The Democrates are coming to town.... The Democratic National Convention is being held at the Staples Convention Center in Los Angeles next week (Aug 14-17). As usual, there will be various street closings, demostrations, and so forth. Currently it appears 1919 W 7TH Street is the principle organizing point for marches and protests. The One Wilshire Building, one of the principle "carrier hotels," is a few blocks away from the festivities. Although the main meet-me room building is outside the restricted area, there are a number of carrier facilities in the surrounding blocks. There has already been at least one unscheduled street closing while the police investigated a suspicious package in the area. For real-time information on the traffic situtation in the surrounding area see http://trafficinfo.lacity.org/html/conv_staples.html