The first I heard about it was Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon when I saw a poster somewhere. Yesterday and today a few people in my office mentioned that it might be a problem getting to work on Monday due to the crowds. Crowds? What crowds? Is it me or is media coverage / promotion of the event missing?
I hope I have the right forum for surveys/polls. What’s the buzz outside of DC? Whose heard of the MFM? Are any of you going? Know anyone who is? Is this going to be an overcrowded weekend? IMHO the MFM will be a success / failure ?
Rhythm, I live and work in downtown DC and we are not getting any time off. So those of you who are outside the beltway know, the MFM is sponsored by Louis Farrakhan and some other guy with similar beliefs. When I first heard about it I thought it was going to be like the Million Man March until I finally saw the posters around town and see that there is one white couple thrown in with all the other black couples. I would be interested to see if Farrakhan (who is sponsoring marriages at $50 a pop) will actually go through with any gay marriages. I doubt it.
HUGS!
Sqrl
PS, sorry about being snippy to you yesterday. I had a very bad day.
And not much play in DC either; the first I heard of it was this morning when the news was talking about how screwed the Metro and the Beltway will be by MFM traffic…
…thank goodness I don’t use the Metro or the Beltway…
It’s supposed to be a family-unity type dealie , get this, co-sponsored by Farrakhan and Rev. Sun Myung Moon. JUST the type of people I want telling me how to raise my family. Disclaimer-Poster is not trusted with the raising of anything bigger than two rabbits and the occasional pot of basil
Traffic will be AWFUL. Nation of Islam is expecting about 10,000 buses (from this am’s Post) and total impact is going to be HUGE. Metro thinks it’s going to be the second-busiest day in its history, which for something that regularly transports yahoos off the Mall following the Fourth, is saying something.
I work in DC, and metro in from Maryland. The first I heard of this was yesterday; but Monday is my AWS day, which means I’ll be at home sleeping-in while y’all other DC workers will be fighting the traffic.
I live & work in downtown DC. I saw a few promotional posters on a lamp post a couple of days ago and promptly tore them down (we have laws against posting ads in historic districts without a permit). I haven’t heard anything on the radio or tv about it, and only today did I hear one coworker asking another if they would be attending. Neither of them will be.
On Lake Merritt in Oakland (CA) they have a billboard for some sort of event that will be happening in Oakland in conjunction with the DC event. And I recall seeing a poster somewhere with Farrakhan on it, but don’t remember the details.
Maybe we’ll get lucky, and it’ll be a big dud. I figure there’s a good chance of this: events like the Million Man March, the Million Mom March, and anything else that gets a crowd size well into the six figures, relies on attendance by a lot of people who are not involved in anyone’s organization, but care about the cause being promoted (on either side - heckling is part of the American tradition, thank God), or are just plain curious.
But who, outside of the loyal followers of Moon and Farrakhan, will attend this event? And while the Moonies will probably show up (because Moon told them to), I have a hard time seeing that many of Farrakhan’s followers being interested in mixing with Moonies. And there can’t be that many Moonies who can manage to get to DC for Monday’s rally/mass wedding/whatever.
I’d say under 200K for sure, and I’d say under 100K is likelier than over it.
Main complication is that it’ll be on a work day, when Metro and the roads are already pretty heavily taxed. Hopefully they’ll have the sense to avoid rush hour.
Fortunately, my Chesapeake Beach-to-Suitland commute should be unaffected. (Nyah, nyah! :))
I don’t know about the traffic; I was asleep. However I was at the marh grounds about noon yesterday. If it wasn’t for a couple of speakers there, I’d be hardpressed to say any event was going on. The mid day event, I wouldn’t peg to have higher than maybe several hundred people. Using that as a estimate I’d say 100,000 may be stretching it.
Well anyway, this event wasn’t really hyped up like various other Million Marches[sup]TM[/sup]. Eventually I just left bored and caught a movie at Union Station, then went home to do some work on various reports.
Metro ridership that evening (618,976 supposedly one of the top 10 ridership days)
Typical evening ridership is 580,000
Yeah, I think it was a dud. On the news last night they publicized that metro had about 600K riders on it compared the normal of about 500K. So, assuming everyone came in to see or participate in the march then about 100K people were there which doesn’t include anyone who drove. I know for a fact that not too many people drove in since the traffic really wasn’t any more horrendous than normal nor was the parking around my building which is very close to the Capital.
It was pretty much a normal morning for me, too. Metro wasn’t any worse than it usually is (I go from Pentagon to McPherson Square) and did a little cross-town business as well. Big yawn.
Fortunately though, the office decided to close at 3 so I got out a couple hours early.
SqrlCub, divemaster, and opus - I work just outside McPherson Square. We all should do lunch or something.
Olentzero, I come in on the yellow line in the mornings and switch to the blue (to get to Rosslyn) at Pentagon. I bet I’ve seen you a dozen times and don’t even know it!
Hey, when are you there? I’m usually at Pentagon between 8:45 and 9:00 am. Do something dangerous, man - holler my name if you’re there around that time. Then we can have a fight to the death over the superiority of our political systems and the loser has to fall under a train at the last second.
Oh, you’re a late riser! I’m there between about 7:50-8:15.
I can think of several people it would be fun to see under a train, though . . . or at least to make them lick the 750V rail. Like the people who sprint down the escalators and through the station like there’s never going to be another train, ever again.
I’m there between about 7:50-8:15.