For anyone that doesn't know, Pope Francis is planning to visit Philadelphia at the end of September. The city is busy preparing for his arrival and stumbling at every turn. I keep sitting back thinking, why can't Philadelphia get it together? New York City doesn't seem to have a problem hosting millions of people on New Year's Eve, why is this so difficult?
The most entertaining part about this saga has been SEPTA's plan to get people in and out of Philadelphia and the maps regarding the blockaded areas that have popped up all over social media.
A few weeks ago commuters and residents were told that SEPTA would operate in the morning and the evening during certain hours. These hours were not exactly conducive to work hours, but they went forward. Then SEPTA followed up saying that you needed a special pass (a "Pope Pass") to ride the subway, rail, and buses. They put together a time to launch this first-come, first-serve pass on their website.
The website crashed in 20 minutes from all the online traffic.
After revising their plan, they decided on a lottery system. The site would go back up during a certain period of time and people would be able to put in a request for tickets. People would be notified of their lottery status later and potentially issued tickets.
As a result, SEPTA received requests for 328,045 passes during Monday’s one-day sale.
We've also learned that traffic in and out of the city will essentially cease for 3 days except for emergency vehicles. Expecting mothers are worried about being able to get to the hospital to deliver their babies, but Mayor Michael Nutter has assured them that they will be able to get to the hospital without issue.
Many Philadelphians are frustrated at the lack of organization that the city seems to have (most notably my event planner friends that work there). Other residents, are angry that they're having to shut down their city for the day. Even more are angry because they're from Philly and that's just how they talk.
A Philadelphia city spokesman is encouraging residents to treat this visit like it's a snowstorm, "Make sure you get everything you need from the grocery store ahead of time and stock up on DVDs and video games, too."
The debacle has certainly caught my attention, and as an event planner, I'm shaking my head.
It's so important as an event organizer to be just that, ORGANIZED! Changing plans constantly makes you look like you have no idea what you're doing. I have my fingers (and toes) crossed that this event goes off without incident for the sake of Philadelphia.
I sincerely hope that this map doesn't actually come true! Note the swamp thing coming our of the Schuykill River, (they mean business).
It appears that the existing infrastructure that Philadelphia has in place is less than adequate to handle a few million people converging on their city and basically disrupting business as usual. Though if those pterodactyls pictured above converge on the city I have no doubt that the Philadelphians will join together and fight them off. That's a win for Philly! Don't mess with their city! If you don't believe me, just go to a sporting event and you'll see what I'm talking about.
While I do have an affinity for Philadelphia (I did my master's work at Temple), this essentially settles the score for me in the New York v. Philly debate. Philadelphia will always have its own historical yet gritty appeal, but clearly hosting the Pope won't be on their list of things to do in the near future.
You can read a fantastic piece telling the residents of Philadelphia to "quit whining" here. It's an entertaining read!
I hope to report back after the Pope's visit in September with the inside scoop on how it went from my event planner friends in Philadelphia.
I hope to discuss strategies to host events like this during my next post on Monday. Check back then!