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Update: It looks like the inaugural committee has apologized to the 4,000 ticket-holders that were turned away yesterday. And I didn't mean to downplay the plight of being stuck in a security netherworld with little direction or clarity like many ticket-holders were (they even have a Facebook group!). It's just Don Young...he just...makes me ANGRY!
When you consider that the District doubled in size yesterday, that the day's inaugural festivities went off without any significant hitches (spare a few lost kids, some cold feet and a few gripes about crowds on Metro) is something to be cheered. Hell, we were all prepared for something approaching Inaugural-pocalypse, so the fact that no one we polled has had any major grievances is a success for the historic day.
Well, unless you're Rep. Don Young. Roll Call is reporting that the Alaska Republican is apparently angry that some 4,000 ticketed attendees to President Obama's swearing-in were turned away at the gates. Young is gathering signatures for a letter he intends to send to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, demanding an investigation and an explanation. "This was a failure in planning and organization and one that must be explained," says the letter.
Failure? Given the sheer scope and size of yesterday's events, 4,000 people with tickets getting turned away was a hiccup, if that. The million-plus other people who made it to and from the National Mall and parade route without much more than a long commute is a miracle of somewhat epic proportions. To put it in language that Young might better understand, the District and the many agencies it dealt with successfully moved double the entire population of Alaska in and out of an area only a few miles long and probably not more than a mile wide. The Nissan Pavilion can't even get concert-goers to and from the venue in less than 3 hours every time Coldplay comes around -- and it's right next to a highway.
We are sorry for those that missed the festivities, but we imagine that they understand the logistical challenges faced with an event of this magnitude. As for Young, well, there's not really much love lost between him and the District. It was just last year that he basically called us petulant and ungrateful subjects.
We'll take solace in the fact that Young isn't known as an even-tempered man. In fact, his outbreaks are so legendary that the interns in his office have even been known to pass around a survival guide of sorts that lists the things not to do if you want to stay on the congressman's good side. We'd hate to have been the intern that had to deal with today's ranting.
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coldplay?!? who gives an eff about a coldplay show, i wanna rant about radiohead last year.
fact is, mr. young is complaining on behalf of the well-connected, who were miffed that some of the mere proles were able to get in while they weren't.
'tis a bitch when your privileged self isn't able to get what you wanted, eh?
IMGoph --
It wasn't the well connected who were shut out. Most of the folks in Congress held a lottery for their ticket allotments for their constituents. The people around me in line were not well connected, they were just "lucky" enough to win the lottery, spend thousands of dollars to get here, and then be denied entrance with no explanation. The laissez faire attitude displayed by you, Mr. Astermuhle, the Capitol Police, and Terry Gainer is insulting.
csquared: i'm sorry you feel insulted, but the fact is that you got what you paid for.
nothing.
it was a free ticket. i'm sorry you didn't get to stand where you wanted, and you didn't get to create the memories of yesterday that you wanted, but the fact is that life ain't fair. obama is the president now. be happy with that, and you're just going to have to let the other things roll off your back.
Please don't assume that ticket holders were "well connected". I am not involved in politics, do not donate money to campaigns, or work for some big corporation of any kind. I just sent an email through my rep.'s website asking how i could get tickets, and he gave me two. So I just had good timing and was "lucky".
I understand they did a good job with everything happening on the Mall, which was more difficult because it was hard to predict how many people were actually going to attend. So, good job, planning for people getting to and from the mall!
However, I'm supporting Rep Young in his quest for at least an explanation of what happened to everyone stuck in the Purple Line to Nowhere. Of all the inaugural events around the district, the ticked portion of the swearing in ceremony was one of the more predictable events. There were 240,000 tickets, so they had to plan for 240,000 people to be in that general vicinity, right? That is a lot of people, no doubt, and even having a cop or two with a megaphone telling people what was going on would have been a huge improvement on what could have been a very dangerous and unruly situation. Would DCist, and everyone else, be saying 'it's just 4,000 people, no biggie" if they all started to riot and tear down the gates? I don't think so, and seeing the energy in that mob, I wouldn't have been surprised if something like that ended up happening.
There are lots of angry people who experienced this issue and a Facebook page has been created with pictures regarding the headache: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=61444130820
I wouldn't be surprised if it affected more than 4,000 people given the pictures posted at that site.
I registered on DCIst just to comment on this ridiculous post. I was one of the many thousand (I can assure you many more than 4,000) that had tickets in hand and were denied entry to the inauguration yesterday because of the sheer ineptitude of the Capitol Police and whomever else was running the show. To say that the thousands of ticket holders that didn't get in was a mere hiccup is absurd. If you have a ticket to an event, be it Coldplay or the inauguration of this country's first African-American president, you should be able to get into the event. While I am a DC resident and had another place to go, I am outraged for the people that were standing around me who came from all corners of the U.S. -- all of whom spent at least hundreds and likely thousands of dollars -- to attend the inauguration only to be denied because the organizers didn't plan properly. Outside the blue gates, there were no barricades or police. I literally saw one officer in the several hours I was standing there that did nothing. No one was directing traffic, no one was responding to the cries for help from the thousands of people holding tickets who never got into the event. All they needed to do was have barricades that snaked around like at an airport, 15-20 police and a bullhorn to direct traffic. This was not a hiccup. This was a complete and utter disgrace.
