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Occupy SLC protesters deliberated Friday night whether to move their camp from Pioneer Park in downtown Salt Lake City, but the consensus was to stay put.
A group that left the park earlier in the night spoke about setting up a second occupation at another site, but did not say where that might happen.
They argued that Pioneer Park had a stigma and another site might attract more supporters.
The city has told Occupy SLC members that overnight permits would not be issued for any other park.
Jocelyn Johnson, 43, teaches philosophy and writing for the Western Governors University and spoke in strong support of keeping the original base camp in a park already occupied by the homeless.
"To have it here is absolutely brilliant," Johnson said. "This is where it should start in every city in this country. It would be a mistake to think we can run away from this and resolve any of the difficulties that are part of being the 99 percent."
For years the park has been plagued by drug deals and other illegal activity and the urban block has long been a haven for the homeless.
The presence of the tent city that Occupy SLC members set up Oct. 6 — in show of solidarity with New York City's Occupy Wall Street movement that itself in mid-September — has somehow breathed a mix of hope and resentment into the mostly destitute population that formerly staked out the area.
A man who calls himself "New York" said he objects to the term homeless.
"We are the bottom 99," he said. Since the occupation began, New York joined the group and has been instrumental in working security detail at night and defusing angry outbursts in the park.
Although Occupy SLC first formed to decry corporate greed and the undue influence of wealth in politics, members camping in the park found themselves trying to address the needs of the homeless.
City officials relaxed their no-camping rules to accommodate the protesters, allowing them to use 24-hour permits to set up tents as long as they kept the area clean, devoid of drugs and alcohol. They must break camp each Saturday to accommodate the Farmers Market.
Occupy SLC has about 100 to 150 campers and 8,700 members on Facebook at Occupy Salt Lake City.
The group intends to branch out in new directions and hold discussions at the Salt Lake City Library a couple of nights each week. That schedule has yet to be determined.
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