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JONATHAN WILSON / Staff Photographer
Damon and Rhondell Walker and children (from left) Damon Jr., Lael and Jared. The family has been saving to make the trip together to the inauguration and witness such a historic moment.
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Philadelphians scramble to see Obama inauguration
A few weeks after the March presidential primaries, Darlene Atta had a feeling.
Contact staff writer Kia Gregory at 215-854-2601 or kgregory@phillynews.com.
Barack Obama had won a string of state primaries and was besting the mighty Hillary Rodham Clinton. It could happen, Atta thought. Obama could very well become the next president of the United States, the first African American to hold the title of commander-in-chief.
It was that belief in the historically impossible, and her memory of a time when blacks couldn't even drive buses in her native Chester County, that drove Atta to book a hotel room so she could attend the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20.
"I just felt a sense of excitement," explained Atta, 60, an adjunct professor of urban studies at Eastern University's Philadelphia campus. "I still wasn't 100 percent sure that he would become the party's nominee and ultimately the president. But I thought strongly that if he was successful, I wanted to be there."
Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty estimates that three million to five million people will flood the capital to witness President-elect Obama take the oath of office, a crowd up to four times larger than the record turnout for Lyndon B. Johnson's 1965 inauguration.
As a result, most of the district's 29,000 hotel rooms are booked, and those that are vacant run at exorbitant rates, with some hotels requiring a minimum stay of three nights.
And hotels are filling up as far away as Pennsylvania.
Back in April, Atta finally found a room in Silver Spring, Md., for $350 a night.
"I'm not right in D.C.," she said, "but I'm close."
Those without hotel rooms are angling to find spare rooms, floors and couches of friends, distant relatives, old college roommates - anybody they know who lives in the Washington area.
John Jervay Jr., 27, is among the pilgrims from the Philadelphia area expected to make their way to Washington by train, plane, chartered bus or car.
Jervay, an online producer for NBC Sports.com, plans to drive with two friends from his Southwest Philadelphia home the night before and crash at a friend's house in Largo, Md. "One of us will definitely be sleeping on the floor," Jervay said.
Jervay plans to be up by 6 a.m. to take mass transit to the inauguration.
"Whether it's a block away or 10 blocks away, I'm going to get as close as I can get," said Jervay, who is literally praying for an inauguration ticket. "This is beyond historic, and I want to be as involved as I can."
The office phones of members of Congress have been ringing, ringing, ringing, with people pleading for the country's hottest ticket, which gives holders the right to stand within sight of the ceremony.
"The demand has been overwhelming," said Deborah Anderson, a spokeswoman for Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.). "We probably received more calls on this than anything in recent memory."
More than 10,000 people have deluged the office of Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) with requests for inauguration tickets. The senator has only 393 to give out.
Fattah's and Casey's offices are trying to come up with plans for awarding tickets.
"So many people want to go and view history live and in person," said Casey's press secretary, Kendra Barkoff. "We're encouraging people who are unable to get a ticket to still come and stand on the [National] Mall."
One congressional staffer urged people to bring binoculars or a transistor television, saying that only a handful would get to see Obama up close.
For those squinting in the distance, there will be gigantic television screens on the Mall and along the inaugural parade route.
Damon Walker, a social worker from Mount Airy, has been working overtime to pay for the round-trip train ride for himself, his wife, and their three children, the oldest his 6-year-old son.
"It's like a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Walker said. "To see an African American be sworn in, not only for me, but for my son. To have him grow up and say he was a part of it, that means a lot to me."
Tracy Pressley Sr., 44, and his family volunteered for the Obama campaign during the primary campaign and the general election. Pressley, his wife, and their teenage son and young daughter plan to drive from their home in Norristown.
"We participated in the whole administration of it, going door to door," Pressley said. "This is a momentous occasion in our lifetime, to see the inauguration of change in this country."
Pressley, facing the economy's sting, said he believed Obama "can put this country in the direction that it needs to go."
He is also moved by a sense of history.
"Martin Luther King had his 'I Have a Dream,' " said Pressley, a data analyst with GlaxoSmithKline. "Forty years later, that dream has come true."
For Jill Zipin, 44, of Horsham, taking her young daughters to the inauguration reminds her how, in 1969, her mother dragged her in front of the television to see man set foot on the moon.
"Nowadays, not too many things feel like once in a lifetime," said Zipin, who volunteered vigorously for the Obama campaign, and will ride by chartered bus to Washington early that morning with a group of 180 so far. "To see it come to fruition, in person, is going to be an amazing thing."
But some are worried about the prospect of massive crowds, jammed roads, and delayed mass transit.
JoAnn Warren-Waters reserved three hotel rooms in Virginia the day after the election. She recently e-mailed four of her friends a picture of Obama engulfed by spectators at a rally. The subject was: "Do you want to be in this sort of crowd?" They all replied: "Yes, we can."
"I can't see me going and not taking my kids," said Warren-Waters, 44, who lives in Overbrook. "But I'm wondering: What am I going to do with my 5-year-old in that crowd?"
At worst, said Warren-Waters, an office manager who already scheduled the day off, she'll host her own inauguration ball at her girlfriend's house in Maryland.
For now, Atta's challenge is figuring out whom to take. She has many people vying for her room, including her two daughters and their friends, as well as her own friends.
"Everybody and their brother wants to go down there with me," she said with a chuckle. "I have no clue how I'm going to figure this out."
Contact staff writer Kia Gregory at 215-854-2601 or kgregory@phillynews.com.
