Delegates to live la vida local

It was a dose of reality, no doubt about it. Mayor Thomas M. Menino and the organizers of the 2004 Democratic National Convention set out yesterday to prove that they would showcase Boston as a real, red-blooded place, not a collection of sterile hotel rooms. For the official welcome parties planned for state delegations, that meant turning to real venues. Real neighborhoods. Real local color.

Real labor disputes.

That was the unscripted message of the day, as about 100 members of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association and the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation, bent on drawing attention to their ongoing contract talks, crashed the press conference where Menino was proudly announcing the party locations.

As city leaders and convention organizers gathered in Jamaica Plain's Samuel Adams Brewery -- where, four months from now, members of the Ohio delegation will drink beer amid the giant metal tanks and wooden barrels -- the police union protesters gathered outside to do some noisemaking of their own.

The protesters chanted "Toys for Tom" at the gates and heckled occupants of arriving cars with taunts of "Enjoy your paaaaahty."

They hooted when Menino drove up in a sport utility vehicle.

They handed out fliers with Menino's face superimposed on a bottle of beer labeled "Lying Lager." ("Drink up and negotiate responsibly," it said. "Something I won't do for 31 city unions.")

It was, at the least, a distraction from the feel-good message Menino was hoping to convey with this convention idea: using the traditional delegation parties, to be held Sunday, July 25, to showcase Boston life.

"I said, `It can't just be downtown,' " Menino said. "We have such rich neighborhoods."

Instead, delegates will be bused to sites far from the hotel circuit, convention leaders said, to attend parties partially subsidized by corporate sponsors.

The New York delegation will party at South Boston's L Street Bathhouse; the Alabama and South Carolina delegations will be feted in Roxbury at the Museum of the National Center for Afro-American Artists. Virginia and West Virginia delegates will head to Menino's own neighborhood and gather in the Menino Wing of the Hyde Park Library.

`We are going to showcase what makes Boston a great city," Menino said in the brewery yesterday. But while he tried to strike a happy air of city spirit, union members outside weren't quite so buoyant. The convention will mean long hours and mandatory overtime, said Cynthia Brewington, a 31-year-old police officer. "If there's money for a party," she said, "there's money for us to have a contract."

Officer Sophia Vega-Jones, 33, who came with her 3-year-old daughter, Andrenae, said she had no problem protesting at any Menino event. She has already held signs at Menino's State of the City address, at the State House, and at an appearance by Menino in Washington, D.C. "It's for the same cause, so it doesn't matter," she said. "I'm everywhere."

Union members know an opportunity when they see one. As they seek to put the spotlight on their contract talks and put pressure on Menino, they're well aware of the convention-related media glare. Yesterday's protest was the first organized police demonstration since the State of the City speech in January, Boston Police Patrolmen's Association president Thomas J. Nee said, but without new contracts, it won't be the last.

"Anywhere he goes, we're going to be," Nee said of Menino. "If you don't pay your bills, you can't have a party."

Menino, for his part, seemed less than amused by the protesters and by the prospect of picketers disrupting other convention events.

"They make that choice," he said of the unions' vow to keep up the disruptions.

When reporters asked about the protesters, Menino dropped his jovial tone to discuss contract business, mentioning more than once that he had been willing to enter mediation, and blaming union members for spreading ill will past the negotiating table.

"I will do everything I can to get my labor contracts under agreement before the convention," he said, "but I cannot spend money I do not have."

Menino said he had spoken to presumptive Democratic Party nominee John F. Kerry in recent weeks, and "told him I was doing everything I can" to settle the contract disputes.

Asked if Kerry could do anything to help, Menino said, "Send money."

Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan, contacted after the event, said, "Senator Kerry hopes that all parties resolve these matters to their mutual satisfaction."

As the mayor held forth on union woes, a couple of dozen venue hosts stood silent and stone-faced beside him. Afterward, a few said they weren't surprised at the fuss.

"It goes with the territory of getting involved with things at this level," said John Linehan, president and chief executive of Zoo New England, whose Franklin Park Zoo will host the California delegation's party. Would he like to see a resolution? "Absolutely. Absolutely," Linehan said with gusto.Jim Koch, the founder and chief executive of Boston Beer Company, said the convention was still a great platform for city businesses, despite the labor tensions that are "all part of politics."