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Fire at 17th and L NW Forces Evacuations
You already knew that the Secret Service had ordered the Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter and the Smithsonian Metro stations to be closed on Inauguration Day, Tuesday, January 20, for security reasons. Now comes word that two additional stations, Judiciary Square and Mt. Vernon Sq/7th St Convention Center, will also close for part of the day due to their proximity to locations hosting Inaugural Balls.
The Mt. Vernon Sq/7th St Convention Center station on the Green/Yellow Lines will close at 7:30 a.m. on January 20, while Judiciary Square station on the Red Line will close at 4 p.m. Both stations will reopen at 5 a.m., on Wednesday, January 21.
The Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter and the Smithsonian stations will reopen after the parade, at approximately at 6:30 p.m., on January 20.
Photo by grundlepuck
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They have it ass-backwards, as usual. It's like living in bizarro world, where everything is reversed. In the rest of the world, it's considered a GOOD THING if a large event is located adjacent to mass transit. Here, for some reason, it's a security threat.
METRO may be closing some of its stations, but at least the trains will run until midnight!
can this thing get any more RIDICULOUS??????? i am SO READY for this all to be over.
I'm thinking Metro Center and Gallery Place will be catastrophic fusterclucks come innauguration morning. No parking downtown, so everyone who has to work that day will take Metro and run smack into hoardes of out-of-towners who refuse to walk on the escalator.
At least we'll have lots to bitch about on Wednesday morning.
typical of the secret service. by the time the actual event comes around, they'll have closed off everything in the l'enfant city. they never, never, never, never fail to go overboard on this stuff.
not only are VA residents being trapped now DC residents are too. thanks secret service.
Thank goodness we'll still be able to use Metro. Bwaaaah Haaaaa Haaaaa Haaaaa!!!!
I was talking to a guy I know at ATF yesterday, and part of that problem is that since 9/11, all the public safety agencies have to oversell the supposed security threats and go ridiculously overboard. That way, if nothing happens they can justify it by saying, "See, we kept you safe." If something does happen and they haven't gone to preposterous measures, they all look bad and lose their jobs, which is fundamentally what this is all about. Hooray for creating incentives to meet every major public event with an overly elaborate and incredibly expensive security theater.
Since 9/11, we've all had to get used to an increased security threat. Anyone remember those Elevated Threat warnings we used to get damn near every week? Do you still have your duct tape to seal your windows? Putting up with that motivated me to take extra precautions to ensure the safety of myself and my loved ones. For instance, I never leave home without my lucky soapcarving of Saint Dymphna, patron saint of the mentally ill, incest survivors, and runaways. I carved it out of a bar of Irish Spring using a steak knife I stole from The Palm. Anyway, in the entire time I've carried it, not once have I been assaulted by the mentally ill hobos or been molested by any dead relatives. That's not to say hoardes of crazed hobos and priapic zombies won't ruin my drag brunch at Perry's, but at least I'll have long-lasting deodorant protection. Manly, yes. But I like it, too.
"Security Theater" - Apt description TS.
Permission to freak out?
Permission granted
The biggest threat to the health and well-being of inaugural workers and attendees, as well as our liberties, is the Secret Service and it's growing police-state culture.
If they have the Balls to close these two stations, they could take away the rest of our rights just like that. I'm totally cereal.
Broccoli, but not nececelery. It's popsicle.
Actually I think the biggest threat to our liberties is pretentious asshat hipster wanna-be's. The kind that make blanket statements about the "man" just because they don't understand a thing about a historic event about to take place. The kind that moved to Wiliamsburg Brooklyn AFTER it was cool. The kind that steal all my goddamn distilled water from the Whole Foods shelves. Even the CVS shelves have none of the deliciously detoxifying elixier. Back of you bitches.
I wanna ride the Ghost Train.
The train of the dead.
No passengers is what it read.
The stations are going to be packed like sardines. People falling onto the tracks. Tourists wondering where the subway toilet is located. Dogs and cats living together.
I'll be home with my snacks and medication. Snug like a bug.
Oh thank goodness; people can still go to the shopping mall.
At this point, I think they are just trying to make things really, really difficult in hopes it will deter everyone from coming. Next step: No open Metro stops within DC borders!! No cars within the Beltway!'Ware! 'Ware!!!
It's all Bush's fault! If it wasn't for him, we'd be totally ignoring this inaugural Bacchanalia and adding all of Al Qaeda as Facebook friends.
I can see closing the mall stations because of overcrowding and safety concerns. But Mt. Vernon Square? It is a good thing to have a station close to where the events are happening. And opening judiciary square would alleviate subway traffic coming from Glenmont before it gets to the crowded transfer stations. Ugh. I'm definitely walking down from U Street.
Secret Service is aware that people *can* still get into the District, right? They have so far failed in their apparent goal to completely seal off the District to the public during the inauguration.
What's the over/under that within the next 24 hours we learn that all roads into the District have been completely sealed off, the Metro will only make stops in Falls Church and Rockville, and any District residents caught leaving their homes between January 17-20 will be shot on sight?
50/50?
With all the Ball's at the Convention Center, how do they expect people to get there without Metro? What a mess.
WTOP is now reporting that O'Malley is telling Marylanders to stay off the Beltway on inauguration day.
Is it not scary that the era of "hope and change" is being ushered in by declaring a state of emergency and by the arbitrary and probably illegal imposition of oppressive rules and virtual martial law by unelected autocrats who appear to be accountable to nobody.