A large section of two main thoroughfares through the city — Speer Boulevard and Auraria Parkway — will be closed through most of the week of the Democratic National Convention, the mayor’s office announced this morning.
“We have worked very hard to ensure that downtown residents and workers can get around and access their buildings with ease during the Democratic National Convention,” Mayor John Hickenlooper said in a statement.
Light-rail changes for Aug. 25-27 also were announced:
Tens of thousands of vehicles use Speer and Auraria during the weekday, according to the city’s website.
Northbound Speer Boulevard at Lawrence Street carried 32,000 vehicles a day in 2000 — the latest traffic count by the city. Auraria Parkway at Speer had more than 25,000 vehicles that same year.
Since the Aug. 28 event at Invesco Field was added recently, arrangements for that date are still being worked out and will be released later.
Mayoral liaison to the convention, Katherine Archuleta, briefed about 40 representatives from business and neighborhood associations this morning at the Downtown Denver Partnership. The meeting was private and included representatives from the U.S. Secret Service and the Denver Police Department.
“We received an overwhelmingly positive response regarding the city’s plan,” said Jenny Palan, a marketing manager for the Downtown Denver Partnership.
City officials have been involved in discussions with federal authorities for weeks over the closures.
The dance over closures is one that always occurs during high-level events such as political conventions, said David Passafaro, president of the Boston Host Committee for the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
“The feds would like to shut down everything, while the locals, mayor and police, are saying, ‘Wait a minute,’ ” he said.
“You’re in a city, and part of the attractiveness is to have the convention in a city. You make some scheduling arrangements. … You make things work. We did it without a lot of pain,” Passafaro said.
Eighteen committees have been meeting regularly on issues that range from traffic to air space, according to Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley.
They discuss how the perimeter would be staffed and what type of impact it would cause, said Ron Perea, Secret Service special agent in charge in Colorado.
The perimeter is a “multilayer buffer of size to mitigate certain weapons,” Perea said.
“We’re definitely sensitive to the impact on the citizens, which is why we are working with the city,” he said.
The Secret Service has never shut down a city, he said.
In Boston, Interstate 93 was closed from 4 p.m. to midnight during the 2004 convention, allowing one lane for authorized bus travel and completely shut down during moments when the candidate or other dignitaries were in the Fleet Center, said Passafaro.
But Boston was entirely different.
The interstate came within 50 feet of the arena, which is located in the middle of the urban core, as opposed to the Pepsi Center’s more remote location. The city shut down about four blocks around the Fleet Center to car travel, allowing deliveries during certain off hours and vehicle travel only to pre-authorized cars.
The city girded for gridlock, which did not happen because many people chose to make other plans and leave the city during the last week of July 2004.
“As it started out, we thought it was going to be a nightmare,” Passafaro said. “It wasn’t the case. People were saying, ‘You are going to kill the economy.’ It turned out people decided to stagger hours at the office or did flex time. It was the last week in July, and it was vacation time anyway.”
Staff writer Chuck Plunkett contributed to this report.
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
