Something that hasn't been mentioned in any local news reports--and I assume the route is secret for security reasons--is that the Pope has to go from the Naval Observatory area over to the area near the Basilica, presumably by motorcade with the attendant rolling street closures.

The left lane of M Street NW in front of the Westin City Center (near Thomas Circle) is blocked off with heavy police presence. Is this a staging area for media? Any ideas on how long this portion of M St will be affected?

Can we get some sort of similar heads up for tomorrow's issues?

Is it true that we don't need to feed the parking meters around town today?

Yeah, John -- It's Emancipation Day in the District, so all DC Gov't has a holiday. Not to diminish the significance of the day (freeing of slaves in DC), but given that it's not a federal holiday or a private holiday, why should holiday rules apply to parking and traffic? It only compounds the problem that we have the Pope flitting about town. Great planning, DC!

Please include in your no parking list:

Rhode Island Ave west of North Capitol no parking on either side from 1 to 9pm. It may extend further east but I haven't been over there the last two days.

Also, 2nd St. and T ST NW have no parking adjacent to RI Ave.

Believe it or not, the date of an historical event is not something the DC govt has control over. With DC gov workers on holiday, there's no one available to issue parking tickets, capiche?

You would never have known it was a holiday based on how traffic flowed this morning on Connecticut Ave. The "use 2 lanes"/"Use 4 lanes" signs lit up as normal, everyone used the rush hour traffic patterns. I didn't end up leaving my car parked on Connecticut last night since I found a spot on a side street really close to where I live at midnight last night (normally that doesn't happen!), and apparently everyone else moved their cars too. When I decided to park in front of Starbucks at 8:30 to grab a cup of coffee, I was scolded by a commercial vehicle driver who came up behind me and had to switch lanes...he said I had no right to park there before 9:30. I explained that parking rules were not being enforced due to the holiday today and he gave me the weirdest look. Couple drivers even gave me the one fingered salute.

Honestly, I wish I had my video cam with me to post a YouTube video of my little "experiment", just to show how dumb it is to suspend parking enforcement when clearly 99% of the population doesn't know and doesn't care that it is a holiday. This is not meant to be a slight to DC's holiday or the people celebrating, but it is just common sense that when the vast majority of people consider it a normal day, the vast majority of traffic and parking laws should be enforced.

DC should have a tiered system of holiday traffic rules. Major holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc., Sunday parking restrictions, no rush hour lanes, and weekend signal timing plans. On Federal Holidays (Columbus Day, Veterans Day) when people still go to work but less than half the normal number of people commute into DC, then suspend parking restrictions and rush hour lanes, but keep weekday signal timing plans in effect to facilitate the peak-direction flow for all the private sector workers. And on days with small local holidays, like today, suspend street cleaning and residential permit enforcement only, but enforce parking meters, rush hour lanes, and use normal signal timing.

Gofigure--do the police take Sundays, Christmas, New Year and other holidays off? No--they get paid overtime (or whatever the union has negotiated). There's absolutely no reason that DC can't enforce the parking rules--they could.

It's one thing to close city offices (and I'm sure plenty of people wasted a trip to the DMV, DCRA, and other agencies), but another to change the parking rules.

Guess it means I can start making left turns at rush hour and what not. Good times!

Ah: I think the DCPD is pretty wrapped up with providing additional security for the Papal visit and it wouldn't surprise me at all if Uncle Sam refused to contribute to the associated costs - wouldn't be the 1st time that Uncle Sam sticks DCPD with the bill for providing additional security. So maybe this is all just prioritizing where the city's manpower will be focused today

Look, even when the agencies are open, they still don't fully do their jobs, as evidenced by all the latest news on audits and crackdowns on the city's various agencies. I honestly think some of those folks who work for DC agencies think every damn day is a holiday.

eh?, Lincoln wasn't anticipating the Pope's visit when he freed the slaves of DC.

If MPDC has to put people elsewhere, rather than ticket writing, that's fine. But as Woodley Park points out, folks expect driving rules and parking rules to be the same as any weekday. At least have the rules in place, even if they're even more poorly enforced than usual.

I don't think MPD does parking enforcement. That is done by "parking enforcement" contractors. I think MPD could write tickets, but they only do so if its a pretty bad violation, like blocking a fire lane. Otherwise, they have more important things to worry about, like crime...

Parking enforcement is sparse on weekends, but it still takes place. Downtown meters have a 2 hour limit on Saturdays, even though you don't need to feed them. Poorly enforced. Georgetown Zone 2 restrictions are in effect longer hours on weekdays and are in effect on Saturdays. Those have normal level of resident permit enforcement. Then there are 2 "enhanced resident permit zones"...Columbia Heights in Zone 1 and near Nats Park in Zone 6. Those resident restrictions are in effect from 7AM to midnight 7 days a week, and allow typical 2 hour parking (no limit with a resident permit) only one one side of the street, and resident permits only on the other side of the street (legit guests can get guest permits to park in the restricted zones). Those are *very* strictly enforced, especially during Nats games.

So this whole idea of parking enforcment only working weekdays and having holidays off is not a valid argument. They can easily work on days when DC govt. is closed, and they apparently do. Especially since their employees are not govt. employees but contractors.

"do the police take Sundays, Christmas, New Year and other holidays off?"

In DC, I would expect they do.