I'm sorry, but I was in that friggin' tunnel from 6:45 am until 11am and was turned away. And trust me, there were a hell of a lot more than 4,000 people standing in line behind me and in front of me that also didn't make it. I find this post offensive, as if it was OUR fault for not getting in. You know what? I did everything right--I got there early, I was patient, I brought hand and feet warmers, food and kindness for my new friends in the tunnel. Furthermore, having close to 10,000 people inside of a tunnel, where it's cold and there's nowhere for us to go, emergency vehicles driving through like it's the friggin' Indy 500 and no police presence IS NOT a hiccup--it's recipe for disaster that was only averted because of the fairly good spirits of those of us who were left, in the end, disappointed. I'm glad that SOMEBODY is demanding an explanation, but am honestly surprised that a DCist writer is so flip about it when they go on and on about the disenfranchisement of our residents when this is clearly another example of the same. At least I live in DC and didn't pay thousands of dollars for travel, lost wages, and lodging.
Shame on DCist. Seriously.
The people who were there are swearing that it was easily double 4,000 people, and may have been as many as 20,000, in the Purple line alone. Considering the entire 3rd St tunnel was filled with people, 4,000 sounds ridiculously low. Besides, it's not just the people's personal disappointment that's the problem. It was a pretty dangerous situation.
I just registered on DCist to respond as well. I was felt that the whole thing went relatively smoothly and people were very patient because of what a historic day it was. But my biggest gripe is the fact that people WITHOUT tickets got in while my friend and I who had tickets did not. It was incredibly frustrating to hear how my friends who got there at 10, 3 hours after me, got in without tickets while I waited in line, spent the time waiting in line the previous day to get the ticket, and it all went to waste. I'm pretty bitter.
Ditto what Csquared says. The lines for ticketed people to get in were endless and without ANYONE providing information. There were several mad scrambles because of rumors people threw out there. It was ridiculous and someone should be held accountable- the years of Bush incompetence are over!!!!!!!!! I was lucky enough to get in, 10 minutes before the inauguration started and four hours after I got there.
Would have to agree with Csquared. Even though I was super impressed with the planning and coordination that went into getting people in and out of the unticketed mall area, everything I've read about the purple ticket fiasco has made me extremely sympathetic for those people who had tickets for a once-in-a-lifetime event and couldn't get in. I can only imagine their disappointment.
An investigation is warranted if only to figure out what went wrong and how to make sure it doesn't happen again.
That said, Don Young remains a total dick.
This is indeed a curious post from Martin, considering the number of comments on DCist both this morning and yesterday explaining the agony they went through in not getting through the gates.
It's not the percentage of attendees that were inconvenienced, it is the lack of explanation at the time and justification after the fact. Many people are angry and have a reason to be. This was a problem that had nothing to do with the logistics of moving a million people, but of adequate communication and planning. And I say this as someone who got in just fine and had no trouble whatsoever.
4000? Really where does this number really come from? Was someone taking names? Did they count tickets? Where? By the huge uproar over this I suspect that number to be much higher. Even CNN said those ticket holders that were denied access will be a major news story in the next few days. Maybe those 4000 are just extra vocal, but I doubt it. Take a look at the ticket sections in the satellite photo on CNN an Washington Post, you can clearly see tons of empty space with huge crowds trying to get to said empty space. 4000 my ass.
I do find it a little humorously ironic that the people who were connected or lucky enough to get tickets were the people this happened to. I'm even more lucky then they are and happen to have an office on Pennsylvania Ave., so I was set.
But regardless, I can understand why people are upset about this, and do think they deserve an answer/apology of some sort. Maybe a formal congressional letter isn't the way to bring this about, but someone needs to be blamed here, if only for these peoples' sanity. This post belittles some legitimate complaints.
Hey all,
I just updated the post, but I wanted to say that I'm sorry for down-playing how horrible it must have been to have been stuck with a ticket and nowhere to go. I was mostly responding to Young's use of the word "failure." I still think the day went surprisingly well, but I might have said differently had I been turned away.
While I think the day was a success overall, I take issue with the snipey tone in comment 1 here. I've never met Congresswoman Norton in person, yet her office granted me a ticket based upon an online form available through her Web site. It had nothing to do with my putting my pants on differently than everyone else or upon the fact that my sh*t doesn't stink. Anyway, I also disagree with the estimate of 4,000 in this story, based upon my experience. Please see my comment number 32 for this morning's first post and study the CNN satellite photo to decide for yourself.
Martin: Never apologize.
Stand-up guys apologize when they're wrong. When a person is trying to protect their flimsy ego, an apology is rarely given.
thanks for updating the post, it would have been nice that you gave your commenters cred for pointing out the info you used for the update.....
I feel bad for everyone who had tickets, did exactly what they were instructed to do and got screwed.
Personally, I had no ticket and planned to stand on the mall but the event was pretty miserable for me.
Metro promised a special "38S" bus that would run along clarendon blvd and drop off at the Lincoln Memorial. This bus stopped at Rosslyn instead which lead to an extra 2+ miles of walking for us and a much later arrival than planned.
By the time we got to the Mall they had closed off 7th street and despite the fact that there was apparently plenty of room on the other side of the street, we were gated on the west side of 7th.
At 5'4" I couldn't see anything past the heads of the people in front of me. I spent 5 hours with a view and hats and coats. I'm pretty sure my parents are to blame for my height and not the event organizers.
After the event there was no way out. Some people in front of us tore down a fence which is now we eventually got off the mall, ended up in human shoulder-to-shoulder gridlock at 3rd and D SW and failed to find any usable metro station between l'enfant and eastern market. There didn't seem to be any plan for how to get people off the mall or to their homes once the event was over.
Karoot12,
I actually got that info from somewhere else and only noticed it was in the comments after I posted the update.
But anyhow, again my bad for seeming insensitive to what must have been a strange and scary wait in that tunnel.
