WASHINGTON - The million or more people expected in Washington for Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration might want to wear comfortable shoes and be prepared for a whole lot of walking.

Private vehicles will not be able to get anywhere near the action on Jan. 20, when Obama is sworn in as president, under a plan to help with crowd management detailed by the U.S. Secret Service on Wednesday. 

Cars will be banned on major bridges connecting Virginia to Washington.
Streets will be closed across a broad section in the middle of the city.  Visitors’ best bets for getting around will be public transportation, bicycles or walking. 

The Washington Post reported that the street closings were necessary to help manage the record crowds that are expected for the inauguration and to make space for charter buses that will bring many people to the city. 

When you’re done walking through the secured car-free zone, those comfortable shoes will come in handy while you wait to pass through security screenings along the inaugural parade route and at the inaugural balls.

“Please allow for additional time for this security screening, as it is expected that lines may be long,” the Secret Service advises. 

The latest estimates of the number of people expected to converge on Washington range from at least 1.5 million to more than 3 million,  the Post said.

    - Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Briefing on inauguration logistics, Dec. 18)

There will be hundreds of thousands of revelers in Washington to celebrate Barack Obama’s inauguration, but only one person whom the president-elect calls “Granny.”

Sarah Obama, 86, will fly from her native Kenya to attend the inaugural festivities, the Kenyan government announced on Tuesday.

Sarah Hussein Onyango Obama isn’t actually related to the next president by blood — she was the third wife of Barack Obama’s paternal grandfather. The two must speak through an interpreter as she knows only a few words of English.

But they formed a close bond when he first visited Kenya in 1988.

Her face was “smooth and big-boned, with sparkling, laughing eyes,” Obama wrote in his autobiography, Dreams From My Father.

Sarah Obama will attend a pan-African celebration the night of the inauguration. It’s not the first time she’s been to Washington: she came in 2004 to celebrate her step-grandson’s inauguration into the U.S. Senate.

Obama saw a lot more of his other grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, when he was growing up in Hawaii. She died on Nov. 3, the day before he was elected president.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Thomas Mukoya (Sarah Obama at a news conference in November)

Barack Obama will be the host with the most on Inauguration Night. After his expected swearing-in ceremony earlier in the day on January 20, he’ll host seven inaugural balls and attend three more for a grand total of 10.

Moving among the various official parties won’t necessarily require a motorcade, though: six of them are being held in the vast Walter E. Washington Convention Center. These include Obama’s home states ball, hosted by the president-elect for invited guests from Hawaii and Illinois; Vice President-elect Joe Biden’s home states ball for guests from Delaware and Pennsylvania; the Mid-Atlantic regional ball, the Midwest regional ball, the Western regional ball and the neighborhood ball, which is for Washington DC residents and other guests.

The bargain event of the night may be the youth ball, hosted by Obama for guests aged 18-35 at the Washington Hilton, with tickets available at $75. Most of the other balls cost $150.

Rounding out the list are the Eastern ball, to be held at Union Station; the Southern ball, at the National Guard Armory, and the Commander-in-Chief’s ball for enlisted active duty and reserve military personnel, at the National Building Museum.

That last location is particularly appropriate for military guests. Before it was a museum, it was known as the Pension Building, built to serve the needs of Union veterans after the Civil War.

REUTERS/Paul Hanna (Man with Obama mask parties in Madrid)

KAILUA, Hawaii - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and his family will trade their plush Chicago home for a Washington hotel this weekend when they formally move to the capital.
 
The Obamas are still vacationing on the Hawaiian island of Oahu but are due to return to Chicago on Thursday in preparation for the relocation to Washington. Obama’s daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, are set to start classes at Sidwell Friends school on Monday.
 
“They will stay at a Washington hotel through the 15th and then they will move into the Blair House,” a transition aide said, referring to the guest residence across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.
 
The Obamas had asked to move into Blair House two weeks before the traditional date of Jan. 15 because of their daughters’ Jan. 5 start at their new school, but the White House said this was not possible because of previously scheduled events.
 
Obama will formally move into the White House on Jan. 20, the day he is sworn in as the 44th president of the United States.
 
The transition aide said Obama would continue to work on his economic recovery plan to rescue the United States from deep recession in the days leading up to his inauguration.

Photo credit: Reuters/Hugh Gentry  U.S. President-elect Barack Obama with daughters Malia and Sasha in Hawaii, Dec. 30, 2008

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A decision by the city council to extend the hours Washington bars and restaurants can serve alcohol for the week around Inauguration Day on Jan. 20 has stumbled into a wall of opposition from church leaders, police and top U.S. lawmakers.

In a letter to D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and Council Chairman Vincent Gray, U.S. Senate Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin asked them to reconsider a decision to allow bars and restaurants to stay open all night and serve alcohol until 5 a.m. during the period Jan. 17-21.

Durbin, who served as co-chairman of President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign, said he shared the concerns of police and church groups worried that the extended drinking hours will invite alcohol-induced misbehavior and encourage drunk driving on clogged D.C. streets.

“We all share personal and professional interest in ensuring that President-elect Obama’s inauguration proceeds in a safe and dignified manner,” Durbin wrote.

D.C. officials are preparing for a record turnout for the inauguration, which will see Obama sworn in as the first black U.S. president.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, and Robert Bennett, a Utah Republican, have also raised concerns about the extended bar hours.

Feinstein is the Chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.

Durbin heads the Senate Financial Services and General Government appropriations subcommittee, which oversees the District of Columbia budget.

 Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Construction work on viewing stand outside the White House)

(UPDATED to include legislation passage)

WASHINGTON - Unable to snag a hotel room for President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration? Fear not, bars will be open late so you might not need one.

The U.S. capital has a bit of a reputation for being an “early to bed” city full of government bureaucrats, but for a few days surrounding Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration they could carouse a little bit later if they wanted to do so.

D.C. City Council member Jim Graham offered legislation that would enable restaurants, bars and other places that serve alcohol to do so until 5 a.m. between Jan. 17 and Jan. 21. That’s three hours longer than current rules allow for weekdays and two hours for weekends.

The legislation was approved after council members debated whether to also permit nightclubs to serve those extra hours amid concerns by Mayor Adrian Fenty. Nightclubs were ultimately included.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Construction workers begin building the reviewing stand for the 2009 inauguration of Obama.)