1. The streets around Convention Center will be 7pm Wednesday till 4am Friday. Meaning no buses, no cabs, and as far as I know, that might include bikes and bicycle rickshaws.
2. The Mt. Vernon Square Metro will be closed from 3pm Thursday to 1am Friday. Meaning you can’t metro to the Convention Center, or home if you live around there.
3. The Democracy Ball being held in the Convention Center’s Ballroom and several rooms from 7pm to whenever.
Okay I gotta logistics question.
How are people supposed to get there? If people are going to try to get a cab I see all sorts of traffic evil tying up the Mt. Vernon Square roads that aren’t closed to traffic. In my crystal ball I see a man screaming in Arabic to another man cursing in Hindi to move his cab, blocked by an older white couple in a Ford Expedition who didn’t get the memo that there is no parking around because all the residents who normally park on the closed streets took up every viable and semi-legal parking spot they could find elsewhere.
As I see it if you take the metro to Gallery Place that’s about 4 long blocks. In the cold. Provided that the entrance is on the Mt. Vernon Sq/K Street side. If people have any sort of walking handicap, as I’ve noticed people from suburban areas do, this will be a hardship.
Update
Nora Bombay and I came up with the theory that the security plan was created by a Democrat because there is no friggin’ way to get around and you force people on death marches to the parade area in the cold. Also you could be banned from bringing anything to make sitting through the parade confortable, like chairs. So the plan seems to be to make anyone who supports Mr. Bush, who isn’t a billinaire with a limo, suffer.
I looked again at the Washington Post map in the Metro section and then had to pencil in some road closures for smaller areas and it looks like there is no way to get around the old city in a car. If your coming from the conservative bastion of Virginia, the only way to get into the city is via Georgetown and maybe 395 (wait a road that goes under the Capitol? Isn’t that the greatest security risk EVER?).