Nov 3, 2008 10:08 pm US/Central
City Preps For Ticketless Obama Supporters Tuesday
Giant Video Screens Erected Around Park
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
-
-
There will be nine screens in total throughout the rest of Grant Park for Obama's big Election Night party.
CBS
Chicagoans have seen what Barack Obama hopes will be celebration central rising from the turf of Hutchison Field for the past week. Monday, its combination of tents for concessions and VIPs, platforms and risers for cameras and reporters, and the stage where Sen. Obama expects to speak to supporters, are all nearly complete.
As CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports, for the first time we saw preparations being made for those without tickets. Large video screens, with pictures fed directly from the audio and video tests on the main stage are starting to pop throughout the rest of Grant Park. There will be nine screens in total.
Some are still in pieces, trucked in from California over the weekend, to be assembled by Monday night. There are dumpsters for trash, and portable toilets, still on their trailers, to be spread around the park.
Monday afternoon, city officials seemed uncertain about how it all would work, and weren't exactly encouraging to those who planned to come on down without tickets.
"This is an unprecedented event," said Ray Orozco, chief of the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications. "It's not the Air and Water Show; it's not Venetian Night. We don't want to give people coming down false expectations."
There will be no chairs allowed on the lawns and fields of Grant Park, no coolers, very little in the way of creature comforts.
The 65,000 people with tickets are not going to have it much better. Most of them will be standing in an open field from 8:30 p.m., when the gates open, until the outcome is clear. That will be no earlier than 10 p.m., but likely a whole lot later.
Those planning to be in Grant Park don't seem to care.
"I caught a plane into Atlanta and met up with my friend and we traveled for the last 12 hours to get here," Cornell Fubler, who is in Chicago from Bermuda, said.
"I get out of class at noon, and I'm going to camp out here for the whole day," said student Jai Sanghvi.
Valerie Jarrett, a prominent member of Obama's inner circle, told CBS 2 that people should make their own decisions about whether to come down without tickets.
"Celebrate the way you want to," Jarrett said. "I know many people have decided to stay home with their young families, with their young children and enjoy it in a private moment. Many people will want to come down to Grant Park. I think part of what Senator Obama stands for is do it the way you're most comfortable."
Leaving the site may be easier than getting in. City officials say there'll be multiple exits, and both CTA and RTA are making plans for midnight to be another rush hour. With full bus, "L," subway and commuter rail service until at least 1 a.m., and maybe later.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Jewish Celebrities
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
