Milwaukee is less than one week away from hosting the Republican National Convention.
RNC organizers expect to welcome about 50,000 visitors to the city with a projected economic impact of $200 million from the convention.
Ahead of the four-day event, the U.S. Secret Service has released a security perimeter map that outlines the area of downtown where access will be restricted to those with credentials.
But inside that perimeter are bars, restaurants and other businesses that aren’t sure how this will impact them.
Omar Shaikh is the co-owner of 3rd St. Market Hall, which lies in the security perimeter.
He’s also on the RNC host committee, which lobbied for the event to be in Milwaukee, and says he’s excited Milwaukee will be in the national spotlight.
“You really want to win these large-scale conventions because it brings so many cameras on our city,” Shaikh says. “Fifteen-thousand credential cameras, bringing a lot of delegates, members of the media – you're bringing in a lot of different visitors from around the world. And anytime they can come in and see, what we believe this city has been world-class from day one, we want to do it.”
But not all business owners within the security perimeter share the same enthusiasm.
Evan Pack is the co-founder of Vulture Space, a nonprofit bicycle shop inside the former Grand Avenue Mall on Plankinton Avenue. He says he’s worried the perimeter’s security checks will discourage people from coming in.
“I think fewer people will come in — I mean, who wants to be checked?” Pack says. “I don’t agree with [security checks], but it’s not my choice. Like, I don’t want security or anyone checking me when I’m going to work or something.”
The RNC’s security perimeter has two zones.
The hard security zone requires everyone within it to have credentials issued by the Secret Service. It’s a smaller area, just around the main convention sites of Fiserv Forum, Panther Arena and Baird Center.
The soft security zone is a larger area. It extends roughly from West Cherry Street on the north to Clybourn Street on the south and from North Ninth Street on the west to the east side of the Milwaukee River.
It’s open to the public, but vehicles will need to be screened at five designated checkpoints.
Derek Phoungphol is the owner of The King and I, a Thai restaurant on North MLK Drive, just two blocks from Fiserv Forum.
Although he’s in the soft security zone, he says he’s unsure whether the RNC will be a boom or bust for his business.
“I'm anxious about it, and as a business owner, that's never a good thing — to not know how it's going to be,” Phoungphol says. “We know that there's a convention here, I just don't know to what extent that's going to help or hurt us.”
Phoungphol says since his restaurant gets a lot of takeout orders, he doesn’t know if customers will want to drive through one of the vehicle screening checkpoints to pick up food.
He also hasn’t gotten any big reservations from RNC groups for the event, so he hopes foot traffic is high during the convention.
Just in case, he plans to have a few more hands on deck than usual.
“I don't want to be overstaffed and just have it not work out business-wise, with labor costs as they are,” Phoungphol says. “But just a few more people I think would help.”
But if you walk just one block down the street, it’s a different story.
Major Goolsby’s – a popular Milwaukee sports bar – finds itself on both sides of the hard and soft security zones.
The Secret Service even highlighted Major Goolsby’s on its security perimeter map, to show there will be public access during the convention.
Drew Olsen, a manager at the sports bar, says he hopes the unique position gives the bar an advantage.
“We do think it's fantastic that the official Secret Service security map designates Major Goolsby’s,” Olsen says. “There are no other businesses specifically listed on there, so, at minimum, one would hope that anybody looking at the map would say, ‘Boy, I gotta check out this Major Goolsby’s — must be a really important place!’”
With the bar expecting an uptick in business, Olsen says it will be all hands on deck. Employees have been told to give themselves plenty of time to make it to work since their vehicles will be screened at checkpoints.
Major Goolsby’s has even taken it up a notch by displaying red, white and blue banners and a giant “Welcome to Milwaukee” sign outside its building.
“We want to put our best foot forward for ourselves, we want to put our best foot forward for the City of Milwaukee, to be extremely welcoming,” Olsen says. “We're trying to throw an enormous party, and we want to look good.”
But what about businesses in the more restrictive hard security zone?
They can only be accessed by people with credentials — like delegates, volunteers and media members. This includes all of the bars and restaurants inside the Deer District.
Audrey Gibson-Cicchino, the Secret Service RNC coordinator, said at a press conference that businesses in the hard perimeter had to opt into it.
“We've done extensive outreach with the community … so that included restaurants and businesses that elected to be within the inner perimeter, Gibson-Cicchino said. “So that was by their choice and we will continue to work with them and everyone attending there will be able to frequent those businesses.”
Fat Tuesday is a frozen cocktail bar in the hard security zone, steps away from the entrance to Fiserv Forum.
Despite the limited set of credentialed customers, Lisa Brown, an employee at the cocktail bar, says she’s holding out hope that business stays flowing.
“I feel like it might be pretty busy, because a lot of people from down South, like Florida, and other places that are familiar with Fat Tuesday, and I feel like to see something familiar here in Wisconsin, would draw people here more.”
But at the end of the day — all of these downtown businesses within the two security perimeters have one thing in common. They don’t know for sure how the RNC will affect business.
“As long as we make money and get paid, I’m here for it,” Brown says. “I mean, it's a job, and I'm here for that job. Customer service is key, and I just want to make sure everybody has a good time while we're here.”
Emily Files contributed to the reporting of this story.