Did he issue the same complaint about the Bush second inauguration? I remember lines of well-heeled ladies in furs being frisked, magnetoscoped, and waiting in line -- even after the Presidential motorcade had gone by. Come to think of it, I remember the riot police using pepper spray hoses on high schoolers. Causing the fur-clad gentry half a block down to cough, tear up, and to depart. (I know it was pepper spray because I was coughing, tearing up, and definitely departing.)
But *that* wasn't reported.
I am shocked that DCist, of all places, would downplay this event. Both at the swearing in and along the parade, it was a complete disaster. Yes, some people got in. But MANY people, at least tens of thousands did not. Not because they didn't plan or get their early, but because the "authorities" were woefully unprepared.
Both at the swearing-in and outside the parade route, there was NO order, NO direction, and NO information. It was a crowd disaster waiting to happen. And it's a miracle no one was trampled or crushed by the crowds. Utter chaos.
Moreover, the Capitol Police and U.S. Secret Service were completely unable to handle the crowds, all of which were expected. With all of the anticipation and supposed planning that went into this event, it's almost criminal how understaffed they were.
There were thousands of police officers lining the parade route. Why weren't they OUTSIDE helping screen people or at least manage the crowds?
An absolute travesty on a day that should have been about hope and celebration. Those of us who were shut out of this historic event because of lack of planning will never get it back.
(Despite the complaints about federal and DC police, props to Metro for managing to move that many people.)
Nashpaul,
See, I just can't agree with the "complete disaster" assessment. We can't even begin to imagine what it's like to move that mass of people in and out of an area that size. It's monumental. That it turned somewhat chaotic and difficult in certain areas and at certain times sucks, but that doesn't take away from the fact that still hundreds of thousands of people (if not more than a million) made it onto the Mall without many problems. If you assume that maybe 50,000 people who went down there were turned away or gave up, that's still a significant minority of the whole crowd.
Should police learn from this time around? Of course. But that means that next time they'll have to ask us to all start getting there even earlier for security or we'll have to import even more cops, which will inevitably lead to griping. It's an incredibly difficult balance they were forced to strike here, and I don't think they did a half-bad job.
That being said, I also credit the people who made it down there (or tried) for being extremely patient and kind. Sure, there was pushing and shoving on the way in and out, but everyone remained patient and tried to be as orderly as possible.
The people on the Mall are not the issue. There were no tickets for the Mall and minimal security.
The areas that are the issue are the parade route and the ticketed areas around the Capitol. Tens of thousands of people who went where they were supposed to HOURS early were denied entry. That is wrong, plain and simple. And the reason was because security arrangements were woefully insufficient. Even though authorities KNEW how many people to anticipate. They weren't just a little overcrowded. They were completely unprepared.
There were tons of police inside the secure area, but virtually none outside. Where were you anyway?
According to the numbers floating around, it was 4,000 people that were denied entry. And given that 240,000 were in the ticketed area, it is a small percentage at the end of the day. That's not to diminish the frustration of having a ticket and not getting anywhere more than it is to stress that all told, this was a small chunk of what was a huge day.
1) 50,000 is not an insignificant number. That is a lot of people who spent a lot of time, energy, and money getting here. Even if we accept the ridiculously low number of 4,000, that is still a lot of people who wasted their resources based on false promises. To say that it is only X people out of 2 million is just another way to dismiss those people.
2) Many people who *did* get in to one of the secured areas (I got into the parade route) were still treated horribly by the way the system was set up. We waited in a crushing throng of people for five hours before getting to the security checkpoint. During that time, we did not encounter a single law enforcement official. We did have one lone national guard trooper yelling at us (sans bullhorn) that we should not push (next to impossible as our mob of 50 people condensed down to a one person wide entrance to the security tent...only to reform into a mob right past the barrier for the eight security lines). My point is that even people who got through the security, myself included, think of this event as a disaster. It sounds like, from what I've heard, the trick was to go without having tickets--those people seemed to do all right. Perhaps in the future, we should just get rid of tickets and have first come-first served seating everywhere with no security checkpoints to wade through.
3)There is another option besides standing in line earlier for even more security. It's less security. Look, the various police chiefs today have decreed that this event was wildly successful because no one was hurt or injured. That is their sole criterion for judging the success of the event. Most of us in the crowd think that is important, but also think that enjoying the event, being able to see and hear, etc. are also important. We play with that balance all the time (we could make speed limits 5 mph, stop traffic deaths, and cause only some minor inconvenience to people driving home, but we don't because the inconvenience isn't worth it; similarly, we don't make the speed limit 120 mph or we'd all be dead). It seems to me that having less security would not have posed a huge risk. Indeed, with people crashing down barriers to go around security, we have living proof that the security did not stop bad things from happening. In fact, it encouraged destruction of property (the fences) and an increased threat of personal injury (trampling, fences falling on people, etc.). At some point, we need to decide that we shouldn't need to take our shoes off to get on a plane or enter a congressional office building, that magnetometers do not solve all problems, and that sometimes we really do take security too seriously. That, to me, is the lesson from this inauguration.
Brian,
1) 50,000 out of anywhere from 1.5 to 2 million is relatively insignificant, if only from a numerical perspective.
2) I'm not saying that the whole system was great. In fact, I know it sucked in many ways. But given the huge number of people and the fact that large groups of people do whatever the hell they want to, things went relatively well. Sure, I got yelled at my security people here and there, but I got to where I needed to and got back out. So did many other people.
3) I agree that less security is the way to go. Part of the tradeoff of living in a free and open democracy with these sorts of massive events is that maybe once in a while you'll have something bad happen. I'd be happy if the next inauguration has the Mall stay as an area totally open to the public without the need for security screening. But after 9/11 I don't know how many people would be sympathetic to that idea, much less their representatives. I actually don't think we'll ever get less security for anything again. Once you cross that line, it's hard to cross back.
