Hotels, restaurants now feel optimistic about papal weekend
Hotels are almost full. Restaurants have been told they will get emergency deliveries. Pilgrims will not sleep on dirty sheets or be denied the fare of one of the country's hottest dining cities.
Hotels are almost full. Restaurants have been told they will get emergency deliveries. Pilgrims will not sleep on dirty sheets or be denied the fare of one of the country's hottest dining cities.
The papal panic that gripped Philadelphia's commercial class just a few weeks ago, in light of severe security restrictions, has receded. With just two days to go before Pope Francis begins the weekend's celebrations, the mood is all smiles, if also some nerves.
"The hotels are happy," Ed Grose, executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association, said Wednesday. "I think we're getting there."
"We feel great," said Samantha Phillips, director of the city's Office of Emergency Management. "I'm ready."
"We feel really great," said Scott Steenrod, vice president of operations for the nine Jose Garces restaurants that will be open this weekend as the city fills with an estimated one million papal pilgrims.
Just weeks ago, hotel reservations were so low, it set off alarm bells. Mayor Nutter launched a publicity campaign pushing back against the perception that unprecedented security measures by the U.S. Secret Service would make the event a hassle worthy of watching only on TV.
This week, more than 90 percent of the 11,000 rooms in Center City and nearby University City have been booked, Grose said.
Fears of a logistics nightmare also have receded as organizers made concessions that will let businesses function, even in the closest-to-the-pontiff zone where parked cars will not be allowed, and the surrounding zone where incoming vehicles may not enter.
Hotels will receive linen and food deliveries within the nearly five-square-mile core of the city where motor vehicle restrictions will be in place.
Officials explained to them and their vendors this week exactly how the Secret Service will sweep delivery vehicles, and where those trucks will be granted entry, for runs between midnight and 4 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Operators had been waiting anxiously for that, worried that if no workable agreement emerged, they would be unable to restock laundered goods or even food provisions.
Also ironed out are logistics surrounding how workers will get to their jobs serving the city's visitors.
Expanded subway service announced this month by SEPTA took care of that lingering worry.
"That was huge," said Phillips, who said organizers had taken "a pretty drastic approach" initially by forbidding subway stops east of the Schuylkill.
To ensure that things go smoothly for businesses all weekend, the city's Commerce Department will staff its papal hotline (215-683-2100) around the clock, fielding questions and helping work out solutions with emergency officials, Phillips said.
If a hotel needs an elevator repair technician, a call to the business resource center hotline will allow officials to arrange for someone to escort that worker past security and to the hotel, regardless of whether the hotel is in a vehicle-free zone.
"We've been coordinating very thoroughly with businesses," Phillips said.
Garces restaurants welcomed the changes, but had planned for a worst-case scenario by procuring refrigerated trucks to store extra food.
Reservations at the Garces establishments are a little below normal but still strong heading into the weekend, Steenrod said. He expects it's the kind of weekend that will draw walk-in business, partly from locals who are tentative about how the weekend will unfold, and tourists who don't have a firm idea of their own plans.
"The risk," he said, "is on the back end. If it's a slower weekend than expected, it's going to be a loss."
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