South End residents and business owners shared varied reactions today to road closures related to the afternoon arrivals of President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China.
“I’m glad I don’t have to come after Friday,” said Glenna Mangiardi, who works at Symphony Workplaces in the BankUnited Building near the Lake Worth Bridge. She hadn’t had any complications in her commute but was surprised by the increase in security.
Behind the building this morning, she saw more than 50 officers, who had taken over the Kreusler Park beach beach parking lot, in SWAT gear.
“I didn’t know to feel secure or worried,” she joked.
Some residents have managed to work their schedules around presidential visits. This marks President Trump’s sixth visit since Inauguration Day; Chinese President Xi Jinping joined him.
“You just don’t want to be there when the motorcade comes,” said resident Bob Roberts, as he walked his dog near the plaza. He thinks the road closures are no big deal and are overplayed a little.
Resident Domenica Frankland, however, called the road closures, but especially the bridge closures, a hindrance.
After dropping her children off at school, she’s afraid to drive home in case she can’t make it back to pick up the kids. She stays in the vicinity to avoid traffic.
When it comes to her business, she doesn’t have much control.
“We had protesters outside the door,” said Frankland, who owns a boutique wine shop, Vinoutlet, in the BankUnited Building. “No customers.”
They were forced to cancel Friday’s wine tasting event benefitting nonprofit organization Best Buddies because they didn’t know what to expect.
“With this visit, we were pretty much were sandwiched between Mar-a-Lago and the Eau,” she said.
At least one other event was postponed.
The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach rescheduled two school trips to the Little Red Schoolhouse due to the presidents’ visits. Usually, when Trump is in town, they advise school buses to take the Lake Worth bridge to avoid traffic. But today they instead decided to cancel the fourth-graders field trip to avoid complications.
“A lot of schools run on a tight schedule,” said Katie Jacob, the director of education. “So, they can’t sit in traffic.”
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