Looked at another way, it's 50,000 out of 240,000. More than 20% of those with a ticket to the swearing in did not get in.
This has to be said -- we have no idea how many people it was. The reports say 4,000, but some folks here are speculating higher. It's relatively useless to throw out random numbers based on assessments like "I was in the tunnel and it was packed." Few of us can actually picture what 4,000, 10,000, 200,000 or 1 million people look like. I don't think that the Post and other places are pulling 4,000 out of their asses, so I will trust that they are closer than those saying 50,000.
There are already close to 3,000 members on the facebook page alone (representing Purple, Blue, and Silver ticket holders). I think it's safe to say that the 4,000 number is entirely false.
How does that make sense? If there are 3,000 people on the Facebook group (it's actually 2,700), why would it make sense that there of course more than 4,000 people that were turned away? Sure, some people don't use Facebook or haven't heard of the group, but then again, it's also possible that some people joined the group in solidarity and not because they were really stuck.
We could argue until we're blue in the face how many people were turned away. Sure, the cops will say 4,000 because they're trying to downplay it, but all the personal anecdotes of people in the tunnel who swear it was more than 4,000 are just as unreliable (do you know what 4,000 look like or where they fit? I don't).
The end point is that some people got screwed here, and I feel for anyone that did. And yes, the cops should learn from this one and try to do better next time around. But the city and feds warned us ahead of time that they were essentially going to be flying by the seat of their pants on this one. That's not terribly reassuring, but at least it's honest. I don't at all envy any public official that has to arrange for the movement of millions of people and do in a way that's safe and doesn't result in any mishaps or piss someone off. That they did so with only a small problem like this is still a miracle, IMHO.
The people on the Mall didn't have many complaints, the people on Metro didn't have many complaints. Only the people trying to get through security checkpoints for the swearing-in AND for the parade.
The point is the official KNEW how many people to expect at the swearing-in, they knew how many parade tickets had been sold, and they knew how many people could be accommodated along Pennsylvania Avenue. And they were WOEFULLY unprepared.
This was the most anticipated and one of the most orchestrated events in this country in the last several decades and the nation's most senior security officials and agencies failed miserably in certain regards. For certain events, you don't get a second chance. And if you can't get it close to right the first time, you deserve to be shown the door.
For many people, it wasn't close to right; it was far from right. And in ways that were both widely anticipated and trivial (e.g., TELL people what to do and where to go).
I saw many more protesters with bullhorns than officials, and that is almost unacceptable.
How does that make sense? Because anyone who was there can tell you that the tunnel held a lot more than 4,000 people, all of whom who were still in line when the gate shut. And a lot of the people around me were middle aged folks who most likely do not have facebook accounts.
So I can grant that the reasoning I'm employing isn't absolute, but when a majority of the people stuck in that situation is claiming that the number excluded far exceeded 4,000, and when a number of people constituting 3/4 of that amount takes the time to sign onto a facebook group revolving around that exclusion, you might want to give some weight to those claims instead of flippantly dismissing them for the sake of your overall argument/point.
The point that you seem unwilling to entertain is that the ticketed faction was a known quantity, and that fact made the mishandling less excusable.
"Part of the tradeoff of living in a free and open democracy with these sorts of massive events is that maybe once in a while you'll have something bad happen."
Are you fucking kidding me? People with tickets were supposed to be guaranteed admission...that part of the equation should have been significantly LESS chaotic than the scene on the Mall in general, and you're going to claim that utter chaos where there should have been relative order is somehow a sign of a healthy society?
C-Bass,
No, that's not what I was saying. What I meant was that I would be happy to see less security at these events, even if that means that every now and then something bad would happen. That's often the price of a more open democracy, in my opinion.
As for the tickets, yes, in theory they "guarantee" admission. But even then there is room for things to go wrong, especially with a crowd this size. I'm sure that the police could have done a much better job, but there is always the chance that random incidents or human error will make things like this happen. What's key to me is that this "failure" did not affect the majority of attendees.
Martin, I'm glad you recognized the mistake in your tone. In this case, there definitely was "a" failure, and a serious one at that, even if the overall event was a great success. It did not help that Senate Sergeant at Arms Gainer pronounced that he didn't really care if several thousand people were "discombobulated." (Talk about insult-to-injury.) Feel free to rant about Rep. Young elsewhere, but don't take it out on these people who lost the chance to witness the moment of a lifetime.
It's hard not to want to be snarky when the name "Don Young" comes up, but in this case it was obviously over the top. Damn you Don for making me dislike you so.
I've read the "District doubled in size" on many reports. But that's not correct. It TRIPLED in size. 2 million on the mall + whatever residents didn't trek down there. In fact it was probably closer to quadrupled than tripled. Either way, more than doubled. The math: 600k DC residents. 2 million on the mall, 200,000 or so at their homes or offices, is way over triple.
Also, the Purple tunnel looks like hell. I can't even believe those people went into that line. I would have freaked.
Martin - thanks for update. As someone who was trapped in scrum at the Blue gate, I can tell you it was both disheartening to the people who traveled here for this historic event -- and it was potentially very dangerous. With the crowd in back pushing ever harder, we are luck no one got hurt. The smartest thing the police finally did was close the gate -- because the people in the back finally realized there was no way they were getting in - and stopped pushing. The dumbest thing was not giving anyone instructions. If they had told us what was going on, it would have helped.
(And a tip for later -- if they had put up a jumbotron at the gate, at least we could have watched it, and had as good a view as folks further done the Mall).
