PITTSBURGH—Rhianna Shea Reichard turned on the morning news May 29 and learned the Group of 20 summit was coming to Pittsburgh—of all places—and on Sept. 25, of all days, her wedding day.
She was aghast when she realized that the Sheraton hotel where she is getting married would be hosting world leaders and others coming to Pittsburgh to discuss the global economic crisis.
“I was a wreck,” Reichard said. Reichard and Phil McMullen had to plan their wedding all over and moved it to a new date in August.
It is just one of many inconveniences Pittsburgh will face during the G-20 summit on Sept. 24 and 25—and in the weeks leading up to it.
Under tight security, heads of state and finance officials will descend on Pittsburgh joined by some 3,000 members of the news media.
The gathering of leaders from the world’s richest nations also draws thousands of sometimes violent demonstrators. The city already has agreed to pay $40,000 to fly in officials from London—where the last meeting was held in April—to help plan for the event.
Pittsburgh police so far are saying little about security measures or their cost.
Here are some changes others have already made to accommodate the summit:
n The University of Pittsburgh rescheduled five conferences, each with at least 200 attendees.
n Pittsburgh-headquartered clothing company American Eagle changed its three-day fall conference, telling several hundred expected attendees the event will be moved to another city.
n PNC Bank, also headquartered in Pittsburgh, and BNY Mellon, with 7,000 employees downtown, may transfer some of their work to offices outside the city.
Certainly, though, nobody wants to navigate the traffic.
That’s where Alfred Lacazette, a 54-year-old exploration geologist at natural gas producer EQT, is in a bind. Lacazette lives less than a block from the convention center where the summit will be held and is torn between sticking around to see the excitement and fleeing to avoid the security and traffic.
A bigger problem is his 90-pound Weimaraner, Random, who usually takes her walks in the parks near the center.
“Where am I going to walk my dog?” Lacazette said. “She doesn’t like to go in the alley. She prefers natural surface.”
As for the Reichard-McMullen party, hotel managers never told them to reschedule their wedding. Instead, managers explained security could be burdensome and the White House could forcibly cancel their big day. This news came just as Reichard was picking up invitations at the printer—with the date set for Sept. 25.
They paid an extra $300, on top of the $700 the first time, for invitations with the new date—Aug. 21. A $75 runner with Sept. 25 printed on it is now useless.
McMullen was so angry he e-mailed President Barack Obama asking how he would feel if his daughter had to cancel her wedding “because someone more important was staying at the hotel.”
But the new invitations went in the mail Tuesday and Reichard is calmer.
“Nothing else better happen,” Reichard said.