When POTUS comes to town

When POTUS comes to town getting around your city gets tricky.

On Thursday the university was very quiet. Someone suggested that it was the ghosts of W's visit 7 years ago when the city was gridlocked for a week. No one could get around and everyone who'd lived through it feared it would be the same with Obama. They were right!!

I had intended to leave early, and in any event by 4pm so I could be home before Obama's speech started. But, I ended up in a meeting and I didn't leave campus until nearly 5pm. About a third of the way toward the Old City from campus the bus came to a halt.  Traffic was being diverted. A few of us got off the bus and walked to the train station. I rode to the City Hall thinking I'd walk down King David St... retracing my steps from this morning.

WRONG.

One of the busiest intersections in town at Mamilla Mall  (King David St is the hill ahead) - blocked.

As it happens, when POTUS is out giving a speech, security protocol is to blockade off a route between the speech site (Convention Centre) and POTUS's accommodation (King David Hotel). Blockade -- no vehicular traffic and no pedestrians -- from when he leaves his hotel until he returns. (Somehow the train passed through.)

In a burst of naivete I headed for home (the German Colony) taking the long way around Fortress King David, passing by the Hebron Road and coming up at the Cinematheque, thinking I'd have walked far enough to skirt the security blocks. 

Flowers on the side of the road -- sighted on my long walk

the security blimp hovering over Fortress King David, there was a helicopter too

NO. FULL STOP.

It was impossible to access the Colony. I guess POTUS was stopping in at the King David and then heading somewhere else? While I was stuck this road block I asked how long? (I needed to find a loo if it was going to be too long.) No one had any idea how long.  

That was it, there I was. Somewhere to be, but nowhere to go. Standing with a growing crowd of people. Stranded just blocks from home. And, we were just one intersection. The Convention Centre is at least 5 km from the King David Hotel -- thousands of people must have been stuck. Meanwhile the blimp and helicopters circled overhead and secret service staff walked or drove the route.

Police cars in the motorcade

The tail end of the motorcade includes ambulances (Ramez at Emek Refaim)

Finally, about half and hour after I arrived at the final blockade, the motorcade blasted through the intersection. Before the police could open the roads, people were crawling over or under barricades to get on their way again. And, instantly the roads began to clog as traffic that had been held back
flowed into key intersections.

Gridlock at Derech Beit Lehem and Emek Refaim

Friday at about noon, I was walking back from brunch at the Cinematheque with my friend Christina and we got stuck at the same intersection for about an hour. The motorcade went by about 15 mins after we got there. Obama had been in Bethlehem to see the Church of the Nativity and his next stop was Amman, Jordan. But, with the sandstorm blowing a gale, Obama couldn't travel by helicopter to Amman: he would have to go to Ben Gurion at Lod and get a jet. So, the road block had to stay until the team was ready to go.

Looking up Keren HaYesod

An interesting thing started to happen. Impatience became palpable. I heard some Ashkenazim call to the police: "Nu?" ("Nu" is Yiddish for lots of things, but in this case likely "So, now what? Yallah!) Certain people, especially if they had children in tow, were being escorted across the street. Other people, with buckets of chutzpah, would just walk across the street in defiance of the blockade. But, if you asked to cross the street, you were told to wait. This shows something about Israeli society. It's very egalitarian, rules are advisory, and it's critical that an Israeli not play the fool.  Also, since nearly everyone serves in the army, there is no mystique or special respect for police or army officers. I mean, everyone knows they are doing their job and appreciates them for it, but no one cowers to them or their "authority". So, when a person decides to walk across the street that has been barricaded and has 4 police officers guarding it, there's frequently little response. Watching this, I finally decided that I would join the next group that crossed. I did. And nothing happened.

A long line of buses on Emek

Certain people cross the street

Standing around in the dust storm

I heard from my housemate Yarden that the road was still blocked two hours later.  I wondered: Does POTUS have any idea how much people are put out when he comes to town? The public's lives must bend to his schedule.  If you were unlucky you could get stranded and be late for work, to pick up your children, or just be stuck standing uncomfortably in a raging sandstorm. Of course, the threat of assassination is real and terrifying and POTUS needs to be protected. But, I couldn't help feeling that something in this balance was wrong.