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This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

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What Angelenos Did On Bank Transfer Day

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Photo by Los Angeles Times reporter Kate Linthicum via yfrog

One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.

Remember, remember the fifth of November. Yesterday was official Bank Transfer day (as well as, yeah, Guy Fawkes Day). 85,000+ of us said we would attend in some way, shape or form.

Some of us marched, some of us closed our accounts with too-big-to-fail corporate banks, some of us complained we didn't have any money to open a new account and others of us gloated about how we had been using credit unions since way before they were cool.

Here's the march that went on downtown through the Occupy LA camp, past some of the major banks and ended up on Bunker Hill:

Others pounded the pavement in anticipation of yesterday:

Some of us transferred our money:

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Some of us procrastinated:

Some of us were hazy on the connections between all these movements but went for it anyway:

Some of us felt left out:

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Some of us outsourced the transfer to our landlady:

Some of us were way ahead of the curve and rubbed it in everyone's face:

One of us, 27-year-old Echo Park resident Kristen Christian, started the whole movement.

If you were a procrastinator or you're not yet sold on the movement, read our post about whether you should occupy a credit union (along with our word of warning about which credit union you choose). Fearless Revolution and Huffington Post also have some tips for those of us who haven't made the switch. In the meantime, student activists are trying to make the event mushroomby encouraging larger entities — like universities — to transfer.

One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.

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