** New Orleans gears up for North American summit **

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5712435.html

New Orleans gears up for North American summit
By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press Writer


NEW ORLEANS — Police expect protests but few problems when the two-day North American Leaders Summit gets under way Monday in New Orleans.

It's VIP duty as President Bush, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper get together to talk trade. But for the New Orleans Police Department, it's more of the same in a a string of high-profile, crowd-generating events early in 2008.

The North American summit in Quebec last August drew several hundred protesters vocal on the war in Iraq and what they claimed was a gradual merging of the three countries. There also were marches in New Orleans in 2003, when the city hosted negotiations for the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

Police Superintendent Warren Riley said he expects "some protesters, but not a mass."

"We handle these situations better than anyone in the country," Riley said.

New Orleans police are among the world's most skilled at crowd control. Their methods in handling the up to 1 million people who turn out each year at Mardi Gras have been studied by law enforcement agencies around the world.

Still, there are local tensions that officers will be on watch for _ among them simmering unhappiness about the City Council's decision last December to approve demolition of many large public housing complexes. A small group of protesters clashed with police as the council was debating on the issue. Police deployed chemical spray and Tasers and some arrests were made.

For the summit, they'll get help from state police, National Guard and the Coast Guard, though Riley wouldn't say how many additional security forces will be deployed.

The summit's scheduled events take place in the Central Business District, not far from the French Quarter but distant from neighborhoods hard hit by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. It was unclear Friday whether the visiting leaders would meet with hurricane victims still rebuilding their homes and lives.

For Calderon, a visit to recovering neighborhoods would present an opportunity to meet some of New Orleans' newcomers _ Hispanic craftsmen attracted to the region by the promise of jobs in the massive effort to rebuild homes and businesses.

After a string of events in early 2007 _ the BCS championship and Sugar Bowl college football games, Mardi Gras and the NBA All-Star Game among them _ the summit will turn the international spotlight on the city.

City leaders and tourism interests want to continue sending a message that New Orleans is open for business, said Mary Beth Romig, spokeswoman for the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Bush announced the summit would be held in New Orleans during his State of the Union speech in January. The president was criticized in 2007 for not including the city, or its struggles, in the speech. Despite billions of dollars of federal investment in rebuilding levees, homes and public infrastructure, the initial response to the flooding that swamped the city left a bad taste for many residents. They think the federal government has failed to do enough to bring the city back.

Mayor Ray Nagin, in January said he will meet with the president during the summit.

Not everyone believes New Orleans is the proper venue for the summit.

One target of protesters is expected to be the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. They say the pact, which aims to share information between the three governments and smooth out regulatory differences, is a threat to national sovereignty and an attempt to create a military partnership to enforce the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Jessica Walker Beaumont, an organizer of a People's Summit on North American issues, also wants to focus on concerns such as increased privatization of hospitals and schools _ "a lot of what NAFTA is about," she said.

Class distinctions, too, will be in the spotlight.

By coming to impoverished New Orleans, Bush is "having the arrogance to say, This is what prosperity looks like," said Kathleen Chandler, of Buffalo, N.Y., an organizer for the U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization. The group plans a demonstration Sunday.