Here’s a nice volunteer opportunity: You can win free tickets to Outside Lands by volunteering to help clean up Dolores Park this Saturday. But it will be sunny with a chance of riots and mass arrests, because the infamous Dolores Hill Bomb might be the same day.
It’s been an unfortunate tradition for more than ten years that Dolores Park is left trashed with litter after July 4 celebrations. Hoping to avoid a repeat of this, Rec and Parks and a volunteer group are offering a lottery to win a free pair of one-day passes to Outside Lands in August for helping to clean up the park this Saturday, July 6, according to Mission Local.
The lottery is co-organized by the volunteer group Love Dolores, who’ve been doing park clean-ups for years. You do have to register in advance for a chance to win the tickets. The group will meet at 1 pm Saturday, July 6 at 19th and Dolores Streets. You have to sign in, and do at least one hour of cleaning to win the tickets. The raffle is scheduled for 2:45 pm, and you do have to be present at the drawing to win the prize.
SF Rec and Parks is calling this a Micro-Litter Cleanup. “The goal of this volunteer day is to remove micro-litter (bottle caps, cigarette butts, small plastic, etc.) from the grass prior to the annual aeration of the park’s lawns,” that department says. “Aeration, the use of machines to drill holes in the field, allows water and nutrients to reach deep into the roots to keep the grass we love to picnic on healthy and green.”
The Dolores Park hill bomb is in 5 days, residents worry about teens' safety & property damage. Most wonder why the city is acting so late in the game.
— Mission Local (@MLNow) July 2, 2024
And, though a new post for the event says it's cancelled, skaters may show regardless.
via @jrivanob https://t.co/Hi9bC95Q4n
But… slight possible problem with this plan? It’s scheduled on the same day as the infamous unruly skate punk event the Dolores Hill Bomb, which last year resulted in 113 arrests, cops busting up crowds in riot gear, and still-ongoing civil litigation. While the Dolores Hill Bomb’s loosely knit “organizers” say they’ve canceled Saturday’s event, there is still a good chance that rowdy hellraisers will show up anyway, though at who-knows-what-time. (It usually happens more toward evening hours?)
So, this could mean Dolores Park might need another clean-up the following day on Sunday, too.
Related: Dolores Park Predictably Littered With Trash On July 4th [SFist]
Image: Matt Charnock, SFist