By Carol Forsloff.
Washington D.C. authorities report there won’t be enough bathrooms for the large crowds anticipated for the Barack Obama Presidential inauguration scheduled for January 20, 2009
Washington D.C. authorities report there won’t be enough bathrooms for the large crowds anticipated for the Barack Obama Presidential inauguration scheduled for January 20, 2009. Anyone with the experience of large events and not enough bathrooms can imagine the difficulty and discomfort, as well as potential problems with sanitary conditions, when there are too few bathrooms for people who are likely to have to spend many hours in long lines, clustered and waiting, likely in the cold, and possibly even snow, to wait for the January 20 inauguration public party. The image we all must have of that, upon hearing the breaking news just reported on CNN about not enough bathrooms, is likely one in which we don’t want to be seen.
I know New Orleans at Mardi Gras, have been there twice, once as a face in the crowd and the second time reporting the event, and wouldn’t have gone there again even if a Hurricane like Katrina hadn’t hit the City three years ago, making cleanliness now truly absent, as it was on the verge of that before the big Katrina Storm. Public toilets are at a premium during Mardi Gras, with mall shops bearing signs that state no toilets available and crowded restaurants barring non patrons from entering just to use bathrooms. I have stood in long lines waiting for overflowing toilets, smelled the stench before entering and noted the lack of toilet paper or any place to sit. One must have personal courage to step inside let alone considering squatting. Anyone who delays is lost, because if the smell doesn’t get you, the hammering on the wall by desperate people outside will. There is nothing like the hopeless, hapless, hazard-making, tired, frustrated masses demanding their moment at decibels that rival the undesirable odors cast around the cell-like structures set up for those “special moments.” And this problem all goes on in February, when the weather is usually comfortable, neither too hot nor too cold, in New Orleans.
Anticipating the worst of personal discomfort, the cost, the fact that one must pay premium for hotels in Virginia and transportation to the Washington, as a reporter whose paper covered the Democratic Convention, I would not be hopeful of a comfortable seat in the house or even a good place to stand in the reporters queue for a shot at the best and brightest of those who are likely to step forward on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2008, even if I were to get press credentials. Estimates of the crowd expected at the event range from 3 to 5 million made by Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty in late November to that of Senator Dianne Feinstein (D) of California, who as chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies has her hands full in planning for the Big Event. Her estimate is 1.5 million people who will be on hand to see Obama sworn in as President of the United States.
Washington D.C. hotels now report no rooms available for the big January 20 occasion. Recently my husband and I received an invitation to join with five other couples to rent six suites in West Virginia for a total of $16000 more than 90 minutes drive from Washington, and that’s without the estimated traffic tie-ups.. Add food and transportation costs which will likely be inflated as well, and it is unlikely that the middle class individual will be able to afford getting to Washington, paying for a room and all those miscellaneous costs, let alone the right dress for any social event of the many going on the evening of January 20 (Mary Landrieu has one I could go to requiring those big bucks I talked about) Reporters these days are being laid off all over the country from newspapers struggling to survive during a recession, so it is likely those left alive in January there to cover the inauguration will be fighting over news scraps as well as for toilets. Who wants to be in either fray?
So in short, I’m saving my money, hunkering down in front of the television in my home or that of a friend and doing what virtually every American will be doing on January 20. I will be watching the whole Presidential inauguration with a nice clean bathroom right at hand.
