After the kind of Tuesday Dan Murrey had, he needed Wednesday.

• Dan Murrey

He looked relaxed as he joined 75 volunteers on humpday at the Levine Children's Hospital, one of many convention staffers, credit union crew and National Journal group returning for the rooftop playground project that will be unveiled during convention week. It's part of the legacy to leave something behind in the convention cities of Charlotte and Tampa.

It was a change from Tuesday, when Democrats announced they had decided to move their Labor Day "Carolina Fest 2012" from Charlotte Motor Speedway to uptown. To answer questions about what the move would mean for security, transportation and protesters - and how the late change would affect arrangements already begun by Concord officials - Murrey, chairman of the DNC host committee, cited "logistics" and moving delegates busy with caucus meetings from uptown as reasons for the switch.

Even before its meeting this week, the Carolina Regional Minority Partnership Coalition released a statement asking for additional details and transparency on the contracts awarded for convention-related work. "Show me the money," it said.

"What does a goal of one-third aggregate spending with diverse businesses look like? What is that figure? CRMPC wants to know so we can tell minority business owners and Charlotte business owners what revenues can possibly help keep their business afloat, mortgages paid and lights on in this tough economy."

This is part of the push and pull since the convention location was announced and regional businesses realized the opportunities that could come with it. The convention and host committees have publicized its vendor directory, and the North Carolina businesses that have so far been a part of the awarded contracts - in areas from transportation to event planning. Every major contract is announced through the convention vendor directory; local businesses are encouraged to register and to take advantage of networking and outreach meetings.

As corporate celebrations go, it was definitely not routine: A woman dressed in blue and yellow with fake bananas on her head handed out the real thing. She had to be Miss Chiquita, and this had to be the unveiling of the Chiquita logo on the side of the NASCAR building, where the company will be occupying six floors by September - adding something new to the skyline just in time for Democratic National Convention coverage.

On Wednesday after the great unveiling, Brian Newton, the company's director of corporate services, gave me a brief tour of the under-construction 15th floor. Newton told me he is one of the 100 employees so far hired locally - or in his case, from Greenville, S.C. (About 160 others are moving to Charlotte from Cincinnati.) What is now a scattering of building material will be a main reception area with a killer view and multimedia presentations along the walls.

Among the speakers at the unveiling ceremony in a lot across the street, David Allen of Trinity Capital, which manages the building, looked relieved at the arrival of the new tenant and sounded just a little defensive about criticism that the NASCAR Hall of Fame has failed to meet attendance projections. He called the hall a "true community asset."

As the usual Charlotte personalities said the usual things (such as Chamber president Bob Morgan's declaration that Chiquita is already a "great corporate citizen"), Chiquita CEO Fernando Aguirre showed he is rapidly becoming a Charlottean. Drawn by state and local incentives and an expanding airport, Aguirre moved the company from Cincinnati. He praised a long list of elected officials and the way they work in "a seamless fashion" with business.

But Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Cannon on the speaker's dais was a reminder that other city business is pending. In the week he had broken with fellow Democrat Mayor Anthony Foxx by voting "no" on the proposed budget, Cannon was representing the city at the Chiquita fest while Foxx attended the U.S. Conference of Mayors' annual meeting Orlando, Fla., where the city received recognition for energy efficiency efforts.

The budget deadline is two weeks away.

Well, the view from the 15th floor is certainly peaceful.

Mary C. Curtis, an award-winning Charlotte, N.C.-based journalist, is a contributor to The Washington Post's "She the People" blog, The Root, NPR and the Nieman Watchdog blog. Her "Keeping It Positive" segment airs Wednesdays at 7:10 a.m. on Fox News Rising Charlotte, and she was national correspondent for Politics Daily. Follow her on Twitter.

Conventions come and go, including the big blast that will be Charlotte's first. But what will be left for the communities that have struggled for jobs and adequate housing and education? What will they gain once the glitz, dollars and international spotlight have moved on?

