Posts Tagged ‘lot’

Three Things You Don’t Know About the Bay to Breakers

Monday, May 20th, 2013

1.  THE TOP OF HAYES STREET HILL _ISN’T_ THE HIGHEST POINT OF THE BTOB FUN-RUN. JUST CHECK THE ROUTE PROFILE:

“Here’s your route profile, starting from the SoMA near the bay going all the way to the breakers of Ocean Beach. See that big incline just before mile marker three? That’s the vaunted Hayes Street Hill. (And actually, the highest part of Hayes Street on this part of the course is near Pierce, not “at Fillmore and Steiner“ and not ”between Fillmore and Sutter.”)

And actually, that part of Hayes peaks at around 260 feet, not 215:

Now, here’s your winner. It’s the 270-something foot high saddle on JFK Jr. Drive betwixt Prayer Book Cross and Stow Lake / Strawberry Hill, where ”Kennedy” is written:

2. THE BTOB FUN-RUN IS A 12K, AND YET IT’S NOT A 12K – THE CLAIMED “WORLD RECORDS” ARE NOT, IN FACT, WORLD RECORDS

“Race organizers and media have reported that the course records set by Sammy Kitwara in 2009 and Lineth Chepkurui in 2010 are also world records at the 12 km distance;[31] however, the International Association of Athletics Federations, the international governing body for the sport of athletics/track and field, does not recognize world records or world bests in either an indoor or outdoor 12 km.[32] The Association of Road Racing Statisticians, a non-regulatory group that collects road running data, does recognize world records in the outdoor 12 km provided that the race course meets certain criteria.[33][34] In order to rule-out the possibility of wind assistancein point-to-point courses, the ARRS stipulates that the course must have “not more than 30% of the race distance separation between that start and finish”, or 3.6 km for a 12 km race.[34] Given that the Bay to Breakers is run on a point-to-point course in which the start and finish of the event are approximately 10.5 linear kilometers apart, the ARRS recognizes two other marks as 12 km world records: Kenyan Simon Kigen‘s 33:46 in Portland, Oregon on May 19, 1985 and Chepkurui’s 38:10 at the 2010Lilac Bloomsday Run.[33][nb 2]

3. MOST PEOPLE _DON’T_ PAY THE ABSURDLY HIGH REGISTRATION FEE. MOST PEOPLE YOU SEE ARE “BANDITS”

HERE’S THE OFFICIAL ESTIMATE: “…more than in the hundreds but less than tens of thousands.” THE REAL NUMBER IS TENS OF THOUSANDS.

“The Bay to Breakers is known for the large number of unregistered runners, or “bandits”, who participate in the race. Ross Mirkarimi, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, reported that over half of the 60,000 participants in the 2010 Bay to Breakers were unregistered.[19] San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was among the runners in 2010 who did not pay the registration fee to obtain a race number.[19][22] Registered participation was 24,430 in 2010,[23] 43,954 in 2011,[24] 23,072 for 2012,[25], and approximately 20,000 for 2013.[26]

Beware, Car Owners: The Great B2B Tow of ’13 is a Coming This Weekend – Hundreds Will Get Towed by SFGov – Will You?

Friday, May 17th, 2013

I’ll tell you, I’m not exactly sure when the tow away signs went up for this year’s historic Bay to Breakers street party – maybe it was today.

No matter, hundreds of cars are going to get towed this Saturday and Sunday.

It’s going to be epic.

Here are the streets to not park your car upon.

Sometimes they give you a week’s notice, but not this year I don’t think.

Click to expand

Let’s review.

Before we can have this…

…or this…

From hard-working Steve Nguyen

…we’re going to have to have this:

(I remember it as if it were just two years ago…)

“The Great Tow of 2011:

One car gets away  in the nick of time, but three others aren’t so lucky:

Ted and Al’s had like ten yellow tow trucks ready to go late Saturday night, in the driving rain. (Note how Bank of America is protecting its windows – the IndyBay crowd got to them, smashy smashy, about a year or so back, unrelated to Bay to Breakers.)

