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St. Paul Workers Prepare To Telecommute During RNC

ST. PAUL (WCCO) ― The Republicans are coming, the Republicans are coming! Just don't expect Robyn Aguirre to get all excited about it.

"No, no interest whatsoever," she said. "Just going to stay home and I'll watch it on TV."

Aguirre works for Travelers Insurance just a few blocks from the Xcel Center. During the Republican National Convention, she'll be working from home. It's the same story for her colleague Cheryl Russell.

"I'm able to take a laptop home and then do pretty much my entire job at home via the laptop, so I might get a little too used to it," said Russell with a laugh. "I might not want to come back to work."

Aguirre and Russell are lucky. The Travelers employees who have to report to work during the RNC are expected to show up at 5 a.m. and leave by 2 p.m.

At Lawson Software, anyone who can work from home is being encouraged to do it. Indeed, all over the Twin Cities, people are figuring out ways to avoid the RNC.

Brian DeYoung lives and works near downtown St. Paul. He's going to visit his grandparents.

"Because of the way everything was being rerouted, I just figured it's easier to get out of here than try and fight it," said DeYoung.

Some small businesses, like West End Kitchen, will close their doors during the big event.

"It will be hard to get in and out of here, you know, with vehicles to get materials and things," said owner Richard Johnson. "Nobody wants to come down here and try and fight the crowds."

He's planning on coming down once or twice to make sure his business is alright. His front window hasn't been broken since a Rolling Stones concert more than 25 years ago.

How big will the convention crowds be? How bad will they make the traffic? It's anybody's guess. Downtown worker Aguirre isn't sure what to expect.

"Well, I'm thinking crazy, but maybe it won't be," she said. "Maybe we just think it's going to be crazy, and it won't be."

That's happened before. One example is four years ago in Boston when that city hosted the Democrats.

"We thought the Democratic convention was going to just destroy traffic in Boston," said WBZ-TV producer Ken Tucci. "Traffic in Boston is bad anyway. We thought it was going to just be horrendous."

Bostonians' worst fears weren't realized. The area around the convention was busy, but the rest of the city was described as a ghost town.

"People actually stayed home," said Tucci. "They either took vacation or they worked from home, but whatever they did, they stayed out of the city, and traffic was flowing very well and it was not a problem at all."

"Our hope is that downtown St. Paul will not be a ghost town," said Tom Walsh, public information officer for the St. Paul Police.

Walsh says locals should expect more traffic, but he emphasizes that the city has handled traffic in the past.

"Have you ever come to the Winter Carnival? There are thousands and thousands of people, lots of cars, lots of activities," he said. "I don't think that this event is all that different than that."

Planners are encouraging carpooling, busing and biking. One thing they're not advocating is staying away altogether.

"We hope that people are going to be engaged," said Walsh. "We don't want them going away, we want them actually taking part."

Thanks to an agreement between St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and city council, it looks like locals and convention-goers will be able to take part in more late-night drinking during the convention. The compromise measure lets bar owners stay open until 4 a.m. for a lot less money. They'll still have to pay $2,500 up front, but they'll get $2,000 back after the convention.

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