Why are they considering Salt Lake City for our '16 national convention?

[politicat]

53. Uh... Maybe.

So... Here's the advantage of 10-30M protesters. (And seriously? Really? That's up to 10% of the total population. Subtract 20% as under 16 (so unlikely to be there without parents), 20% as over 70 (and likely to be unable to travel to protest due to health, finances). That leaves 180M people. Protesting takes disposable time and income (at least enough to get there and back), which eliminates 50% of the remainder. 90M. And 90% of everyone wouldn't protest anything that would take actual effort. That's about 9 million potential probably inclined and able to protest. (Even the most contentious actual national convention protests -- Chicago 68 -- only drew about a quarter million people. And they had very clear, life-or-death motivations. Economic survival is much, much, much tougher to talk about and organize and keep people engaged.)

But assume a best case protesting scenario -- an actual 9 million people find the average of $500 disposable dollars to get to Colorado ($140 train ticket from the Midwest, $170 from the west coast, $180 from the east coast; planes are about the same if you get a good deal; $25 a day for food, assuming food truck/street cart/grocery; $30 a night for shelter or gear for Occupying). They all get here -- and note the pot shops. Downtown has many, and that's our current major point of difference from most of the country. (Washington would have the same draw.) Even if only 10% of that 9 million decide to take advantage, that's a 10% calming influence. Which does have an effect.

Now, can we pack 9 million people into the streets of LoDo? Nope. But NYC can't pack that many people into its streets, either. It doesn't take that many to make an impact -- 200K does the job very well. (That was the approximate census of the 93 WTO protests, and the maximal high of the NYC Occupy days, and that's just under the size of the 68 March on Washington.) And 200K, oh yes, we can handle that very well -- no matter which side the DPD comes down on. And Denver LoDo is a hard city to set up good kettles -- many small streets, alleys, open spaces and lots of geeks and public web cameras which can be used for counter-surveillance. I have heard through the maker community that the locals are building anti-kettle tech.

Why are we expecting such an enormous protest? Not that I don't support the idea, but I tend to be pretty realistic when it comes to getting people to stand up for themselves.