Sadly not a holiday for me... But it will cut Metro ridership down by an estimated 20%. That'll be just like a holiday! And with all the tourist hotspots closed, it'll be even better. Because spring in Washington is when every commuter just wants to start leaping around and hacking at Okies with a machete.
Metro, of course, has said that they're going to "compensate" for the loss in ridership by running fewer and shorter trains.
Thanks, assholes.
This time around, the shutdown will not only pitch a million workers into X unpaid days, but there's a new twist -- they're going to take away all of their Blackberrys. Or, at least, cut service. Because you're not allowed to do your job even if you want to.
What I love is that they'll cancel the Cherry Blossom Parade. That's just pissing on people, really. The parade is Saturday morning, the shut down (if it happens) won't kick in till midnight Friday. Come on. What's a parade going to hurt? It draws in enough tourists to choke a T Rex and that's good for the local businesses! In a city, by the way, that won't be able to get any money during the shut-down. Every dollar that goes into DC has to first go to the Feds and then the Feds give it back to the city, because they're laundering the money earned by DC, obviously. The whole set-up smells like something mob bosses do in a Batman comic.
The parade pulls in in excess of half a million people from all over the world. Who are, you know, already here or arriving today or tomorrow. But, of course, the trees are there to be seen anytime. Does anyone really care about the gay parade? I'm always secretly hoping for a riot or something, but the only people who'll riot are all the high school marching bands and parade organizers.
Even with the bleachers in place and parade-goers en route, festival officials said late Wednesday that the National Park Service could not honor the group’s parade permits if a shutdown occurs.
The Interior Department, which oversees the National Park Service, said in a statement: “Visitor activities that require a permit, including public events, will not be allowed or will be canceled or postponed. Visitor centers will be closed and access to park areas denied, including the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Independence Hall, Alcatraz, and the Washington Monument.”
The District would be hit hard.
The city, considered in a shutdown to be a federal agency, would face $1.5 million to $5.5 million in losses per week.
Along with trash collection, most parking enforcement would be suspended, and D.C. libraries and Department of Motor Vehicles offices would be closed.
Street sweeping would be suspended for the duration of a shutdown, city officials said. Trash pickup could resume, because federal shutdown laws permit government services that deal with property and public safety, they said. But that wouldn’t happen for at least a week.
“That’ll be a treat, won’t it?” Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) remarked sarcastically about possible piles of trash around the city.
He said he thinks the potential shutdown is more evidence of the unfair treatment of the District by Congress.
“This is a concrete example of what it means to be treated like a second-class citizen,” he said.
Public and charter schools would remain open, but the University of the District of Columbia would close.
Police, firefighters and emergency medical technicians would remain on duty. The Board of Elections and Ethics would maintain its staff to prepare for the April 26 special election.
A key question for hundreds of thousands of Washington area federal workers is whether they would have to work through an impasse — without pay. Departments began answering such questions on Wednesday.
In an e-mail, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she and President Obama “are very much aware that a shutdown would impose hardships on many employees as well as the groups and individuals our department serves.”
But “prudent management requires that I plan for an orderly shutdown should Congress fail to pass a funding bill.”
In messages sent to all employees, administration officials promised to inform people of their fates no later than Friday. But employees would be expected to report to work Monday to assist with any shutdown-related tasks, senior administration officials said.
When they arrive Monday, workers with government-issued BlackBerrys and other devices would have to surrender them to agency bosses.
At the Education Department, 4,150 out of 4,465 full- and part-time employees would be furloughed under a shutdown, according to an agency contingency plan. And federal statistical agencies, including the U.S. Census Bureau, would close on Monday, meaning that economic indicators scheduled for release would not be available. National security and law enforcement functions would continue at the Justice Department, but civil litigation and outreach to crime victims would stop or be curtailed.
