Gotham Gears Up

By Jarrett Murphy,
CBSNews.com producer

While the convention and the protests are next week's headline events, they represent just a few of the entries on the city's chock-full social calendar.

On Saturday's agenda, for example, besides a protest march across the Brooklyn Bridge and a pre-convention party in Manhattan, the Mets start a home stand at Shea Stadium in Queens.

The next day, a demonstration expected to draw 250,000 people rolls past the convention site at Madison Square Garden while a half-marathon runs through Central Park. The convention — and the U.S. Open Tennis tournament — open Monday. A women's rights march shares Central Park with a concert for GOP delegates on Wednesday.

"We've got our work cut out for us," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at a security briefing earlier this month. "We anticipate a safe and secure — but a very busy — week."

Up to 10,000 police officers will cover the convention and the roughly 400 related events, Kelly said. At sensitive sites, the NYPD's tactical Hercules teams will be deployed.

Around Madison Square Garden, two rings of security are being thrown up. An outer ring mainly affects parking. The inner perimeter is restricted to those with credentials for the convention and those who can prove they work in the area.

There are also "extremely robust measures" to prevent truck bombs, Kelly said, like delta barriers that can split the front end of a speeding truck in half, and roadbed cameras that transmit images of a vehicle's undercarriage to a surveillance station.

"This is something that an enormous amount of work has gone into at every level of government for a year and a half," Mayor Michael Bloomberg told the same press briefing. That planning has taken place amid New York City's already elevated security: The city considers itself to be on constant "orange" alert, and upgraded operations during the war in Iraq and the recent threats to financial institutions.

All the security costs money, but the federal government is reimbursing $50 million of it.

The convention is expected to attract 50,000 visitors and generate $265 million in overall economic activity, according to the mayor. But an economic boost was also predicted for Boston during the Democrats' gathering last month, only to end in disappointment for local merchants. The security procedures and other inconveniences of the convention may have driven native Bostonians away from stores, restaurants and theaters.

New York City's comptroller, a Democrat, estimates the GOP convention will reduce normal economic activity by $281 million because of "lost productivity due to commuter delays and business slowdown."

Hence city officials' emphasis on "keeping the city functioning as normally as possible during the convention," in Kelly's words.

"Our administration intends to strike a balance of taking precautions as needed without overreacting," Bloomberg said. Contrary to some media reports, the mayor said, the city never considered closing Penn Station underneath MSG or shutting down the subway.

But it won't quite be business as usual. Bus service on Manhattan's 7th and 8th Avenues will be rerouted and traffic will be blocked for long stretches of both streets. Hotel taxi stands will be moved to new locations. A construction embargo will be in place not just around the Garden, but at several lower Manhattan locations as well.

The changes involved a myriad of city services.

The Department of Homeless Services is telling homeless people that the doors of soup kitchens near the convention site will remain open. Outreach staff will also be on duty at the main post office, located across the street from the Garden, where many homeless people pick up their benefit checks on the first of the month.

City sanitation trucks, which usually handle only household refuse, will be picking up commercial garbage from inside the security zones. The Taxi and Limousine Commission says it will tell drivers and fleets about changes in street closures or areas where there's unmet demand for cabs.

"There are a great many drivers who approach driving a taxi very scientifically. These are drivers who know when the Knicks are in town and when the ships are coming into the west side and plan their days accordingly," said TLC spokesman Alan Fromberg.

Many agencies said their RNC plans did not differ much from what they do to prepare for the annual New Year's Eve party in Times Square, or other big events the city regularly hosts. But despite New York's experience as a host, agencies are at the ready for unexpected, especially terrorism and protests.

The Office of Emergency Management — a command center designed to handle everything from major storms to terrorist attacks — will be up and running. Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the city's chief medical examiner, said her office is "on call the same as the police department."

The Manhattan District Attorney's office, which would be in line to handle court proceedings for any protesters who are arrested, says it's prepared to add extra staff on an "as-needed" basis.

That need could arise on Sunday. The city and organizers of the large march set for that day clashed over where the event should be held, with Bloomberg refusing the group's bid to hold an event in Central Park. Despite the official ban, some protesters are expected to march to the park anyway.

"There will be, obviously, some people who go to Central Park and we'll have police officers there," Kelly told the CBS News Early Show on Friday, adding "So we're prepared but I believe it will be peaceful day."

Later in the week, when President Bush addresses the convention on Thursday, no major protest is planned. But Kelly says police believe one will emerge.

"And we're prepared for that," Kelly said in the early August briefing.

Protesters have been gearing up as well. The New York Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday was scheduled to offer the last of four, two-hour training sessions on "your legal rights as a protester at the RNC and what to do if those rights are infringed upon."

By Jarrett Murphy