Fences across Schenley Park

By Gabrielle Banks

Ambling is officially off-limits for Schenley Park-goers as the lush Oakland retreat prepares itself for world leaders to arrive for a working dinner tonight at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

Days ago officials erected a few miles of thick, sectional metal-grate fencing, about 15-feet high, that blocks off both sides of Panther Hollow Road, snakes across the Panther Hollow Bridge to Phipps and along Phipps Run toward the golf course. The Westinghouse Memorial fountain was gushing last night, but a curious passerby would have had to view it by standing in the roadway and peering through the temporary G-20 black gates. To get to the nearby trail, you'd have to have a extendible ladder handy.

The Anderson Playground, a popular spot for young families across from the fenced off and empty swimming pool, is surrounded with the fencing and the Panther Hollow trail and Steve Faloon (Killer Hill) trails, which draw runners, bikers and dog walkers, were also blockaded with fencing.

At Phipps last night, where unlit floodlights lined the entry way, workers busily unloaded trucks at the tented at the side entrance to the facility.
Down a bit from the grand entrance, across from the Christopher Columbus statue on Curto Drive stand hundreds of small white placards with the names of destroyed Darfur villages, planted there earlier this week by the Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition.

As far as driving through the park to take in the sights, visitors will have to take a hiatus for today. From  9 a.m. to midnight all streets through the park will be barricaded off to anyone who is not running a G-20 country.