Editorial: Move G-20 Summit out of cities

By now it’s a familiar formula: Upon hearing it will host the next G-20 Summit, a city… By now it’s a familiar formula: Upon hearing it will host the next G-20 Summit, a city rushes to train and build up its police force to prepare for the commotion. Downtown areas come to resemble police states with the myriad rows of badges and shields. Then things get really ugly. Protestors clad in black show up in droves and wreak havoc in the streets. Windows get smashed, cop cars are vandalized, and onlookers too often get caught in the chaos. We’ve seen it happen right here in Pittsburgh less than one year ago. In Toronto, it happened again.

Ostensibly the G-20 Summit is a meeting place for the world’s leaders to figure out just how they’ll resolve this global economic and environmental quagmire. While policy agendas further, the wreckage the summit carries is a more memorable scar. For a city hosting the summit, it seems more headache than honor.

All the policing in Toronto costs taxpayers $80 million, while the federal government paid $120 million, the Toronto Star reports. It’s still too early to place an accurate dollar amount on the damages done to local businesses. While Toronto mayor David Miller wanted the leaders to meet at the more easily securable Exhibition Place, the federal government pushed for the Metro Toronto Convention Centre — some speculated this location was chosen to showcase Toronto’s financial district.

While the fixation with prestige continues, hosting the summit in more remote, less damageable locations would save money and lessen the chaotic aftermath that’s sure to ensue. If cities want prestige, they should vie to host the Olympics.