Guide For White House Party Crashers (Picture)

 

Recently visited the Whiskey Hotel in Washington DC and walked the perimeter around the White House

I was here last year and was able to view the Whiskey Hotel from Pennsylvania Ave. But this time around, the perimeter of the White House has been altered dramatically - expanded and enforced with solid white anti-climbing walls. It is a dramatic change, but certainly not the first.

Since 1808 presidents have altered the White House grounds to offer greater protection inspired by foreign wars, assassination attempts, foreign attacks and civil unrest.

We were testing the wall for weaknesses, systematically, never poking and prodding in the same place twice..

And yes we got questioned by the Secret Service..

But they were cool.

They didn't let us fly our drone to get an aerial shot of the walls.

But that was no surprise.

Historically there has been expansions to the perimeter but this one feels significant since it's occluding our view of the White House. I'm hopeful these walls will come down and Pennsylvania Ave will be accessible.

I been pondering since I visited: do walls separating government leaders from their constituents influence how the former view and represent the latter? My background is in game development but my ongoing research is in media behavior and analytics. Decided to share some stuff with you guys. Been lurking for some time. Thanks - you all have been my number #1 source of memes since I been working from home :) edit: wow this is a nice surprise, thanks guys! also been traveling interviewing people on their experiences with the pandemic and protests. posted the interviews (without monetization) on modo.org