The World comes calling

The limos will roll past Flagstaff Hill tonight as the leaders of nations representing 85 percent of the world's wealth officially open the Pittsburgh Summit, the long-awaited gathering of the G-20.

Tomorrow, the conversations shift to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, amid the tightest security Pittsburgh has ever experienced.

The high-profile meetings are the culmination of negotiations across the globe that have taken place to shape its agenda and those of related forums on trade, climate change and the rules of the road for finance in a post-crisis world.

"We all know that when the circus comes to town, that is only the visible part of an ongoing process," Anthony Swallwood, first counselor of the European Union's Washington delegation, said during a pre-summit stop in Pittsburgh last week. Just as those meeting paved the way for the Pittsburgh session, the talks tonight and tomorrow will serve as a prelude -- whether catalyst or impediment remains to be seen -- to pending international talks on issues including trade and climate change.

As has become traditional in such gatherings, the world leaders were greeted with demonstrations ranging from the whimsical to the confrontational.

Protests began at mid-morning with a daring stunt by a team from Greenpeace, the environmental organization known for sometimes confrontational tactics.

Two squads of Greenpeace activists attempted to simultaneously rappel down the sides of the Fort Pitt and West End bridges. Police managed to nab the five activists on the Fort Pitt Bridge, but eight protesters managed to unfurl an 80-by-30-foot banner proclaiming "Danger: Environmental Destruction Ahead," while dangling above the Ohio River for several hours.

As police waited them out, the group hovered over the waters as city River Rescue and Coast Guard vessels circled below.

By early afternoon, the team members, described as expert climbers by Greenpeace spokesmen, climbed back up and were all arrested, along with a ninth member who remained on the bridge to assure police that the activists were peaceful, were experienced climbers and were equipped to pull themselves back up on the bridge at the end of the protest.

"They went up on their own. It's safer that way," said Damon Moglen, global warming director for Greenpeace. All 14 demonstrators were taken to the Allegheny County Jail.

But Greenpeace was stymied in later attempts throughout the day to unfurl other banners from atop city structures. A plan to drop a banner at The Warhol Museum ended when a crew arrived to find National Guard troops inspecting the site and a phalanx of state police in a nearby side street.

A similar attempt to put a banner across the Rachel Carson Bridge also ended without success.

A bicycle ride by Critical Mass, a group that occasionally takes over Downtown streets on weekend rides, brought a disappointing turnout, with city bicycle police outnumbering the protesters.

Stronger stuff is anticipated today when a yet-to-be-determined number of protesters gather at Arsenal Park in Lawrenceville for an unpermitted march Downtown toward the David L. Lawrence Convention Center as the G-20 convenes.

Representatives from a variety of protest groups gathered last night at the headquarters of the Pittsburgh G-20 Resistance Project, an umbrella group of anarchist organizations that has provided a gathering point.

The council, which was closed to the media, was expected to be the site at which various groups indicate which of a myriad of corporations and other sites they expect to hit in what the groups call "direct action."

Such actions could range from a protest to a sit in to attempts to close the location, as well as to block city streets.

City police have remained relatively uncommunicative, but yesterday they acknowledged that they have kept several locations under surveillance. Both local and federal law enforcement sources said police have believed that for several months as many as three warehouses in the city might be used by protesters to store equipment that could be used to close down streets. Deputy Police Chief Paul Donaldson confirmed that several groups and locations are currently under surveillance.

Heavy security
The security presence, in addition to the 900 officers of the Pittsburgh Police force, includes federal agencies ranging from the Secret Service to the Coast Guard, along with 1,200 state troopers. Anticipating the protests, the Pittsburgh Police also enlisted the assistance of officers from scores of other departments across the country. All in all, it represented an unprecedented police presence for Pittsburgh.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl yesterday swore in around 1,000 visiting law enforcement agents for service in the city during the G-20 Summit, in a ceremony at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum.

A more positive welcome mat, months in the unrolling, came from local governments and civic groups, which joined in a multi-million-dollar logistical and PR campaign to prepare the city for its turn on the international stage. The PR jury won't return a final verdict until after the world leaders scatter tomorrow. But the civic sales job has already produced a list of Pittsburgh-focused stories in national and international publications.

Most reflect at least in some measure the narrative jointly promoted by the Obama administration and local boosters -- that Pittsburgh is an example of a resilient, environmentally conscious city successfully transforming itself from an industrial to a knowledge-based economy.

In addition to those asserting their messages in the streets, the summit has prompted any number of seminars, panels and speeches from outside groups advocating an array of policy agendas.