A week that defied convention

[papau]

http://www.calendarlive.com/cl-et-baum3sep03,0,2396571.story
NEW YORK, N.Y. GERALDINE BAUM
A week that defied convention
NEW YORK, N.Y. / GERALDINE BAUM

Sep 3 2004

The Republicans are leaving today, and New York is getting back to its own business. Liberal Democrats, who fled to places like the Hamptons, are flocking home. Many might even forgo the last weekend at their hugely expensive summer homes and reclaim their Manhattan early: There are movies to be seen at the Lincoln Plaza art theater, dim sum to be had downtown, and fall clothes to be pulled off the racks at Bergdorf's and Barneys.

These prisoners of the Hamptons, like Napoleon leaving Elba, will no doubt be racing on the highways all weekend. When they return, they'll find storekeepers who want to kiss their feet. The city, beyond the frozen zone around Madison Square Garden, was shockingly quiet. There wasn't a pleasure boat on the Hudson River or a commercial plane overhead. Really, you could lie down in the middle of Madison Avenue. You could get a taxi. But this is no commentary on the Republican visitors. They did not disappoint. They were clean, cordial and friendly, and every time the schedule said "party" they were hammering back the Jack Daniel's.

For their part, the New Yorkers who remained did exactly as Mayor Bloomberg had asked them to do: 99.999999% of us behaved.

Now, as the delegates pack up the hot item of the convention — gray and black $10 John Kerry flip-flops — and the entire New York City police force puts in for R&R, a few last impressions:
It was pretty embarrassing witnessing Michigan delegates shouted down as they ambled up 6th Avenue their first morning in New York.<snip>