Powershift 09 is an empowering environment. 11,000+ dedicated (principally) young people, all working in their own ways to help carve a better future not just for themselves, but for their communities, their fellow citizens and, literally, the rest of humanity. It is hard to imagine another environment where the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is greeted by a stadium filling crowd of university students with the passion reserved for a rock band. Whose comments about the principles of science again reigning at EPA rocked the house.
Leaving Friday evening, after an invigorating evening of being among this dedicated and impassioned group, talking with a myriad of people, and hearing wonderful speeches (for some videos see here), I went directly to the Metro station there … jam packed and, well, at 10 pm transferring in the Metro can be a mess. Decision: walk a few blocks to Metro Center and eliminate that transfer.
En route, I walked past the main DC Convention Center entrance and something made me stop, and watch.
Remember. 11,000+. Streaming out of the Convention Center. The taxicabs swarmed, drivers salivating for fares. The arrived. And, they sat waiting. 11,000+ and none took the cabs. 5 minutes … 10 minutes … For 15 minutes, I remained and not a single person from the thousands opened a cab’s door.
The Metro was crowded. There were people ‘hoofing it’. Even a few bicycles at 10 pm on a February night. And, the taxis, they sat waiting.
Now, sadly, they also sat idling. I went to talk to a few drivers to suggest that they turn the engine while waiting. (After all, one saves gas if turning off the engine rather than idling.) One response: “Come on, gas is cheap. If it were four bucks again, I might care, but its cheap right now.” Sigh …