Unhappy Hosts Awaiting the Republicans

Even the hot dog vendors are complaining. As they stood in front of Madison Square Garden recently, Lamin Contu and other street merchants protested their eviction next month from the site of the Republican National Convention.

“Do we lose our right to make a living?” Contu asked, noting that police had ordered him and other vendors to clear the area for security reasons while the Republicans are in town. As motorists honked in solidarity, he waved a picket sign and raised his fist.

In a city of clamoring and clashing opinions, it is inevitable that an event as large as the GOP convention would turn up the volume.

More than 50,000 delegates, guests and reporters are expected to flood into the city, along with thousands of political protesters, when the bash is held from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2.

As in Boston, where the Democrats are meeting for their convention this week, New York leaders have stressed the positive effect of the event and the millions of dollars it will bring into city coffers. But as plans are being finalized, residents have been bickering over the location and policing of planned protests; they are also complaining about disruptions of mass transit near the convention and gridlock in a city already choked by traffic.

The biggest concern, of course, is terrorism, and some critics doubt that New York is doing all it can to protect people from an attack. How can officials protect subway riders against terrorist strikes, some ask, when it is virtually impossible to guard and patrol the hundreds of transit stations scattered throughout the city?

“New York will be as safe as a big city can possibly be,” Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has promised. He said that New York’s 40,000-member police force, the nation’s largest, will deploy officers on every subway rumbling into Pennsylvania Station, underneath the convention site. Officials are taking additional undisclosed steps as well, he added.

Many observers fear that the sheer number of protesters coming to New York could pose a security problem. City officials are mindful of previous events that degenerated into violence, such as the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle and the bloody demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago.

Along with vendors such as Contu, the ranks of protesters in New York will be swelled by members of local police, firefighters and teachers unions, who plan to picket at Madison Square Garden to focus attention on long-standing wage disputes with the city.

If all this wasn’t complicated enough, the city will hold Major League baseball games and the U.S. Open Tennis Championships and will be gearing up for Fashion Week while the convention is in town.

Local leaders are calling for patience and tolerance.

“There is nothing that doesn’t inconvenience someone,” an exasperated Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said last week during a radio interview. “That’s life. It happens, folks. We should remember that this convention is going to be a great experience.”

Convention officials have been fine-tuning the big party for months, readying entertainment for delegates that includes guided tours, Broadway shows, baseball seats, concerts and tables at New York’s best restaurants.

Organizers have also recruited 10,000 volunteers to help Republican visitors get around the city and, hopefully, enjoy a slice of New York during their stay.

“When they’re here -- make nice!” said former Mayor Edward I. Koch -- a Democrat -- in TV and radio spots urging New Yorkers to be civilized. “They won’t know Uptown from Downtown.... Show them where to find shopping! Show off New York!”

Protest organizers, however, complain that the city is doing little to help the thousands coming here to demonstrate against the Bush administration.

The leaders of United for Peace and Justice, an umbrella organization linking several hundred groups, battled to win permission for a mammoth march that would file past Madison Square Garden and end in Central Park.

Bloomberg and police officials denied the request, saying the park could not handle the 250,000 or more people expected, so organizers reluctantly agreed to an alternate site -- the Westside Highway, miles from the convention.

There are also protesters who plan to protest the protesters. Tom Paladino, who runs the New York chapter of Protest Warriors, said he and other Republicans would be in the streets shouting at anti-President Bush marchers. The group knows that it will be outnumbered, he says, but plans to wave its own picket signs and wear distinctive T-shirts.

Other groups have also received or are seeking permits for demonstrations, including the Central Labor Council, antiwar groups Not in Our Name and Code Pink/Women for Peace, the Green Party, the National Council of Arab Americans, the Middle East Peace Coalition, People for the American Way and the Christian Defense Coalition.

Police were dealt a setback last week, when protest organizers won a court case banning the department from randomly searching backpacks at marches and rallies. Officers may search such belongings only if they think there is a credible security threat, the court ruled.

Critics called the ruling misguided, especially after Commissioner Kelly warned that, according to several websites, “anarchist” groups may attempt to disrupt the city’s transit system during the convention.

Leslie Cagan, national coordinator for United for Peace and Justice, and others dismissed these warnings, saying the police are playing on fears to discredit protesters.

“New York will be a great place during the convention,” Bloomberg said, trying to dispel fears and urging people to get on with their lives during the event.

But he was also realistic. “Can I guarantee that there isn’t some crazy out there who won’t try to do something stupid in New York?” he added. “I can’t guarantee that.”