I know the dcist loves to pitch a fit whenever a republican member of Congress does or says anything, but seriously- get a grip. This was an actual problem and there's nothing wrong with a singular member of Congress bothering to do something about it. Yes, it appears as though the rest of the day went relatively smoothly, but that doesn't make the complaint any less legitimate.
If you had been among the thousand's stuck in the tunnel and had taken time off of work/school, spent several hundreds of dollars to fly here, and then completely miss the inauguration, you'd be pretty pissed too.
Like a previous commenter, I also created an account just to respond to this post.
First and foremost, the lack of personnel giving instructions to a large crowd of ticket holders at the Purple Gate was a security threat. I wasn't even in the tunnel, goodness knows how awful it was in there. Tempers flared among those ticket holders who arrived early to the point that impromptu protests rang out. Pushing and shoving were rampant. Given the massive amount of bodies assigned to various aspects of security for this event (think of the number of road blocks, seeing at least two security folks for every four feet on the parade route, etc.), this could have been avoided. A vast number of people came awfully close to storming the gates (without having passed through any security screening) 1,000 yards from the largest one-area gathering of U.S. government officials that ever occurs. Not one security official gave instructions (save for a lady with a barely audible mega-phone at the gate who only barked "purple tickets only), there were far too few metal detectors, no one knew were to stand in line or where the actual entrance was. It was like one of those youtube videos of a major soccer match in a developing country. Except this one took place 1,000 from the 5 Presidents.
To echo a previous poster, the amount of personnel needed to clear ticket holders through security was one of the few predictable outcomes of the inauguration due to the fact the Inaugural Committee knew the amount of tickets given out. It's obvious this poster's motivation came from anger with Don Young - the author's critique of Young's petition should have done a better job of expressing that sentiment.
I think part of the reason Rep. Don Young is taking the lead on this issue is because his constituents had to travel multiple thousands of miles to get to DC for the inauguration, which must be a very expensive trip. If those people didn't have the guarantee of getting a decent spot to view the ceremony, I can't imagine they would have come.
Additionally, most of the people I talked to in the ticket line were big time Obama volunteers and field organizers.
In the Senate office I know people at, they had a breakfast for constituents in town this morning and found out that only 7 people with purple tickets gained entry to the ceremony out of 70 purple tickets issued.
Those who had started waiting in line from 4-8am didn't get in, but those who showed up at around 9am did. Nowhere else on the mall were there stories of people showing up that early and not getting in. Hopefully the JCCIC offers a more conciliatory statement than this crap: http://inaugural.senate.gov/media/releases/release-012109-statementabouttickets.cfm
This was a cluster F***. The problem was, as others noted was poor communication and access. I tried to get into a non-ticketed area. i checked the maps but wasn't sure where that was. I walked down from eastern market at 6:30, followed the crowd into the mass near where, I think, ticket holders were supposed to go by the native American museum. Then, I thought this might be for ticket holders, so I tried to go west. No luck. There were barricades so I could not go further west. Just masses of people stuck with no information, and no where to go.
It may indeed be 4000 ticket holders denied, but 10s of thousands non-ticket holders could not make it to the mall.
Check out WaPo's view from space at 11:19.
http://specials.washingtonpost.com/inauguration/satellite/?hpid=topnews
Look at all the EMPTY space on the mall. Look at at the mob at 3rd st. Look at the mobs at Jud. Square.
Worst is that they claimed "absolute success" and WashPo took the bait.
Overall event - terrific success
Metro - amazing success, considering
Mall crowd - success, even with the exiting problems
Security - well you can't say that they failed because the President and all in attendance were safe. Though it really is a notable shame (that should be looked in to) that so many ticketed persons were denied entry. People were able to flood on to the Mall, because there was no security. People had an incredibly difficult time getting to their seats, and to the parade. I was angry when I couldn't get trough security for the parade, only to see it on TV later and Pennsylvania Ave was empty in many spots. There clearly were not enough secure entrances to handle the crowd of about 500,000 that wanted to get to the restricted areas. Hence the 4,000 disappointed swearing-in ticket holders, empty bleachers and sparse attendance at the parade. Signage and communication were totally inadequate, in my opinion. Thank goodness for the good nature of the crowds, otherwise this could have been much worse.
I agree with Bsquared, Csquared and KittenswithMittens - this post is way cold-hearted. The authorities mostly did a great job yesterday, but this was a particularly cruel heartbreak for too many (it's not the number, it's the principle).
If I had missed witnessing history yesterday because of someone else's mistake, I'd want to scream in frustration and sadness.
I was in the blue line for three hours yesterday and finally made it through security at about 11:30. I can say with absolute confidence that far more than 4000 ticket holders were denied entry. My guess is that we're talking in the tens of thousands.
Thanks for the update, Martin. Much appreciated (although I agree with you about Don Young!). Although I'm very proud of our city here, I think Cap. police fell down on the job. I don't think the same can be said for Park Police, MPD, or transit police, and the same certainly cannot be said of the thousands of patient, good-natured people that tried to make the best of a crappy situation. It's not that they were overwhelmed by an unexpected mob -- they knew how many people were going to show, because they knew how many tickets had been issued! They knew they would need a way to communicate with the crowds, and yet they took no steps to do so! I've heard from many who were caught in the same (or similar) mess, and those who actually made it into the Purple section said they had plenty of room -- 5-10 feet per person was one estimate. Certainly this was way more than anyone on the Mall had! So why did they make the decision to close the section?
Also, I'd like to second all of the comments that it wasn't just the connected in that section. Most of the people around us had received tickets from their congressional reps, simply by being lucky enough to win the lottery for them.
The Facebook group now has 1,600+ members, by the way, which I think provides further evidence that this impacted many more than 4,000 people.
