Occupy protesters facing eviction?

NEW YORK, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Protesters in cities across the United States considered their next steps Friday, a day after hundreds of people were arrested.

The Occupy San Francisco encampment on the Embarcadero remained in place with no police action the day after city officials declared it a public health nuisance, the Bay Area News Group reported. Mayor Ed Lee said Thursday the city wanted to cover all "legal bases" and did not promise immediate police action.

In Philadelphia, the city asked protesters to leave Dilworth Plaza next to City Hall, saying they were blocking a scheduled renovation. But protesters who tried to move across the street Thursday night returned to Dilworth Plaza after they were blocked by police, and Friday they were still waiting for a permit to occupy Thomas Paine Plaza, WHYY-FM, Philadelphia, reported.

Protesters called a "Day of Action" Thursday to mark the two-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street.

Police said they arrested 177 people who crowded intersections near the New York Stock Exchange Thursday morning, The Wall Street Journal reported. They later arrested 99 more who tried to block access to the Brooklyn Bridge.

About 32,000 people massed near Wall Street and elsewhere in New York to mark two months since the Occupy movement began.

In Los Angeles, police in riot gear faced protesters in the financial district, resulting in 72 arrests, some of people who pitched tents in the middle of a busy downtown street. Occupy LA protesters, encamped outside City Hall for nearly seven weeks, also took over a plaza outside the Bank of America Center for several hours until police arrived.

The incident prompted several local and national labor unions to call on the city to let the protesters stay, saying the bank plaza was a "more fitting target" for Occupy LA.

Also Thursday, Occupy LA protesters sought a temporary restraining order to bar police from dismantling the City Hall encampment without first providing notice, the city attorney's office said.

Matthew Strugar, a member of the Occupy legal committee, said the people who filed the motion weren't part of the legal team and "are not authorized to represent Occupy LA."

Other protests were in Washington, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Las Vegas, Boston, Albany, N.Y., and about 20 other cities.