As many as four million people may crowd the mall at inauguration. That sound you hear is 600,000 DC residents dialing Travelocity to make travel plans elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the exciting local question is: do you or don't you rent out a room, or your whole house? The answer for me is easy: my landlord would kill me. But those in larger buildings or houses can attract hundreds of dollars a night for their room--it looks to be pretty easy to make a couple of month's rent during inauguration week.
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I work in the District and I have already requested the day off. I didn't want to be any where near the Capitol, (I work off North Capitol St.) let alone drive or ride the MARC commuter train into work.
I don't do well in crowded trains, I need my personal space.
Megan, you can stay with me until the heat dies down, Austin is the last place your landlord would look for you. 4 million on the mall bogles my mind, you almost could not say you were there. All I can think of is the Star Trek episode where they visit the planet that is overcrowded and everyone keeps moving by the window that goes opaque.
If NYC had gotten the 2012 Olympics my husband and I would have sublet our 3br apartment for two weeks and gone to live at my Parent's place. we were completely sad about the windfall that we lost because they gave the darn Olympics to London. Feh!
A crowd on the Mall four times as big as the biggest crowd ever assembled there? I would file that with the "record voter turnout" that wasn't. But time will tell.
I told all of my Democrat co-workers that I'd make the $$ from Dems during inaguration that will soon be taken from me in taxes by renting out a room. They all thought I was insane until I showed them all the ads already on Craig's List. They're also trying to talk all the doctors where I work to close the offices that day since everyone wants to go.
We're debating putting an ad up and seeing what comes of it. Sure would be nice to have a month or two of rent paid!
Miss McArdle, you lack street cred, as they used to say.
With an awkward landlord/regulated rents/etc. you never rent out a room for the occasion. You may, however, take in friends (including new ones) who share the expenses (roughly, if they stay a week they share the expenses of between two weeks and a month, and their share may be any convemient proportion). And if you should be called away to hold your grandmather's hand while they are in your apartment, your generosity of spirit in letting your friends stay will be admirable.
Just don't do it too often.
I have an extra room in the washington area. I would take in an Obamabot wanting to see the inaugural. I would of course after I got some obscene amount of money, sick my dog on them, make them sleep in my basement, and blast music at an obscene volume at all hours of the night. That is of course assuming the person wasn't black. If they were a black person there to finally see another black person finally get inagurated, I would welcome them in my home for free. Creepy white liberals need not apply.
In these tough economic times, shouldn't the very expensive inauguration be cancelled? You know, like they want to cut CEO's salaries, or said Bush's inaugurations were too expensive? Plus the carbon emissions.
Have I missed any reasons?