C.M. Sennott
Charles M. Sennott, the Executive Editor and Vice President of GlobalPost, is an award-winning journalist and author with a distinguished career in international reporting for both print and...
Pittsburgh braces to welcome the world
PITTSBURGH — Just landed in this gritty town of rivers and steel and a no-nonsense people who work hard and play hard.
The city is bracing for the Group of 20 summit on the global economy that will shut down roads and disrupt life and generally mess with the local economy. But the folks here are pretty welcoming, sort of in the way you welcome your in-laws who'll be spending a few days.
To be polite, they seem to be watching international affairs a bit more closely than usual. But from what I can tell they're not too impressed.
"Is this guy serious?" asked Greg Smalenskas, a chef at a downtown restaurant, as he watched Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gadaffi live on CNN deliver his insane, 90-minute rant at the U.N. General Assembly.
"Is he coming here?" asked a woman sitting at the bar, as he went from calling for an investigation of the JFK assasination to referring to Obama as "my son" and banging the podium as he called for the U.N. to move out of New York.
The woman looked worried. No, I assured her, Libya is not in the G-20 and thankfully will not be pitching up in Pittsburgh. But clearly Gadaffi got up on the wrong side of the tent after his attempt to create a Bedouin encampment on land owned by Donald Trump in Bedford, NY and another parcel in New Jersey was disrupted in the middle of the night. (I'm not making this up.)
Before the surreal interlude of Gadaffi and the fireworks of protesters challenging Iranian leader Ahmadenijad, President Obama opened the session with a speech that was well-reasoned and warmly welcomed. Obama stressed the need for countries to work together to confront global issues. Highlights of it in the newscast got a few polite nods of the head in agreement from most of the people in the Tap Room bar at the William Penn Hotel, but very quickly eyes shifted back to the larger screens which were carrying ESPN.
Out on the rain-soaked streets, Tiona Jackson, 25, a nursing assistant, was waiting for a bus to get to the nursing home where she works the late shift. And she has no idea how she'll get home when they begin shutting down the streets for the summit later tonight.
"All I know is I can't get home from work tonight and have no idea how I'll get in tomorrow," she said. "Tell you the truth, I'll be glad when they're gone."
David Henderson, a computer programer with a Pittsburgh Steelers' T-shirt, said he was surprised by the hundreds of police who are out in force to counter a small insurgency of protesters who lurk around the city.
"The police are in riot gear and scaring the daylights out of everybody," he said and "all these black limos are everhwere" in town escorting the delegations.
"As long as they are all out of here by the time the Steelers' game starts, I guess we can put up with all this," he said.
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