It’s a stunning story because electronic devices rarely survive the fall from my hip pocket to the floor, let alone from a high-rise into a demonstration

Read the entire article here, even if it does take a jab at Pittsburgh.

I think I might have thought that this would be a bigger post, at least when it was in my head.  Really, I just wanted to thank PAT for how they handled the G-20.

It was stressful for everyone, commuters and anyone trying to travel especially.  While the detours seemingly were posted later than I had hoped for, or thought they would be available, getting reliable information about the G-20 seemed to be an issue that just about every company had trouble with.

So with my detour map in hand, I headed downtown.  The map actually proved very useful, as I said before, I work at the end of town near the Convention Center, so I’m not that familiar with the end closer to the Point.  The map helped me on more than one occasion, and helped me find my bus stop to get home, even though I kept double and triple checking it.

I ended up the wrong side of the street, to catch my bus home (a different route too, so all kinds of new experiences smashed into one day), but since the Boulevard of the Allies had as much activity as a graveyard, I was able to run across and get on.

As I stood there, waiting on what was to be the wrong side of the street, I did call PAT, just to make sure things were still running smoothly.  The customer service rep was nothing but helpful and very kind, a big thumbs up for that.

And of course, the constant e-mail and twitter updates, even retweeting messages from outlying transit agencies, kept everyone in the loop.  I am glad I didn’t have to experience the total shut down of transit during the march for peace on Friday, but PAT seemed to take it in stride.

All in all, a commendable experience.  Will it encourage anyone to make the switch to transit?  Sadly, I don’t think so.  With the TDP changes coming, and what will probably be the most noted, the fare increase, I seem to think that the deft handling of the G-20 summit will be lost in the PR shuffle.  Hopefully I’m mistaken.

It started, as most days do for me, with riding the bus into town.  Not unexpectedly, the bus was almost vacant.  Once we got past a couple stops on the East Busway, it turned out that there were two of us going into town.  And for almost the entire trip, we pretty much flew into town.  Until we got to the Arena.  Then, we pretty much just sat there, crawling down Centre Ave.

I think the slow speed, the detours, plus the fact that there were exactly two of us on the bus all contributed to the bus driver’s surly attitude, not that I could blame him for it.

But truth be told, the delays allowed me to view the first of a recurring theme throughout the day.  More after the jump.

While we were crawling down Center Ave, I looked out the bus window and saw a black sedan pull over and ask some commuters for directions.  The Pittsburghers gladly helped, pointing out the way the driver needed.  This was a common occurrence and one of the reasons I’m proud to call Pittsburgh home.  Strangely, there seemed to be more people in the city on Thursday than on Wednesday, but that might be because so many people came down to take pictures, but more on that in a bit.

Eventually, we snaked through downtown and the bus dropped us off down near Point State Park.  I got off and headed to see the giant banner on the Hilton (this is also where you can pretty much follow along with my day through the pictures I posted during the day from my phone).  I was stopped by a lady outside, she asked if I could take her picture with the banner, and she asked if I wanted mine taken as well.  I declined, but as we stood in the middle of the street chatting and taking pictures, I learned that she works at the Hilton.  This was to be the second big theme of the day: people with cameras

She was very kind and we chatted for a while before parting ways.  She offered me directions, since I work at the other end of town, I’m honestly not that certain of directions near the Point and her offer was heartfelt, and again, made me smile and proud of this city.

I meandered around Point State Park for a bit, taking more pictures, and eventually found a bench where I could spread out my detour map and figure out where I get my bus to go home that afternoon.  A cyclist came over and offered help.  I once again explained that I work at the other end of town, near the convention center and was a bit turned around down here.  We laughed about it, and he went on his way.  Again, Pittsburghers are more than happy to offer help, to talk about this great city and to welcome visitors.

And truth be told, it was not just the citizens of Pittsburgh, the police downtown were, throughout the entire day, very welcoming and helpful.  I never once had any problems with the security forces.

So, taking advantage of the opportunity to be downtown with time on my hands, I headed to Market Square.  Like I have mentioned before, I sometimes think that I’m a very bad Pittsburgher.  This was my first trip to Market Square, and even though it is just about demolished (at least the middle of it), I was really impressed with the amount of different shops and restaurants.  I’d love to spend some more time down there once the construction is done.

I headed into Starbucks for a while and read the PG (the actual physical copy), something I hadn’t done in a while.  A few groups of security came in, and after a while, I came to the realization that I was in one of the targeted businesses, one of the ones on the list of the anarchists.  But the Baristas were very kind and helpful, so I stuck it out for a while, despite my better judgement (not that anything happened to that location).

