CBS News Transcripts June 19, 2004 Saturday
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CBS News Transcripts
SHOW: CBS Evening News (6:30 PM ET) - CBS
June 19, 2004 Saturday

ANCHORS: RUSS MITCHELL
REPORTERS: GRETCHEN CARLSON
BODY:

RUSS MITCHELL, anchor:
And with the clock ticking down to the Democratic convention, anxieties are rising in the host city. As Gretchen Carlson reports from Boston, many residents of the town that calls itself the hub are expecting a heap of trouble.

GRETCHEN CARLSON reporting:
Boston tour boats usually ride a wave of midsummer business, but boat owner Jay Spence says next month's Democratic National Convention has torpedoed bookings.

Mr. JAY SPENCE (Massachusetts Bay Lines): Normally on our private party side, we'd have about 30 at this time, just looking back historically, and this year we have one.

CARLSON: One?

Mr. SPENCE: One.

CARLSON: Many blame the unprecedented security plan that will shut down the city around the Democrats' convention at the FleetCenter which experts fear could be a terrorist target. So Boston's main artery, I-93, will be closed, along with the city's major east-west routes each day of the convention from 4 PM through the following morning. Authorities will also close one of Boston's busiest subway stations.
Your company is right in the middle of all of this confusion?

Ms. MARGO NISON (Keane, Inc.): Yes, we're right here in Charlestown, Massachusetts.
CARLSON: Keane, an outsourcing company, is just a few hundred yards from the FleetCenter. Like thousands of other Boston businesses, managers are trying to figure out how to get people to and from work.

Ms. NISON: Our consultants are all over the world. We need to be here to support them during that week.
CARLSON: Hundreds of thousands of Bostonians are being asked to take vacations, work from home or come in at the wee hours of the morning.
Even on a good day, many people here in Boston say the driving can be a nightmare, but those responsible for bring the convention here to this city, including the mayor, say any inconvenience is an investment in the city's image.

Mayor THOMAS MENINO (Democrat, Boston): Well, they bring in 25,000 people to our city. We do more than that every time the Red Sox play at Fenway Park.
CARLSON: Adding to the drama has been a labor dispute that's delayed convention preparations and a new study by a Boston economist that predicts the city will lose at least $33 million.

Mr. DAVID TUERCK (Suffolk University): If I had been a cautious planner, I would have picked some city in the Midwest where the security considerations would have been minimal.

CARLSON: Some analysts say Boston is experiencing the harsh reality of a post-9/11 world, that playing host to a high-profile event can leave a city high and dry.
Gretchen Carlson, CBS News, Boston.

MITCHELL: Just ahead on tonight's CBS EVENING NEWS, the experiment that's changing minds about what made the World Trade Center collapse.