The march was organized so that when you got to the end of it- you ran off into a side street, that then looped around right by the BART entrance/exit. I left at 2pm, and as I left, the stairways at Bart were full of people still arriving with signs. So people were coming in all day for the event, as other people were leaving.
I think that aerial number might give the number of people in that location of that time- but people were everywhere, and they were coming and going all day- so I suspect the total numbers were quite impressive- of course that isn't what the aerial numbers are giving you. They are only giving you one little snap shot of the thing. People weren't just in that small Market/civic center locale. And they certainly couldn't count the people streaming onto BART as soon as they finished the march. After all, we're underground waiting for BART- and it was really full at all the stations.
However we want to revise the numbers for marches, it was the biggest march I've ever seen in SF. Absolute numbers, who knows? Relatively- it was really really big. That's what matters to people. And people who don't need to find reasons to dismiss the marches, know this was a significant event. So I wouldn't worry about the people on SI. Who cares? The people who were influenced by the marches aren't on SI on political threads, with their minds already made up. You've just got to ignore both sides of the choir- your own, and the other guys; it's the folks that haven't been converted, whose opinions are up for grabs, that matter. |
