re: #306 lurking faith

I thought the Park Service was prohibited from issuing attendance estimates, ever since a lawsuit or two (on the grounds that the NPS’s lower number had a negative impact on fundraising).

Congress prevented them from issuing estimates following their release of figures for the Million Man March that didn’t match expectations. The wording of the bill is ambiguous; many in the NPS assumed it applied only for a period of one year, but it’s been followed ever since.

NPS put in a formal request to resume crowd estimates several months prior to Obama’s election, citing the historic nature of the event, the importance of such estimates and the likelihood of a record-breaking crowd. I believe this request was approved, but it doesn’t include “real time” estimation - the final figure may take some time to compile.