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Mad Dash to Snag Swearing-In Tickets, Rooms Begins
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It is, of course, too early to tell how many people will attend.
"I've heard numbers as high as 1.5 or 1.6 million," Hanbury said.
A Metro official pointed out that Inauguration Day and the day before, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, are both federal holidays. Spokesman Steven Taubenkibel wondered about workers in the District: "Are they going to stay home? Are they going to want to be in the city?" He said Metro is still working out its inauguration schedule.
D.C. police plan to utilize an extra 1,000 out-of-town officers, beyond the 4,000 they usually borrow for the festivities. The military will have 5,000 service members on duty, including 1,800 along the parade route.
Meanwhile, from across the nation last week and on such Web sites as Craigslist came the virtual clatter of people in search of lodging.
Home swaps for the week were offered by people in Malibu, Sausalito, Manhattan and Park City, Utah. Some played up their role as Obama volunteers in hopes of catching a price break.
Others, like Nikki Lecompte, were more creative. The 36-year-old single mother from Houston was laid off from her job in February but wants to bring her four children to witness history. A New Orleans native, she's bartering with her culinary skills, offering to make Southern fried chicken, bread pudding with rum sauce and banana fritters in exchange for a place for her family to stay.
"Oh, my god. My parents were not allowed to sit at a lunch counter when they were coming up," Lecompte said. "To see King's dream realized means so much to me."
Even if she can't find housing, she insists that she and her family will be here for the inauguration: "If we have to, we'll huddle in blankets inside of our Toyota Corolla."
In Adams Morgan, someone was offering a "VERY UPSCALE, HUGE, BEAUTIFUL HOME!" for $12,500 for inauguration week.
A Capitol Hill home that sleeps eight was available for $7,500.
In Tenleytown, a studio was going for $150 a night.