A bit of explanation is needed at this point.  With the regular bus schedule, after I get off the bus, I walk about three quarters of a mile up a giant hill to get to work.  Because of this, I carry a backpack, not a bookbag, a backpack, one that I could take camping (although I have another pack for that).  I have my shoes (I wear tennis shoes for the hike every day), my lunch, and other random bits like a rain cover for my pack, extra bus fare just in case, those kind of things.  This is normal for me.  However, it occurred to me, that while it is nothing out of the ordinary for me, it might cause some sort of concern walking around downtown during the G-20.  I hope that I did not cause any undo concern, but no one stopped me, although I would have been more than willing to open it all up if asked.  Another fun fact: I have a bag of trail mix in there.  I bought it once because I needed at least $5 to use my debit card, and I keep it in there just in case.  Just in case of what, I’m not sure.  But I have it.

So I continued to wander around, seeing lots of welcoming signs, the city really did want to warmly welcome the world.  Market Square seemed almost devoid of security, unless of course they were undercover, which is possible.  I did try to find Ginny’s Husband’s restaurant, but I forgot the name of it, and since it isn’t open yet, I didn’t have any luck.

A big moment of geek for me was when, on three different occasions I saw reporters and cameramen with NBC credentials.  No one that I recognized, but pretty cool nonetheless

I headed to Franktuary, which I have ordered from many times, but always delivery.  Getting able to go there was a blast, the people inside were a lot of fun, and the food is of course, delicious.  It was after this that I then met up with a friend, Robin, and we walked down Liberty Avenue towards the convention center.

First, we made a stop at Pittsburgh Popcorn Company’s new store.  That will be another post for another day, but I do wholeheartedly suggest it.

So walking down Liberty, we got to the barricade at the end of the street, which was almost silent.  It was strange and eerie.  We both commented about it, but then quickly stopped talking, since we were pretty much the loudest people there.  A march for Tibet was starting and soon after a march for Ethiopia began as well.  After those two groups left, the area was pretty desolate and devoid of people, so we left, and then we met up with my other friend, Nick.

We headed to Penn and walked around, all three of us taking pictures, like the majority of other people downtown.  As we wandered, we headed back to Point State Park so Robin and Nick could see the Hilton banner, which, by the way, really did a great job hiding the construction.  The banner looked excellent, and I liked how it was designed.  We headed towards the Portal Bridge, but sadly, the area behind it is still closed off.  The fountain was operational, which was great to see, hopefully construction doesn’t take too long on it.

Nick and I headed to Primanti’s for lunch and Robin headed home.  Over a lunch of fries, slaw and Yuenglings, it was nice to be surrounded finally be people in Black and Gold, people seemingly trapped in town who escaped for lunch.

The last stop of the day was PNC Park.  Nick had to pick up tickets for the game on Friday and was meeting a group from Flickr to take more pictures.  We wandered over to see the free speech zone across the river from the convention center, but it was empty.  Nick and I half-heatedly said something anti-government, just so the area wasn’t wasted, but it got some use on Friday, so it wasn’t for naught.

I headed back across the Roberto Clemente Bridge as the pierogi race was going on (I can’t think of anything more dramatic than walking across the bridge as bicycle police go past while listening to John William’s Olympic theme, “Summon the Heroes”).  I trekked my way up to the Boulevard of the Allies and found my new bus stop.  I waited for a while and at one point called PAT to make sure I was in the right spot.  Hint: I’ll be writing about that on Tuesday.

I headed home on a strange bus, or at least, not my normal route and pretty much collapsed at home.  The day was very humid and I didn’t drink nearly enough water (plus of course, the beer wasn’t going to help with dehydration).  But, I got to watch the non-stop coverage of the protest in Lawrenceville and the arrival at Phipps.

So that was my day in the Golden Triangle during the Summit, not terribly exciting, but a lot of fun, and I’m so glad that I went down for it.  Not because I got to be a part of history, although I did get to witness at least snippets of history, but because I once again got to see why I love this city so much.

Thanks for reading this long and rambling article, installments four and five will be coming this week, along with that PATransit Tuesday that I hinted about.

• See, this is what we didn’t want to happen, now go home!  Police say that most damage caused by man from California (the state, not the city).
• Apparently the rebound of Pittsburgh is due to the Penguins, most notably, the Canadian and Russian players.  Wow, the logic (it does seem to be tongue-in-cheek though)!
• Honestly, I think this is a good idea.  The Pirates can’t get any worse, right?
• I met up with a friend during the day, his thoughts and photos are here, make sure to check out the awesome Pirates protest sign.

So what did the Pittsburgh Summit produce?  Here is a link to the document, and the main points of it are after the jump

• To launch a framework that lays out the policies and the way we act together to generate strong, sustainable and balanced global growth
• To make sure our regulatory system for banks and other financial firms reins in the excesses that led to the crisis
• To reform the global architecture to meet the needs of the 21^st century
• To take new steps to increase access to food, fuel and finance among the world’s poorest while clamping down on illicit outflows
• To phase out and rationalize over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies while providing targeted support for the poorest.
• To maintain our openness and move toward greener, more sustainable growth

My day in the Golden Triangle during the summit was uneventful in the traditional sense, but gave me even more to think about.  After the jump I’m going to write about the lead-up to the summit, protesters, violence, the media, and probably some more stuff.  I’ll have my own pictures (which I am sorting through), and if I can get my computer to work, possibly a short presentation of sorts, but that may be a ways off .  See you after the jump.

