, demonstrations and hosting teach-ins, he and others said.

The group is searching for a cheap or free office space to serve as a winter base of operations, protestor Chris Schwartz, 31, said.

He helped organize the camp as a solidarity movement with Occupy Wall Street in New York City. Protestors there have clashed with police since being evicted from Zuccotti Park early Tuesday morning.

Schwartz said whether in New York or Cedar Falls, a physical occupation wasn’t the only way protestors could make their presence felt.

Others were more ambivalent.

Ben Hoksch, 23, packed a tent and pondered the camp’s end. He said the park was a place to swap ideas and harness energy.

“I don’t know if it will be able to be recreated,” he said. “It was a new environment that challenged your thinking.”

Still, he said he won’t abandon the principals behind the movement.

“It’s more of a lifestyle,” he said. “You can’t just say, ‘Hey, I’m occupying.’ It has to be beyond that. It’s not going to be the Occupied States of America. But as long as you have the right mindset, you can be occupying everywhere.”

Some mentioned concerns electricity to the park would soon be shut off for winter as a reason behind the decision. Campers had been running a space heater and other appliances with an extension cord plugged into the Overman Park band shell.

Schwartz, however, said the resolution to break camp had already been made when campers learned their electricity would soon be cut off. He said the decision was made by group consensus.

At the rally that saw the camp come down, around 30 people gathered to listen to speeches and clean up the park.

“While the occupation may end, the movement is here to stay,” protestor Dawn Ask Martin shouted as she addressed the crowd. They responded with cheers and applause.

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