May 20, 2008
Bay To Breakers To Go the Way Of Halloween in the Castro?
SFist intercepted this email sent out today by SFPD Park Station Captain Teri Barrett. Teri, it seems, has an estranged relationship with the merriment for which San Francisco is/used to be famous. Leisure World we are not. Check it:
Teresa Barrett/SFPD/SFGO
To: Park Station SFPD/SFPD/SFGOV@SFGOV
[Date:] 05/20/08
[Time:] 11:21
Subject: Bay to Breakers 2008
I am trying to document how out of control the Bay to Breakers was this year. Drunks everywhere, people urinating on peoples front stairs, both females and males, and basically a very ugly event. If you have complaints please email me so I can convey our displeasure with the events sponsor and city officials. Thank you.
Captain Teri Barrett
Park Police Station
Are these the same cops who never seem to patrol Sixth Street, where it's LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME? Unbelievable. Send Teri your complaints of pee puddles, visible genitalia, buzz kills, and how SFPD's time could be better used to parkStation.sfpd@sfgov.org.
Image credit: tingley/Flickr
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Aside from the actual runners, Bay to Breakers is just an excuse for boring people to dress up like morons and get drunk in public so they can pretend, at least in their own minds, that they're interesting people. They're not interesting people, they're dullards. They should all be rounded up.
it did get a bit ugly near the end but really the only thing i minded was watching everyone fling their trash into the panhandle and gg park from the street. bottles were whizzing by me for the last few hours of the event.
overzealous merriment aside, for a city that generally considers itself to be 'green', this was pretty disheartening.
i think sf has built up enough environmental credit to bend our strict green rules for an afternoon.
I was a bystander at the race this year and I was thinking that it was starting to get that same ugly vibe that the Castro Halloween had the last few years before it stopped. I'd hate to see the B2B do the same thing but it's hard to stop an habitual drunkard from being a douchebag.
done and done. so idiotic that crackheads get to run rampant and use every alley of the mission as a personal toilet, but bay to breakers is what the SFPD is concerned about.
Ugh, another cop complaining about their job. What's new?
The race is basically divided in two: first hour are the runners/joggers/walkers and are generally well behaved; second hour are the drunks double fisting a bottle of cheap sparkling wine and store brand OJ.
Simple (easy, cheap, effective) solution: PUSH THE DRUNKS ALONG. The faster you make the drunkies walk, the less likely they'll be to actually finish the course with their push cart beer keg. After a few years, the hard core partiers won't participate and you'll have a decent race again.
Take it from LA on this one-- the Doo Dah parade does it every year without a hitch (except the running part).
Well, if this were the Southern Station or the Tenderloin Station captain who was appalled, I would be asking the same thing about 6th Street or Jones Street on a daily basis. However, I learned at the meeting last night discussing how to get more patrol cars out on the streets that each of the 10 SFPD District Stations pretty much act independently of one another. I suspect the activities that Captains from the Southern and Tenderloin stations do not have time to pay attention to due to stabbings, muggings, other violence ... the "quality of life" things probably get under the skin of the residents and the police who live on the western part of town a lot more quickly than it does downtown.
Why don't we see police on the streets very often? I guess they're spending a lot of time at their station waiting in line for an antiquated computer in which to enter their administrative crap (paperwork). We need to push the City to buy them some of those new fangled things called laptops that would allow them to enter information from their cars or from a table at the neighborhood coffee shop - allowing them to be in the neighborhoods keeping an eye on things instead of waiting in line for a computer at the station.
Bay to Breakers is just an excuse for boring people to dress up like morons and get drunk in public so they can pretend, at least in their own minds, that they're interesting people. They're not interesting people, they're dullards.
Actually, as a Bay to Breakers by-stander I gotta say I find this opinion much duller than a good portion of the costumes and floats I saw this year.
I assume you were writing the Great American Novel or discussing Heidegger at Farley's or dishing with the Algonquin Round Table while 60,000 people were having some silly drunken fun for the day and behaving themselves for the most part. Good for you.
