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2009 will go down as the Year of the NIMBY. Take, for example, ING Bay to Breakers, which has released a new set of rules for the typically willy-nilly San Francisco marathon. New rules include "zero tolerance policy on alcohol," no " wheeled objects and floats," and more dumpsters.
If you recall, last year's Bay to Breakers turned into bedlam after SFist posted a "Race Course Liquor Store Locator," which provided runners with a helpful map showing the nearest booze refilling stations along the course. After a few festive joggers urinated in public, the run almost went the way of Halloween in the Castro 2007.
With new rules set in place for the 2009 run, which will take place on May 17, many of you will want to drink beforehand or get get crafty with your hooch concealing -- flasks, hairspray bottles, vodka in Evian bottles, etc. For a refresher course of liquor stores near the Bay to Breakers route, go here.
To praise or damn B2B, check out their Facebook page.
Update: Turns out you have to wears clothes as well. So, no nudity. This must be a joke.
Image of Bay to Breakers 2008: Jim Herd
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This is excellent news for those of us who live along the route. Your "a few festive joggers urinated in public" comment is a gross (and likely intentional) understatement. The disrespect for the neighborhood was both disgusting and not at all surprising given the frat-boy-esque nature of many of the participants.
You NIMBYs are worse than the drunken frat boys, of course. Why don't you all move to Stockton, CA? I hear "it's a good time to buy" in that neck of the woods.
With regard to this particular event, I would prefer to be called a NIABY. This sort of disrespect is not cool in anyone's backyard.
Here's the official facebook page where you can praise them or air your grievances: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ING-Bay-to-Breakers/122208920450
I agree. I used to live on Oak, and a few years ago we moseyed over to Fell to watch B2B. Holy christ, did I come away glad I didn't live on that street. I could not believe the hordes of drunken frat boys blatantly pissing on people's houses.
And I think "move to Stockton" is an inappropriate response. I don't think "I love people pissing all over my house" is a prerequisite to living in SF. My guess is if you polled every single person living here, less than 10 would say they moved here so their houses could be urinated on. OK, less than 20.
I live on Fell. I don't have a fundamental problem with B2B.
Maybe when I get old I'll move to Stockton.
I'm on Fell in the thick of it and I say go have fun, you guys. I know what it means to be tolerant. This is one day of the year - big fucking deal. I thought the raise in parking tickets was solely for b2b cleanup.
Good luck with that. Like it or not, booze and floats is what the "race" has become.
I live right on the route and I admit that it is pretty heinous after everyone comes through, but it is still a pretty awesome spectacle.
And more naked girls like the one in the photo, please. Less of the old fatties.
Us old fatties are scrambling to comply with your demand.
Thank you very much.
I do appreciate the neon "old naked fatty" warning hats though. Gives me that split second to avert my gaze.
A friend summed it up for me as:
"Everything fun in life is a little dirty. Really fun things can be *really* dirty."
I can corroborate in that fun places to live tend to be dirty, while very clean places tend to be very boring (and often scary in their exercise of authority).
That said, there are also many boring dirty places. =)
I'm always perturbed by people who just want B2B to be a race for people wearing silly hats.
You know how much easier it is to fine people who piss and shit in public than stopping everyone from drinking?
This idea will work fine. The children who can't handle their liquor will be the same ones getting busted for being too dumb to know how to hide it.
I used to live on the route and agree that it is a total douchefest shitshow. And it involves running, which I think is the most useless waste of human energy imaginable. However, my new house is slap bang in the middle of the pro-life, christian-stop-killing-babies event and the other Saturday I had to endure a constant parade of non-baby killing inbreds from Stockton traipsing past my door all day with their sad little signs and third-world fashions. I parked on the sidewalk so they had to shepherd their countless children out in to traffic, but that didn't seem to stop them gaping at me whenever I took the dogs for a walk. So what I'm saying is—all groups of people doing something that I am not involved in cause me irritation and therefore should not be doing it.
Every day we see people in this town pushing wheeled objects, drinking and getting drunk in public, and leaving a footprint (including trash, urine, and feces). These folks are generally referred to as bums, homeless, etc.
Apparently NIMBYs can look past this 364 days a year, but have a problem with it on the third Sunday in May.
Word.
No one would be complaining if the race just did laps around the Tenderloin.
The costumes and personalities that come out for this event are a lot of fun ... seems like the new rules can't be enforced if the course isn't closed, sapping the fun away. As it is, I imagine a lot of the folks who come to party and leave the kitchen and living room a mess, so-to-speak, aren't contributing to the clean up funded by the folks who actually paid to participate.
Yawn. One. Big. Yawn.
No wheeled floats? I miss the tiki hut that serves margaritas already!
