I was lucky enough to volunteer at the Inaugural Parade, giving me a great view of the parade once it started. There has been a lot of coverage on the ticketholders who did not get to see the inauguration, but there were thousands who did not make it through security to see the parade, either.
I volunteered to help with the inauguration and was assigned to help seat people at one of the bleacher areas. I arrived in downtown Washington at 5:15 a.m. We waited until security opened at 7 a.m. when we were able to go to our stations. I noticed at the time that the security process was very slow. I had taken food, my camera, cell phone and I got wanded, as well. It must have taken me close to five minutes to get through.
We didn't get access to our bleacher area until much later. Communication was poor. Finally a Secret Service agent let us get access to our bleacher area.
I thought that it was odd that few people with tickets to our bleachers showed up. We waited hours and only had a handful of people in our bleachers. Others who had tickets for the other side of Pennsylvania Ave. were not allowed to cross the street. There appeared to be little communication from the Secret Service, the police and from the inaugural committee.
We finally started letting the general public into our bleacher area. Some ticketholders did show up, but probably about one third of the capacity of the bleachers contained actual ticketholders. I heard stories of people waiting in line for from four to six hours to get through security. On the way home, I talked to a couple on the subway and I asked where they watched the ceremony? They told me that they did not get in and listened over the radio. They told me that there were 7,000 people at their gate who did not get in. Looking at the other bleachers in our area, most were about half occupied.
It is not difficult to figure out how many personnel and security stations you need to process the people. They have done this before. They should have had an estimate of how many people the parade route could hold and an estimate of how long it would take each person to go through security. From that, the Secret Service could have determined the number of security stations and how long those stations would need to be open. There was plenty of space on the street. There were plenty of portable toilets, too.
I have heard no explanation as to why so many people were kept out. Maybe they deliberately kept the numbers low for safety's sake. Maybe there were not enough magnetometers. Maybe there were too few Secret Service to staff security. At a minimum, they should have had separate lanes for ticket holders so that they could get in. If I had paid for a ticket, but couldn't get through security, I would have been very, very unhappy. The last bit of incompetence on the part of the Bush administration.
On a more positive note, it was great for me. I had a great seat for the parade. Because so few ticket holders got through, I was not very busy. I listened to the inaugural ceremonies on loud speakers and I was in an area where the Obamas and Bidens were walking down the street. It was very, very cold, but I had dressed fairly well.
I did not get to see much of the parade, as it was late starting and after ten hours on the street, I was was ready to go home and warm up. I walked to the Metro Center subway stop, which was mobbed, so I left and walked up to U St. and the Green line and easily got on a train to go home. It was still a very good day for Washington and for the country. The police chief reported that they did not arrest anyone on Inauguration Day. That's a little hard to believe, but that is what she reported. One woman fell onto the Metro tracks at Gallery Place Metro stop, but apparently a Houston Metro policeman who was helping DC Metro police was able to help her avoid getting hit by the train. There were hundreds of police officers from all over the country.
I went to the concert on Sunday, as well, and it is great to see how these huge events go in Washington. The city can more or less handle these things. There is some inconvenience and you must be ready to walk a lot, but they are always fun. I attended Clinton's first inaugural, I have gone to the July 4 fireworks on the mall and now these two massively attended events. They go well. It's just too bad that there were the snafus on Inauguration Day. I think that they could have easily been avoided.