Saint Paul 2008

Two articles in the past few days touch on the demonstrations and protests predicted to take place during the 2008 RNC convention here in St. Paul - one in the Minnesota Daily, the University of Minnesota newspaper, is highly entertaining, despite having no real purpose or point (but such is the case with many of […]

Will the FBI codeword for their monitoring of protestors at the 2008 RNC Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota be “STREP”?

Evidently our local activists are dissatisfied with the treatment they’re receiving from the City ahead of the 2008 RNC Convention in St Paul. “It’s a convention, not a catastrophe,” warned Matt Bostrom, our Assistant Chief of Police. Alliterative assertions aside, we’re skeptical that many in the anti-war, anti-globalisation, anti-republican, anti-imperialism, anti-damn-near-everything movements are […]

While we’ve been busy enjoying Minnesota’s unseasonable warm March weather, others have been busy… doing other stuff.
The 2008 Pheasant Fest at RiverCentre (18-20 January) will overlap the 2008 Figure Skating Championships (20-27 January) by one day, which should be interesting, to say the least.
Area residents come up with some pretty dumb ideas for redevelopment of […]

“shouting obscenities at the police in the street is so 20th century,” says Martha Ballou of St. Paul, a lawyer and organizer trying to set up large outdoor video screens downtown during the RNC convention in 2008. Evidently thousands of people sitting around and being passively entertained by, let’s face it, anti-GOP propaganda is […]

From an AP article, and other sources, some numbers concerning the 2008 RNC Convention in St Paul:
People:
50,000 people are expected to visit the area during the convention
20,000 hotel rooms are to be reserved, including 2,000 suites
8,000 volunteers will be impressed into service
3,000 protestors’ arrests are being planned, and budgeted, for

Money:
$82 million: Predicted total RNC budget
$57 […]

The Saint Paul Pioneer Press is not known for it’s liberal viewpoint the way the Minneapolis “Red Star Tribune” is, so it’s not unexpected that they’d be displaying unbridled enthusiasm for the RNC convention here in September 2008, in an editorial opinion piece published today.
Overall, we’ve little to disagree with them about, except the supposition […]

Minnesota Public Radio reports on the less mediapathic side of the 2008 RNC convention in St. Paul, Minnesota - the negative effect the convention’s presence and security measures will have on area businesses.
The problem is that security - the Secret Service, mainly - will establish a perimiter around RiverCentre and the Xcel Energy Center, inside […]

if St Paul really does get the State of Minnesota to forgive around one-hundred million in outstanding debt, ahead of the conventions, that could turn out to be the single largest benefit to the city.

The City of Saint Paul would like a hundred-million dollars of debt owed to the State of Minnesota forgiven, for somewhat disingenious reasons.