Some neighbors unhappy about DNC protest route running right past their doors
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The route for a protest march during the Democratic National Convention next week is set—and some neighbors are none too pleased about it.
Activists have been fighting for a longer protest that the city has allowed. They said there will be tens of thousands of protestors, and argued that a longer route was thus needed.
But earlier this week, a federal judge turned down the bid by the Coalition to March on the DNC to require the city to change the route.
City Hall has approved a route that would begin in Union Park, and will head south on Ashland Avenue, west on Washington Boulevard, north on Hermitage Avenue, and west on Maypole Avenue to Park 578 where many speeches are expected—and then to Damen Avenue, north to Lake Street, and east back to Union Park where more speeches are planned.
The route amounts to a one-mile circuit.
Some of the streets around the United Center—including Washington Boulevard—have high security barricades on either side. But on other parts of the route, the sidewalks and streets on minor thoroughfares like Maypole Avenue are wide open.
All this is a problem for some neighbors who said they were given advance notice that the protest would come past their front doors.
When CBS News Chicago met West Side neighbor Yolanda Armstead, she pulled a cardboard sign from her car that she plans to hang in her window at home. It reads, "DNC = 1 month rent free?"
"Do you know why I put this sign here and why I am holding this sign today?" Armstead said. "It's because this was already in the making. We just didn't know about it."
Armstead is upset about all the barriers, crowds, and protesters coming to her neighborhood—saying she has heard little from her city leaders.
"You didn't consider a safety plan?" she said. "You didn't consider even coming to us and having a town meeting with us?"
Others say they have seen protests in other parts of the city, and say there's no reason to expect trouble.
"I don't really have a choice since I live close by, but then again, the last protest didn't affect me much," said Omar Blackshire Jr., "and I know the protest will hopefully get everything out of everybody's system, hopefully."
Some who live along the protest route, who didn't want to be on camera, said they are excited for the convention—and think protest crowds come with it. But others still plan to avoid the area entirely.
"It's like a hindrance, so I may just wait until this has ended," one neighbor said.
But Armstead said such is not an option for her.
"People like me, we can't afford to leave our home," she said.
The route the coalition originally wanted would have taken them farther down Washington Boulevard. But at least part of the stretch of that road they had in mind is now inside the Secret Service's hard security perimeter, so it is not an option.
The Coalition march plans to at Union Park Monday at noon for the first day of the convention and again on the last—Thursday at 5 p.m.
