Parkbench?

Des Moines gets a mention in this AP report...

Occupy protests cost nation's cities at least $13M

Iowa's Capitol City was among those cities surveyed by AP that reported costs of less than $10,000.

That's too fuckin' high, Marshall Lucky and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Especially for a city that is still facing a budget shortfall of about $7.7 million.

Don Tripp, the parks director in Des Moines, said protesters camped out in a city park have arguably saved money by taking their garbage out of the park in barrels and shoveling the sidewalk after the first snow, tasks city employees normally handle.

I remain unimpressed, they should be picking up after themselves.

It wouldn't have cost Des Moines $10,000 to pick up the garbage or shovel.

Is Des Moines still devoting a police vehicle throughout the night for the Occupy-errs protection?

Tripp stated protesters also agreed to pay the full cost of their electricity usage.

Last report still had it at $25 with the fee to be adjusted per their actual usage.

Tripp noted the protests did come with an intangible "social cost" — discouraging other residents from using the park that they pay to maintain, too.

That was the first thing I noted on my inaugural drive past Itchycoo Park, It made me feel sorry for the kids that use that park for play, those tents took up so much room that there didn't appear to be anyplace for them to utilize the park or the equipment.

Put me in the Newt Gingrich camp for his take on the Occupy-errs...

"All the Occupy movement starts with the premise that we all owe them everything. They take over a public park they didn't pay for, to go nearby to use bathrooms they didn't pay for, to beg for food from places they don't want to pay for, to obstruct those who are going to work to pay the taxes to sustain the bathrooms and to sustain the park, so they can self-righteously explain they are the paragons of virtue to which we owe everything.Now, that is a pretty good symptom of how much the left has collapsed as a moral system in this country, and why you need to reassert something by saying to them, 'Go get a job right after you take a bath.'"

As an aside, the AP credits a reporter who reported from Iowa City, Iowa.

That seems odd for a report on Des Moines.