The World Meeting of Families (the world’s largest Catholic gathering of families) is going to be in Philadelphia the last week of September. The last two days brings the Pope to town. The various local, state, & federal law enforcement & transportation agencies, being led by the Secret Service (USSS) are combining to close the city for days in what is most likely the single biggest instance of martial law ever imposed upon this country; aka a Clusterfuck of Biblical proportions.
Officials are comparing this to a presidential inauguration or the Super Bowl; however, those events are for a few hours, not multiple days of lockdowns.
This includes a 3-square mile area of Center City & West Philly under lockdown. The better part of 100m people live in this area, as well as the majority of the city’s hotels, restaurants, & tourist/entertainment venues. Starting Friday evening, Sept 25, no vehicles will be allowed to enter this area, this includes the cars of residents. You can keep your car in the zone, & drive around in the zone, but if you exit, it’s one way & you can’t get back in. They’ve also stated the intent to pull the bike share rentals from some/many of the locations, which means the only way to really get around is by walking.
SEPTA (the regional transit provider) will only be running service from about 10% of their total rail (trains, subways, high-speed line combined) stations. For the trains, they’re selling special Pope passes that you must buy, online only, in advance. They first attempt at sales failed miserably, crashing withing minutes. Their second attempt was to sell them by lottery; confirmations only were emailed yesterday but they’re already for sale on e-bay & Craigslist even though none have been mailed out yet. People who purchase weekly or monthly passes will not be able to use them this weekend. The latest rumor is that Septa won’t even do anything for the monthly passholders because they already get a discount built into their pass price. :dubious:
They are only doing one station, maybe two per train line; typically the end of the line stations; however, these stations don’t have the parking capability to handle that many people, so bad that at least one town has already stated their intent to declare a state of emergency. Yes, I know this is for state & federal funding purposes, but by definition how can you plan to declare an emergency 6 weeks in the future?
Due to what has been reported as USSS restrictions, the main train station nearest to the location where Mass will be held is not going to be used. This means that the attendees will need to walk between 1 & 4 miles each way, which does not include standing during the day. Yeah, I’m sure Granny & the little kids will do real well walking 4 miles each way, uphill both ways (you have to go over a major bridge), while having to stand for hours in between. :rolleyes:
Yes, if you’re coming from South Jersey, you’ll need to walk over the Ben Franklin Bridge, a 7-lane interstate bridge that will be closed to the 100m+ daily vehicles that travel over it daily. There is a moveable concrete barrier so that whichever way is rush hour gets the extra, 4th lane. Earlier today it was reported only 3 lanes will be opened to pedestrians & that the other four lanes will be closed/restricted to PD & emergency vehicles only. 100m estimated people walking over that bridge & you can’t even give them the extra lane, espeically as that would reduce their density that you’re so concerned about? Also, this morning the Philadelphia newspaper was reporting that all of the pedestrians will be screened. For what no one knows. If you want to damage the bridge, it’s so much more effective to carry any explosives with your rather than say, drive a truck on those very same lanes. :rolleyes: However, some of the people walking over the bridge will be going to/from work or to see their boy/girlfriend & not giving a hoot about the Pope. Also, they will not be in a secure area once they hit the Philly side so they could go to their work or a residence & acquire any prepositioned weapons they desire.
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If there were 50 screening stations and each person was screened in 30 seconds, it would take more than 16 hours to screen everyone.
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Yeah, that’s gonna work well. People coming in from other directions or on Septa won’t be screen (unless they try to enter the secure area) why should people from South Jersey (obvious they’re from NJ jokes aside)
Two of the three interstates in the city will shut down so even people trying to drive past the city will get screwed. Why can’t they just close the off ramps in the area?
Museums & cultural institutions in the area of the Ben Franklin Parkway where Mass will be held have already announced plans to close that weekend. Other charity events have been cancelled/postponed due to the logistical issues with getting patrons to attend. Good luck if you had a wedding or Bar Mitzvah celebration planned in this area for that weekend.
They are asking for hundreds of bike & gator EMS teams from around the state to volunteer to work 12 hour shifts for four days. What kind of accommodations are these critical volunteers going to get? Since different departments/counties/regions use different frequencies, do they have the couple of hundred extra radios that are necessary to provide to these EMS providers & who is paying for all of those radios that are not inexpensive?
I could go on with more examples but it’s already in the TL/DR range. Keep your eyes on this one folks, more halfassed decisions & a bigger clusterfuck you’ve never seen!