Bridges along the Seine River are opening up, and police barricades are being taken down in Paris after the Olympics opening ceremony. But some locals say they are still struggling to get to work. The metal barricades blocking streets and closed metro stations were part of heightened security restrictions for the ceremony Friday, and they have left Parisians and visitors alike grumbling for weeks.

Up to 45,000 police and gendarmes as well as 10,000 soldiers have been deployed for Olympic security. People needed QR codes to get through snaking metal barriers marking the security zone for the opening ceremony, but many in Paris had struggled to get passes or didn’t know they were necessary.

Now that the dazzling show is over, many hope parts of the city center will open back up.

“I’m hoping things will be a bit more flexible” in the coming days, said Antonio, who’s lived in Paris for 42 years.

Fed’s preferred inflation gauge cools, adding to likelihood of a September rate cut

The Federal Reserve’s favored inflation measure remained low last month, bolstering evidence that price pressures are steadily cooling and setting the stage for the Fed to begin cutting interest rates in September. Prices rose just 0.1% from May to June, up from the previous month’s unchanged reading. Compared with a year earlier, inflation declined to 2.5% from 2.6%. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation rose 0.2% from May to June, up from the previous month’s 0.1%. Measured from one year earlier, core prices increased 2.6%, unchanged from June. Taken as a whole, Friday’s figures suggest that the worst streak of inflation in four decades, which peaked two years ago, is nearing an end.