I do think the event itself rides a fine line, but a few simple but tough-love tweaks like the one Ginger suggested would go a long way towards these issues. Make arrests of public urinators as a start--there's no excuse for that.
Totally agree. The parade of douchebags was particularly ugly this year. Some f**ker dumped a 12ft by 15ft silver spaceship in my neighbors drive. The traffic was completely screwed for most of the day and all because Chet and Amber wanted to dress up as sexy tennis players and troll through the city shouting "oh maaaa gaaaard" every 10 seconds. The only good thing was watching all the shivering wrecks trying to get cabs home to the Marina late into the evening. I think this event is done. Let's think up something new, then stop participating as soon as the sweater-draping, M3-driving crowd latch on.
I was on Fell Street at around eleven, and I thought it was a twofold problem:
First - all of the Burning Man types (you guys in pink? This means you) who stopped their big parties on Fell Street, joined up with pre-planned house parties, and never got going again. It's B2B, not How Weird. Keep. Moving.
Second - the cops should have been sweeping Fell much earlier. If they pressure the back, people won't stop. They gotta keep pushing people, as Ginger said.
But the responsibility is twofold; I'd be willing to bet that if the City just talked to the folks in charge of Burning Man, had them communicate to the camp leaders that they have to keep moving, that would be part of it. Also, if the City had a plan ("Fell Street will be free by noon," or whatever) and stuck to it, problem solved.
PS - yes, I know that your Burning Man camp isn't a problem, that you've been in San Francisco for six thousand years, that I don't know what I'm talking about, that your float was made completely of solar-powered wind turbines that were built with the solidified blood of human-rights-violating dictators, etc. I really don't care how morally superior you are. Just keep walking; it's really not that hard.
ok, folks let's remember that people were get SHOT at Castro Halloween. While the drunks can certainly be annoying and the public urination gross there weren't people going home in ambulances due to assault by a deadly weapon.
SF need to step it up with police enforcement and post B2B cleanup that's all.
"i think sf has built up enough environmental credit to bend our strict green rules for an afternoon."
-Brock Landers
NO!!! Seattle is always crowing about how green it is when they haven't done anything green since back before technology in like the 70's. Seattle is a cesspool of stupidity and a cautionary tale. No city should ever rest upon it's laurels! Abolish Bay to Breakers! Yay!
I had an amazing time at B2B this year and would be sad to see it go. There were NOT ENOUGH TOILETS OR TRASH CANS, so clearly, people were using the streets. It's a really good time!
people got shot at castro halloween because the supes decided that they needed to clear everyone out by 11, so that the whiny ass police could go home or whatever the fuck.
if they hadnt done this (pushed everyone out early, where, in the ensuing confusion, drunk people got mad/hurt/shot/stabbed) then there would likely have not been any shootings.
Not to be a total classist slag about it, but I witnessed several big fights involving obvious non-locals on Haight later in the afternoon. Aside from being a sausage fest, the street was incredibly aggro. Girls crying, screaming, bloody kneed. Guys resorting to fisticuffs over people accidentally bumping into them in the crowd. It felt unsafe, and it was for damn sure ugly.
As my friend Thomas put it, "Too many clowns and not enough escaped lions."
Ha!..Brock knows about 6th Street?. It's close, but not quite "all the time" on 6th street. It's my understanding that the mayhem and urinating only goes on for 23:58 hours out of the day. There seems to be some unwritten code among the streetsters granting a reprieve between 4:58am and 5:00am
At which point it dutifully picks up again
Dear TeamAwesome YOU NEED TO LEARN TO CONTROL YOUR BLADDER. And trash cans? Maybe you shouldn't be carrying arm loads of crap when you do a fun run. It really was not a good time for anyone who happened to live on the route. But you probably didn't see any of that, being all wrapped up in your own special moment.
I don't want to get to far off B2B but the Castro Halloween had several violent incidents over the years culminating in the shooting of 6 people.
