RNC Convention week July 18-21 information

art credit: yahoo.com

Last night, I attended a meeting at the new Hilton Hotel; the meeting was for Clevelanders who live or work in the downtown neighborhoods and who will be affected by the RNC convention next month. My guess is that there were over 300 Clevelanders in attendance. Among the members of the panel were

·         Joe Calabrese, CEO and General Manager of RTA

·         Valarie McCall from Mayor Jackson’s office

·         Joe Marinucci, CEO of Downtown Cleveland Alliance

·         Two Secret Service Agents, Rowe and Lea, assigned to this event

·         Ed Tomba, Deputy Chief of Cleveland Police

Useful information included:

·         identifying the event zone, which includes just about all of the downtown area;

·         limited street access for vehicle traffic (more per the link below)

·        recommendations for traveling in and out of the downtown area during convention week (if at all possible, use the RTA Rapid Transit);

·         RTA will be operating double the number of free trolleys (presumably the E-Line, B-Line, and C-Lines) during convention week;

·         business operating hours will be extended to 4 a.m. – so be prepared for more partying as many bars and restaurants will be staying open till the wee hours;

·          Cleveland PD plans a significantly increased police presence, on the streets, on horseback, on bicycles, in and out of uniform, and augmented by LEOs from across the country and also with Secret Service agents;

·          the malls at the Convention Center will be dedicated to media use

LAW ENFORCEMENT: The takeaway most important to me was that Deputy Chief Ed Tomba stated flat out that if someone breaks the law, whether assault, property damage, etc., law enforcement officers are under instruction to make arrests and remove the individuals. Nobody wants to see the violence and police impotence that we saw on TV and on blog videos recently from San Jose.  

For updates and information specific to Cleveland residents, start at the website here: https://www.2016cle.com/community-updates. The panel promises more updates (some of the sections are already outdated). If you live or work in the downtown event zone or near it, you might want to bookmark the website, especially for updated transportation and safety issues.

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