Avoid downtown during Trump visit, Youngstown chief advises

YOUNGSTOWN

City Police Chief Robin Lees says people should avoid the downtown in the hours before President Donald Trump speaks Tuesday at the Covelli Centre.

Lees met with the U.S. Secret Service today to help plan security for the event and said the entire east end of downtown will basically be shut down in preparation for the president’s visit.

Trump is scheduled to speak at 7 p.m. at the center, 229 E. Front St. The doors to the venue open at 4 p.m.

Additionally, Lees said people should avoid the downtown area between 3 and 8 p.m.

“If you don’t have to be here, don’t come down here,” Lees said.

Lees also said a list of streets to be closed for the president’s arrival will be known shortly before the event. He said traffic patterns around the downtown area will be affected by the visit as well.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan is criticizing Trump for coming to Youngstown for a rally rather than focusing on the important issues facing the country.

“During the last six months, he’s not followed through on what he promised,” Ryan, of Howland, D-13th, said Thursday during a conference call with reporters.

During last year’s presidential campaign, Trump, a Republican, spoke of reopening steel mills and coal mines, labeling China as a currency manipulator, creating a jobs program, reforming health care and “draining the swamp” in Washington, D.C.

“He’s gone against a lot of the things he said he was going to do,” said Ryan, who added about Trump: “He was selling everybody a bill of goods.”

Read more about the visit in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.