Now, speaking of prêt-à-porters, this is the main body, this is the largest array for the Golden Gate Park Panhandle:

And here’s the second-biggest grouping, along Masonic:

And there are some on the other side of Fell, typically in groups of six on some of the blocks.

But that’s it.

Not sure where B2B is hiding their 1000+ portable toilets claimed for 2011, at this point, just hours before the Kenyans take off on their winning runs.

Oh well.

And there’s no sign of the fencing neither, except for what they have every year.

We’ll see.

The Great Fence of B2B100 is supposed to have upon it either images of Christ hand-selected by P. Anschutz or photos of people who ran the race before white NIMBYs moved into the Western Addition. (You’ll have to tell me about it…). Anyway, here’s the baby fencing they have on scene already along with, and isn’t this cute, a message from San Francisco Natives for a Fun and Buzzed Bay to Breakers. Apparently, the cops can’t arrest for an open container in San Francisco…

And doesn’t this just break your heart – this Vespa scooter has been forgotten on the slopes of the famed Hayes Street Hill, the second highest point on the “racecourse.” Will Auto-Return charge $700 for its return?

Remember, Transit First.

All right, have a great Bay to Breakers 100!

Encountering Five Trader Joe’s Shoppers Jaywalking Masonic in Five Seconds – WHO WILL BE THE NEXT TO DIE?

Thursday, May 9th, 2013

These were the final two I saw after just passing three others ALL walking/jogging west to get to Trader Joe’s. This is my personal best, after all those years.

Oh yeah, I know all about the history of jaywalking and about Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Red Car and so forth. So what. How does that kind of stuff help us here? Answer: It doesn’t.

Moving on….

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Here’s what I said about Trader Joes #100, a half-decade ago, on the old blog:

“Of course, everybody needs to be on the lookout for all the Frogger-like jaywalkers carrying their groceries across six lanes of parked and moving cars. (Somebody is going to get hit one of these days.)”

Now that got a bit of attention from TJ’s Corporate. (I know because I saw the logs indicating such.)

So what the reaction? Nothing, basically.

Stuff like this is what the TJ’s people spent their time on instead, it would appear.

Now this is what occurred last year. Actually, it’s the one-year anniversary of  the death of 25-year-old Suzanne Monaco.*

Did the San Francisco Planning Department plan things well? No, obviously.

Is the SFMTA doing anything about this particular block? No. They have plans to put a whole lot of useless trees and a useless median south of Geary but they don’t seem to care about where TJ’s parkers park  and where they walk.

Yes these jaywalkers are illegally crossing the street and yes they are 100% responsible for their deaths when they get killed but what can be done to prevent future deaths right here in this one location?

I don’t know, a parking garage, an enforcement action, a ban on parking on the east side of Masonic on that particular block of Masonic, a traffic signal and crosswalk, opening up Emerson Alley to allow shopper parking on the roof, you know, just throwing things out there.

This situation is one giant FAIL for SFGov.

You should all be ashamed, SFGov.

Srsly.

Leaving you with one reaction, from Jessica Levin:

“I saw the flower memorial outside Trader Joe’s, and if that is the spot where she crossed, then she must have had a death wish. That’s a busy high speed corridor in both directions and she crossed near a blind crest. She didn’t deserve to die, but if anyone gets the blame, unfortunately it is the pedestrian. I parked across Masonic exactly once (and I did jaywalk to get back to my car) but I was careful to cross at the crest where I could see traffic coming from quite a distance, and even then I was extremely nervous. That was two years ago, and I have never done it again.”

*Was she really carrying “an armful of groceries” while heading “west” back to the store? Probably not.

Sucker Watch: Most Participants Won’t Pay to Enter the 2013 Bay to Breakers Fun Run So Why Should You?

