Statues at Carnegie Hall are shrouded...the city is prepared for the worst...

The G20 is in Pittsburgh, right here. The leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies, in our city. I have a camera, and consider myself an amateur hobbyist with a little bit too much disposable income. What does that all mean? There is no way I was going to sit at home and play video games this week. I went downtown.

I made plans with a group of about 8 guys from flickr to meet downtown and photograph the going’s on. We were apprehensive, careful, uncertain of what to expect. Alarmist warnings abounded in the city, and in our discussion. But, when the day arrived, we were a little disappointed.

If you are tuned into the news media, you may have heard about the violent protests in Pittsburgh yesterday. In the late afternoon, anarchists protesting in a neighborhood called Lawrenceville (about 15 blocks north of the convention center hosting the summit today) threw a few rocks and bricks at police officers, who responded with a small amount of tear gas, and some rubber bullets. I don’t have any pictures of this because I was downtown, 5 blocks south of the convention center.

Long Live the Dalai Lama!

I was excited to see a well-organized, meaningful protest marching downtown demanding that China be forced to leave Tibet before free trade agreements were signed with them. This is not a new demand, but they were here to make sure the world’s leaders knew that it was still a relevant demand. They were loud, they were coherent, they had a message, and they were peaceful. It was everything a protest should be.

The lines are drawn...

After marching around downtown for a few hours, they were heading up the main street (Liberty Ave) towards the protests. The police made a cordon 1 block from the secret service security perimeter and tried to tell the protesters to turn down a side street. Instead, the protesters stopped marching and drew their own line.

If this were any other group, I would have been worried about violence, but it was very peaceful. A few times, some groups of onlookers started rival chants. A few Steelers chants, and a Penguins chant, happened, there was a group across the street chanting “G420″ and holding a giant marijuana banner, and some overly-dramatic kid with a white t-shirt wrapped around his face walked up between the Tibetan protesters and the police and was yelling about abortion. I think he missed the memo…his group was about 10 blocks away.

All in all, an interesting day, and I got some better shots than I expected.

Everything was peaceful, but they were wary b/c it only takes one idiot.

This fan was returning from the game, and we asked him to pose as if he were protesting. Funny shot, IMO.

The riot police don their gas masks.

Members of the Resist G-20 movement protest in Lawrenceville, 20 blocks from the summit's venue.

This armored truck had a directional loudspeaker used to dissipate crowds with an extremely loud warbling noise.

For more shots, be sure to check out my G20 set on flickr, as well as those for some other flickr users who were around, like joey kennedy, superchou, blindspot, and frndrfo.

-aigulf

Rehearsal of the Reception at Phipps Conservatory

The security fence extends down Frew Street

Eric Schmidt

Eric Schmidt responds to questions

I was also given the honor of an invitation to Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s lecture on Technology, Innovation and the Global Economy prepared in advance of the G20 summit. It was an inspiring speech on the power of information, the direction that Google sees innovation taking, the importance of cloud computing in the survival of startups and the streamlining of established businesses, and how these developments will shape policy for years to come. It was followed by some good questions, and I learned about Google’s recent venture into Rwanda, where they have signed an agreement with the President to build a data center there, and are pushing for development in the electricity and telecommunications infrastructure. It was difficult not to leave there with an air of optimism.

Tomorrow, I’ll see the other side….and likely interact with those who disagree with everything about global corporations and business-controlled economic policy.

-aigulf

Save Darfur exhibit on Flagstaff Hill

Preparations are underway across the city, as the Police try to make the Steel City secure for the G20 Summit and protestors begin to make themselves visible.

With the events of London’s G20 summit fresh in memory, a lot of people are worried about how Pittsburgh will fare. Will violent protesters wreak havoc? Will the Police make mistakes under the extreme pressure of the situations? Will anyone be injured? Will the city’s businesses suffer damage? All of these questions are legitimate, but thankfully some protesters have promised that they will be respectful, and are not a danger to themselves or the city.

There is already a peaceful protest set up in the Hill District, where some tent dwellers are simply trying to draw attention to the plight of the out-of-work and underpaid in this country. The remarkable thing about this protest is that they’re relying on donations of food to stay out there all week.

Destroyed Villages Exhibit

A black security fence is erected at CMU

Closer to campus, there is a Darfur protest, with a permit from the city, set up on Flagstaff Hill. They are located across the street from the welcoming reception (to be held Thursday evening at Phipps Conservatory). Their goal is to make sure that the 20 leaders attending the reception have no choice but to see the signs reminding them of the genocide happening right now in Darfur.

On the Police side, the black fences are going up. My office, on CMU’s campus, is across the street from Phipps (right behind the Darfur protest). We’ve been told to vacate the building by 2:30pm on Thursday, and the fences are a visual reminder that some people much more important than us are on their way.

Tomorrow, I’m going to see Eric Schmidt (Google CEO) talk, and Thursday I’m going to watch protestors from across the world march on our city…hoping they decide not to riot. Pittsburgh is a global city, if only for the week.

Photos throughout the week will be posted to my flickr photostream.

-aigulf