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Cock Block.
This is rEcockulous. Of course, I can't think of a better demonstration of Republican priorities than forcing 500,000 commuters to walk through a pedestrian cattle chute so the fat cats in MSG can conduct their GWB ass-licking ceremonies undisturbed.
Oh, and Bloomberg Lied.
Confidential to half the board: it's from the NYT so you can assume it's false and stop reading now.
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June 25, 2004
New York to Close Area Near G.O.P. Convention to Traffic
By WINNIE HU and MICHAEL SLACKMAN
The New York City Police Department plans to shut down several Midtown thoroughfares during the Republic National Convention in August, essentially closing the area around Madison Square Garden to the public and letting protesters get only as close as one corner of the garden.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, outlined for the first time today an ambitious security undertaking that would effectively channel all commuters coming out of Penn Station to a pedestrian corridor down 32nd Street and set up a barricaded lane in front of the convention site to search under cars with platform-mounted cameras.
Mayor Bloomberg previously asserted that the convention would be largely invisible to most New Yorkers. But speaking on his weekly radio show, he said that his priority was to keep the city safe, and maintained that the heightened security measures would not, for the most part, interfere with city life during the slow summer season. In what has become a common refrain, the mayor declared, "If you don't live or work in the Garment District, you won't even know that there's a convention in town."
But the shutdown of streets would affect large parts of Midtown Manhattan. Police officials plan to close off 13 blocks of Seventh Avenue, spanning the Garment District to Times Square, and 11 blocks of Eighth Avenue south of 34th Street during the one morning and four evenings that the convention is actually in session.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will reroute buses on both avenues. Subway commuters will be strongly urged to use stations other than those at 34th Street. And the police will essentially put Madison Square Garden in a concrete box, with barricades around the entire perimeter of the arena.
In describing the measures, the mayor also reminded radio listeners that the Republican convention would benefit the city as a whole, saying that it would generate an estimated $250 million for the local economy and create thousands of jobs. "So this is a good economic deal for the city," the mayor said. "The disruptions will be a little bit annoying but minimal. There's no reason for businesses to close down."
But many Midtown residents, business owners and advocates for transportation groups complained today that the convention was more trouble than it was worth.
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