For a while before the summit, I noticed that as I walked downtown, I felt more leery.  Not nervous mind you, but almost to the point that I was questioning why people were downtown.  Out of state license plates increased, and people who aren’t normally in the hustle of Grant Street started appearing.  And I didn’t like that.  Not that people were coming to Pittsburgh, I love this city and am always happy when people come to visit and find what makes this city so special.  I was nervous because I had a sinking feeling they were just here to cause trouble.

An article from The Radical Middle stayed with me, here’s a piece:

A sensible court ruling downtown: there are rights, but there are also responsibilities; exercising the first should not, and today happily does not, excuse you from the second. And I think: the first amendment is not a Get Out of Jail Free card.

I think Chad hit it on the head with this article.  And while it did not always apply to what happened during the summit, it is a good sentiment, one that I think local residents understand and just wish that all the visitors could abide by.

I didn’t like that these people don’t know us.  They come to protest, not caring that we live here, that we work here, that we go to school here.  This is home.

When told to go home during the protest in Oakland, a student replied, succinctly and elegantly, “We are home.”

But, this is an international event, I would be naive to think that there would not be protesters, that we would not have a large influx, and I am happy for them to have the chance to protest, the chance to have their voice heard.

Which brings me to the protests in Lawrenceville and Oakland yesterday.  I’m a bit torn on them.  I honestly cannot wrap my head around the anarchy mindset.  Not to say I think it’s wrong, I just don’t get it.  And asking an anarchist group to file a government permit to have their protest, well, that’s just funny.  That being said however, I think they tended to overreact the entire week, as well as be generally unorganized and confused.

Now, the protests in Oakland.  I love Phipps.  Probably more than I should.  So when it was announced that it would host the opening reception, I was excited.  It’s one of those treasures that Pittsburgh has that I want to share with everyone.  Ad nauseum.  But I digress.  I think that last night’s activities legitimately started as curious onlookers.  That’s how downtown was all day, most people just walking around with cameras.  How things got out of hand, I’m not sure.  I’d love to blame the out of towners (and I understand that even that is rude, but hey, this is my home), but I don’t know for sure.

Yesterday, before everything broke out in Oakland, I thought to myself that it was a quiet day.  The march in Lawrenceville ended predictably, with some violence and police action, and the only reported vandalism was a broken glass door to a PNC bank.  Maybe I jinxed it.  Maybe I put too much trust in people.  Maybe I’m more naive than I choose to believe.

The Angry Drunk Bureaucrat has a fantastic open letter to the protesters, a portion:

So, you’ll have to pardon us if Pittsburgh doesn’t have sympathy after you smash our windows and mess up our fair city. We’ve seen it before; we’re not particularly thrilled about what you’re doing. Especially, considering we got shot at to allow you to do… whatever it is you think you’re doing.

Go home children.

So senseless destruction, fires and whatnot erupt (I’m a pacifist, it’s all senseless),  but thankfully today so far, it’s been quiet.  The march went well (aside from maybe diverting all bus traffic out of the golden triangle) and things seem to be peaceful.

I realize that I’m rambling a bit, ok, a lot.  But in my mind, everything seems somewhat cyclical, redundant and contradictory.  It’s how my mind works, and most of the time, even I don’t understand it.

But for now, I’d like to close with this quote which came from the PG yesterday:

One student, Amanda Eggert, 20, a junior at Pitt, was one of those on the street afterwards. “We’re hungry and we wanted a late-night snack,” she said outside the boarded-up McDonald’s on Forbes. “We’re just trying to live our normal lives. What did McDonald’s ever do except make delicious chicken nuggets?”

Those who know me know that I keep a quote file.  I’ve been keeping it for years, and this is the latest addition to it.

Here’s a quick recap of what went down as the G-20 summit opened:

• Downtown roads began to shut down at 8 p.m. on Wednesday night, throughout the night, additional closures went into affect and barricades were erected
• The Golden Triangle was shut down to motorists, although cyclists, walkers and certain vehicles were able to enter
• Various protests were marked throughout the day, including a Free Tibet rally
• Protesters squared off with police in Lawrenceville as well as Oakland.  At this time, the police are still working in Oakland.
• President Obama arrived at the 911′th and he and the First Lady welcomed the dignitaries to the opening reception at Phipps later this evening
• Spouses left to go to the Heinz farm and the meetings will continue tomorrow morning

More thoughts, reactions, recaps and pictures tomorrow.  Be safe tonight.

For now, enjoy the continuous coverage on TV and I’ll be back soon with more.