And why shouldn't the police push the people out? It was Tuesday night in a residential neighborhood, it wasn't the whining ass police wanting the people to leave (they are getting overtime) it is all the people who live in the Castro who had to work Wednesday morning and want the party to end before 2am.
Basically SF residents need to learn that the party does indeed have to end at some point and they need to go the fuck home.
Dear Teresa,
It seems you don't like being a cop in a (relatively small) urban area.
You're in luck. The Dallas police dept is hiring. No parks to clean up, fewer homeless, nothing fun - maybe the fair? just rednecks, and Dallas moms in their Expeditions. Zzzzz.
***
I agree people should respect property and not piss on someone's front door, but last time I saw someone doing it, a cop was ten feet away turning a blind eye. The responsibility (and problem) is twofold indeed.
Some of the people who are making comments on this story sound like gentrification snobs to me. Events like B2B and the street festivals make SF the reason why people want to come to the city. A day of a little debaucery really isn't that big of a price to pay for a little fun. I say we leave the event the way it is, and just enforce more eco-friendly rules along the route. For one, there are very few bathrooms or trash cans along the route. Maybe if the city put big dumpsters every few blocks and increased the number of portable toilets, we can cut down on the amount of trash left behind.
It felt unsafe, and it was for damn sure ugly.
And again, this differs from the Haight on most days how? I'm only half-joking.
I'll take my chances against some old hippies and/or a frat guy from Stanford versus a crusty methed-out runaway any day.
Here's an idea: Gather up all the crap that was dumped outside your house by Chet and Amber, then mail it to the B2B sponsor, ING:
ING DIRECT
1 South Orange Street
Wilmington, DE 19801
It was fun.
The more transpants we get the more SF is getting uptight. relax,let people have fun a few days out of the year,or just move back to the mid-west.
The more transpants we get the more SF is getting uptight. relax,let people have fun a few days out of the year,or just move back to the mid-west.
I'm pretty sure for the most part it's the newest transplants who enjoy it the most. After a few years you start getting indignant about it, until the final phase, that of indifference.
badlydrawnbear:
if you're uncomfortable with the occasional inconveniences of living in a city, then move to fucking concord.
First they came for they gays and I was silent, then they came for the B2B drunks and I said nothing, then they came for?????????????
No not transplants, just regular people who don't like other people pissing on their property and trashing their street, that's all. Let's be real, the B2B crowd is predominantly a white, educated and by my guess back-to-work-at-the-office-on-Monday bunch. Exactly the types who would call the cops in a heartbeat if you so much as lit a cigarette within ten feet of their crappy apartments. These are exactly the sort of people who should not be given licence to roam around the city dressed in 80's aerobics gear screaming for cabs all afternoon. Basically, if you're at an event and you're wearing a rainbow afro wig, you do not belong here. There is a special place for you and it's called San Diego. Run along, all your friends live there.
Drunken merriment often eclispe personal responsibility, though it shouldn't. I don't think enough bad things transpired this year to put the kibosh on B2B. Implementing changes like Ginger suggested would only benefit those who live along the route. As a former resident of Fell at Cole I know things could benefit from a change.
Good God. When does the f*cking whining stop in this town? Jeez. Sure it could have been a bit cleaner, etc. but wtf? The City is becoming a place where people move here to whine, complain and say "me me me". And then they go join things like the neighborhood associations and start ruining businesses and homes. then some of 'em get elected. They're called supervisors.
last year they pushed the back of the race pretty quick. i think it was only around 11am by the time howard street was clear. what happened this year?
Joel -
You obviously live someplace dull like Glen Park. I live in the Haight and resent having to deal with all the stupid bridge and tunnel trash pissing everywhere and dumping their garbage without any consideration for others. Furthermore, with the exception of annoying passersby for change, the methed-out runaways who congregate in the Haight are far less menacing or irritating than fratboys en masse whose only reason for even being there is to be obnoxiously drunk in the streets, start fights with other males in some bizarre need to establish dominance, and find similarly retarded females to whom they can slip "roofies" in some desperate attempt to breed. People like this really need to be rounded up, summarily gassed, etc.
