• Font Size    

Most Popular Videos Featured On KDKA.com

Pittsburgh Festivities Kickoff Holidays
E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

Citizens Brainstorm For G-20 Summit In Pittsburgh

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

   Print     Share +   
Jun 19, 2009 8:33 pm US/Eastern

Citizens Brainstorm For G-20 Summit In Pittsburgh

Reporting
Jon Delano
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Hundreds of citizens showed up at Point Park University Friday afternoon for the first "Welcome to the World" brainstorming session on the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh.

At least 57 citizens made suggestions even as Mayor Luke Ravenstahl could not promise that any of them would be implemented.

"We don't even know yet what the summit will look like. In fact, there's probably more honestly right now more that we don't know than what we do know," he told the crowd.

But that didn't stop the ideas from flowing.

Loren Roth: "Why don't we have a special light-up night particularly on the very first night?"

Emilio Cornaccione: "It would be cool to have volunteers around the area helping people and speak in different languages - that would be a big help."

Ellen Roth: "My suggestion would be to have each of the international flags posted around the Point."

Paul Kemp: "I'd like to see that Grandview Avenue be spruced up and looking as nice as possible because I suspect that some of the media would be doing stories from up there."

Anthony Brulay: "I always wondered and hoped that they could light the trees in Grant Street planters."

Lisa Ceoffe: "To have every country bring water from that nation and dump it into the Point Park fountain, I think that would be cool."

Among the participants, there was a lot of talk about green environmentally-sound practices.

Noted Jeff Shaw, "My suggestion would be to look at all the printing, all the banners, the posters, everything that's going to promote the event, being totally green, 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper."

And local business wants to be part of the action, too.

Mary McKinney: "Let the businesses in the region know what opportunities there may be."

Joe Reed: "Strongly suggest a commitment to locally-grown organic foods wherever possible if there are banquets."

There were concerns, as well.

Christopher Boar: "As I was walking over here, I was accosted by three different people asking for change. How that comes across to delegates visiting worries me a lot."

Mel Parker: "Often security apparatus has made sure we're penned off many blocks away. We don't want that to happen. We want this to be a city that includes us, includes everyone, supports the right to protest."

But whatever the point of view, the moderator Doris Carson Williams was pleased.

"People want buy-in. They want to feel a part of this. This is our 15 minutes of fame, if you will, where we get to shine to the world," she said.

Clearly everyone in the room -- even the gentleman who intends to be part of the protest against the G-20 leaders -- wants Pittsburgh to do this right.

The real question is how much Pittsburgh gets to say on this in the end when a lot of the logistics will be dictated from Washington.

Now the next citizen input meeting is next Tuesday at Noon at Robert Morris University.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Featured Slideshows On KDKA.com

From Our Partners

You need the latest Flash player to view video content.
Click here to download.

Click here to bypass this detection if you already have the latest Flash Player.

Pittsburgh Hosts G-20 Summit

Top News Stories

© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.