Coalition gets permit to protest, but details of route are still unknown

The group intending to march in protest on the first day of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul has received a conditional permit to do so, but the route and the timing are still up in the air.

The city hasn't settled on a route that is within "sight and sound" of the Xcel Energy Center, where the convention will be held Sept. 1-4, but has committed to doing so by May 31, according to police guidelines.

That time frame isn't acceptable, said Meredith Aby of the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War. Her group held a news conference Monday outside the Ramsey County Courthouse to voice concern about the lack of a route and the time it's taking to get one.

The group, which wants to march from the Capitol to the Xcel Center, says that it expects tens of thousands of people from around the country and that it needs time to organize.

"They're asking us to accommodate them without knowing all the elements that we need to know," said police spokesman Tom Walsh.

So far, four proposed routes would take demonstrators up to the "primary event area," which surrounds the Xcel Center. One of those routes would connect to a yet-to-be-determined path inside the primary event area that would take people within "sight and sound" of the arena. That distance hasn't been determined yet.

The coalition accepts the conditional permit as a sign of good faith, but legal action is always a possibility should the city not follow through, said Bruce Nestor of the local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.

At the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, protesters were given an out-of-the-way free-speech area to demonstrate, but the area's designation was made too late to challenge it in federal court. Protesters here want to avoid that.

In other convention-related news, Monday was the first day people could apply for demonstration permits or to reserve park space for large groups. About 20 applications were filed for park permits and none for protest permits, said Erin Dady, St. Paul's marketing director and convention planner.

Chris Havens • 651-298-1542