It's been over half a year since the Occupy Movement first sprang up, which seems like as good a time as any to take a reading of the movement's local impact. Specifically: are those $250,000 bocce courts at Justin Herman Plaza doing OK?

According to U.S. bocce champion Benji Tosi, nobody has actually been able to use the courts much since they broke ground over a year and a half ago. The Occupiers moved in and camped out just as the courts were drying out after a rainy spring.

The last remnants of the Occupy camp at Justin Herman plaza were swept up and cleared out back in December, but the courts have been fenced off and closed for renovations ever since. Tosi reports the Occupiers didn't do any major vandalism, but the increased traffic around the impromptu campsite took it's toll on the plaza and the Rec & Parks Department dropped another $50,000 to restore and re-sod the field.

Anyhow, the bocce courts, whose world-class appeal and use of fine gray granite and "oyster flour" was apparently lost on the Occupy campers, are open again and ready to get the ball rolling. And the champion Tosi told the Examiner yesterday, "I’m going to go out there as much as I can now." As taxpaying members of the 99% ourselves, we recommend even casual bocce players get out there and do the same. Because if we've learned anything from the Occupy movement, it's that you shouldn't let perfectly good real estate go unused for too long.

Previously: All Occupy SF coverage on SFist.