RSS
Home
The inauguration is coming the inauguration is coming
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
.jpg)
President-elect Barack Obama
Will Inauguration Day resemble “The Day the Earth Stood Still”?
January 20 may be the day Washington, DC stood still, according to those who're forecasting gloom and doom instead of change and hope. They predict that Inauguration Day crowds -- estimated between 1.5 million and even 5 million -- will overwhelm Washington.
The White House announced on January 13 that it will grant emergency funds to the District of Columbia to help with skyrocketing costs of the Obama Inauguration. No amount has been specified to help pay for the $47 million the city has estimated the inauguration will cost -- about three times the $15 million that Congress has granted for the event.
DC Mayor Adrian Fenty and DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (details below) had urged additional aid.
(To avoid panicking, please go to the bottom of this story for Websites with official inauguration information. Also useful, although not official, are examiner coverage and the Washington Post's "Inauguration Central" site.)
(History repeats itself, from 280 years ago when hordes poured into Washington for Andrew Jackon's 1829 inauguration. Daniel Webster exclaimed, "I never saw such a crowd here before...they seem to think that the country is rescued from some awful danger." For this and other fascinating inauguration-related info, read historian Paul F. Boller, Jr.'s books "Presidential Anecdotes", Presidential Inaugurations", "Presidential Diversions", and/or "Presidential Wives".
"Turnout could easily reach 2 million, officials said..." "The Washington Post" reported on December 22. "Although it is possible that 5 million people will descend on the area in the days leading up to the inauguration..."
“Roads, Trains Can’t Handle Jan. 20 Droves” warned an earlier Post front page headline.
"The Washington Times" quoted Greater Washington Board of Trade President Jim Dinegar as saying the inauguration will be "a logistical nightmare." That word's getting a lot of use by local officials.
“This is going to be a nightmare,” Metro (subways and buses) General Manager John B. Catoe told the Post’s “Dr. Gridlock” column. The general manager of the metropolitan area’s public transportation system – absolutely no relation to Paris’s Metro – told WTOP radio station, “A million and a half is not a number that we can physically move.”
Celebrants – and the many DC-area residents who'll have to get to and from work on Inauguration Day – are being advised to allow at least one extra hour for public transportation, or to walk if possible.
"The New York Times" was comparatively restrained, headlining "Washington Strains for Inauguration".
DC Delegate (taxation without representation: DC has no vote in the House or Senate; Dear Obama, please remedy) Eleanor Holmes Norton has asked Congress to double the amount the federal government has given the city for the Obama inauguration. She’s concerned that the paltry sum of $15 million the federal government has given the District of Columbia may be “exhausted”. Norton pointed out that the amount is $2.3 million less than allotted for the 2005 inauguration of President Bush. Crowd estimates range from 300,000 to 400,000 for his second inauguration.
Also, Norton noted that $15 million is far less than the $50 million the government gave Denver and St. Paul for security for the Democratic and Republican conventions, respectively. The Democratic convention drew 50,000 people.
Official estimates have become controversial ever since the 1995 Million Man March (MMM) organizers, the Nation of Islam, threatened to sue the National Park Service for allegedly undercounting the MMM crowd as 400,000. The Nation of Islam estimated the crowd between 1.5 and 2 million. Boston University's Center for Remote Sensing made two analyses of official photos, and estimated the MMM crowd at 837,000 with a 20 percent margin of error.
For Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington, park officials estimated the crowd at around 75,000, compared to the organizers' estimate of over 200,000. Other estimates were as high as half a million attendees. The largest crowd for any event in Washington was 1.2 million for LBJ's inauguration in 1965.
Whatever the crowd may be for Obama's inauguration, I won't be in it although I’ve covered inaugurations for Reuters, “Life”, “People”, and others, or attended them as a planner, since Reagan’s first inauguration. I’ll get a far better view on television in my DC apartment several miles away from the Mall. And I'll be sporting my Obama t-shirt emblazoned with the Post's front page banner headline story November 5, "Obama Makes History".
Here’s a much-touted microcosm of the problem: Only 5,000 portable toilets have been ordered along the inaugural parade route. The standard recommendation is one parta-potty-per-100-people, according to Gene’s Johns whose slogan is “We’re proud to say we are #1 in the #2 business!” A Royal Flush and other such rental firms agree.
Do do the math: 5,000 x 100 = 500,000, but that’s only one-third to one tenth of the crowd estimates.
Now, for the true poop scoop on this historical Inaugural official information, just click:
Official Websites
More About:
Events ·
Obama Inauguration ·
Obama ·
Washington DC Tourism ·
Washington DC Metro ·
Million Man March ·
Daniel Webster
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
The FBI announced today that it released its investigative files on Michael Jackson, in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. …
The Cotswolds, a region called “The Heart of England”, is a Christmas card come to life. Nestled in the snow are glistening limestone …
- Arena Stage
- Atlas Performing Arts Center
- Corcoran Gallery of Art
- Dance Place
- Dumbarton Oaks Museum & Gardens
- Folger Shakespeare Library and Theatre
- Ford's Theatre
- Hillwood Museum & Gardens
- John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
- Library of Congress
- Lincoln Theatre
- National Gallery of Art
- National Museum of American Art
- National Museum of American History
- National Museum of Women in the Arts
- National Portrait Gallery
- National Symphony Orchestra
- National Theatre
- Phillips Collection
- Renwick Gallery
- Shakespeare Theatre Company
- Smithsonian Institution
- Strathmore Hall
- Studio Theatre
- TICKETPLACE -- Half-price plus fees day of performance
- Vocal Arts Society
- Warner Theatre
- Washington Ballet
- Washington National Opera
- Washington Performing Arts Society
- Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
