The blackout peopleout of 2003
There are so many people hidden in the cement pillars of this town... it's amazing when we all pour and splash out into the streets, flowing like water into any available space. There were some amazing images to capture thursday. I didn't get all of them, but I got a few
There's all this talk of how the city was, how it looked, how it felt, with the lights off. All NPR could say every 5 minutes, was "look! There's Stars!" I was thinking "Whatever. I can see stars anytime, just drive 30 minutes outside of the city... What I'm marvelling at is the people. Look at all these freaking people.
What happens when you take the concept of a flashmob and multiply it by 100,000? How do people behave? What characteristics shine through? 25 Years ago, fueled by desperate poverty, racial tensions, and lax police coverage, riots and looting marred the historical image of the event.
This time, no one seemed to have any really pressing need to do much of anything. if someone knew it was going to take hours to get home and they were stuck near a clogged intersection, they got together with a few others and started to direct traffic. People slowly ambled home, or to a friends place, or somewhere just to crash until the big people-crunch was over. Almost inevitably, people travelled in pairs or better. If not, strangers started conversations and formed ad-hoc teams.. getting food, transportation, and anything else they needed together.
Lines to get pizza were long, slow and polite. The sunlight waned and the beer came out, it's telltale refuse overflowing the trash cans the next morning, but for everything I saw, the party was tame. This was the fun crisis. No one was hurt, no real danger was present, so everyone just sort've left it that way. Most of us even got friday off on one of the hottest days of the year. I don't think anyone really minded this. Even the traffic seemed to part for the ambulances, driving onto the sidewalks sometimes to make room when there wasn't any. For all the possible horrors this could have wrought, I think we came out fairly unscathed.
The politicians are all stumping today about how this never should have happened again... I think, "hey, 25 years of uptime is pretty damn good for any network. Weigh the benefits and the costs here, fellas. I say, screw it! If we can save 3 billion by not overhauling our national and international power grids, and the only thing it will cost us is 2-3 nights of the TV being blissfully silent and people connecting in ways they never otherwise would, then leave it.
This was fun. We should do this once a year or so anyway. Call it national lights out day or something. That would rock.
