Crowd count-SF march

I used a simmilar methood to count the numbers in the DC Rally today. The March took about 90 minutes to pass me. I Estimate between 700-1000 people passed per minute. This means 75-100 thousand marched.

It was an amzaing display of numbers.

I counted an average of 15 across and if rows were 6' apart and if the distance from civic center to peewee plaza is 8100' then there were 1350 rows times 15 equals 20,250. but wait, there's more! I rode from the front to the back and they were still coming out of the plaza when i got there (it took over 20 mins to ride to the back through busy sidewalks) and i dont have an idea how many were already at the civic center nor how many were still in plaza. i also am not counting the sidewalks on both sides of market which were very full. so i will add 3000 for the two plazas and 10,000 for the sidewalks and 10,000 for the number that passed on my way back to peewee and another 20% of the 20250 number for the large sections of market that were super packed. highly sketchy but i believe it to be on the conservative side...total 47300.

I counted an average of 15 across and if rows were 6' apart and if the distance from civic center to peewee plaza is 8100' then there were 1350 rows times 15 equals 20,250. but wait, there's more! I rode from the front to the back and they were still coming out of the plaza when i got there (it took over 20 mins to ride to the back through busy sidewalks) and i dont have an idea how many were already at the civic center nor how many were still in plaza. i also am not counting the sidewalks on both sides of market which were very full. so i will add 3000 for the two plazas and 10,000 for the sidewalks and 10,000 for the number that passed on my way back to peewee and another 20% of the 20250 number for the large sections of market that were super packed. highly sketchy but i believe it to be on the conservative side...total 47300.

AP is reporting a police estimate of 42,000.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/10/26/state1719EDT0164.DTL

So Rueters is saying (as of 4pm) 42,000 in S.F.

(Not bad San Francisco, not bad at all...you guys are the leaders, where you go, the country will follow)

ROFL Harold.

This is really hilarious:

"Not bad San Francisco, not bad at all...you guys are the leaders, where you go, the country will follow."

The rest of the country considers San Francisco to be a really weird place. It's got great scenery and restaurants, but the community is fuc_ed up.

It's overrun with gays, homeless people, and liberal far left activists (like the dopes who march in protest parades).

The country is not going to follow San Francisco.

Here in Houston, we're laughing at San Francisco. And we're not alone.

Here in California we feel a great deal of pity for the poor people of Houston--home to Enron and those who love Bush.

We'll be taking up a collection for y'all at our next march.

Someone announced from the stage that CNN reported 80,000 protesters - and they're all gonna camp on Bush Admirer's lawn.

Everytime I start trying to laugh in Houston, or most U.S. cities I start choking on the smog like a cop who's used too much pepper spray. Suppose it can cause not just lung damage but brain damage too. PArt of the GHB, GWB legacy. There'll always be those who identify Patty Hearst style with their tormentors, as they themselves are tortured and ground into sausage.

Now as for SF being leader, if we could only catch up with our mother country England (400,000 out) or Columbus's home country (1.1 million).

Excerpt from Reuters article:

Police did not give an official estimate of the size of the crowd in Washington. Tony Murphy, an organizer of the event, told Reuters 150,000 people participated. Other observers put the figure between 40,000 and 50,000.

42,000 PROTEST IN SAN FRANCISCO

In San Francisco, known for its liberal politics and history of activism, a crowd that police estimated at about 42,000 marched near the city's historic Ferry Building to its Civic Center.

In Germany, demonstrations were staged in about 70 towns and cities. The largest was in Berlin, where almost 10,000 people marched. In Amsterdam, some 4,000 people rallied in heavy rain to protest against U.S. policy.

San Francisco and Washington DC have a lot of really dumb citizens, but I don't think it's that many.

"Bush admirer". funny. when were you going to add anything useful to the discussion? oh, right, you weren't. my bad.

This is what I come up with. I was at the start of the march. Then, I went to Ferry Building area and then went back all the way to Civic Center before the head of the march arrived. By the time about 10,000 people had reached Civic Center, right in front of City Hall (I guess this was around 1pm) the speakers started with presentations. I walked back over to market street to look down toward the Ferry Building and there was a sea of people. There were a couple of streets feeding into Civic Center for about two blocks, but beyond that, it was strictly a market street march. Moving up and down market street, it was clear that there was about 50 people for every 10 feet of street (it's a very wide street). The distance between the Ferry Building and Civic Center is two miles. That makes 1056 increments of ten feet per increment. 1056 times 50 yields 52,800. Add the ten thousand that were already at Civic Center and you get 62,800. But those there know that there were also thousands of people coming and going and spilling out on to side streets, which would easily put the numbers at at least 70K, if not 80K.

