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All over the map

Nutter addresses speculation about papal visit.

Mayor Michael Nutter speaks to the media about the lack of information concerning street closures and other security restrictions during Pope Francis' visit in September in Conversation Hall in City Hall July 27, 2015.  ( CLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer )
Mayor Michael Nutter speaks to the media about the lack of information concerning street closures and other security restrictions during Pope Francis' visit in September in Conversation Hall in City Hall July 27, 2015. ( CLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer )Read more

SOME ZONES WILL be patrolled entirely by pterodactyls, other zones - known as "dead zones" - will house mostly zombies and a hot lava zone will encompass all of Center City.

Those are the details of just one map circulating online that claims to show how Pope Francis' visit will affect Philadelphians in September.

The map, which was posted on Facebook, is an obvious spoof of other maps that circulated on the Internet over the weekend that claimed to detail street closures in the city during the papal visit.

Yesterday, Mayor Nutter and World Meeting of Families officials called a news conference to denounce any and all maps allegedly detailing security plans for the pope's visit.

"No official security perimeter has been announced or fully and finally developed," Nutter said. "Therefore, speculative reporting on this matter performs absolutely no legitimate function."

Nutter then swung at those who posted the maps, which were said to have been leaked by sources close to the event.

"At times, little people who have little pieces of information will try to put out what they have or what they think they have in an effort to make themselves larger than they might be," he said.

Ken Gavin, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said multiple media requests have come in about the maps.

"Given the numerous media inquiries and reports based purely on speculative and unconfirmed information, it was important to address the issue today," Gavin said. "We are grateful to Mayor Nutter for taking the lead in doing just that and we look forward to continued work with our partners at the city, state and federal levels."

Since little information has been released about security surrounding the event, and given the intense media scrutiny it is receiving, speculation has run rampant about street closures, bridge closures, fencing and many other unknowns.

Nutter declined to confirm or deny any reports, noting that Pope Francis is a world leader and safety is "paramount."

"I'm not planning to give every nutcase in the universe a significant amount of advanced information from a security standpoint," he said.

Some announcements about the pope's visit are expected to be made next week, Nutter said, though he did not detail the nature of those announcements.

Taking his cues from the church and singer George Michael, Nutter asked Philadelphians to have a little faith, noting that "time and time again" Philadelphia has dealt with large events, unexpected tragedies and significant weather situations.

"Think about what happens in the few times in the past we've gotten 15-to-20 inches of snow," Nutter said. "What do you do? You make plans. You make preparations."

SEPTA canceled its plans yesterday to hold a news conference about when the sale of regional rail passes for the papal visit will resume, after the agency's site crashed during the first attempt at sales last week due to high demand.

SEPTA's news conference is expected to be rescheduled for later this week.

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