Lock 'em up

It's lunch time. Do you know where your boulevard tree is?

Well, if it's in St. Paul, it'll be right where you left it.

Among the security measures underway these days ahead of the Republican National Convention is this innovation. They're locking up the sidewalk grates that surround the boulevard trees in downtown St. Paul.

Many of the trees ARE new, and it would be a shame if any went missing. But parks workers say they're not worried about the trees getting away.

They're more worried about the grates themselves: miscreants might take them up and use them to force entry into, oh, the Xcel Energy Center, passing cars, or anything else within a two-block radius of the Republican National Convention.

The square grates weight about 400 pounds each, and they're cast in symetrical halves for installation and maintenance. But today, they're being cabled together so the tree, in theory, would have to come with.