FYI: Pope Visit - SEPTA Operations. (Philadelphia, Erie: city hall, living, zoning)

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by Redddog

Well if you're going to build a wall around the parkway, an 8 inch wall would be the most cost effective.

Lol, thanks. I meant 8'.

[Burger Fan]

Originally Posted by FamousBlueRaincoat

The main point being....this wouldn't happen in a city that took public transportation more seriously. We're starting out with the problem that the city leaders aren't big supporter of transit, they're certainly not going to go to bat for the system in the same way they would if the Secret Service went to NYC and told them they were going to shut down the subway system for the weekend.

I'm going to respectfully disagree here, and repost my opinion on this from the other thread about a month ago:

Let's be perfectly frank- the city is going to get crushed. I was living in the city and on the subway during the 2008 Phillies parade, and the MFL was a nightmare. The pope's visit is going to be ten times worse.

Estimates of 2 million people are probably going to be a lowball. This is the first time this pope has visited the US, and he's phenomenally popular even among non catholics. Given his age it's not likely this kind of visit will be happening a second time.

Francis drew 3 million people in Rio. Manila has 1.6 million people in it, about the same as Philly. 6 million people showed up to see him- about a million more than showed up for JPII the last time he was there. Granted, Manila has more catholics than the US, but this guy draws a serious crowd wherever he is. Even I'm going and I'm not even catholic.

Unlike the phillies parade, there are going to be a VERY large percentage of people who do not live in the city flooding in via cars (no matter what nutter says), amtrak, planes, etc. Hotels will be sold out long in advance and even Air BNB is going to have only the absolute worst rentals left (note the city passed an 8.5% tax on airBNB just in time for this).

So what can you do, really? People are going to have to stay home. All public transportation is going to have to run at least twice as often as it usually does, meaning everything will have to be an express. one or two trains alongside regular traffic simply won't cut it.

If Philadelphia pulls this off well (50-50 chance, I think) It would mean a lot for getting big events like the Olympics in the future, so no wonder Nutter etc. don't want to take any chances with it.

It's not a matter of "city leaders not taking transit seriously." You could say this about STATE reps, but the mayor and council are fully aware of just how much the city depends on SEPTA.

The fact is that the system as it is currently constructed is simply not enough to deal with the population literally doubling overnight, not to mention the increased concerns regarding security. Your options here are to either massively scale back service and turn the remaining stops into express trains for the event, or not do it at all.

A successful implementation of the event will pay dividends for the city and local economy both this weekend and going forward that will more than justify the 2 or 3 day inconvenience for some locals. The mayor, council, and SEPTA are making the right call here- it's better to be slightly more conservative in planning for the event than you need, than to risk SEPTA going FUBAR and turning Philadelphia and this event into a laughingstock.

[PhilliesPhan2013]

Originally Posted by kyb01

I would love to know, other than things you've stated, what you think sensible government spending is. But this is drifting away from this thread and OT for a Philly board.

I'll post it in my blog after I'm done babysitting my little sister and cousins. Once you see that my blog posts have hit "2", then a blog about my views have been posted!

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by PhilliesPhan2013

I'll post it in my blog after I'm done babysitting my little sister and cousins. Once you see that my blog posts have hit "2", then a blog about my views have been posted!

I don't know what your blog is. I know we won't agree on a lot of this already. Just to give you a hint, I voted for George McGovern in 1972 which was the first presidential election in which I voted. Also I was greatly affected by/against the Vietnam War, something your generation never thinks of.

[Redddog]

Just got off the phone with one of my best friends. He works in large event logistics management. Real high profile events. Held senior positions Vancouver Olympics, London Olympics and a host of other massive undertakings. He's typically brought in to iron out logistical and tactical operations when events are closing in and they're nowhere near ready. He's been on the Pope project for about 2 months.

He said he's never seen anything as screwed up as this before. From local government on down to state and local police etc., he has never seen such a mess. He advised me to leave town the thursday before the pope gets there.

[kidphilly]

There is Spinal Tap marathon that weekend at Dorney Park

[FrankInPhilly]

Originally Posted by Hallouise

This is a bit of a tangent as well, but did anyone hear the Newsworks (WHYY) piece this morning about how people who are trying to charge a lot of money to rent their city home during the Papal visit might not have such an easy time finding willing renters? There were a couple of people charging around 10 grand for a week's rental of their home. One was in the Art Museum area. No inquiries yet, but he wasn't willing to budge on the price.

