TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online
RSS Feed of the blog
Contributors:
Reporter William March has covered state and national politics since 1994. Email
Reporter Christian M. Wade has covered the City of Tampa since 2008. Email
Reporter Mike Salinero has covered Hillsborough County government for The Tampa Tribune since 2007. Email
Reporter Lindsay Peterson has been a general assignment reporter at the Tampa Tribune since 2005, focusing on higher education since 2009. Email
Tribune Politics Coverage
Florida Political Blogs:
- State Of Sunshine
- Pushing Rope
- Interstate4Jamming
- News Service of Florida
- FLA Politics
- Sayfie Review/
More Resources:
News Blog Search
Most Recent Entries
- 1 Killed This Week in Afghanistan
- Nelson: Obama birth control compromise “seems to solve the problem”
- Sharpe suspending campaign
- Sharpe to make announcement, may be out of House race
- Largo Military Museum Gets New Name, Mission
- Planned Parenthood: Polls show Catholics, voters favor contraception coverage
- Weatherford denies any attempt to undermine West
- Michelle Obama to tour Florida for healthy eating
- Pentagon Co-Spokesman Changed Trim After Boss’ Haircuts
- Brig. Gen. Becomes Highest-Ranking Death in Afghanistan
- Special Operations Command To Go Para-Commando Over University of Tampa
- Air Force To Cut Nearly 300 Planes, But None From MacDill
- POTUS Veterans Job Act: Billions To Hire Vets As Law Enforcement, First Reponders, Park Workers
- Will Israel Really Strike Iran? SECDEF Won’t Comment On Ignatius Assertion
- College Scholarship Available To a Lucky Family At MacDIll
More
- Breaking News
- Command Post Tampa
- Fact Finders - Databay Blog
- Guestbook: Remembering The Fallen Soldiers
- Fresh Squeezed Politics
- Political Safari
Monthly Archives
|
Parking Problems Expected With Big Obama Crowd
Posted May 20, 2008 by William March
Updated May 20, 2008 at 01:43 PM
The Barack Obama campaign is now saying it expects an overflow crowd at the St. Pete Times Forum for his rally there tomorrow, and Tampa police say that means severe parking problems downtown.
They’re urging people to park outside downtown and take a trolley or bus to the forum.
Spokeswoman Laura McElroy of the Tampa Police Department said parking isn’t normally a major problem for events that fill the forum, but those events usually are at night—this one will be mid-day on a weekday, with downtown parking already filled by commuters.
The police are suggesting people arrive early and park in Ybor City in the 13th Street or 15th Street parking decks, then take the trolley-style bus to the forum. City officials said they’re cutting the fare, and the total for parking and the trolley, McElroy noted, will be cheaper than downtown parking. Another alternative—park in the Marion Street transit center. Free buses will run from there to within a few blocks of the forum.
Another reason to arrive early, McElroy said, is that attendees will have to go through metal detectors to get inside the forum.
McElroy said the campaign has upped its estimate from 10,000-12,000 people to an overflow crowd at the forum which seats around 20,000 or more, depending on the seating configuration.
The campaign says it will pipe audio from the event to what’s expected to be an overflow crowd outside. It’s also likely, McElroy said, that there will be at least some anti-Obama protesters outside.
She said Tampa police are accustomed to dealing with such situations, and will set up “a safe area for them to exercise their First Amendment right”—a so-called “free speech zone”—if a protest materializes. She said the area will be in view of the crowd for the event.
McElroy said the police will have twice the number of traffic officers they usually use for full forum events, 40 instead of 20.
The U.S. Secret Service, which protects Obama and other presidential candidates, is in charge of security.
Post a comment
Members:(Requires free registration.)
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertisement
TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online ©2010 Media General Communications Holdings, LLC. A Media General company. Member Agreement | Privacy Statement | Work With Us
Reader Comments
Por (Ray Tempocorp) on May 20, 2008 (Suggest removal)
Obama should walk over to the Tampa Convention Center before or after his speech at the Forum. There’s a large conference and exposition going on centered around Special Operations Forces. This would give him some exposure (and great photo ops) with high-ranking military officers, and also the many companies that support the Department of Defense.
Suggest removalPor (Everett Lopez) on May 20, 2008 (Suggest removal)
What about people commuting from Pinellas? Will shuttles be provided for them?
Suggest removalPor (James Martinelli) on May 20, 2008 (Suggest removal)
What about the people that want to rub him out ?
Suggest removalPor (Marco Merryweather) on May 20, 2008 (Suggest removal)
Ambling over to the convention center to rub shoulders with “high ranking” SOF warriors for photo ops is the stupidest thing since screen doors on submarines. Obama is one of the most anti-Americans that ever drew a breath. To sully the SOF festivities with his mere presence warrants disgust and condemnation.
Respect will be for the office not the individual. Simply put the majority of the military vehemently despises Obama but will hide their contempt with honor and dignity put privately will mentally urinate on his image like we did with Bill Clinton.
Suggest removal