Outside of the center, can you even tell it’s happening?
Milwaukee is the epicenter for Democrats over the next few days as the city hosts the political party’s national convention. Isn’t it obvious?
The scaled-back Democratic National Convention is being broadcast for two hours each night from a control room and modest stage set up inside the Wisconsin Center.
On Monday, concrete barriers and fencing to block off traffic surrounded the convention center. Along Wisconsin Avenue, street posts are adorned with the official 2020 DNC in Milwaukee logo. Police officers and members of the Secret Service patrolled the area.
Near the security perimeter, journalists and camera crews mulled over how to capture the stillness of a mostly virtual convention.
The designated protest area was mostly empty Monday afternoon, except for about a dozen anti-abortion protesters.
Nearly 60 street pole banners along Water Street and Kilbourn Avenue showcase the “Road of Democracy,” pairing poetry and art from Milwaukee’s Poet Laureate Dasha Kelly Hamilton and previous Artist of the Year Della
Wells and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Brad Pruitt.
Digital billboards in Milwaukee ask “Where’s Joe?”, ads from President Donald Trump’s campaign. An airplane sponsored by an anti-abortion organization is flying over the city with the message “Unborn Black Lives Matter.”
But away from the blocked off streets, few signs of the political convention could be found.
Milwaukee’s downtown streets felt like another weekday, with no expectation of rubbing elbows with political heavyweights or celebrity spottings.
Businesses like Milwaukee Food & City Tours that planned to show off Brew City haven’t seen a single customer from the convention. “Pretty quiet around here,” Milwaukee Food & City Tours Founder Theresa Nemetz said Monday morning.
Good City Brewing was set to host a television production during the convention. Instead, the downtown brewery was closed Monday, following its limited schedule during the pandemic. The brewery isn’t hosting anything during the DNC, said co-founder and CEO Dan Katt. It will open Tuesday at 11 a.m. for the Milwaukee Bucks’ first playoff game on TV.
Restaurants and bars really aren’t anticipating a bump in traffic. Any inperson attendees of the convention were asked to pledge not to go to any bars or restaurants in Milwaukee to avoid contracting or spreading COVID-19.
Sports bar Major Goolsby’s was welcoming anyone associated with the convention on a Corona Light-branded chalkboard sign. “If you’re here, we love you,” the sign said.
Construction continued on the former Warner Grand Theatre to turn it into the new home of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra a few blocks from the convention center. The beer garden outside Fiserv Forum, which would have served as the main stage for the DNC, was showing the NBA playoffs on its big screen.
Milwaukeeans had talked about leaving town for the week of the DNC to avoid the crowds. Some companies said employees could work from home during the DNC to avoid downtown traffic and street closures. That doesn’t matter so much with few visitors and most downtown office workers yet to return to offices.
To be sure, the Democratic National Convention is the biggest thing to happen in Milwaukee since at least March when the pandemic caused nearly everything to be closed and canceled.
Milwaukee-area hotels are at their highest occupancy since the pandemic stunned the industry. The city’s visitor and convention bureau Visit Milwaukee estimates that more than 4,000 room nights were booked as a result of the convention, said Senior Media Relations Manager Claire Koenig. Convention officials secured about 16,000 hotel rooms for attendees last year.
Inside the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee, Visit Milwaukee was greeting any attendees with swag that poked fun at the pandemic convention’s limited guests like buttons saying “Milwaukee bathrobe delegate 2020” and “Virtual cheese curds don’t squeak.”