Hey, all. Just thought I’d give a shout since it’s been a while since I posted here.

I’m going to be covering the DNC for The Metropolitan, and a lot of the protests surrounding it. I’ve got a feeling the DPD won’t be putting up with anything, if this CBS4 report is any indication. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, but I’ve got a respirator rated for CS gas in case (can’t take photos with tear gas in my lungs, right?).

And Rage is coming to town! All things aside, that should be a good show. So what are you all doing to get ready for the traffic nightmare that will be the convention?

This is an excerpt of the information being distributed to employees all around the Downtown area about the DNC.

“There are five main web sites coordinating locations for several protest groups:

www.recreate68.org
www.unconventionalaction.org
www.crashtheconventions.com
www.dncdisruption08.org
www.tentstate.org

Some peripheral groups will include both Pro and Anti-abortion groups, Anti-war groups,
All Nations Alliance, Earth Liberation Front, the Animal Liberation Front and the
Anarchist Movement.”

While I’m hoping no one gets hurt or no property is destroyed, I love the idea that major protests will happen in our Mile High City. I was 3 years old and living in Chicago during the 1968 DNC. I can’t believe 40 years have passed and now I live near the city where a DNC will be held, and one group, Re-create 68, is drawing on the past to protest for the future.

I can’t help but wonder how large the turnout of protesters. The city is calling for a combined total of 30,000 protesters and other visitors. This number seems low. Again, is the City of Denver anticipating protester turnout based on more recent conventions of the past ten or so years? It seems to me that issues like the environment, gas prices, war, the economy, etc are more heated this time around. But I guess all we can do is wait and see.

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In case you missed this article, here’s a link to more info on protesting: Arapahoe County mulls protest rules.

I’m impressed!Lots of consternation related to the fact that no one notified the public about the training exercise. In a real life event, though, no one notifies the public beforehand. I’m thinking that testing the 911 and other lines was part of the drill.  A whole week of this is pretty amazing.(photo from rawfish.com) 

Yesterday there was an article in the Post on providing a sneak peek at the Pepsi Center right before the start of the Democratic National Convention. Great idea! I’d love to see the place all dressed up! If you’re interested, you’ll have to watch for tickets to go on sale. The article doesn’t mention price or dates.

Interesting, half way through the article it takes a twist, and once again reassures us that traffic and “quality of life” will not be an issue during the convention. No mention on parking issues in this article, but if you go to Q&A page on denver.org, the city assures us that “It is important to remember that 50,000 (expected attendees) is less than the number of people that come downtown for Rockies’ Opening Day or for a Broncos game. Denver has hosted games in all three downtown stadiums at the same time, involving close to 150,000 people.” If you go to the Q&A page and search on the word “park” you’ll also find other reassuring statements that residents, business owners and employees should expect little to no interference getting to and from downtown locations, despite the fact that the Pepsi Center will not be accessible for parking.

Do I find their reassuring statements comforting? Not really. We just happened to be downtown on a Rockie’s opening game day this year, but were there for a show at the Performing Arts Center. For those of you that drove downtown for the game, expecting to find affordable parking, you instead found $40+ parking prices around the stadium? So, those attending the game parked in the Performing Arts Center parking garage–can’t blame ‘em–and filled the garage to capacity. When we showed up an hour in advance for our show, traffic was jammed for blocks while cars were rerouted into the Convention Center’s parking garage, because their parking garage was full. What a MESS! Once in the Convention Center Parking garage we saw long lines of people trying to get into elevators while we continued to ascend floor after floor searching for parking. By the time we were able to park, we had ten minutes to get to the theater. Needless to say, we missed our show. We complained with the Performing Arts Center. They were apologetic, and referred us to the City of Denver, who runs the parking garage. The City of Denver’s response is that they don’t care who parks in the garage, they don’t care about the price gouging around the sports arenas, they have no intentions of addressing parking issues and our complaint was not appreciated. So again, do I find their reassuring statement comforting? Not really.