<div>On 4/29/06, Chuck <<a href="mailto:chuck@mutualaid.org">chuck@mutualaid.org</a>> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> While it's good that people turned out for this event, it's physically impossible to fit 300,000 people into 10 city blocks.</blockquote><div> <div> 1)  Where are the rooftop or helicopter photos from this event? Does anyone have URLs? 2)  Who in the hell said 10 city blocks?  I was with a number of NLG monitors at the tail end of the march at 23rd Street and Broadway, waiting forever to start marching.  This was at approximately 1pm.  At the same time WBAI was reporting that the march had already reached Foley Square.  That is more than ten city blocks down the diagonal of Broadway, from 23rd around Union Square and across 14th Street, then another 35 blocks to Foley Square near city hall. Here is the google map of the route <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=23rd+Street+And+Broadway+Ny+To+Foley+Square,+New+York,+NY">http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=23rd+Street+And+Broadway+Ny+To+Foley+Square,+New+York,+NY</a>. It was approximately 2.5 miles of marches and then a rally point.  From discussions I had with leafleteers and bystanders, the streets were full of people from curb to curb at most of the route.  These were the wider streets of New York, not the the thin ones......  (See history of the draft riots to understand why.)  I am not sure if the WBAI report was true, but if the head of the march did reach Foley Square while the back of the march was still waiting to start at 23rd Street and Broadway, the estimate of 300,000 people is not unrealistic. 3)  As usual, the cops had people penned in at different times and places and essentially regulated the size of the march through discouragement into entry into the march.  The cops were not as heavy handed as at some marches but they still turned people away from entry points and gave people the run around!  The strategy of the cops in NYC is often to limit the size of these marches.  </div> For size comparisons: football stadiums often seat 50-70,000 people. The </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Superdome seats around 72,000 and Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor seats around 110,000 people (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Stadium">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Stadium</a>). It's really dishonest for protest organizers to publicly announce wild attendance figures for their events. It is extremely hard to count people in huge crowds, but leftist organizations consciously lie on a consistent basis about protest estimates. Let's aim for honesty, accuracy and a bit of humility. Chuck</blockquote><div> 4)  As far as crowd estimates:  Why aren't photographers stationed in the upper stories of buildings to take pictures every 5 minutes or so during such protests?  A good estimate of crowd participation could be gained from such photos and they would also be inspirational.  We are walking down through the canyons of Manhattan, from the Flatiron Building to the Court of International Trade, there are dozens of old ornate department stores and warehouses and early 20th century office buildings, all approximately 10 stories high, perfect for photographers, taking pictures of crowds.  Of course the city officials don't care and usually underestimate the crowds and the protest organizers usually overestimate the crowds.  5)  But you Chuck, as far as I know were not there.  So why call people liars when you don't know?  The real question is why is there no real attempt to establish accurate estimates of participation in such protests. Jerry  </div> </div>