I first visited the Occupy Tampa movement in Downtown Tampa some three weeks ago and I wrote all about it here. I talked about how peaceful, friendly and community oriented everything was; how everyone was talking to each other whether it was in small groups or one on one. I had multiple people come up to me willingly wanting to talk about this or that related to what was going on. At this time the local authorities left everyone alone as long as they kept things orderly. And for a lazy town like Tampa the Occupy Tampa movement was thriving pretty well. Or so it seemed.

Now it's three weeks later and a lot has changed; there’s been a change of venue, the organization  now forced into a 30 by 30 foot area along the street in front of Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park. It’s obviously a move made by the local authorities to make things as uncomfortable as possible for the organizers and protestors. There’s no shade, nowhere to sit but the concrete sidewalk, and very little room to breathe and move about.

The mood seems duller and the attendance has severely dropped. On my first visit, the Occupy Tampa movement was well attended, upwards of 500 or more people. This past Saturday there was at most 70 people involved at the height of the day. The casual protestor or attendant was gone. What was left were the hardcore members, organizers and attendees.

I was hoping to see some familiar faces from my first visit, but I saw only one. The remaining attendees also seemed tired and reluctant to talk to the press (or maybe they just didn’t want to talk much to me…). On my first visit to Occupy Tampa, I was actually startled by the variety of people and ages in attendance.  This second time around, the variety disappeared and we were left with extremes. What was left were the radical young, a few lifelong middle age protestors and a peppering of the bitter old.

What happened to the “normal” middle of the road types that boosted the attendance from just a few weeks ago? When results weren’t immediately made did they just go back to their normal lives? Did a lot of the people that were there before just not realize that something like this would take a lot more than a casual afternoon sign waving? I don’t know, but if my disappointment is not obvious already, then let me tell you, yeah I was indeed disappointed. Saddened actually, as the mood and the overall scene was pretty pathetic.

A part of me wonders if this isn’t how the police and local authorities had it all planned out. Moving the group to a relatively uncomfortable setting and wait for the movement to die a slow death? Maybe not, but unless the Occupy Tampa movement gets some new juice this Tampa movement is headed for a slow death. The sense of lethargy was palpable despite some of the young people still spouting the same rhetoric I heard on my first visit. How much it’s now just rhetoric or if they really think its making a difference in this indifferent town, I don‘t know.

Fox 13 news was there for a moment on Saturday, while Channel 11 also paid a visit. The Fox 13 channel singled out one of the young hippies and peppered him with obvious questions of why and what for and it made me wonder what kind of spin they’ll make out of that five minutes. I did talk to one person who, in my mind, is what this movement really needs more of.

Bob McCallim is a man in his 70’s who’s come down almost everyday since the beginning. Bob is handicapped, with a replacement hip, spine and leg problems, yet that doesn’t stop him from voicing his dissent. Bob, having formerly worked as a union officer, knows what a strike and a protest can do to effect change. He says that’s why he’s here and hopes the movement continues because eventually change will happen, according to him.

With the police helicopter hovering above us, I decided to head home. The hope for change is still there, but so is the sense of eventual defeat, which is sad, but this is Tampa; a place in my mind which could never hold onto anything of political or social significance for too long nowadays because we are all so damn lazy. I could be wrong. I hope I’m wrong.