Denver Post Editor Dan Haley recently interviewed Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper after the Mayor’s State of the City Address. While he did not mention the National Anthem “switcharoonie,” Mayor John Hickenlooper spoke mostly about the upcoming Democratic National Convention. Dan Haley’s column seems skeptical of the Mayor.
Fundraising is up. Everything is
green. And the cops are going to show protesters their softer side first before
rolling out the riot gear.
Of course.
Oh, yes, and he doesn't expect any
major traffic jams, despite the fact we'll be adding tens of thousands of
people to the city and closing down streets for parades and dignitaries.
In fact, he's concerned the streets
could be desolate.
"Based on other cities I've seen, and our experience with the NBA All-Star game, when something like this happens the tendency with so many people is to stay away," [ John ] Hickenlooper told us. "I can't imagine we'll have any gridlock. I'm much more concerned about inviting people to come down and participate and be a part of this and enjoy this moment."
Mayor Hickenlooper has a Pollyannaish attitude about the Democratic National Convention, and his dismissal of gridlock concerns out of hand reflects this. He is likely correct to an extent about people wishing to stay away during the Democratic National Convention. If my wife’s job did not require her to be in town that week, we would be as far from Denver as possible. However, with the number of protestors and delegates expected to be downtown that week, the idea that this convention will not cause gridlock is absurd.
On a typical weekday, I-25 backs up in the afternoon from the Tech Center to Downtown northbound, and southbound from I-70 to Speer Boulevard or beyond. Since the Pepsi Center is at Speer, the traffic coming into downtown will be greater than a normal afternoon (when most people leave downtown). Between the normal rush hour, the delegate traffic to downtown, and the increased pedestrian presence in downtown, traffic delays will be enormous. Not to mention that Barack Obama plans to accept his nomination at Invesco Field. That's enough to throw the whole of downtown into gridlock without accounting for the planned or unplanned security closures of the streets near the convention center and other downtown sites.
Dan Haley reports some of the gridlock and business problems with the 2004 GOP convention in New York City.
The Sunday morning before the 2004
Republican National Convention in New York City, I wandered down Park Avenue
looking for a coffee shop. It looked like a Sunday morning in Minturn instead
of Manhattan.
Later that afternoon, I ducked into a near-empty J.Crew in Rockefeller Plaza and asked the clerk if it's always this quiet in Manhattan on Sundays. (Apparently you don't always need Bermuda shorts and a camera around your neck to tell the locals you're not from around here.) "They're all in the Hamptons," he said. (snip)
Whenever Colorado's delegation left
its hotel to head for Madison Square Garden, entire streets in midtown would
shut down to make way for the buses.
I walked to the Garden one night and got tangled up in a huge Iraq war protest. A benevolent cop, seeing my press credentials and the frazzled look on my face, invited me behind the barricades. From there, I walked past melancholy shop owners who stood, alone, in their front windows. No business boom there.
The Democratic National Convention is here for political reasons only. The Democrats wanted to party in the west with the hopes of capturing electoral votes which typically go to Republicans. Mayor Hickenlooper likely thought that a successful convention would give him a political boost in the future if he runs for higher office.
Unfortunately for Mayor Hickenlooper, his Pollyannaish public persona in dealing with convention problems could be his downfall. When these problems occur during the convention, the blame will fall squarely on his shoulders and potentially damage his future hopes for higher political office.
by Civil Sense
Comments