Road closures for the debate

Courtesy of Metro Police and my friends at Nashvillest, here's what you'll be looking at as you try to navigate Debate Day:

A number of streets in the Belmont vicinity will be closed in order to enhance security. The following street closures will be in effect Tuesday between 4 p.m. and 12 midnight:

• Belmont Boulevard from Compton Avenue to 18th Avenue South;
• Bernard Avenue from 15th Avenue South to Belmont Boulevard;
• Acklen Avenue from 18th Avenue South to the entrance of the Fidelity Hall parking lot;
• 15th Avenue South from Compton Avenue to Wedgewood Avenue;
• Acklen Avenue from East Belmont Circle to 15th Avenue South will be closed from 4 p.m. Monday through 8 a.m. Wednesday.

Also, you can check out a Belmont map of the closings here.

Morning Links: It's beginning to look a lot like Debate Day

We're less than a week out from the presidential debate here, and it's getting pretty obvious. This banner was going up outside the Curb this morning, the security fence is snaking its way down to Belmont Boulevard, and there are now bathrooms on the tennis courts. Belmont President Bob Fisher has been waiting eight years for this day, and unless the candidates decide they have to rush back to Washington again, it looks like it's going to happen.

Outside Nashville, debate news centers on tomorrow's VP tangle, and as expected, Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin is getting most of the attention. Meanwhile, anybody hear about moderator Gwen Ifill, who'll be gaming through the debate with a broken ankle? Give her a Klondike bar.

Also:

Gov. Bredesen tells everybody to stop all their bickering.

Billy Joel and The Boss know who they're voting for.

Mason-Dixon gives McCain a 16-point lead in Tenn., but Quinnipiac says Obama is surging in the battleground states.

Photos of the Day: Signs of an impending debate

As mentioned earlier today, Belmont security has tightened pretty significantly today and will continue to do so this week. Above is a shot of 15th Avenue South, through the chain link fence that runs the length of the campus, from Acklen Avenue to Bernard Avenue. The fence will also show up on Belmont Boulevard next to the campus, according to debate coordinator Pamela Johnson. There's already a newly erected warning of what exactly you'll be getting yourself into if you venture down the boulevard in the next week:





On the campus itself, the school's recreation center (which sits in the same complex as the arena where the debate will be held) has been shut down, and the weight machines have been removed from their rooms. It's pretty much a ghost town in the student center, even though Fall Break isn't until next week.

In the debate hall itself, the floor has been laid and drapes hung to create the necessary partitions for the "set," but there hasn't been one two-by-four appear yet for the stage. Johnson said the Commission on Presidential Debates hopes to have the stage, which will resemble this one, completed by Saturday.

Also, there are a lot of guys in suits walking around. They look serious.

Emergency center to move away from debate site

From colleague Kate Howard:

The presidential debate at Belmont will be sending a big neighbor across town while Secret Service agents swarm: the Emergency Communications Center and Mayor's Office of Emergency Management.

The city's 911 dispatch center and emergency response organization, now situated alongside the university's campus, will move for a week to their backup center in Antioch for two reasons, says ECC director Duane Phillips: to make it easier on employees trying to get in and out of work, and so their infrastructure and 911 lines are far enough from campus to manage an emergency in case one occurs.

"We know our backup system works perfectly, because once a month we run it for a full 24 hours," Phillips said. "Everything we have here, we have there."

So from the Friday before (Oct. 3) to the Thursday after (Oct. 9) the candidates' visit, the center should be operating outside the scrunity of the heavy security and far from a disaster, should one occur.

Question of the Day: What about dorm searches?

We'll be bringing you a question each day from Belmont students and members of the community about different aspects of the debate, and the answer from Belmont. Today's question comes from Belmont freshman Jesse Johnson:



A: Well, there's not really a complete answer for this one -- at least, not one Belmont administrators say they know about. Pamela Johnson, Belmont's debate coordinator, said the Secret Service typically doesn't discuss security measures, for reasons related to, well, security. According to an e-mail to students over the summer, dorms will be subject to search at any time during a 48-hour period from Oct. 5 until Oct. 7, the day of the debate. In other words, for students on campus during the debate weekend, expect your room to be searched at any time -- so make sure you pick up after yourself!