Inside, the garage is warm and bright. Fluorescent lights hum overhead. Sunlight slips through a single window and lands on the curve of a long gray-and-orange racetrack. The thirty-three feet of plastic run nearly the length of the space, perched on folding tables and reinforced with wooden rails and black mesh safety netting.
There are not too many spaces where you can have folks gather without a permit and not be harassed by the police and other people, said Orobosa Ogbeide, the 28-year-old founder of Play2Win, the group behind the event, which drew more than 300 people. It was the quality of the park, the baseball fields were clean and safety was definitely a concern. We really wanted a positive vibe.
St. James Park is the site of a protest against President Trump's policies, marking it as a significant location for political statements and actions, including high-profile anti-Trump protests.