Tuesday, April 30th, 2013

Oh, you are a sucker. Well, then be my guest – pay $48 for a number. And actually, and you’ll enjoy this, sucker, it’s already too late to get a good deal on registration for 2013. Prices be higher now.

Most people who aren’t professional runners  don’t pay and here’s a good reason not to pay:

Your money goes directly to “Christian Billionaire” Philip Anschutz.

And then he takes your $$$$$ and uses it to, over the years, oppose the concept of evolution and fund anti-gay efforts.

(It’s funny that he even took an interest in this historic fun run and street party but he likes running so there y0u go.)

The reason that organizers won’t say how many “bandits” show up for the party is because they don’t want you to think that most people don’t pay.

But, IRL, most people don’t pay.

If you don’t believe me then take a NSFW look right here.

How many bibs do you see? Every year they say they will eject all these people and every year they don’t actually do it.

Now the San Francisco Nike Womens Marathon is different. You see, they give out coveted awards and people just can’t help themselves. And then stuff like this happens; “NO BIB NO BIB NO BIB!

But B2B aint like that.

One difference this year will be a limit on the size of the bags you might carry.

It’s like the size of Fook Mi’s backpack, best I can imagine.

Click to expand

All right, have a great 2013 B2B.

And if you want to pay money to somebody, just take whatever your reg fee is and give it to Pride or whatever.

End Of Line.

Packt Like Sardines: How Many Cars Can You Put Into Just One San Francisco Parking Lot?

Wednesday, April 24th, 2013

Well, at least for this particularly oddly-shaped piece of real estate on Main Street near Folsom, the answer was this many:

img_9020-copy.jpg

“Last in, first out.” Click to expand.

I don’t know if this lot in SoMA is still around. The photo was taken from the office of a billionaire who was quite solicitous owing to a project he wanted to kick off before he himself kicked off.

Here’s what I wrote a half decade back:

It might be a pain to park here, under the shadow of the new Infinity San Francisco towers, but at least you won’t get the boot, or get into a chain reaction accident, or get all messy. Of course, if you work for San Francisco Honda, then just park wherever - the sidewalk, for example.

Lastly, DO NOT PAY THIS MAN!

Bicycle Parking at the Main Entrance of the San Francisco Botanical Gardens to Move to the Back of the Bus, Way Off to the Side

Monday, April 8th, 2013

I’ll tell you, I haven’t toured Strybing Arboretum since they threw up the paywall a few years back, kind of a boycott thing.

But I remember the bicycle parking area right out front of the Main Entrance near 9th and Lincoln, you know, right where it belonged.

Well, things are changing.

In another “improvement” from the RPD, the bike parking area is a moving all the way over, as seen in the top right of this image:

Here you go, a big-ass pdf:

12 10-04_DD package Gateway Improvements

On It Goes…

The Time-Honored Tradition of Practicing for Your Motorcycle Driving Test at the DMV, Even Though Its Agin the Law

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

Like this:

Click to expand

And you can’t ride your bike through the parking lot neither, but I do that all the time.

Oh Fell Street DMV, will you ever win?

Trader Joe’s “Bro” Vs. Moving Traffic on Masonic Avenue – San Francisco Planning at Its Finest

Friday, September 7th, 2012

You see, area NIMBY’s didn’t want the Masonic Trader Joes (Store #100) to have a proper parking lot, so this is the result:

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Bad pedestrian behavior on this block has led to the death of one TJ’s shopper this year so far.

The question is why do peds act this way at this particular location.

The other question is what can be done about this.

San Francisco: The City That DOESN’T Know How.

What the Heck is Going On Up On the Roof of the Masonic Trader Joe’s? Discarded News Racks – Dead Cars

Tuesday, August 7th, 2012

I’ll tell you, the TJ’s underneath this rooftop parking lot is a beehive of activity.