The really sad part of all of this is that it turned such an incredible day into something, well, less than incredible. It was hard to keep a good mood when people around you were crying from disappointment, and you basically want to join them. I'm glad that no one was hurt (no thanks to Cap. police and Gainer), and grateful for our new President. But this event was taken away from so many people who won't be able to ever get it back.
holy jumpin' christmas, this thread is easily going to win the award for most long-winded responses to a post. people sure as hell have a lot to say about something that, in the long run, isn't that important.
IMGoph, for someone who is usually pretty level-headed, you are sure coming across as a complete ass on this one. i don't think you're one of those flimsy-ego folk that can't apologize, but go stand in the 3rd street tunnel for a few hours with 4-50,000 of your most distant friends when you really need to be somewhere else and maybe you'll understand the frustration, anger, and even the long-winded replies to a poorly thought out article, and even dumber top post.
amen
Yo, IMGoph, wrong side of the bed this morning?
Let the people vent.
hey, i have no problem with venting, but some of this sounds like people expect a refund. apologies have been issued, and that's, unfortunately, all you're going to get. there was no explicit guarantee anywhere that things would go swimmingly on tuesday. i think most officials made that clear when they said they had no real idea what to expect for the day. they just planned for what they expected. given the one-off nature of this whole thing, they didn't do too badly. but, stuff went wrong and people are pissed. you can either let it go, or stir in it. if it was me, i'd recognize that fact and move on, because it wouldn't do me any good to worry about it at this point.
Goph, surely we can agree that any reasonable response to this catastrophe must include, at a minimum, legislation establishing a ticketholder's bill of rights, a new cabinet level agency dedicated to protecting the rights of ticketholders, a color coded ticketholder's threat assessment system, and the convening of blue ribbon panel to investigate the causes behind the failure of America's ticketing systems.
cactus jack: yes, that sounds eminently reasonable.
Okay, so here's the thing I'm not getting about the "get over it"--especially from commentators that are usually mindful of injustices faced by people. Sure, this may just seem like a "well, you got a ticket and you didn't get in, big whoop... children are dying in Africa" to you... but to many of the people who had these tickets, it was a "I grew up in Jim Crow, I've been called a n***** my whole life, my mother and daddy have been kicked and beaten and spit at in Selma or Mobile or Montgomery or Little Rock or pick any frickin' city, North or South, and here I am, tired, arthritic, and about to see the first person of color to ever become President of the United States. Oh wait, no I'm not. I'm going to jammed in a tunnel, with no way out, no clue what's going on, no way to hear what's happening. Oh, and I'm going be blamed for it by the police and then told to "get over it"..." Maybe this is just "another" moment for you, but to many people in this country who have struggled and risked their lives and have been told both overtly and insidiously that they are worth LESS than everyone else, this was THE MOMENT. Where finally, finally, you see yourself reflected in the person taking the highest oath of office in the (supposedly) freest land in the world. Yeah, they could have stayed home and watched it, but that's not what community is and that's not how change happens.
So, maybe 1.8 million people had an great time and yay for them. Several of my friends made it in and I am so happy that they got to experience this moment... But a bunch of us lost a moment promised to us by a piece of paper if only we follow the rules that we will NEVER get back.
kittenswithmittens: i understand how someone in that situation would be disappointed, but can you understand where i'm coming from? no amonut of complaining is going to get that moment back for you, and there's really no way you can be made "whole" here.
going back to the radiohead ticket debacle last year out at nissan, there was at least something to be accomplished by complaining to the venue—those of us who were kept out by the weather, lines, etc., were able to get our ticket reimbursed. yeah, i would have much rather been there for the show, but at least i got my money back. unfortunately, for people you've described, there's no money to get back (for the ticket).
maybe you can make a case that people who flew in from alabama or arkansas deserve to be reimbursed for their plane ticket here and hotel accommodations since they spent a lot of money for those things and didn't get to see the swearing in. i would disagree with you, but at least that's something you could argue for...
Respectfully, I really don't think you're getting the point. This isn't about getting money or a moment we all realized we'll never get back (which is why so many of us were distraught)... it's about wanting people, including officials, to not be so callous about the magnitude of the screw-up. Being trapped in your car at a Radiohead show is not the same as being trapped in a tunnel (also, you're seriously comparing this to Radiohead???)... having tickets to something and not getting to go, free or not, sucks. Having tickets to the inauguration of the first black President blows hard chunks.
All I wanted to point out is that some comments (including yours and those from officials) seem to diminish the experience of us purple ticket holders. I just want some acknowledgment for how much it sucked. Seriously, 4000 isn't that bad of number (thought that's DEFINITELY a low estimate) compared to 1.8 million, but when you think about it as people instead of numbers... I mean, come on, the minute you start justifying or being flip about the experiences of a minority, all you're doing is perpetuating the inequities of our system all of us down there were hoping to help change.
Really, all I want is for people to stop saying, well, "I agree that it sucked, but [enter caveat to show you really don't give that much a shit and think we're whiners]. I just think it would be nice if people could say, regardless of whether you got in or not, that "I'm sorry this happened to you. I know there's no way to make it up to you. You're right, it does blow."
A little empathy can go a long way.
Also, IMGOPH, this is our first back and forth, but I check out your site regularly--I just moved to LeDroit Park... so, hello, neighbor :)
welcome to the neighborhood, by the way. sorry the blog has been lying fallow for a while. once i'm caught up on a few other things, i'll get it rolling again (maybe this weekend!)
