RNC

Downtown St. Paul is getting quite the transformation as a result of next week's big Republican National Convention, which is being held at the Xcel Energy Center. That's just four blocks from my office, so I've had a front-row seat to a lot of the changes.

Nearly every building around here has been getting polished, sidewalks power-washed, new signs, etc. Even the Pioneer Press installed a new sign on our building the other day!

There are a ton of new shops and restaurants -- one featuring "custom" candy, several featuring high-end fashion accessories and a fun, new restaurant called "Pop!". It'll be interesting to see how many pull out in a couple of weeks when all the traffic goes away.

There are lots and lots of trucks around fixing things, installing things, etc. Rice Park is getting a major TV stage set up in it. I saw city crews planting new plants (yes, in August!) in some new planters over near the Ecolab building -- which is one of the places that protesters will be congregating.

Of course, I'll be working all next week. Not sure yet what I'm going to be doing. It sounds like I'm going to end up filling whatever needs come up.

I've also built some database applications that I'll be putting on our website later today, including one that lists official and unofficial events related to the RNC that our staff have compiled from press releases, etc. (right now we've got more than 400 events in there and we're fairly certain we're missing a lot!). Another is an interactive map of the hotels where all the delegations are staying. And the final one is a new version of the Ramsey County Jail Bookings that I've had on our website for awhile. the new version is more sophisticated and contains more details about each arrest. I've been planning to launch it for awhile and need to do it now because anyone jailed or detained by police for protests will show up on these lists.

It'll be interesting to see how busy and crazy downtown St. Paul is next week. We're so accustomed to quiet streets and sidewalks (it's kind of a ghost town, especially after 6 pm). Of course, getting to and from work will probably be a bit of a pain! Luckily I come into downtown via a route that doesn't go anywhere near the Xcel, so that should help a lot.