Next week the world comes to Pittsburgh, and the term "You can get there from here" or there or anywhere will apply. Federal, state, and local officials announced that the Golden Triangle (CBD) will be closed to most vehicular traffic (except PAT buses, taxis, and delivery trucks) during the G-20 Summit in order to keep traffic flowing.
http://g20safety.org/traffic_plan.htm (http://g20safety.org/traffic_plan.htm)
This is going to be a textbook example of the phrase "pain in the ass".
Why can't they held such conferences in the middle of nowhere?
They did a G8 summit in a very rural area of Germany two years ago. No need to choke a big city and a lot of people's lives with security measures.
Quote from: Chris on September 16, 2009, 11:29:34 AM
Why can't they held such conferences in the middle of nowhere?
They did a G8 summit in a very rural area of Germany two years ago. No need to choke a big city and a lot of people's lives with security measures.
Plus. having one in such a rural area makes it harder for the inevitable protesters to try and crash the party. :ninja:
http://post-gazette.com/pg/09266/1000288-53.stm (http://post-gazette.com/pg/09266/1000288-53.stm)
And what a surprise, G-20 started with riots.
It wouldn't have disrupted so many people's lives if they held this damn summit somewhere 50 miles out the Steel City in the woods.
Quote from: Chris on September 24, 2009, 04:46:05 PMIt wouldn't have disrupted so many people's lives if they held this damn summit somewhere 50 miles out the Steel City in the woods.
As someone who lives roughly that far from the city, "That's OK."
Moving it outside of the city would defeat the purpose of holding the summit there. The reason Pittsburgh was selected is because of how it managed to bounce back after its major industry collapsed, rather than being bailed out. Not to mention the industries that replaced steel (high-tech, health care, and finance) are ones championed by the Obama administration.
I rescind my earlier post of being it being a pain in the ass.
At least for me.
I've rarely had easier commutes to/from work. (Mostly because so many people didn't have to / weren't going to work the last 2 days). The state police are apparently manning their posts blocking exits into downtown that they didn't pull me over when I passed by the state cop blocking the Grant St. ramp doing 80mph (inbound).
I knew the exit was closed, but I didn't think about the fact that the cop would be there, or else I wouldn't have been going quite so fast.
No mind, though, I'll call it a freebie.
After work I biked downtown yesterday. Though I didn't see anything too crazy (like the protests in the East end), it was still some weird shit to see all the security measures / people, and to be able to bike on plenty of mostly empty roads.