So much so, that there are attendants to direct people on how and where to park in the tiny parking lot down below. And there’s almost always a line of cars blocking Masonic Street. So much so, the City and County decided to take out the parking / rush hour lane on southbound Masonic. But even so, a ton of shoppers park on northbound Masonic to make a dangerous journey across five lanes.

So that’s down below. But up on top there’s nothing going on. There’s a gate for people with passes. I think that City Car Share or ZipCar or somebody stores cars up there. But there also junked wrecks.

Like this. Camera left shows an old blue pickup what’s not in operating condition and in front of it is a Fred Sanford truck without its engine and in the background is a Miata* that someone’s been working on

Click to expand

Oh, and then randomly, there’s an SFBG news rack up there blocking the lanes, not that it matters because nobody seems to be using this lot all that much.

I think if TJ’s shoppers knew they could park up here, they’d do so. This rooftop would experience a, in the words of our time, Dramatic Transformation and become a Vibrant Crossroads and maybe TJ’s shoppers would kill themselves less.

But no, it’s just a ghost town up there now, arrested decay and whatnot.

Does San Francisco have too much democracy? What explains this situation?

And after you think about that, think about What Can Be Done Now to fix the results of poor planning from San Francisco’s (Poor) Planning Department.

*Is it missing some lights, like the parking / driving / turn signal lights?  I’ll tell you, if you drove that rig on Geary Boulevard a few times, the SFPD of the Richmond District would catch you for sure.

Grocery Store Intervention: Trader Joe’s, You Have a Problem – Jaywalking Customers on Masonic – Who Will Die Next?

Tuesday, August 7th, 2012

My latest trip to the TJ’s lasted no longer than two shakes of a lamb’s tail. And yet, I saw a ton of people park on the south side of Masonic only to run or walk across the busy six-lane freeway substitute to get to the store on the north side.

Why do people do this? Well, because the line for parking can be twenty cars long. And also because shoppers can’t head north or east after driving out of the parking lot.

This would be no biggee normally, but the combination of the hill crest and the curves makes this a dangerous practice, as was foretold a while back.

Here’s how it works, it’s just like a game of Frogger excepting that you’re the frog.

The telltale bag:

 

Here’s another. (The fence is for the MUNI Yard at Masonic and Geary)

It seemed like one person was making this crossing every couple minutes when I was there.

Now, do the people at TJ’s #100 know about this?

Well, how could they not?

Now, do the people at TJ’s do anything about this?

I don’t know. Doesn’t appear that way.

All right, the girls are still shopping so let’s go up to the roof to see Dude (no that’s not his Mercedes, that some other jaywalker’s)…

…but oh no, this gal’s doing the same thing at the same time

…and now back to Dude, wise choice, man…

…and let’s go back to the gal, she see’s an opening, she could   go   all   the   way:

I mean, this is ten seconds worth of action in four shots.

This is a target-rich environment.

So, why doesn’t Trader Joe’s have a proper parking lot, you know, one that has a chance of accommodating all the shoppers?

I don’t know.

Did the City and County expect cars to whither away by now, you know, “Peak Oil is coming in 2005″ so let’s get ready for that?

Did the rich white homeowners in the area go full NIMBY back when plans were originally being drawn up?

Did TJ’s actually have a plan for shoppers to park on the roof or in some underground parking garage?

I don’t know.

Who will be the next to die?

I don’t know.

Now let’s hear from Reader RMS: “I shop, as well as drive by hear almost on a daily basis–and it never ends. Cars hang u-turns, cross the double lines, pedestrians/shoppers run and sometimes slowly walk across to go to TJ’s without a thought. I actually drove by there at the time of the unfortunate death of that women. It’s exactly as you stated, the hill, the speed limit but people choose to take their chances because it’s more convenient than having to go into the parking lot or go the actual cross walk, they can’t be bothered–sad. Has Trader Joe’s made any comments or contributed any ideas on passing the message to their customers?”