• Wikipedia
• Mayor Anthony Foxx

The first conversation in a series sponsored by the Charlotte in 2012 convention host committee explored those questions and more on Wednesday. The Access to America Dialogue series supports Mayor Anthony Foxx's convention legacy program to build a broader, more inclusive economy after the DNC, a challenging task in tough times. The three others fall into the categories of youth employment and civic education; healthy children and families, and energy, technology and sustainability. So far, there has been a youth fitness program at Piedmont Middle School, garden planting at the Charlotte Community Health Clinic, and the Kids Convention that the mayor attended with his family.

"The goal of our convention is to expose people to all parts of our city," Foxx told me, "and also to create economic opportunity for people who traditionally may not have been able to access something like this."

With all of the bickering across the aisles in politics today, there is still one thing that can bridge even the deepest divides in this country: booze.

• Wikipedia

A bipartisan group of Charlotte-area lawmakers has proposed legislation to the General Assembly that would keep Alcoholic Beverage Control liquor stores in Mecklenburg County open on Labor Day, which falls on Sunday, Sept. 3, the day before the Democratic National Convention begins. The convention runs Sept. 4-6.

Restaurant owners have complained that they don't have the space to keep enough alcohol in their restaurants to handle the influx of visitors coming in for the weekend and the convention. They say they would need to restock that Sunday.

The city of Charlotte has established a parade route protesters can take during the Democratic National Convention. Trouble is, it keeps them at least two blocks from Time Warner Cable Arena, where President Obama is supposed to speak, according to the Associated Press.

A route of just over a mile has been set aside for protesters who also get an organizing area at Pearl Street Park. Anti-Democrat activists say the routes do not get them close enough for their message to be heard.

City officials hope the protests will be peaceful but are preparing for potential violence similar to what was seen at the recent NATO conference in Chicago.

• Charlotte Society of Professional Journalists
• DNC protest parade route

After eight months of back and forth with the city of Charlotte, the Coalition to March on Wall Street South was finally granted what they had requested. Sort of.

On Tuesday, the coalition got a permit to march during the Democratic National Convention on Sept. 2 near places such as Bank of America headquarters and Time Warner Cable Arena. But they're asking for more. The coalition gave a list of demands to Mayor Anthony Foxx's on Wednesday morning that contained more than 1,000 signatures of support. Some demands, including the Sept. 2 permit, had already been met.

"This is a step in the right direction by city officials," coalition member Brian Carroll said during a press conference on Wednesday.

Just 100 days away from the moment when President Barack Obama accepts his party's nomination in Charlotte, congresswoman and Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz marked the occasion on a top floor at Bank of America Stadium against a backdrop of the city skyline.

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• Congresswoman and Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Storm clouds briefly drifted over the bright sun during Tuesday's announcement, symbolic perhaps of tightening polls in the state the president narrowly won in 2008. Though it's going to be tough to repeat his win in 2012, Wasserman Schultz was optimistic and in a fighting mood.

"We've been organizing here since 2007, and we've never stopped," she said. "North Carolina became a battleground state because of that grass-roots organizing, and we believe that we have an even stronger opportunity and will win North Carolina in November as a result of that effort."

Enthusiastic young volunteers and voters helped nominate President Barack Obama in 2008. Will they support him again this year?

• Congressman Mel Watt

U.S. Congressman Mel Watt acknowledged the importance of the question, posed by 19-year-old Johnson C. Smith computer science major Enrique Garcia, during Tuesday's announcement of the "UFuture — A Summit for Innovative Young Thinkers" at the university. The cyber summit, to be live-streamed from 10 a.m. to noon on Sept. 4, during the Democratic National Convention, will give representatives from more than 20 colleges and universities a chance to interact with national elected and White House officials, educators, business leaders and celebrities, such as activist and Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning actress Alfre Woodard, who also spoke on Tuesday.