The Angry Young Man -
If you are going to move to a area like Haight you should have known what you were getting into. Its your fault. If you moved somewhere dull like "Glen park" then you can have your peace and quiet. Ever think people like you should be "rounded up, summarily gassed, etc.".....think about it.
I once went to New York at Halloween, got pissed and had a fantastic time. So I'm not going to bitch about people coming into SF to have fun.
In response to SFist Dan's post about the "guys in pink," I was part of that, and we kept moving all the way until we got to the bridge at 25th and JFK Drive. We stopped twice for potty breaks and once to blast music at a mobile bouncy castle. I'm not sure what you're talking about when you say we "never got going again" as we most certainly did. In fact most of us ended up at a house party in Cole Valley long after the race, and we certainly didn't leave our "port-a-party" sound system behind.
Get your facts straight, please, before you go making accusations.
I couldn't agree with you more, Angry Young Man... I left the Haight for many reasons; the biggest one being living across the street from Hobson's Choice For Douchebags. It was like a mini B2B every Friday night. The second being that my neighbour kept a rooster in her garden, but I digress...
Wow. You people need to chill. I live along the route at Masonic and Fell, and frankly I'm happy to see the steets liven up ONCE a year. It is a ton of fun if you participate. Sure there is garbage, sure there is public urination, but it isn't as if the garbage stays on the street for the entire week or people come up to your door daily to urinate on it (unless you live in the loin). Life would be rather boring without B2B, and SF wouldn't be what it is without the crazy shannanigans.
In the Catholic rest of the world there is an event called Karneval aka Mardi Gras. Same stuff happens, except not limited to just a route, rather it happens EVERYWHERE, and it is for 3-6 days depending on the location. It is a ton of fun, and I can see where it might get stressful for those with failing livers. We are tame by comparison.
But seriously. We're SF. We do this once a year. chill man. Let's not let SF become the Tri-Valley.
Angry Young Man - You tolerate you 'hood being used as a toilet every day by scum that obviously aren't from the City, but get all bent out of shape by the same thing when it is a bunch of frat boys and girls having fun one day a year? Please.
In the immortal words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"
If only they rode fixies and listened to the right band, it'd be acceptable local color
Haight is a fine neighbourhood, as long as you live at least a block away from Haight street itself.
And since Fell is just a freeway for Sunseters commuting downtown most of the time and the panhandle a dog toilet and doss house for haight kids and the homeless, it's great to be able to have the quasi-blockparty that is B2B.
rageahol,
I actually enjoy B2B very much and didn't find it incovient at all, even though I live near fell and divis.
I think B2B should stay and is an great part of life in SF. All I was trying to say is the cops should do a better job of moving people along and policing the route and the city needs to handle clean up better (frankly they should take a lesson from Chicago that does amazing jobs of cleaning up after street fairs every weekend for several months)
See you at Pink Saturday!!! :-)
I say open Oak street up to traffic at 1 PM and get God sort 'em out.
I thought it was amusing that in spite of the large number of porta-johns that were set up in the Panhandle, lots and lots of "runners" were still pissing in the trees. I queried one gentlemen about his choice of public exposure vs portajohn, and he claimed that if my dog can pee in public, he can too. My dog does lots of things in public that I wouldn't really want to see a person do....
I live at the top of the Hayes hill so I certainly saw the full chaos and aftermath of B2B. Sure, I wasn't really excited about the broken bottles, pissing in my doorway or the dookie between the parked cars on my pierce, but the organizers were rather ill prepared. Everyone should have the decency to hold it, but 2 portapotties and a couple trash cans can't accomodate 20,000 drunks drinking their way up the hill. There were more at the bottom of the hill, but too little too late.
It did feel a bit out of control this year, but it is still a pretty impressive event. Just one of those events that makes SF such a great city.
If you really can't handle B2B, it is not that difficult to avoid it.
I must say I did enjoy walking home just as the very end of the parade was finally clearing through lea