Taste Attendence Down

Of course, no one is really sure where or how they get these numbers. But the media dutifully reports it as fact:

• The final attendance numbers for this year's Taste of Chicago showed a slight dropoff, but city organizers said they were still pleased with the size of hungry crowds that braved rainy weather and economic uncertainty.
  
  About 3.35 million people came to Grant Park over the fest's 10 days, down from about 3.5 million visitors last year, the Mayor's Office of Special Events spokeswoman Cindy Gatziolis said Sunday, the Taste's last day.

We're supposed to believe some payrollers stood at all the entry points with those clickers and tallied up everyone coming in? At what, ten different entry points? Yeah, OK. Got it.