I think people are overestimating how many extremely wealthy diehard fans of the Pope there are. Also, even if you do have $10,000 to spend just to hear the Pope give a Mass (sorry for the capitalization - old habits die hard with lapsed Catholics), couldn't you just, I don't know, take your whole family to Rome for a week on that kind of money?

No, didn't hear about it on WHYY, but the rent gouging stories have been floating for a while. There was a piece in the Inquirer a few months back that quoted similar numbers.

This price escalation really, really pisses me off. If the Stones were coming to town for their annual farewell tour, then have at it - charge what the market will bear and see who's desperate (or stupid) enough to pay the freight. But the POPE?! Bad karma (mixing theologies here, but you get my point).

Say it out loud, price gougers: "the spiritual leader of the Catholic church is coming to town and I have a property close to where he's conducting Mass. This puts me at a competitive, locational advantage, so I'm going to wring every cent I can out of the faithful who are coming from all over the Americas. I know it's the event of a lifetime for most of them, and that a lot of them are going to be gouged by the airlines, but hey, this is America, home of capitalism, and I'm going to screw these people blind. They can replenish their college funds later, after I'm done with them."

After reading the Inquirer article I got so pissed that I canceled my attendance at a conference that weekend (one where I would have been paid to conduct a seminar). My wife and I made a room in our house available for $70/night, and soon found we'll be hosting a couple from Texas in their 80's. So in other words, I'm putting my lack of $ where my mouth is.

And I know it isn't kind or Christian or whatever, but ... f*** those greedy, venal gougers!!!

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by FrankInPhilly

No, didn't hear about it on WHYY, but the rent gouging stories have been floating for a while. There was a piece in the Inquirer a few months back that quoted similar numbers.

This price escalation really, really pisses me off. If the Stones were coming to town for their annual farewell tour, then have at it - charge what the market will bear and see who's desperate (or stupid) enough to pay the freight. But the POPE?! Bad karma (mixing theologies here, but you get my point).

Say it out loud, price gougers: "the spiritual leader of the Catholic church is coming to town and I have a property close to where he's conducting Mass. This puts me at a competitive, locational advantage, so I'm going to wring every cent I can out of the faithful who are coming from all over the Americas. I know it's the event of a lifetime for most of them, and that a lot of them are going to be gouged by the airlines, but hey, this is America, home of capitalism, and I'm going to screw these people blind. They can replenish their college funds later, after I'm done with them."

After reading the Inquirer article I got so pissed that I canceled my attendance at a conference that weekend (one where I would have been paid to conduct a seminar). My wife and I made a room in our house available for $70/night, and soon found we'll be hosting a couple from Texas in their 80's. So in other words, I'm putting my lack of $ where my mouth is.

And I know it isn't kind or Christian or whatever, but ... f*** those greedy, venal gougers!!!

The thing I find so dispicable and disgusting is that these people have no understanding of why he chose the name he did. He's a Franciscan.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by Redddog

Just got off the phone with one of my best friends. He works in large event logistics management. Real high profile events. Held senior positions Vancouver Olympics, London Olympics and a host of other massive undertakings. He's typically brought in to iron out logistical and tactical operations when events are closing in and they're nowhere near ready. He's been on the Pope project for about 2 months.

He said he's never seen anything as screwed up as this before. From local government on down to state and local police etc., he has never seen such a mess. He advised me to leave town the thursday before the pope gets there.

Someone on here gave it a 50-50 chance of working.

John Paul II came here in 70s but I don't remember how bad that was.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by Redddog

Just got off the phone with one of my best friends. He works in large event logistics management. Real high profile events. Held senior positions Vancouver Olympics, London Olympics and a host of other massive undertakings. He's typically brought in to iron out logistical and tactical operations when events are closing in and they're nowhere near ready. He's been on the Pope project for about 2 months.

He said he's never seen anything as screwed up as this before. From local government on down to state and local police etc., he has never seen such a mess. He advised me to leave town the thursday before the pope gets there.

I'm trying to wrap my brain around the bulk of these people arriving, say, within 48 hr of the papal visit. How is that even going to be possible?

Never mind what Septa does on the weekend. Many of them, who are not part of the conference, will get here Thu or Fri... especially Friday.