Friday traffic alert: Obama is coming to downtown S.F.

President Barack Obama waves as he walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014, for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., then onto California for three days. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) less President Barack Obama waves as he walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014, for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., then onto California for three ... more Photo: Susan Walsh / Associated Press Photo: Susan Walsh / Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Friday traffic alert: Obama is coming to downtown S.F. 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

President Obama will be back in San Francisco on Friday and Saturday for a pair of fundraising events, bringing along the usual throng of deep-pocketed donors, chanting demonstrators and angry motorists stuck in motorcade-caused South of Market traffic.

“At least the Giants are away, which helps,” said Officer Gordon Shyy, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department.

Although details are limited for security reasons, the president will be flying in to San Francisco on Air Force One on Friday afternoon after spending time in Los Angeles. He will speak at a fundraiser Friday evening at the W Hotel at Third and Howard streets, stay overnight in the city and then will appear at a roundtable to raise money for the Democratic National Committee on Saturday morning before flying back to Washington.

The Friday event will feature the “neo-soul” singer Maxwell in the ballroom and plenty of antiwar protesters on the streets outside the hotel.

The demonstrators will be calling for an end to U.S. bombing in Iraq and Syria, a complete withdrawal of forces from the Mideast and an end to U.S. aid to Israel.

“The president represents everything the country is doing to the world,” said Stephanie Tang of the World Can’t Wait, one of the groups organizing the protest. In the Mideast, “ISIS is terrible, but whatever the United States is doing is far worse.”

San Francisco police officers will keep an eye on the protesters, who will begin gathering at about 3 p.m. Friday.

“We’ll be allowing them to have their free speech rights, but also making sure that people abide by traffic laws and other regulations,” Shyy said. “We’ve got a lot of experience with this, since (Obama) comes here quite often.”

Experience doesn’t make it easier to eliminate the traffic woes caused whenever the president is on the move. From the time Obama’s motorcade leaves San Francisco International Airport on its way downtown, California Highway Patrol and San Francisco police officers will be shutting down freeway off-ramps and streets along the route.

“The Secret Service works with our traffic unit on the route the motorcade takes into the city,” Shyy said. “They give us enough notice to let us stage our units so we can close off the streets as needed.”

In most cases, traffic delays will be minimal, he added, because the streets can be reopened as soon as the motorcade passes. Longer delays and detours can be expected around the sites of the presidential events and protests.

The president has no public events scheduled during this trip to San Francisco, although there’s always the possibility of an impromptu stop or visit.

Obama’s Los Angeles trip, however, was a combination of public and private events. He was scheduled to attend a town hall meeting at a business incubator in Santa Monica before going to a Democratic National Committee fundraising dinner at the Los Angeles home of actress Gwyneth Paltrow.

The president has another fundraiser on Friday morning before traveling to San Dimas at the eastern edge of Los Angeles County at 1 p.m. to dedicate part of the San Gabriel Mountains as a national monument.

Obama has drawn criticism in the past for the amount of time he has spent raising money. On a trip to the Bay Area in July, for example, Republicans and even a few Democrats suggested it was bad form for the president to be out on the fundraising trail in the midst of crises in Ukraine and Gaza.

But with the midterm elections less than four weeks away and the very real possibility that Republicans will take control of both houses of Congress, saving embattled Democrats is high on Obama’s to-do list.

“We still have an opportunity to organize and win the tough races we have to win,” Obama said in a fundraising message from the DNC last week. “But time is the thing we’re just about out of.”

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth