Obama's Acceptance Speech in Grant Park

Grant Park was filled to capacity the night President-elect Obama gave his acceptance speech.  I didn't have a ticket so I was relegated to the perimeter then drifting up and down Michigan Avenue watching the crowd.

It was an unusually warm night which was probably the reason so many cyclists were out.  Every post, tree, fence, any secured object had a bicycle chained to it while the owner attended the election night rally.  A few trees had bikes secured to high branches; a desperate attempt to find space to secure their rides.

The crowd seemed strangely less diverse than I expected.  I expected more black and Latino supporters than had turned out.  Perhaps I have a skewed perspective having just come back from Asia where I was always an extreme minority, but white folks were definitely the dominant people in attendance.  I expected a 30% showing, with 30% black and the remaining 40% being comprised of Latino, Asian and others.

When the speech had ended, Michigan Avenue turned into a river of people.  Both northbound and southbound lanes were transformed into arteries delivering people like blood from a heart that pulsed with optimism for change.

However, there was a at least a small group of young attendees who treated the event more like a college party than a political gathering, stumbling drunk, boisterous and nonsensical.  When I saw the South Park parody the following day I didn't think it was too far from the truth.

Comments

[fotoFANATIK]

I'm surprised that you're surprised about seeing so many bicycles at the rally. You need to head over to Wicker Park, Bucktown or even Lincoln Square or my current neck of the woods Roscoe Village. M A N Y people are riding their bikes, even in today's snow. And a lot of Obama supporters are green movers and shakers so they either took public trans to the rally or biked or walked ^_^

Also my section of the rally was fairly diverse and a happy crowd; not inebriated as those small pockets of attendees you witnessed ^_^

[Sommo]

[this is good]

[athf]

[this is good]