While Pittsburgh waits for President Barack Obama to leave New York and land here, another part of the city is going into lock-down: Oakland, home to Pittsburgh’s two big universities, a sprawling public park, major hospitals, a new biotechnology research center and the Phipps Conservatory, where world leaders will pick at gourmet dinner and open their meeting.

Before that, the University of Pittsburgh will host Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European commission of the European Union. Barely will that invitation-only lunch and lecture be over when media will swarm Oakland to hear Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Medvedev will get a big welcome as Obama’s new best friend because of his statement in New York that Moscow would stand behind the U.S. in potentially toughening sanctions against Iran.

He is expected to get a special tour of the Russian Nationality Room on campus and then speak in the Commons Room in Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning, which is the tallest academic structure in the Western Hemisphere. Luckily, the Russians have something taller: the tower of Russia’s Moscow State University.

It’s a score for the university, but students won’t be in the front row seat since they have been told to clear out of the cathedral by noon.

Liz Navratil, news editor for the Pitt News, the student newspaper, said the G20 was touted as a learning experience but most students have gone elsewhere to get a glimpse of it.

“If they want to get something out of it, they need to leave campus,” said Navratil. “I would have loved to see students have more access to it.”

Instead, there will be plenty of protesting venues around them, one right across the street from Pitt and another in an old, nearby neighborhood called Lawrenceville.

One National Guardsman helping secure the streets around the university said he expects locals will be calm, if not helpful, if things get out of hand. As he pointed out, it’s one thing when students go on a rampage in Oakland after the city ties down a Superbowl or Stanley Cup win, but it’s another thing entirely if the damage comes from outsiders.

And, this just in for those wondering how to please all those international palates at the private Phipps dinner and the spousal dinner tonight at a farm just outside the city owned by Teresa Heinz Kerry: So everyone goes away happy and full, every government was contacted some time ago about dietary issues and, yes, there are a few (but not many) "special orders" reflecting religious or traditional concerns, such as no meat. Local caterers are filling the bill even though one of Pittsburgh’s most famous culinary fixtures is not far way.

That would be Primanti’s, the only place in the world where they put a heap of French fries on top of every sandwich.

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