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The Democratic National Convention’s logistics adventure

PHILADELPHIA — When many reporters heard that the Democratic National Convention would be in Philadelphia there was excitement. It’s a bigger city than Cleveland, better suited for large events with plenty of hotels and a great food scene.

Instead, the first day in Philadelphia is turning into a sweltering day of sweaty reporters in unhappy circumstances , loudly complaining to one another after a relatively easy (and cooler) experience in Cleveland .

To be sure, the DNC had nothing to do with the weather, with a current heat index of 108 F and high levels of humidity. There are cooling tents and stations set up around the city. But any pretense of looking like a normal human being and not a drowned rat are out the window.

While many media hotels in Cleveland were a good 40 minutes outside the city, once a reporter was inside the city things were often within walking distance or all clustered on a restaurant-lined, pedestrian-only street that fed into an entrance at Quicken Loans Arena. CNN, The Washington Post, Twitter, NBC and more all had their respective hubs within just feet of one another .

Though the filing center for the media was a mile away in the Cleveland Convention Center, a Secret Service shuttle brought reporters directly into Quicken Loans Arena, eliminating the need to go through security again.

Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia is on the southern tip of the city and not within walking distance of many media hotels or their hubs, which seem to be clustered near Center City. It appears that only CNN, with its famous CNN Grill restaurant and broadcast studio, is within walking distance of the arena.

Getting to the arena is also an adventure . Uber seems to have a special deal (perhaps through former senior White House adviser David Plouffe, now Uber’s senior vice president of policy and strategy) that allows its drivers to drive into the parking lot areas and drop off passengers at a special Uber lobby stacked with drinks and snacks, which leads into a security area.

The security area, though, doesn’t feed directly into the arena, and media are forced to walk across two parking lots to actually reach the arena. The press filing center, while directly across from the arena, is three large tents with loud air-conditioning.

Many members of the media took to Twitter to express their displeasure at the arrangements in Philadelphia:

To be totally objective and nonpartisan: the logistics at DNC are appalling. Squalid hotels, sweltering workspace, no directions. Chaos. — Megan Liberman (@meganliberman) July 25, 2016

Walking thru hot media tents, or walking the mile from Uber drop off to hot media tents, one hears longing for CLE https://t.co/3MQcdHBQQs — Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) July 25, 2016

Comparing Philly and Cleveland right now in terms of convention logistics is like comparing Cavs and 76ers. No comparison. — Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) July 25, 2016

Weather update an hour before DNC gavels in from CNN Weather Desk: current heat index is 108 F (actual temp is 96 F) #DemsinPhilly — Deirdre Walsh (@deirdrewalshcnn) July 25, 2016

So apparently the only place the AC works @ the #DNCinPHL workspace is in the porta potties. Which is unfortunate. — Megan Liberman (@meganliberman) July 25, 2016

Early verdict, Cleveland was much better logistically — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 25, 2016

There are two venues for #DNCinPHL. They are about four miles apart. — Hunter Walker (@hunterw) July 25, 2016

Fairly sure my hotel room at #DNCinPHL is the halfway house from "Shawshank." — Olivier Knox (@OKnox) July 24, 2016

Pretty major fail by #DemsInPhilly as dozens from multiple states wait in 100 degree heat for bus to DNC 30 min late pic.twitter.com/C962yzwTM9 — Greg Neumann (@gneumann_wkow) July 25, 2016

Much of the DNC press corps is headquartered in a tent city in a scorching hot parking lot outside the Eagles' football stadium — Hunter Walker (@hunterw) July 25, 2016

Nick Lindseth and Wally Joe Cook contributed to this report.