Pope Francis's visit to Philadelphia

In the weeks and days ramping up to the Papal Visit (PV), various media outlets, including NewsWorks and Billy Penn, did their best to inform the public about what was going to be closed and when. There were cleverly compiled and conceptualized maps detailing tow zones, ramp closures, pedestrian pathways, and security fencing as the Parkway faced its new identity: the Francis Festival Zone. But between SEPTA, New Jersey Transit, and PATCO, as well as city government, the police department, the school district, and the federal-level security measures from the Secret Service, a lot of us still felt like we didn’t understand just how the PV would affect life downtown.

And as Francis processed north like a hurricane from Cuba, a lot of Philadelphians, including myself, got the hell out of town.

Thanks a lot, media

We’re still arguing over the actual number of people in attendance last weekend (though estimates originally in the 1-1.5 million range may have turned into about 140,000, which is also the approximate number of port-o-pots the City installed last week). And the only thing we can agree on is that this is somebody’s fault.

Many want to blame the Nutter administration: Mayor Nutter was quoted across local and national media outlets in June warning us that anyone who wanted to get into the city for the PV should be prepared to walk for miles. SEPTA announced major changes in weekend service, with just 18 of its regional rail stations remaining open for pilgrims with dedicated passes.

But this week, a visibly testy mayor wants to blame the media for the fears that decimated the projected PV numbers and left stores and restaurants empty, failing to cash in during one of the biggest events in Philly’s history.

“I think the reporting on any number of aspects of this was detrimental to the mindset of many Philadelphians and others,” Nutter says in an NBC 10 video clip released this week. “I think that in some instances, you all scared the shit out of people with some of the stories.”

“The information is the information,” he added, in a continued blaze of civic eloquence.

(Thanks, Mayor. It’s good to know BSR’s roundup of ongoing papal-themed cultural exhibitions did not go unappreciated.)

Thrilled but regretful

Philly restaurateur Marc Vetri’s viral Facebook post sought to blame somebody else: me, for my decision to flee deep into New Jersey before the Ben Franklin Bridge closed. Alongside everyone else who also left town (wherever they went), or who, in the words of one of my friends, chose to “stay home and hide.”

“We’re clearly all thrilled that Pope Francis is here,” Vetri wrote, but he regrets the way the PV was handled by city leaders, who didn’t focus on citizen engagement and the potential boon for businesses: “[T]hey have instead decided to roll out the red carpet for everyone making the pilgrimage, and roll us [Philadelphians] up in the carpet to place in storage until Monday.” Vetri argued that closing so many streets and bridges scared folks away, when the PV’s “goal was to give a shot of adrenaline to our economy.” (I wonder if Our Father in Heaven agrees, or if He’s too busy collecting accolades from NFL quarterbacks on His role in their touchdowns.)

At the end of his post, Vetri alluded to his beef with the commoners who failed to show up for burgers and anything else we might have ordered, had we stayed in town.

“I remain haunted by the empty streets and shuttered windows,” he said of riding his bike in the strangely vacant streets outside the pope zone. “I can’t help feeling that Philadelphia’s pride and sense of community is absent this weekend…probably because they all left.”

Many commenters in various threads on the shared post voiced similar censure for these deserters.

My fault?

As both a member of the media and someone who didn’t want to be in the same state as the PV, now trying to get back to work amid an avalanche of post-pope pitches, this stings.

If local government, the media, or city residents who ran away are at fault for the apparently underwhelming PV turnout and the loss to local businesses, I’m at a solid two out of three for the whole thing being mea culpa.

Gimme a break.

I often eat out downtown over work-related doings and write buckets of stories each year about local entrepreneurs. I’m an editor at a publication dedicated to the city’s vibrant cultural life. And now I should feel bad because I didn’t want to go out in Philly this weekend and rub shoulders with over 100,000 of the Vatican’s closest friends?

I even kept working while I was out of town. I interviewed a prominent member of Philly’s public health landscape for one of my upcoming stories — but she was in the car, on her way home from Toronto. I hope she, too, feels the full weight of her responsibility for not helping our city to shine under the lights of Rome.

I could also note that aside from my desire to avoid seething city crowds, as I also do during the Fourth of July and Made in America concerts, my personal background has predisposed me to run as far and fast as I can from any display of Christian devotion. If only about 140,000 people came out to see the pope, I’m not sorry that I didn’t make that 140,001 before going out to dinner.

Instead, I walked on the beach, watched a lunar eclipse from the deck, binged on Jane Austen movies, fed seagulls, marveled at cormorants and egrets in a national wildlife reserve, and went to Atlantic City, where I ate onion rings and bought one of the top ten tackiest magnets ever manufactured. And praise be, while we argue over whose fault the PV problems are, I have no regrets.