According to the criteria above, a standard tent which stands less than 30 days does not technically need a special event or building permit from the City of New York for a "special event filing" on privately-owned land.

This is important, for Zuccotti Park is indeed privately-owned land which is legally open to the public – in a real estate deal with the city, Brookfield (owners of Zuccotti Park) allowed the land to be designated for public access in return for zoning considerations.

Which means that New York could theoretically look like this:



The view from Occupy Boston.

Now, does this mean confrontations with the NYPD would not happen over such structures? Absolutely not. The NYPD makes nightly sweeps of the park to ensure that structures have not been erected, ostensibly at the behest of Brookfield (though this remains a bit ambiguous).

However, unless there are other applicable codes of which I don't know about, I believe it's time for some tents to pop up at Occupy Wall Street as winter approaches.

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