Scaling 30 stories of the Sears Tower in Chicago in early December to unfurl a 2,500-square-foot banner protesting nuclear power.

Creating giant papier-mache marijuana cigarettes to protest potential legislation in Italy.

Dressing as clowns and floating in bathtubs down the Allegheny River to mount a naval attack on the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

When the announcement was made in Washington that Pittsburgh would be the site of the G-20 summit, reporters laughed. Clearly, the significance of the city in the nation's history is poorly understood.

There is something symbolic in the holding of this potentially watershed event in Pittsburgh at a moment when America's global leadership is being seriously challenged by rising Asian economic superpowers as well as by numerous political revolts in the hemisphere it once dominated. The industrial collapse of Pittsburgh and American manufacturing in the 1980s propelled the crushing trade imbalance and indebtedness of the United States vis-a-vis the rest of the world. In a sense the chickens are coming home to roost.

BERLIN -- Last May, when White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced that Pittsburgh would be hosting the upcoming G-20 summit, there were audible snickers from the White House press corps.

One reporter asked "Why Pittsburgh?" But what the reporter really wanted to ask was, "Pittsburgh -- seriously?"

Mr. Gibbs, according to the official White House transcript, replied: "I think it's an area that has seen its share of economic woes in the past but because of foresight and investment is now renewed -- giving birth to renewed industries that are creating the jobs of the future. And I think the president believes it would be a good place to highlight some of that."

Groups seeking to march, protest and set up encampments during the G-20 summit said yesterday that the city of Pittsburgh isn't cooperating, and for the first time threatened to take their concerns to the federal courts, possibly today.