G20

[Drew Dowdell]

No, I'm not buying an Infiniti.

I'm talking about the G20 summit being held in my home town. What. A. Nightmare.

Every downtown business that isn't a restaurant is being told to shut down. There are travel restrictions on the airport. The main arteries through town will be closed. There are no arteries around town.

Construction has boomed. They are rushing to get roads repaved and buildings finished before the dignitaries arrive. Protesters have already arrived and it's still a month away. The Secret Service and the County are toying with the protesters... which I don't approve of... but I understand. First the protesters were going to be moved to Point State Park at the very tip of downtown. Then the Secret Service changed their mind and decided to have the helicopters land there. Now that has changed again and suddenly the park rebuilding project that's been stalled since the Carter administration has suddenly announce it breaks ground on Monday.

My own company is shipping 300 employees all over in an attempt to keep business as usual. Today it dawned on management that business as usual is a pipe dream. I'm being shipped to Columbus Ohio to tend to the users in the Dublin office.

I was kind of excited. I thought the G20 would be good for the city from a business standpoint but with everything but restaurants and hotels shutting down there's no chance there. I thought it would be neat to see Obama and pals, but you'll have to have security clearance just to get downtown.

Oh well. My company is renting me a car for the week.... so I guess it's not all bad.

[Robert Hall]

Was anyone on here in Seattle for its messy G20 meeting? I have couple of friends that lived in Seattle then but were intentionally out of town when it went down.

Edited August 28, 2009 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[daves87rs]

Wow. I'd stay away from that too....

[Satty]

An economic summit in Pittsburgh? Was Detroit not available? Was Cleveland completely booked?

[Robert Hall]

One has to wonder, wouldn't it be better to hold these kind of meetings at a remote, secluded resort that could be secured without inconveniencing a whole city?

[FAPTurbo]

One has to wonder, wouldn't it be better to hold these kind of meetings at a remote, secluded resort that could be secured without inconveniencing a whole city?

They've done it for the G8 in Canada. Nothing's more remote and secluded than that.

[Satty]

They've done it for the G8 in Canada. Nothing's more remote and secluded than that.

Alaska is. And as a bonus, you can see Russia from it.

[Justin Bimmer]

I expect a C&G drives review with photogs!

[Drew Dowdell]

An economic summit in Pittsburgh? Was Detroit not available? Was Cleveland completely booked?

You haven't been to Pittsburgh lately.

Three years ago I would have agreed with you, but since that time we have a new, massive, convention center that is also a LEED certified green building.

Pittsburgh’s David L. Lawrence Convention Center is the first and largest certified green building of its kind, which is part of the reason the city was chosen to host the G-20 summit meeting this August. It is the only convention center to be awarded the Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Over 75% of the building uses natural light from skylights, windows and glass walls. The exterior of the building captures and reflects city lights to reduce the amount of lighting that needed to be installed and energy that would have been used.

The ventilation system features a roof design and riverside louvers that allow fresh air to flow in and out of the building.

Waste water is recycled for use in toilets.

Everyone working in the convention center uses as many eco-friendly and sustainable products as possible including refillable pens and recycled paper products. The staff is also dedicated to make every event held at the center as green as possible through practices and products used.

Not only is this center eco-friendly, but the builders didn’t forget about all the waste from tearing down the old center, more than 95% of the original building was crushed into fill materials.

Other massive building and reconstruction projects have taken off in the same time frame. We have 1 new skyscraper, also a green building. There are whole city blocks downtown that are being gutted and rebuilt into green buildings but that still retain their original appearance. Two new stadiums with a 3rd being built as another LEED building. A 5th performing arts center is just being finished up, also a green building.

And we've held the "Most Livable City in the U.S." title since 2007.

[Drew Dowdell]

I expect a C&G drives review with photogs!

Well I got a full size, so that likely means an Impala or Taurus... maybe a Malibu. If it's the Impala I won't bother. If it's a new Taurus or Malibu, I'll write something up.

[CSpec]

If the protests turn violent like in Seattle, there should be very forceful punishment. That behavior is completely unacceptable.

[capriceman]

Well I got a full size, so that likely means an Impala or Taurus... maybe a Malibu. If it's the Impala I won't bother. If it's a new Taurus or Malibu, I'll write something up.

The Malibu is considered Intermediate.

[Drew Dowdell]

The Malibu is considered Intermediate.

Usually, some rental places are pushing it off as a full size now.

[Robert Hall]

Usually, some rental places are pushing it off as a full size now.

Rental agencies seem to make up their own categories... I remember the Grand Am and Ciera were called midsize by Avis, and the '00-07 Taurus was called full size by Hertz. It's all bogus.

[Justin Bimmer]

Usually, some rental places are pushing it off as a full size now.

It's full-size at Hertz.

[Drew Dowdell]

Got an '09 Lucerne CXL nicely loaded. Not a bad car to have for two 4 hour road trips.

BTW, based on current estimates, even if every single resident of the City of Pittsburgh were drafted into G20 security service, the protesters would still out number us 2 to 1.

[Robert Hall]

So you are going over to Ohio this week and next week (24th-25th is the G20 meetings, thought you said 17th-18th in another thread)?

[Drew Dowdell]

So you are going over to Ohio this week and next week (24th-25th is the G20 meetings, thought you said 17th-18th in another thread)?

I'll be in Ohio the 17th and 18th to do final preparations on an office in Dublin that will be recieving an extra 45 people from the 21st - 25th.

I will be working out of my house and out of an office 20 miles south of Pittsburgh from the 21st - 25th.