Maybe if you drank more "blood coffee" and less fluoridated commie water, you'd get this stuff done!
i mean, i hear you, it blows. hard. chunks. and all that.
there's just nothing that i can do, and the capitol police, etc., probably just don't care, and won't care. hate to be blunt, but they're kind of trained to be unemotional about this kind of thing.
there's no doubt that this mismanagement contributed to the fact that several children were separated from their parents throughout the day. when it gets that crowded, people lose each other...period. this is much bigger than several thousand people getting shut out of the event, which is bad enough. it's about creating an environment that's just unsafe for families. i was terrified for all the parents out there.
if you close at the overhead picture, you can clearly see a couple of places where they just plain dropped the ball. the two most glaring: 6 city buses parked on 3rd st (the official path for all silver ticket holders) and a bottleneck about 30 feet wide that all silver ticket holders were required to move through. pics here.
get over it
IMGoph,
You are missing the point. What really gets me is the bogus apology from PIC, the claims of "absolute success" the buck passing (blame the attendees), and how WaPo fails to report on it. (I am sorry, but look at your own damn photo and you will see it was more than 4,000).
I was in the crush of people in the Blue area that didn't get into the event. I followed the instructions printed on the ticket, which said to use the Federal Center SW Metro stop and get in line from there. Coordination must have broken down between Metro and the Inaugural Committee because Blue/Orange trains were alternating between the Fed. Cen. SW and Capitol South stops. So the people with blue tickets that got off at Capitol South just walked right up to the gate and got into a crush of people near the entrance. We waited for well over 4 hours but didn't get closer than 200 feet from the gate.
This was a breakdown in security and planning. There was no crowd control, no instructions and no one seemed to care about what was happening on our side of the Capitol. I'm tired of hearing that we should be impressed that nothing worse happened throughout the day. The expected crowd was on the order of 2-3 million people, and about 2 million showed up. That total is on the low end of the expected crowd, so how could there be such a major problem?
As far as the size of the turned-away crowd goes, I've been in plenty of big crowds in my day and the number of folks who missed out on the ceremony at the Blue gate was way more than 4,000.
while I think that for the most part Don Young is an idiot, I actually agree with him here; the secret service, capitol police, and most importantly the inaugural committee + Feinstein completely failed in their plan to accommodate all the people with tickets. I hope for the sake of the people of California they don't elect her governor. If she can't even run the inauguration she has no place running the biggest state in the union.
the biggest shame out of all of this though is that a lot of people will just blame the city government, while, from my point of view, city officials did a great job given the circumstances.
i got to the yellow gate at 3:00. there were just a few people ahead of me. By 7:30 people were crowded all around. the officers were not even trying to get people to form a line. people in the front of the line yelled at those that came late, and just cut to the front. around 7:45 they opened the yellow gate. an officer pulled the gate open about 3 feet or so, enough for one person to go through. he kept yelling 'one at a time!' but the crowd pushing forward forced the gate open more. Like I said, there were about 10 people ahead of me when I showed up, but as the gates open people surged from my flank, and i passed through the gate with probably 10 people to my right, and already there were people through the gate-they just pushed through, screaming. I really think many of them would have just stepped on children. the officer kept yelling 'one at a time', 'hold your tickets up'. i just started running for the security screening as fast as i could.
anyway, i can see why the gates were overrun. there were people standing by me who said that they didnt have tickets. I'm sure that most were stopped. i hope so.
oh, and riding the metro, I overheard a woman bragging about knocking over a fence to get into the silver section
I'm glad so many people before me have objected to this post. Yes, it is amazing that no one was killed or seriously injured in such massive crowds, and the organizers did a great job. Still, that is no excuse for 4,000+ people being shut out of the ceremony.
I was one of the lucky ones-- got up at 8, had coffee, made my way down and was on the mall (albeit way back) at 11, so I wasn't even there long enough to have my feet get cold. I had a great view of a jumbotron and heard every word.
My poor housemate, however, got up at 4, trekked down the the Capitol, and was ten people away when the Blue Gate closed with no warning at 11. There was no time to make it down to the few open entrances on the mall by that point, and all the bars were packed, so she missed the speech entirely. When I came home grinning and happy at 2, she was crying-- and I understood why.
I understand that security got jammed up. I understand that these things happen. But surely, the people at the gates knew early than 11 that things were moving slowly. Had they communicated this to the waiting crowds, people could have readjusted their plans and found a bar or headed down the the mall and would not have had to miss the moment.
I applaud DC for all it did, but let's realize that this shouldn't happen again, and remember that next time history is being made, a little communication goes a long way.
Bitch and moan all you want, the way I look at this is it's not the District's problem. Neither MPD, nor the District government controlled the entrances to the Mall, so Rep. Young can demand all he wants from his colleagues....now if he starts to try and blame D.C. for the issue, then the gloves come off.
I agree that MPD doesn't have responsibility for the checkpoints themselves, but they DO have responsibility for public safety. And having tens of thousands of people in a tunnel and crowded at checkpoints without any direction is a public safety issue, pure and simple. Whether or not MPD caused the debacle, they do have a role in helping manage it from the crowd control point of view.
Nor the exits, for that matter. One MPD officer walking by in the EXIT crush on 14th street and Independence said "we can't do anything, it's all Secret Service".
We really had a different day than everyone here. No problems getting on the parade route at 2:15, minimal lines at 15th and New York Avenue, and some of the friendliest cops I've ever met. In fact, all the DC cops we talked to over the weekend were helpful and cheerful, despite being on at least hour 15 of what were 12 hour shifts. I think not dealing with Capitol Police was the big difference.
One thing I've not seen in any report: a friend was one of the volunteers assigned to help at checkpoints. He said he knew of one checkpoint closed because a number of volunteers were no shows. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the communication problems were exacerbated by a lack of bodies able to do jobs. I'd bet multiple checkpoints were affected by volunteers who decided 4 am or 5 am was too damned early/cold to show.
