G20 Pittsburgh Summit
Aug/091
There’s a lot of buzz going around in the city of Pittsburgh these days thanks to President Obama’s team choosing the “City of Champions” as the next location of the G20 Summit. From September 24-25, the city will be in a virtual lock-down. Public transportation will most assuredly be a commuter nightmare (will be known from first-hand experience). In case you’re like 85% of the rest of the country/world, here’s a little taste of what exactly the G20 Summit is.
According to Wikipedia:
…the Obama Administration announced a change of venue to Pittsburgh in order to highlight the city’s economic recovery following the collapse of its manufacturing sector in the latter half of the 20th century. In response to the Global credit crisis, a G20 summit in one year was proposed shortly after the London summit in April 2009. The second G20 2009 summit will hopefully evaluate the measures taken in April 2009 in London and implement new policies which will stimulate the global economy.
Amongst the issues to be discussed is a proposal to radically reform the International Monetary Fund. French President Nicholas Sarkozy also suggested that there would be an evaluation of measures already taken.
…Thousands of protesters are expected during the week of the summit, and the Pittsburgh Police are coordinating with the United States Secret Service as well as over 100 police departments in nearby cities. It is estimated that 4,000 police officers will be needed, and the city currently only has 900 police officers. Mayor Luke [Steeler]stahl is also attempting to alleviate problems by meeting beforehand with some of the protest groups.
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9:04 pm on September 26th, 2009
Pittsburgh’s G-20 story: Take an expressway from town and disappear into desolate ‘hoods and encounter the civilization of menace. Pittsburgh, a dual city! The glass wonder of PPG Place and/or the G-20 Summit is a faded memory. Here in the ‘hood lives lie abandoned as far as the eye can see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEukcWW5dM0
That is: For the most part, African-American Pittsburgh seems to be invisible, not only to the public relations hucksters who tout Pittsburgh’s successes, but we are equally invisible to the protesters.
Certainly, black Pittsburgh is as proud as anybody is that the black President we worked so hard to elect has selected Pittsburgh as the host of the G-20 Summit. We even enjoy the re-invention of Pittsburgh from a dirty, smoky steel-churning history to the bright, clean, green financial success that the business leaders and politicians boast about so loudly. Nobody is more proud of the Super Bowl winning African-American coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike Tomlin. But none of that feel-good stuff erases the pain of the stubbornly high unemployment among African American young adults and the staggering dropout rate for young black males from the public school system.