POLL ON NEW YEAR'S EVE FESTIVITIES IN DC

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

I live in the DC area. Two of my co-workers are planning to be at the White House/DC millenium festivities or at parties within the city limits. When I said I was going to stay home in Northern VA because of my concerns regarding safety and getting home from the events, etc. -- they looked at me (as usual) LIKE I WAS CRAZY!!

Would anyone care to share their opinions (yes, pollies and doomers alike) so that I can email this post to my friends? Then they will know for sure that I am crazy or they are!!!

What do you think?

-- tt (cuddluppy@nowhere.com), November 29, 1999

Answers

Cuddly,

I think that being in the corporation limits of DC on a good day is Kooky! Much less with 10 gadzillion drunk people. That makes Las Vegas look good.

Gamblin' Kook

-- Y2Kook (Y2Kook@usa.net), November 29, 1999.


Forget anything to do with y2k....What about all the morons that need an excuse to drink and get blasted out their minds, then decide they can drive home.....Thank you very much, I'll stay off the roads and let you people live. :-)

-- P.A. (adkins@webbernet.net), November 29, 1999.

ok ok. back on track. forget the drunks. forget the criminals. focus. focus. focus. just consider the other variables/threats related to y2k.

-- tt (cuddluppy@nowhere.com), November 29, 1999.

TT, I'll say that your friends are completely on drugs to want to be in the District on the millennium. My own brother, who I have been desperately trying to make a GI, lives and works in the very heart of DC. the other night he called me and left a cryptic message of "Not to worry...I won't be in DC over the rollover. Somebody at work owed me and I got the time off." Now for a quick explanation: My Brother is one of the Treasury Kids...read SS, Secret Service in Training. His current position is head money burner at the Mint. Seems up until a few weeks ago he was torching 10 million plus a day of the worn out cash. He won't go into detail, but as he put it, he'd "rather have both his balls in a grinder than be in the district over the New Year." He wangled his way into getting the time off through his supervisor, and as he put it, "They ain't been burnin' much of the green stuff lately." Seems that only the most worn out rotten cash is getting the torch these days. Everything else is being recycled as best as they can for fear of a cash shortage. Just another Billy-Boy insider report...take it for what you will.

-- Billy Boy (Rakkasan101st@aol.com), November 29, 1999.

I have a friend who currently studies in D.C. I've tried to warn him to spend the rollover elsewhere, but he laughs at me (literally).

Ah well. I hate to see a friend "Darwin" himself like that, but what can I do?

(to Darwin yourself = to die as a direct result of your own stunningly poor judgment)

-- a word to the wise (is@sometimes.notenough), November 29, 1999.



I live and work in the DC. As part of a long-term investment and Y2K back-up plan I co-purchased a property on Cape Cod two years ago and have renovated it to be self-sufficient (except for a water well, which was unfortunately delayed).

Without other disruptions to compete for attention, DC has had water alerts twice since I have lived here, where residents were advised to boil all water from the taps. There have been power outages in summer due to increased demand on the system from air-conditioners, the city shut down due to blizzard conditions during 97. And it is widely known that the city suffers from a poorly organized government infrastructure even under normal circumstances. This city began its Y2K planning and remediation in earnest THIS YEAR!

Add to this the allure of DC as a target for terrorist activity and one can only imagine what potential problems may arise.

Needless to say, I won't be in DC.

-- mark (mat_dc@hotmail.com), November 29, 1999.


Billy Boy, we have greatly benefitted from your insider reports! Please keep 'em coming, and thanks.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), November 29, 1999.

Personally, I'd love to get to the Mall Party...but I'd want some pretty decent body armor (kevlar) under my parka, some moderate weaponry in my vehicle (I wouldn't rely on public transportation), some food and beverage also stored in my vehicle, and I'd prefer to be in the company of a few like-minded GIs. On second thought, I'll stay home...the travel is just a bit much for me...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), November 29, 1999.

Yup, you're crazy. Other crazies from history: Da Vinci, Galileo, Newton, Copernicus, Einstein, yadda yadda yadda.

-- Colin MacDonald (roborogerborg@yahoo.com), November 30, 1999.

Colin, sometimes you are really annoying! How can you compare geniuses who were once ridiculed with party-goers who go into the center of the worst city in America (on a good day!) on the very night when all hell may break loose there?

I live just outside DC, and know that there are more crimes and shootings there than you can imagine, from your cozy location. There are sections where one cannot drive through without fear. The good citizens are not permitted to own guns, but as a state trooper just said to a class I attended, "The bad guys will always have them in their pants pocket."

Now add to this the huge crowds stuffed into the heart of such a city, who on a good night could be expected to be in danger of mugging or other assaults. Then add alcohol. Then add the possibility of losing power. This also would mean that the public transportation could not function to take people home, away from a mad scene. Can you envision the panic, the stampeding, the disaster that could ensue?

And Colin, did you know that there are big-time contingency plans laid by the city for such possible disruptions? Like mega-generators, extra police and military, with special communications devices in case the usual ones go down, warming shelters, etc.?

tt, your friends probably know all of this already, but since you asked us to post items to help deter them, here is my two cents. (And because you're such a nice person anyway! :-)

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), November 30, 1999.



Moderation questions? read the FAQ