For all the advance work that the City and County are doing for the G-20 conference in terms of beautification, site visits, and trying to keep Downtown functioning as normal come late September, there are a string of closures occurring in anticipation of the inconvenience and possible chaos that could occur in and around the City. To wit:
- All community college campuses are closing
- The symphony has moved concerts from that weekend to June of 2010
- Duquesne University is cancelling classes and make them up the week of Thanksgiving
- The Port Authority noted "in all likelihood, we will not have very much service, if any, in Downtown Pittsburgh"
- The Penguins are rescheduling a game that they were set to play on the 25th to the 15th of September
Even the City’s public safety director, who has noted that the City will be open, but with inconveniences, has acknowledged "many restrictions and road closings, we may not know until days before".
These are just the ones mentioned at the outset: who knows what else will be closed near the convention center when the conference actually arrives? Or what will happen to businesses that remain open but suffer from the residual effect of people staying away from the City? How can visiting dignitaries see the rebound Pittsburgh has made if their gathering causes enough inconveniences that the City is a ghost town?
