Beantown Touchdown
While it would have been nice to arrive in Boston relaxed, refreshed, and ready to party, that didn’t happen. I spent a restless night, had to get up at 3:30 am, then spend several hours making like a sardine in the belly of a 757. Consequently, I mostly huddled in my room last night instead of going out and finding interesting things to tell you about! Sorry…I’ll try to get my mojo working today.
My flight, with about 20 delegates onboard, left Portland about 7 am. We stopped in Minneapolis to change planes and picked up more delegates from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and other midwestern cities. People wore their Kerry buttons and t-shirts. Lots of buzzing conversations about Kerry, the convention, and Bush’s latest follies.
Boston, and the convention committee volunteers, really rallied to help out the arriving delegates. There’s a touch of VIP status in being a delegate that I hadn’t anticipated.
Red, white, and blue-garbed volunteers met us at every turn through the airport, leaving no doubt as to where to go next. Tables staffed with volunteers held maps and tourist information. The DNC thoughtfully provided us with taxi vouchers, so after collecting our luggage we jumped into taxis for the ride to the hotel.
Our hotel, the Royal Sonesta in Cambridge, sits along the Charles River. A bike path runs along the riverside, and my room boasts a view of a tiny sliver of the river, a marina, and the Museum of Science (LOTR exhibit!). We share the Royal Sonesta with the Arkansas and Oklahoma delegations.
Like many big city hotels, real-people services aren’t close by. Fortunately, we have Beantown Buddies assigned to us. At the hotel is a table staffed by 8-10 volunteers whose job is to cater to the delegates. I asked for directions to a grocery store so I could buy milk for coffee and snacks for my room. Turns out that it’s a 20-minute walk to the nearest 7-11-type store. Not to worry: one of the Beantown Buddies walked with me.
Walking briskly in the 67-degree weather (lovely after 100 degrees in Portland!), we talked about the convention and the Democratic Party. An attorney, she’s been a Kerry volunteer for quite awhile. She said that the campaign had asked her, and other lawyers, to go to Florida to observe the election and make sure it was carried out according to law. The assumption is that attorneys will be able to read and interpret Florida law more quickly than laypersons. I urged her to go. I’m very concerned about the shenanigans in Florida, especially after hearing the details of the most recent voter purge attempt–with the list short on Latino names.
Back in my room, I got my wireless internet access set up. All it takes is $10/day and a credit card. Convenient, easy, expensive!
Too exhausted to do much else, I did some surfing and ran across a link to this article about changing the Democratic Party at DailyKos. I think it’s well worth reading. The soul of the party truly is up for grabs in the next few years.
The article talks about the influence of the 527s vs. the old guard and what that might mean to the Democratic Party. The main reason I got involved in the party was to effect change. I suspect many of us have an agenda other than simply being a pampered delegate. Guess I should get out of my hotel room and go find some of those people!
In talking to the few I have, there’s a sense that the DNC is totally focused on the national elections. I think they should focus more on building a strong grassroots organization so it’s easier both to elect progressives and for progressive ideas to percolate to the top of the Democratic agenda.
To make a difference, I first have to understand how the DNC works. I’m happy to report that the vice-chair of Oregon’s Democratic party is going to take me to the DNC meeting on Friday morning.
July 25th, 2004 at 10:59 am
*blink*
I work 3 blocks from the sonesta, in Kendall Square.
You can get milk at the CVS in the mall across the street from your hotel. If you walk 5-10 minutes into the Brazillian neighborhood on the other side of the mall and courthouse, there’s plenty of shops and services, from the city’s best fresh chicken store (slaughters on site) to Italian pastry shops to corner markets. It’s still an ungentrified neighborhood, but it doesn’t have a gang problem and muggings are rare.
They probably made you walk to Kendall, which is a business district on the edge of MIT’s campus, or over the bridge to the back bay and beacon hill, the two nicest meighborhoods in Boston.
July 25th, 2004 at 11:15 am
Grins. Jen, maybe the resident was intending a small walking tour?
July 25th, 2004 at 12:02 pm
Greetings from Portland, Oregon! Jenny Greenleaf, your “you-are-there’ style of reporting is a refreshing change from the “suits in a studio talking to themselves” fare that’s being aired (”LIVE” — as if making banality more immediate was a plus). About that Kerry volunteer who’s conversant in the legal aspects of voting, please pass along the message that they’ll also need to show up in Ohio, which is shaping up to be the “Florida” of the Nov. election. And keep us posted on that meeting with the DNC. Tell them that we Party volunteers at the county level sometimes feel like we’re operating according to an “unfunded mandate”(that should strike a nerve). Urge them to Leave No Dem Behind– because we Dems are workin’ our behinds off!
July 25th, 2004 at 12:30 pm
I probably could have gotten milk closer, but I confess I wanted to stock my room with a bottle of wine as well. Wine is only sold at liquor stores in Massachusetts. I’m also apparently NOT supposed to bring it into the hotel. I wasn’t the only one, though: another Buddy reported taking a member of the Oklahoma delegation to get a six-pack.
We did walk through the area you described–past the self-same “Chickens Slaughtered on Site” place. It was a great neighborhood, and I thought it looked safe enough. My Beantown Buddy was pretty insistent about not sending me off there by myself at night. I know where it is now, though.
Joyce–thanks for your comment about Ohio and for handing me the great “unfunded mandate” line. I can’t wait to use it.
July 25th, 2004 at 6:37 pm
Oh, good. East Cambridge is a pretty cool neighborhood. And the big liquor store around there, 660 Liquors, is the most inexpensive booze within 3 miles
You can buy alcohol at grocery stores that have applied for a license, too, but only 3 stores in a grocery store chain can sell it. crazy blue law holdover.
Thanks for doing these convention reports.