Santa Fe police officers and parks employees oversaw the dismantling of the Occupy encampment in the Railyard Park on Friday morning.

Political protesters and homeless people looking for a safe place to live without interference from the authorities have been camping in the park since October.

Mayor David Coss said he met with some members of the camp Monday, Jan. 9, and advised them they should leave the park soon, but did not give them a direct order or date by which they had to leave. Minutes from the Jan. 10 general assembly meeting of the Occupy movement indicated that Coss told camp organizers it was time to end the camp and he wanted it done "as amicably and quickly as possible." Afterward, those who attended a meeting of the general assembly voted unanimously to take the camp down.

"The people that organized it got together and decided maybe it would be better to disband it," said Nick Battista, who said he and his wife had camped in the park for the past three months. "In a way, maybe they are right. But they are kind of abandoning their own thing. So now I guess they are going to occupy the Internet."

Though the camp had some organized funding, meetings and meal preparation, recent reports were that it had been overrun with homeless people and that issues with drugs and alcohol had begun to cause strife among the different factions camped there.

Some of the Occupiers had friends with vehicles come help them carry away their gear, while others were transported a by city van to homeless shelters or hotels.

While most of the people were already gone from the camp Friday morning, evidence of Occupy remained, including tents filled with straw that had been used as insulation from the cold ground, mounds of blankets, clothing and sleeping bags and leftover food, trash and fire pits.

Some of the Occupiers helped city park workers clean up trash and hay Friday morning. By mid-afternoon, the park had been returned to its original condition, with little physical evidence left of the encampment.

Police Capt. Aric Wheeler said goods that were salvageable will be taken to a building on Siler Road, where people could come claim items that belonged to them, if they wished.

Diana Crotty, 47, and her partner, Howard Bailey, 49, were two of the last to leave Friday. Both said they had been homeless for many years.

Crotty, who walks with a cane, said she became homeless 14 years ago after suffering a traumatic brain injury in a car accident. Bailey said he worked for five years as a roughneck in the natural gas mines of the Jonah Field in Wyoming, but lost that job after the last presidential election and hadn't found steady work since.

Both said they felt "overpopulation" was to blame for the economic downturn and high unemployment rate.

"There is just no work, and too many people," said Crotty.

Bailey had gotten some work the night before helping to install a floor, so the couple planned to spend the night in a hotel.

They said they don't like homeless shelters because of violence and other issues.

"There are too many liars and too many thieves there," said Crotty.

Contact Phaedra Haywood at 986-3068 or phaywood@sfnewmexican.com.