Wow. 56 posts and nobody's blamed Marion Barry? WTF?
We probably can't blame him for the purple and blue gate fiascos, but maybe we can link him to the missing children.
I'll always remember the last image of those children who were separated from their parents on the Mall: being wheeled over to Marion Barry's private table at Georgia Brown's, hogtied, with apples shoved in their mouths.
Some of us never stopped blaming him. And with children separated from their parents in the vicinty of the 3rd St tunnel, I'm not sure we should give him a free pass. Especially after he put on that Dionne Warwick and swindled all those people (see Go Home Already).
Okay, so here's the thing I'm not getting about the "get over it"--especially from commentators that are usually mindful of injustices faced by people. Sure, this may just seem like a "well, you got a ticket and you didn't get in, big whoop... children are dying in Africa" to you... but to many of the people who had these tickets, it was a "I grew up in Jim Crow, I've been called a n***** my whole life, my mother and daddy have been kicked and beaten and spit at in Selma or Mobile or Montgomery or Little Rock or pick any frickin' city, North or South, and here I am, tired, arthritic, and about to see the first person of color to ever become President of the United States. Oh wait, no I'm not. I'm going to jammed in a tunnel, with no way out, no clue what's going on, no way to hear what's happening. Oh, and I'm going be blamed for it by the police and then told to "get over it"..." Maybe this is just "another" moment for you, but to many people in this country who have struggled and risked their lives and have been told both overtly and insidiously that they are worth LESS than everyone else, this was THE MOMENT. Where finally, finally, you see yourself reflected in the person taking the highest oath of office in the (supposedly) freest land in the world. Yeah, they could have stayed home and watched it, but that's not what community is and that's not how change happens.
So, maybe 1.8 million people had an great time and yay for them. Several of my friends made it in and I am so happy that they got to experience this moment... But a bunch of us lost a moment promised to us by a piece of paper if only we follow the rules that we will NEVER get back.
Let me tell you something. I was at home watching the ceremony on TV. Just as Barack Obama stood up to take his oath of office, my telephone rang. I thought WTF??? and I didn't answer it. Then I hear my niece from DOTHAN, ALABAMA start singing Happy Inauguration Day, Happy Inauguration Day, Happy Inauguration Day! Hi Aunt Liz, it's Shelby!! ... blah blah blah ... I'm working at both Cracker Barrel and the Waffle House ... blah blah blah. She continued on for about 3 minutes. I missed hearing the entire oath of office and boy was I pissed. Of course she had no idea that she called at the climax moment for all of America.
I know that this doesn't even compare to the thousands of people who shivered in the cold for hours yet I have a sad story too. I can't WAIT to tell my niece's children years from now how their mother ruined my Inauguration Day. But it is what it is. I was able to catch a rerun of it later in the day and my life goes on.
Sorry for the double post... technical problems...
This purple ticket business, and the handling of the inauguration, was a failure of democracy, and at least Rep. Don Young called the Inauguration Committee on it. The Inauguration Committee's approach to the masses who came to see the truly historic moment was more perimeter control (maintaining the boundaries to keep people out) than crowd control (efficiently moving large masses of people to where they need to be). Hardly democratic.
Signed up just to make this post. A few points that are being overlooked by those saying that the plight of the purple ticket holders was a mere "hiccup" in the overall context of the inauguration...
The 4000 figure is ridiculous, as anyone who was in the tunnel can tell you. What is more ridiculous is that DCist and pretty much every other news outlet has decided to accept this as the correct figure and place the burden on those challenging it to prove otherwise just because it came from the authorities. Let's remember that these are the same authorities that declared immediately after the inauguration that all ticket-holders got in.
The Facebook group is not at all representative of the purple-ticket holders I saw in terms of it's composition. There were a very large number of middle-aged and older ticket holders who are not on Facebook. Thus, estimating the number of people affected by reference to the Facebook group is impossible.
The real tragedy is not that simply that ticket holders didn't get in, but that we did not become aware that we wouldn't get in until about 11:30 am, when it was far too late for us to get to the section of the mall open to the public or to any other public place where we could communally experience the inauguration. If we were all told at 9 that the gate was not going to open, it would have been annoying but we still would have been able to walk down the mall to someplace where we could see and hear the inauguration live and surrounded by Obama supporters. Instead, many purple ticket holders did not see or hear the inauguration at all.
This oversight is inexcusable because the event planners knew exactly how many purple tickets were given out. Diane Feinstein knew or at least should have known; after all it was her name on the ticket and the ultimate responsibility lies with her. Given that it was entirely predictable that all of us who were given tickets would come, it is incomprehensible why proper measures were not taken such as determining in advance where the line should go, placing porta-potties along the line, having volunteers or police ensure that order was maintained along the line and making sure that the gate could process all of the ticket holders in time.
As far as I could tell, the vast majority of purple ticket holders were not "well connected"; they were either low level campaign volunteers or lucky constituents who won the ticket lottery. Many of them traveled very far and spent a lot of money based on their reliance on the event planners to honor the ticket that they were given; thus in my mind it is much worse than if a similar number of people without tickets had been locked out.
I do not know what Congressman Young's motive is in making a stink about this, but he is absolutely correct to do so. The blog post notes that he is demanding an investigation and explanation of what happened; this is a perfectly rational demand but to my mind does not go far enough. There ought to be some sort of compensation given to the ticket holders based on the expense that they went to in attempting to attend the inauguration. If the government was not prepared to honor the tickets then they should not have given them out.
The Nation's Capital will celebrate the effective, efficient security measures during the recent Inauguration festivities at the National Bollard Festival.