Thursday, September 15, 2005

Republican National Convention: Day Two

MONDAY, NEW YORK - The street signs above the wide boulevards of the
garment district read ‘Fashion Avenue.’ This season, black riot gear and
automatic weapons are in.

It’s six stops on the northbound E Train from the spot where the Twin Towers
stood to Madison Square Garden. The route passes Chinatown and
Little Italy and the downtown neighborhoods of Manhattan that were the
first landing for groups of Irish, German and Jewish immigrants escaping
the old country to start anew.

It is the path also followed by the Republican National Convention,
whose opening night speech featured former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the
Brooklyn-born grandson of Italian immigrants who governed this city of 8 million,
and where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans more than five-to-one.

For many residents and out-of-towners alike, Giuliani’s finest hour came immediately
following the attacks on Sept. 11.
The aftermath is evident to visitors coming into the city far from the bright lights
of Manhattan where an armed security presence is visible patrolling the Amtrak stations
as far north as Croton-on-Harmon.

On arrival at Penn Station, passengers are watched as they exit the train.
Once inside the station itself - located directly beneath Madison Square Garden -
the pedestrian traffic is re-routed to the only operational exits, those furthest
from the arena where the security presence is increasingly magnified.
The city remains under orange alert, indicating a high risk of terrorist attack.
The citywide police force numbers more than 39,000, many who have been re-assigned
to the convention area and hotels hosting the delegates for the duration of the week.

And that’s only the security that’s visible.
There is also the unseen presence of plainclothes detectives and hazardous materials
teams, heavily armed anti-terror squads, rooftop snipers, Coast Guard teams
and bomb-sniffing dogs.
Electronic devices check underneath passing vehicles while helicopters provide
close-up video surveillance from above.
NORAD - the North American Aerospace Defense Command - is assisting in
monitoring air space over Manhattan, whose hazy, humid skies are mostly vacant
except for an ever-present blimp that hovers above New York Citylike an all-seeing
electronic god.
The cost for all of this security will be at least $65 million, according to current Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Access is restricted at street level, with the area surrounding Madison Square Garden
fenced off and barricaded. The normally public sidewalks closest to the arena
are closed to pedestrian traffic, and the basic rule is this:
Without proper credentials, don’t even think of getting anywhere near the place.

There are 15,000 here with media credentials. For them, mornings are spent in the converted theater within the arena’s grounds where daily press briefings are held. There is also
the post office across the street from the arena, which this week is a 250,000-square-foot media space accessible by crossing the ‘climate-controlled foot bridge’ spanning
over Eighth Avenue that offers everything from haircuts to massages.

Outside, directly facing the arena, a pair of massive sanitation trucks and an
intricate blockade of barriers line the 33rd Street vehicle checkpoint.
They are the type in use at embassies around the world. Their goal is two-fold:
to protect the venue from charging vehicles intent on doing damage
and to provide a secure holding location to search vehicles authorized for entry
into the building.
When asked to explain what the large, half-block-long vehicle checkpoint contraption
was called, one of New York’s finest replied that he refers to it as a sally-port.
‘But don’t ask me who Sally is. I never met the person,’ he laughed.

Alongside the automatic weapons and the riot gear, in the serious business
of protecting the city, maintaining a sense of humor is probably the most important asset anyone can have.

Saratogian writer Thomas Dimopoulos is in New York City providing local
coverage of the Republican National Convention this week.

1 Comments:

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5:27 PM  

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