As for hiding beverages, it's as simple as a paper bag.
Floats are pretty traditional in B2B, as are costumes. Drunken assholery is not. Somewhere along the line, lots of people decided that the race was B2Panhandle, and just stopped there. Idiots, ruining things for everyone else.
Floats, costumes, and centipedes makes the event so much special and unique . Why no floats? Are they missing something like hand brakes?
i live on the route and honestly, it's sparkling clean the next day. i think the annoyance is greatly outweighed by the fun. if you're really so aggravated, just leave for the weekend, it will be clean by the time you're back. or just get hammered--nothing like booze to pull that stick out of your ass.
What you said.
The alcohol ban seems a natural reaction - I've been volunteering for a few years and last year, for the first time since I've been volunteering, we had to call 911 for some serious fighting going on.
By that measure, the Union Street Fair should have been banned long ago.
I hate B2B but come on! let people have some fun. This town is getting awfully squarepants!
I recall them announcing the same thing a few years ago. The thing is that the rules only applied for the actual race (the one people run?!). The real fun is the mass party that follows the race which I think is unsanctioned.
Hopefully this is still the case.
And why would they put out more dumpsters if they are banning all of the things that end up on the ground anyway?
Wasn't nudity banned? That didn't seem to be endorsed. How can you enforce wheeling homemade floats down the street? It's not illegal. As far as drinking along the way that maybe illegal, but thats what the mack those camel packs for.
I HATE B2B and wouldn't mind if they canceled the whole damn thing. The city becomes even more of a mess that day and frankly the level of free floating aggression goes waaay up- it's just gross and i have no problem discouraging the frat element...it would be one thing if alcohol mellowed people out, but since it doesn't, it's hard fro me to get worked up about a no alcohol policy.
"The city becomes even more of a mess that day"
Huh? Are you saying that the city is, like, somewhat messy everyday? If you don't like normal city life then just GET OUT (said all Amityville Horror-styles)
Let's face it. There will be nudity, floats, wheeled stuff and of course, lots of booze along the route. Go ahead and work off your checklist of banned things and there will be a whole bunch of people who didn't bother to read up on it.
Money Money, kids. You forget B2B doesn't get any money from the city, so all those floats, red plastic cups, so on come out of their pockets. Oh, and the cops, yeah the race pays for that too. So the people who aren't registering, aren't paying for it, are the exact ones who are getting wasted and trashing the joint.
Elegant solution to a money problem, really.
I get dressed up, get drunk, and pay registration. I'll probably just do 2 of those 3 this year.
A.) B2B isn't a marathon. A marathon is 26 miles, 385 yards long. B2B is 7.46 miles long. I know you are a gay, Brock Keeling, but that does not excuse you from knowing the sports.
B.) As if. Good luck with those new rules there, ING. B2B is like the only annual event when the people who live in this city who are normally regarded as mere assholes get to act out in public in a manner that they think is fun and creative but is really dull, boring, and tedious, especially to all the lady artists in the lady artist co-op galleries on Valencia Street. They already deprived these Marina dwellers of Halloween in the Castro when they could leave their safely ensconced district to go point at gays in the street. Now this? I predict nekkid riots, police in the streets arresting sorority girls, etc.
WWSFD?
Little worried about these all the new cops assigned to dump out beer and smack down on "floats". They would literally need hundreds to live up to their threats. Or else have some kind of checkpoint(?!)
If they're serious in changing the way B2B ends up being, they'll need to make Oak St a police zone a la the Castro on Halloween.
Fuck Stockton!
What? I thought there was a theme.
If you wanna give a nice fuck you to the NIMBYs on 17 May:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=66345051367
This is why we can't have nice things.
i lulzd...
Chronicle just reported: You have to wear clothes. I hear flesh colored g-strings!
If only the mishhips would get together and fight this. Think of what they could do!
IGN is a formula chain bank. The race should be banned.
To make a statement, I propose that we do not attend the b2b, but instead congregate ELSEWHERE in SF.
This will accomplish 2 things
1) Reduce the numbers on the b2b route.
2) Increase visability elsewhere, ie not on the b2b route.
Perhaps the police will then realize that they can not be EVERYWHERE in SF, at the same time.
It would be in their best interest to have us at the 2010 b2b, instead of us running havoc elsewhere.
I know its a tough decision to not be at the b2b route, we might feel we're missing out. But look at the big picture (ie preserving b2b in the future) If we don't stand up and make a VERY loud statement / BOYCOTT this year, we may loose our battle.
Who's for meeting at Dolores Park ?
Who's for meeting at Chrissy Field ?
Who's for meeting at Glen Park ?(not a bay or breaker to be found, the ultimate b2b boycott statement)