New York to Close Area Near G.O.P. Convention to Traffic

[Khephra]

New York City Police Department plans to shut down several Midtown thoroughfares during the Republic National Convention in August, essentially closing the area around Madison Square Garden to the public and letting protesters get only as close as one corner of the garden.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, outlined for the first time today an ambitious security undertaking that would effectively channel all commuters coming out of Penn Station to a pedestrian corridor down 32nd Street and set up a barricaded lane in front of the convention site to search under cars with platform-mounted cameras.

Mayor Bloomberg previously asserted that the convention would be largely invisible to most New Yorkers. But speaking on his weekly radio show, he said that his priority was to keep the city safe, and maintained that the heightened security measures would not, for the most part, interfere with city life during the slow summer season. In what has become a common refrain, the mayor declared, "If you don't live or work in the Garment District, you won't even know that there's a convention in town."

But the shutdown of streets would affect large parts of Midtown Manhattan. Police officials plan to close off 13 blocks of Seventh Avenue, spanning the Garment District to Times Square, and 11 blocks of Eighth Avenue south of 34th Street during the one morning and four evenings that the convention is actually in session.

more...............

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/25/nyregion/25CND-CONV.html

[Justice]

1. Ahhhh. Finally, Some Parity

I have been saying that the decisions about security/shutdowns in Boston were political because the plan for NYC was to allow open free access to the Garden/Penn Station.

At least now, people will appreciate it is for security purposes, and not b/c democrats or bostonians are not able to handle things appropriately.

It is about time!