— for the RNC.
Barricades are already piled up outside Madison Square Garden.
Secret Service guys on the loose. You can recognize them by the blinding whiteness of their shirts. I stare at them, looking for the little microphones stuck in their ears.
There are these mobile police commando centers – on wheels – stationed about in Penn Station and in Madison Square Garden. Enormous. Like roving space ships. I have no idea where these things have come from, but they’re everywhere.
33rd Street itself is like one big long police station/FBI office/Secret Service hangout … It feels like there are literally no civilians on that street.
All trains going into Penn Station will be re-routed through Hoboken, for the days of the RNC. What this is going to mean is … well, some pretty damn packed trains, that’s all.
I know bus service will continue as usual … nothing will change there … but my office is in the middle of the lock-down area. So it will all be very interesting.
As well as highly annoying.
Dearest: now that the parties really don’t choose the candidates, one wonders why cities would want to put up with this crap. In times past, the conventions were actually an important part of our civic life, but now simply another stupid excuse for rotarians and union activists to dress up in funny hats. Please keep us posted on impact on the woman in the street. love, dad
Ah yes, the funny hat brigade. They make politics and government seem like Romper Room. Ick.
The conventions need to be treated like the Olympics: as a form of political welfare to cities with economies in the crapper. There are lots of midwestern mid-sized towns that would love the tourism boost. In NY, it’s just a hastle.
Speaking of the RNC:
Yes. It is going to be a huge hassle. But at least it’ll be good blog-fodder. :)
I’m going. Staying in DUMBO, I think. Marching, yelling “Four More Months!”, soaking up art, music and activism, and passing out “free speech zone” t-shirts and stickers.
this will be What I Did on My Summer Vacation — get arrested, probably.
Manhattan has always been convention central, regardless of context. People like the place, it’s why we four bajillion tourists a year riding around in those effing sightseeing busses. That’s the price one pays for living and/or working in or near the largest, most awe-inspiring city in the country. Aside from the realities of economic stimulus and ground zero, I suspect it has as much to do with that as anything else.
As for me, I’ll be sidestepping much of it as I tend to hide up in upper midtown. But I might just venture down with my camera to capture the amusing spectacle of the hard-left one percent crowd whining and screaming about that which they don’t understand, in a laughable attempt to convince people their viewpoint is anything other than a rehash of the mindless, worn blather of the 70’s.