The San Francisco Citizen

“Please please please don’t give me a ticket.”

This is the scene today in the Haight - a wounded Mercedes Benz just a stone’s throw away from Janis Joplin’s old place up Lyon Street. On the windscreen is a plaintive note from the owner: “Please please please don’t give me a ticket.” As you can see, vandal(s) demolished five of the seven windows.

A timid car owner might have done a little cleanup and taken off, but a brave soul will rely on the good hearts of San Francisco parking control officers.

Success!!! The representative from DPT had mercy and DID NOT issue a hefty ticket for the crime of blocking street cleaners. Doesn’t that just brighten your day?

Well, it appears this will be how B2b 2008 will be remembered:

“It’s often called the world’s longest party, but this year’s Bay to Breakers race through San Francisco was anything but fun for the residents, cops and public workers who bore the brunt of the drunken young “runners” who staggered around Golden Gate Park and the city’s west side, relieving themselves wherever it proved convenient.”

Imagine that!

Turkeybot ably captured a fine moment:

The Golden Gate Park Panhandle had far more than ten portajohns set up and waiting to go the night before the big race. But, Matier & Ross report that there were only ten there on the big day. Mmmm, how did that happen?

Speaking of the Panhandle, the half million dollar bathroom in the Panhandle was closed and surrounded by yellow police tape while racers were passing by during the early part of the day. Why was that?

This might have been the only place in Golden Gate park where people weren’t urinating. That’s all part of the Good, Bad, and Ugly of the longtime footrace. Most people had fun though, purported MUNI Meltdown or no.

See you next year!

You already know about the Good of B2B 2008. A good time was had by all.

But what about the Bad? Muni didn’t appear to be working very well north of Golden Gate Park in the afternoon following the big race. It wasn’t like all the buses were packed with people, it was like there didn’t seem to be any buses around at all throughout the Richmond. Must be tough to get drivers working on a Sunday.

And finally, the Ugly. Garbage everywhere, and more so than usual. Check the Flickr to see Drunken Douchebags Trash the Panhandle. Reopening Fell Street was such a chore that the DPW’s Mohammad Nuru called the cops to get some help.

Heading back uphill to the acme of the race course in Golden Gate Park (which is no where near Hayes Street Hill, the purported highest point on the race route): 

The cold dawn of day reveals a lot of trash still out there on the Streets of San Francisco. Maybe the people from Dutch financial institution and B2B sponsor ING could come down from their aerodynamic house and lend a hand with the cleanup? Just asking.

Hopefully, things will go more smoothly next year. Speaking of which… 

See you next year!

[The Panhandle is much cleaner now around 11:00 AM Monday morning. Yay.]

John Kipsang Korir won the in Men’s Elite category, as well as overall, in today’s Bay to Breakers footrace. 

Lineth Chepkurui won in the Women’s Elite category.

It can be tough for foreign nationals to compete in marathons and other running competitions in these United States, due to visa hassles and unfair prize schemes designed to favor Americans. But San Francisco’s oldest run is still wide open to all. Good.

The Autodesk team manged to win second place in the centipede category, despite a few distractions:  

See more wacky photos.

Complete results.

See you next year!

Why’s that?

You’d think a “drug free” area would be bereft of scoring opportunities, but that doesn’t appear to be the case around Hippy Hill in the Haight Ashbury section of San Francisco.

Just saying…

Here was the scene this morning during the A.M. drive - a cyclist getting ticketed by a motorcycle officer. Don’t know the details of this particular incident, but it wouldn’t be hard for you to find cyclists blowing stop signs or red lights at any intersection in San Francisco.

Individual officers sometimes get on a kick and issue tickets for the same type of infraction over and over all day. If you get cops acting together, as sometimes happens, then you’d call it an enforcement action. They could go after drivers who roll through stop signs, or pedestrians who jaywalk - you never know.

Harley Davidson of a bitch! Yet another ticket from a Dudley Perkins-motosickle-riding buckethead.

Some would like to see Page become the Page St. Bicycle Boulevard - this would allow cyclists to maintain speed. Traffic circles were tried before, but those things proved unpopular.

Leave us turn to Idaho for the answer - stop signs mean “stop” for drivers but mean “yield” for cyclists:

                                  TITLE  49
                                MOTOR VEHICLES
                                  CHAPTER 7
                           PEDESTRIANS AND BICYCLES
    49-720.  STOPPING — TURN AND STOP SIGNALS. (1) A person operating a
bicycle or human-powered vehicle approaching a stop sign shall slow down and,
if required for safety, stop before entering the intersection. 

What’s wrong with California having a similar law?

Let’s be careful out there.

Back on the Haight Ashbury beat:

Newly promoted Capt. Teresa Barrett is keeping in touch with those in the area served by the SFPD’s (Golden Gate) Park Station in Haight Ashbury. At yesterday’s meeting of the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council she covered a variety of issues, including traffic enforcement.

Is it possible to hand out 56 citations to motorists for failing to yield to pedestrians crossing the street in just four hours at one intersection? Apparently it is. Perhaps around Masonic and Grove.

Keep in touch with things in the hood by reading the newsletter. Be sure to check out the story of the guy who sold his Playstation through craigslist for counterfeit money. Let’s be careful out there.