CNN was probably right when they noted 80,000.

I can't believe that folks are estimating in the tens of thousands for this demo today. I am a veteran of many marches along the same route from the anti-vietnam war days forward. I marched with many friends who are also long time marchers. We all agreed that this was the largest political demonstration we had ever been in, comparing only with the gay pride march the year after Harvey Milk was killed. We pinned it at 350,000-500,000; and the figure that was announced from the stage was 800,000 not 80,000. It was enough humanity to clog market street solid for over three full hours to get from the starting point to the end. Also, that doesn't count the many people who traveled straight to the Civic Center. We talked to quite a few people on BART who had done this because they couldn't get over sooner due to the BART delays. Friends that came from Berkeley said the BART stations had lines up on to the street and down the block of people waiting to get tickets. They finally just opened the gates and let people ride for free. Others reported that the same thing was still happening at the Rockridge BART at 1:00 pm.
This has never, ever happened for any other demonstration, gay pride march or sporting event in this area.
The media will do a good enough job underestimating the crowd, but let us recognize when there is a truly remarkable outpouring of public sentiment for peace.

LIES, LIES, LIES

When they hear that it was 70k or more, they'll freak as they usually do and try to attack everyone.

Yes, they announced that CNN was saying 80k during the rally, and 200k in DC.

But the Washington Post's AP story lists the numbers in DC in the 'hundreds.'

I (along with thousands of others) were simply trying to walk down polk street. When we were blocked by 10 or 15 smelly freaks professing their Hatred for America and blocking the sidewalk near the civic center.

Please leave us Out of your stupid count. If anything we were hostages to your silly nonsense.

Thousands of you blocked by just a few
smelly freaks?
WOW!Power to the smelly!

Even the conservative Post had to give up the truth.

Ouch! Take that Cowards.

ROFLMAO

; )

100,000 Rally, March Against War in Iraq

By Monte Reel and Manny Fernandez
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 27, 2002; Page A01

Organizers with International ANSWER, a coalition of antiwar groups that coordinated the demonstration, had hoped for a turnout rivaling that of its pro- Palestine rally in April that officials estimated at about 75,000. Organizers said they easily eclipsed that figure yesterday, assessing attendance at well more than 100,000. D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey also said he figured yesterday's rally turnout exceeded that in April, but he didn't provide a specific number.

"We think this was just extremely, extremely successful," said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a D.C. organizer with International ANSWER, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. "It absolutely shows that when George Bush says America speaks with one voice, and it's his voice, he's wrong."

I was at the ralley from 11am through 3:20pm, and at the stage the entire time. While I was there, no one ever said 800,000. They did say 80,000 (in the context of the CNN). I think there might have been up to 100,000, but it was EASILY at least 70,000 and my number methodology is noted above.

Yes - I emphasize that with the method I described at the top of this thread, that was the absolute low-ball, not counting *any* of the people who just took BART to civic center and I could see them out of the corner of my eye coming up the stairs. Everyone was going by so fast that there was absolutely no way I could count the BART people, count people on the sidewalk behind me, count people on several branches of the parade that were diverted down side streets because it was getting to packed on market.
I measured, and I can count people on this metal counter thing that I bought at up to 5 people per second, but it is not physically possible to press the button faster than that, so I switched to the time x people per second approach. Market street is 5 lanes across and it was just packed, where individual people would have a hard time moving backwards or forwards in the crowd to catch up with their friends etc. During half of the march, that means that there were 12-20 people going by per second. I had a very hard time mentally counting 'one two three four five" and then clicking for every tenth one because there were just so many. Thus a reasonable estimate for the 90 minutes of time would be 90x60x12=65000+ the 400 already at civic center ahead of time, plus probably a couple thousand who went to civic center via bart and from side streets during the march, and then the people who went to Justin Hermann but didn't go to Civic Center to listen to the miscellaneous IAC type speakers. 40000 is an absolute low ball. I've been to sporting or music events at stadiums where there is a specific seat count of 35,000 or whatever , and it doesn't take 90 minutes of a constant dense stream of people for them to all file out of the stadium.

In any count, please remember those thousands* at any given time who had temporarily left the march seeking the restroom ;)



*Yes, messrs right-wingers-who-don't-recognize-levity, this is probably an exaggeration.

I was in SF when it was announced that CNN estimated our crowd at 80,000 people. These guys are known for their conservative estimates for liberal causes.

We fooled you all by milling around and changing hats a lot.