The annual, unsanctioned skate punk joyride known as the Dolores Hill Bomb might be happening this Saturday, and at a community meeting to discuss police plans, neighbors were split on whether the event should be welcomed, or cracked down upon even harder.
The highly unsanctioned annual celebration of hooliganism known as the Dolores Hill Bomb has brought out skater kids and various fun-seekers to ride skateboards or other wheeled devices down then very steep Dolores Hill on some given Saturday every year since 2016. It is a completely unorganized, rogue event, and yes, there are a few misdemeanors committed here and there.
But the 2023 event got ugly after SFPD put on the riot gear and arrested 81 minors and 31 adults, handcuffing dozens of kids, and detaining them until as late as 4 am. According to a Mission Local report, several of the detained teens “peed their pants while being kept zip-tied on the bus, awaiting transfer to Mission Station.” After extensive media uproar, DA Brooke Jenkins dropped the charges against all of the minors. But angry parents still brought a civil lawsuit against the city, which is still in the courts.
Fast forward to last week, when we learned that some social media posts were promoting that the 2024 Dolores Hill Bomb would be happening this Saturday, July 6. SFPD insisted they would be there and making arrests as they saw fit, while some in the community wondered why the city couldn’t get ahead of this thing and make it more sanctioned and safe.
Well, someone who’d promoted the event as happening on July 6 seems to have had a change of heart. “Event CANCELED!!! Police will be waiting at Dolores!!! Keep my name out of it!!! Stay away!!!” that poster said. But there is an obvious likelihood that some teens and adult thrillseekers will show up anyway, or that like in 2020, there ends up being more than one Saturday where the skaters congregate at Dolores Park and try to make this happen.
Mission Local reports there was a Monday community meeting for concerned Dolores Park-area residents, with a panel of SFPD Chief Bill Scott, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, and various other SFPD brass. And Chief Scott reiterated there would be a strong police presence, with no tolerance for foolishness.
“It is our intention, from the police department perspective, to not allow illegal activity to occur,” Scott said, per Mission Local. “I would highly encourage whoever can be a liaison to people that plan to show up … to encourage them not to do that.”
But some adults in the skater community were baffled that the city can’t come up with a more productive response after eight years of the exact same thing happening. “It occurs like a butterfly migration — so consistent, you could almost prepare for it,” skateboard instructor and Comet Skateboards brand manager Aaron Breetwor said at the meeting. “You could go outside and watch it like the sun goes up and sun goes down.”
Yet some neighbors were exasperated by the disorderly element this event attracts.
“We ask the city right now to please help us stop the violent acts: No more assaults or projectiles, broken bottles or fireworks,” Dolores Heights Improvement Club chair Carolyn Kenady told the panel. “Prevent arrests, especially of bystanders and minors, and prevent this illegal event.”
There was talk of sanctioning the event, though it clearly seems too late to do so now. One of the ideas mentioned was providing $3,000 for 100 helmets for the skaters, as there have been several gruesome injuries over the years, and even a fatality in 2020.
When the $3,000, 100 helmet proposal was discussed, some sympathetic skater in the audience shouted “If you need $3,000, I can donate to make that happen,” according to Mission Local.
Image: @ki_tranada via Twitter
