When I woke up Saturday morning to take a walk, I was surprised to find chain link fences surrounding the historic Water Tower. I especially love the large blue sign hung on the facade facing Michigan Avenue stating, “Chicago DNC Welcome.” Half of the sign is obscured by the fence. In addition, the streets on each of the three sides of the Water Tower, as well as a couple of other streets, were also blocked off. In addition to the fences are stations to conduct searches and obstacles to stop cars from crashing through.

Apparently everyone was surprised to wake up to this sight. It had not been previously announced and was completed under cover of night. Turns out that VIPs, including Kamala Harris, are staying at hotels on those streets.

Just a side note about that. The convention is being held at United Center, which is about four miles from the location of these hotels. The area around United Center is not the safest. Whenever I have attended either a game or a concert there, I have been more than conscious of that, and where normally I would take public transportation to a place like that, I would never feel safe doing so. Plus, on the outskirts of the city, not a lot of business surround the few blocks of the stadium.

If I were traveling to Chicago to attend the DNC, I would not want to stay within walking distance of the United Center. It would make sense to want to stay in an area where all of the tourists would also stay, likely near or off MIchigan Avenue. 

As I walked home last night, two motorcades, one after another, had Michigan Ave shut down, each with dozens of vehicles. They were both headed to hotels on the blocked off streets.

So this had me thinking. I had assured friends of mine who live in the area that they need not worry about the DNC impacting their lives this week too much. The protests are all over at the actual convention, after all. But I never considered that we would be dealing with closed streets and endless motorcades. Is this really necessary??

Why would you stay off MIchigan Avenue? Do take in the sights. To shop. To walk to the Water Tower, the Chicago River, the Bean. But the fact is that none of these people who require dozens of cars and motorcycles of security to accompany them wherever they go are absolutely NOT taking advantage of the location. It is an understatement that they would be fairly limited in their activities. So why couldn’t they stay in a hotel that would not have such a huge impact on the residents and tourists? 

I’m telling you, it does not put Chicago in its best light to have all this fencing and security, even surrounding historical monuments. It feels dystopian. And what about the cost to stay off MIchigan Avenue? Wouldn’t it be more cost effective to stay further from the city, where security would have much more control and much fewer threats walking around all day?

The only thing I can think is that these VIPs are, of course, entitled to only the best, in the best location, regardless of whether they can actually enjoy them or not. 

Ok, enough about that rant. Moving on. So last night was the first official permitted protest, led by Bodies Against Unjust Laws, a coalition for reproductive justice and LGBTQ+ liberation. This protest was the only one permitted to march down MIchigan Avenue, starting from the Chicago River and moving to the General John Logan Memorial statue, the location of a huge riot during the 1968 DNC. Probably the most important thing about this particular protest is that it would probably set the tone for the week.

As I approached the intersection, all I saw were cops. Cops and more cops. Wow. At the beginning, maybe a couple of hundred protesters gathered, setting up the stage and passing out signs. There seemed to be a lot more cops than that (my crowd size estimating skills are severely wanting, FYI). 

By the time the march began, over an hour later (these protests always have a long list of people who want their turn to speak), hundreds of protesters gathered, certainly less than a thousand. And hundreds of bike cops lined the street and cops in yellow vests lined the sidewalks, so basically, there were four lines of police accompanying the march. Oh, and I only saw Chicago Police Department members. At the RNC, I rarely saw MIlwaukee cops. Most were from out of town. So I will be curious how many other cops I run into.

The protest and the march were, thankfully, uneventful. One scuffle between police and protesters did occur, when some protesters blocked a group of bike cops from moving forward and proceeded to call them pigs and other names.

Before I finish and head out to today’s two scheduled protests, here are just a couple of observations from this first protest.

1. It seems like every protest here in Chicago ends up being co-opted by the Palestinian activists. So of course, Palestinian flags were waving, and the majority of chants were about Palestine. I am not sure why every cause ends up being about Palestine. What does LGBTQ+ have to do with Palestine? Yet there were signs that said there can be no Palestinian peace until there are LGBTQ+ rights. Huh?
2. Lots of abortion supporters, including a group of older (menopausal?) women dressed as the abortion pill.
3. Oh my goodness, so so many reporters and photographers as well as all of the “influencers” live streaming. The live streamers are probably the most irritating. A couple of us local protest photographers were joking around about how we like our local protests with our core group of photographers much better than this mess. 
4. I only saw one person interviewing a protester that got heated. A woman with her partner was selling pussy hats, and I don’t know what the reporter said to her, but she was soon screaming at him and calling him all sorts of names.
5. Some of the protesters I saw all over the place in Milwaukee at the RNC showed up here – no surprise! I am sure I will see many more today.

I think that is it. If this is any sign of things to come, the week should go smoothly.The numbers of protesters expected that are being reported in the media and released in press releases are so high, they seem wildly exaggerated. I have read that Chicago expects 100,000 protesters and that 60,000 Antifa members are already in town. This has always seemed ridiculous to me.  And after the weak showing last night and the weak showing at the RNC, I am even more convinced those numbers are ridiculous.

But also, today at noon is the largest expected protest, so we shall soon see!

More of the DNC Series

Previous: Preparation Next: Day One. Day Two. Day Three. Day Four