U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, State Senator Daniel Squadron, and Councilwoman Margaret Chin issued a joint statement expressing relief at the “significant progress” being made on quality of life issues at the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in the privately owned Zuccotti Park.

The pols, who all represent the area in their respective legislative houses, add the city needs to do more with issues like public urination, where a “zero-tolerance” attitude is urged.

“We are pleased that, on the heels of the City responding to our calls to remove excessive barricades, there has been significant progress on one of the other pressing quality-of-life issues: improved bathroom access.

“OWS states that it has secured access to a loading dock area connected to 52 Broadway and has obtained three portable bathrooms to install there, with a trained security guard 24-hours-a-day. We appreciate their attention to this issue.

“We reiterate our call on the City to take a ‘zero-tolerance’ approach to public urination and other such behavior, and to enforce laws prohibiting excessive noise.

“The fact that both the City and OWS are making progress in addressing serious quality-of-life issues signals that there is a path for solving these and other emerging concerns. We strongly encourage the parties to continue to communicate and we ask that the park remain open and accessible for emergency personnel.

“As we have said before, these concerns must be solved but cannot be used as a pretext for the violation of First Amendment rights.”

The coalition previously pushed for the removal of barricades, a bugaboo for the business owners and residents who live in lower Manhattan. Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the radio today said New York’s protest would not descend into violence like the incident in Oakland.

“If people want to rush into the streets, we’ll put the barriers back,” Bloomberg said, according to The Daily News. “The bottom line is you don’t want to have barriers, you have to behave, and we will continue to do that.”

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