My application to
the Republican National Convention for credentials to get inside the secured
spaces was rejected. I didn't take it personally; there will be roughly 15,000
media in town and lots of them won't be inside the arena either. US political
conventions are perhaps the most widely covered spectacles outside the Olympics.
But you have your choice of national media for what will happen inside the
major venues. Our coverage will focus on local impact from a ground level.
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| Officer directing me out of his path of travel |
I went downtown
yesterday afternoon to get a sense of the area's vibe and the security
preparations for the convention. I was coming from around 86th and Hough, a
scant few blocks east of 79th and Hough where, fifty years ago, the city's
black residents exploded in paroxysms of rage against the inhumane conditions
of overcrowded, substandard housing to which they had been relegated by
intentional public policies of segregation and neglect. Scars from the killing,
burning and military occupation that followed can still be seen half a century
later -- even as new community self-regeneration occurs, remarkably, cheek by
jowl to the still-present desolation -- as we headed west a few miles to
downtown. Staying off the main streets, we got all the way down to east Ninth
and Chester before encountering more than minimal traffic or any significant
number of pedestrians.
Everything changed
at that point. Heavy black fencing, maybe ten feet high divides the wide north
south thoroughfare. A medley of security forces -- Cleveland cops, Secret
Service details (plainly market in black combat vests) among them --
congregated there.
Aware of the
tension in the air these days -- further horrific news had come out of Baton
Rouge only hours earlier of the senseless murder of three police officers -- I
approached one of the uniforms to ascertain the ground rules. I was reasonably
well dressed, having just come from interviewing two bright and highly
articulate black women attorneys about their Republican Party membership. I was
also carrying a miniature shoulder bag with my reporting tools and other gear
and wanted in no way to raise the apprehensions of these security personnel,
even though they appeared not to have noticed me at all, the five or so them
being preoccupied in conversation with one another or directing traffic.
The Secret Service
guy was disarming in his amiability. I could go pretty much anywhere, he said, not
clearly prohibited by the traffic barriers. I let down my guard at that point,
and my curiosity rose. Cleveland’s my town, and I wanted to see what had been
done in preparation. I turned south and went up to Euclid and Ninth, once the
city’s financial heart where the bankers and white-shoe lawyers who once ran
the town were all headquartered. The former Huntington Bank Building, which
sits on the northwest corner, rises 21 stories and is reportedly the largest
horizontal office building in the USA after the Pentagon.
As I headed west on
Euclid towards East 4th Street — Cleveland’s one block version of
Bourbon St. — and Public Square, several sirens began to wail, coming up Ninth
St. and turning east on Euclid. Understandably, this seemed to provoke more than
the normal interest of passersby, who were increasing in number as they moved
up and down Euclid, Cleveland’s dominant thoroughfare,
connecting downtown to University Circle about 4 miles away. But sensing no
danger, I continued along Euclid along increasingly busy sidewalks.
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| Joy Reid [back to camera] and Chuck Todd on MSNBC East Fourth Street set |
Arriving at East
Fourth, I seemed to be in a new city. MSNBC has erected two temporary studios
on the east side of the block. In short order I saw TV host Joy Reid
entering the makeshift studio to join Chuck Todd of Meet the Press. I
recognized Washington Post reporter and cable talking head Dan Balz walking
down the street, looking for all the world like an ordinary Clevelander. For
some reason I called out his name; he turned and looked and me, and after a
moment, said hello and kept going.
East Fourth seemed
mostly filled with natives, there for a drink or just to take in the spectacle.
But there were a number of conventioneers and out-of-town media, recognizable
from their convention I.D. tags. I could make out no conventioneers of color.
The ordinariness of
it all is what struck me the most, as I headed down Prospect and then through Public Square. I decided to walk up Ontario St. to check out the new
Hilton Hotel, built with public funds. Although the sidewalks were much less
busy, the security presence was much greater, as I saw mounted police, military
forces [probably National Guard], and a SWAT team. Ohio State Troopers were
also in evidence around the Square. Most of these forces seemed to be
socializing with each other when they weren’t moving as a unit from one spot to
another. I felt no tension anywhere, notwithstanding the morning
attack in Baton Rouge. I saw no protesters, save for a lone spokesman manning a
sign calling for support of the Kurdish struggle.
I was taken aback a
bit as I prepared to enter the Hilton and was greeted by this sign:
I did not find such inhospitality at any of the other hotel lobbies I passed or entered, including the Drury, which I was scouting for an old college chum who plans to pass through town sometime this fall. I can’t say I was charmed by what they’ve done with the lobby. All that marble seemed austere. [Note: the marble isn’t new. The Drury, which opened earlier this year, is a conversion of the old Cleveland Board of Education building. I did see an efficient, welcoming and hard-working staff in operation.]
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| Akron SWAT team members in University Circle |
I circled back
through the mostly empty [as always] Arcade, a building that every visitor
should experience, before taking the Healthline back uptown. When I got to
University Circle, I saw a SWAT team and a police squad from Akron, perhaps
returning from dinner somewhere on the Case campus. They were likely a few of
the nearly 2000-person security contingent being housed on campus this week, a situation
that produced such angst within the University community that the school has
closed until the Convention is over.
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| Akron police in University Circle |
Despite the
extraordinary security precautions and momentous action about to be taken by
the GOP this week, overall I sensed neither great drama nor tension. Perhaps it
was the calm before the storm.
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