To Flee or Not To Flee Is N.Y. Question

Conventional city wisdom dictates there is no better time to flee the city than the last week in August – especially when that happens to be the week of the Republican National Convention.On top of terror concerns, add some of New Yorkers’ biggest nuisances to this year’s end-of-summer boil – Republicans (roughly 30,000), journalists (15,000), protesters (500,000), and street closings (more than 30 blocks), and the notion of staying in the city seems ridiculous.But then there’s the other branch of New York wisdom that says life goes on. For every resident leaving the city because of the convention, scores of others are shrugging their shoulders and staying put, either to work or because they see no reason to go.“I think many people will view it as another work week,” said Neil Kleiman, the director of the Center for an Urban Future, a local think tank, who plans to stay in town. “There’s more of a sense in New York that people want to put their head down, do their work, and wait until this blows over.”Unlike the mayor of Boston, who encouraged people around his commuter city to leave during the Democratic convention, Mayor Bloomberg has urged residents to stick around, highlighting ways to avoid inconvenience, and singing his now-famous mantra: Go about your daily business.Ed Koch, the former Democrat mayor and supporter of President Bush, even tells New Yorkers in a TV spot to help the delegates “find shopping, a schmeer, a schwarma, a shoe shine, a shuttle, a show,” a tall order for a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 5 to 1.But while New Yorkers may not roll out the red carpet for conventioneers, they’re not skipping town on them, either.Carlynn Houghton, 27, a Democrat who works as an assistant at an Upper East Side girls school, recently backed off the idea of going to Canada during the convention. “If you just up and go then you’re giving up and you’re saying, ‘You can have this.’ No political party can have the place you live, certainly if its not my political party.”It turns out that even among the scores of New Yorkers scrambling to rent out their apartments during the convention, worry is not much of a motivating factor, either.“I’m just trying to sneak in a side pocket and make some extra cash,” said Michael Weiner, an actor who advertised his Murray Hill apartment on the online bulletin board Craigslist as suited to “both conventioneers and protesters.”Those here for the convention will be giving city tourism a healthy shot in the arm during its slowest week of the year, at the end of what Cristyne L. Nicholas, the president of visitor bureau NYC and Company, said was a “record-breaking summer” for tourism.As for tourism unconnected to the convention, Ms. Nicholas said she did not expect it to drop, and said it might even rise. “Even those hotels [not housing delegates] are seeing the same type of business as they have in the past.”A spokesman for the U.S. Open, which starts on the same day as the convention, said attendance was expected to be higher than last year, with 40% of the attendees to come from out of town.Aside from the tennis tournament, which will draw 30,000 spectators a day, the Mets and Yankees are both expecting high attendance for their home games throughout Convention Week.“Also, Restaurant Week will be extended, sales are going on, and Tax Free Week is happening, too,” Ms. Nicholas added. “And there will be real live Republicans walking around, which should be kind of fun.”

To Flee or Not To Flee Is N.Y. Question

To Flee or Not To Flee Is N.Y. Question

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