It's natural that our civic fathers and mothers would want to present an orderly face to the world during the Republican National Convention. Of course they want to position "Minneapolis St. Paul" -- the name they now prefer to "the Twin Cities" -- as a place where things happen on time and in predictable ways. And where the protests are as punctual -- and as limited -- as the light-rail service.
Even so, we'll all still live here after the Republicans have left. We hope the Minneapolis City Council restrains its impulse to write rules governing speech, especially when the rules might create problems bigger than those they are meant to solve.
The City Council will vote today on a proposal to require that groups register before staging a sidewalk demonstration of more than 50 participants. Groups that failed to register would not be punished, but they might be moved if another group has registered to demonstrate at the same place and time. The plan would create a strange new environment in which organizations might try to preempt each other's protests -- say, on the sidewalk in front of a convention hotel.
Meanwhile, a more sensible initiative is underway to involve local people in convention-related activities and events. As Mayors Chris Coleman of St. Paul and R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis point out, a national political convention is a huge opportunity for the metropolitan area, both economically and otherwise. The economic part of the benefit, though, will be muted if local people leave town or stay home and fail to spend the money they ordinarily would. Events like CivicFest, "a very Minnesota celebration" at the Minneapolis Convention Center, and spark24, a downtown arts marathon, aim to get people out of their homes and into the churn of human activity that the convention will bring.
If they encounter a few protests along the way, so much the better.
