inauguration mania--a little advice

dcheather · Jan 17, 2009

I strongly recommend watching an event like this on tv, in the comfort of your own home!!! Unless you are seated directly in front or behind the presidential swearing in, you will not see much (maybe the stand and flags, and little itty bitty heads). Trust me, I went to one inaugration and given tickets in a decent standing section and still wasn't able to see much. The people that are on the mall can only possibly see it on the large tv screens. I'm glad I can say I did it once, but I would not recommend it to my friends even just for them to say they were there (lie if you want the to say it). I will never do it again, unless it's 70 degrees and sunny that day and a few days prior. It's usually cold and pretty muddy thanks to the mid-atlantic winter weather. Plus, you now have the joy of standing in security lines for a couple of hours. And that's before you take public transportation, in which you have to wait in lines to be packed in like sardines onto trains and buses. Walking is your best option, but be prepared to stand for hours, so wear very comfortable boots that you don't mind getting muddy. You should not even attempt to watch both the inaugration and parade (if you have tickets to the inaugration), chose one and stick with it. It's a huge pain to navigate the security and crowds to do this and you won't get a good view at all. This is why TV is your best viewing option, go to a bar or back to your hotel and watch the rest of the festivities if you have been standing for a few hours. I strongly recommend watching the entire thing on tv, and I do not just say that because I'm resident that been annoyed with the increase in tourists. I save those feelings for the hot, humid summer tourists, when the metro is super awesome! :cry:

HatterDon · Jan 17, 2009

I agree, Senator. Our Young Adult Group is getting together over pizza and beer to watch DVR of the ceremonies and speeches. Feet up, nice and warm, zipping through the dross on fast forward -- that's my kind of democracy.

Watching it live means standing on frozen DC streets and being able to see only somebody else's hat. And I'm 6'2". What you shorties do is beyond me.

FulhamAg · Jan 17, 2009

I went to the Reagan innauguration but really only remember there being a lot of people, being bored, feet & legs being sore, and falling asleep on the subway. I was 8 or 9 at the time.

jmh · Jan 18, 2009

Sounds like exactly what I tell people about New Year's in Times Square. 8)

dcheather · Jan 22, 2009

Sheesh...the worst inauguration to date. I thought the last one was bad with security. So glad I didn't take any tickets, my pregnant butt would have gone mental if I had been waiting in line since 4 am and didn't get in.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17787.html

“The specific incidents include the report that a decision was made to cut off access to purple and blue standing areas, which meant that a large number of ticketholders could not reach their designated areas,” Feinstein said in a statement. “I am also aware of the incident involving the 3rd Street Tunnel, where thousands of people were stuck for several hours and apparently without any law enforcement presence.”

Feinstein said that there may have been “other irregularities,” but that she’s “heard enough to know that something went wrong.”

She urged people who have “direct information” of the incidents to contact the Secret Service as well as the JCCIC at feedback@jccic.senate.gov.

As Feinstein's statement suggested, the biggest problem on Inauguration Day came at the purple gate — an Inauguration entrance near First Street and Constitution Avenue Northwest that’s given birth to a Facebook group called “Survivors of the Purple Tunnel of Doom.”

Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, said members of his staff spent their Inauguration on the wrong side of the purple monster. “They got there at 4 in the morning and were among the first hundred people in line,” he said, but they never got in.
Click to expand...

DCDave · Jan 22, 2009

I was a volunteer for the inauguration, and I am so glad I did it. My wife and I were at 14th and Independence just south of the mall near where a lot of the people arriving on buses were dropped off. Our job was to greet them and help them find their way to the best viewing spot possible. I have never seen so many people in one place, waves and waves heading up 14th street.

As we got closer to noon, we could not offer too much up-to-date advice on where to send people, but what a lot of people wanted was just to hear a friendly voice, and that's what we were for them.

Yes, it was a zoo, but from what I saw it was pretty well organized given that is was many magnitudes bigger than any event in this city since I moved here a quarter century ago, given that 1.8 million people, a large number of those from out-of-town, were trying to gather in a place that had never had so many people at one time. Even though it was crazy out there, what I will remember is the excitement, the happy (if tired) people, and the good manners. Even when we could not give them good options, they took the news with a smile on their face. When I was tired (we got up at 3:15 and were on the mall by 5AM) and cold, the crowd would pick me up.

For me, the event was not seeing the swearing in or hearing the speech; that's what a DVR is for. The event was *being* there among the 1.8 million people in the crowd and feeding off the energy.

HatterDon · Jan 22, 2009

glad you and the missus got a memory of a lifetime, Dave.

inauguration mania--a little advice

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