Dolores Park

pPod: Dolores Park's Newly Proposed Place to Piss

Dolores Park picnickers without a pot to piss in will soon have a pod to piss in.  Or something.  Anyway, it's called the “pPod” (or, as we prefer to call it, “The Masturbation Station”) and city officials hope to include it in next year's renovation of Dolores Park.

The thinking is the European-style pissoir will help curb all the public urination that happens on warm days in the park, when everyone balloons up on warm Tecate and elects to wash down the Muni tracks instead of wait in the 20+ minute bathroom lines.

According to SocketSite, which seems to fancy itself as the number one source for piss press, “The pissoir would have a front and back semi-circle screen consisting of specialized wire fencing covered with vines a three-foot diameter concrete base and a sanitary drain with a fine mesh grate. A user would enter the pissoir from the existing north-south internal pathway and face the interior of the Park.”  There will also be a one-way drain to prevent it from smelling, poles to prevent the inevitable drunken popping of squatting, and no sink for the hands you weren't going to wash anyway.

Of course, while we're sure most reasonable people think this is a fine development for the park, it seems “plugged in” park neighbors are already voicing their criticisms in SocketSite's comments.  As one proclaims, “I live right across the street from this proposed 'pPod' and fear that this will cause a lot more problems down the road with odor, nudity, and the list can go on (none of it is positive). How do we avoid this from getting installed? I want to prevent my neighborhood from becoming like the Tenderloin.”  Or, as another puts it, “The very idea of a pissoir seems sexist.”

Given the mounting opposition, we're sure it'll be another 18-36 months of lengthy community meetings before this titular homage to Steve Jobs is installed.

[SocketSite]

Good Dog of the Week: D.I.Y. Pabst Purse Pup

Purse pups are all the rage these days, but, let's face it, you probably don't have enough money to go to TJ Maxx and buy an appropriately-sized handbag for your totally adorbs new teacup.  So why not upcycle that PBR box that's been sitting at the foot of your bed for the last few months and shove your dog into that?  Great way to save the planet and meet babes!

Dolores Park Renovations Are Good to Go

The planning process has had its ups and downs (remember that crazy proposal to astroturf Tallboy Terrace? I already miss the salad days of Dolores Park goofbaggery), and the project is nearly a year behind schedule.  But, according to Dolores Park Works, there's an stakeholder's agreement on the final proposal and a rough timeline as to when they'll break ground:

The final planning documents will be released in late February or early March,  and construction should begin this Fall, 2013. Rec and Parks new prediction for completion is Fall 2014.

According to Rec and Park, this revised plan includes improved ADA-compliant entries and pathways, renovated sport courts (including a new multi-use court), a new operations building beneath the basketball court, 2 new restroom buildings, removal of the current operations/restroom building, proposed improvements to the MUNI tracks, safe crossing across Church Street, entirely new irrigation and drainage, new picnic areas, a completely renovated multi-use field, 2 improved dog play areas, and overall rehabilitation of the landscape. This plan will be substantially the same plan approved in the community meetings over a year ago.

Originally, they were planning on taking 18 months to renovate, which would have had us lose two assuredly memorable summers of day-drinking, so this revised timeline is welcome news.

In the mean time, the Park's Department has been busy battling scrap metal thieves who have been dismantling the playground and cleaning up unwanted body parts.  Good times.

Watch Some Noted Restaurateurs Waste Multiple Dollars Worth of Perfectly Good PBR

How do the folks from Delfina celebrate the holidays?  By hanging out in Dolores Park not drinking PBR and smashing eggs in each other's faces, apparently.  It's food fight pornography at its finest, but its park cultural accuracy is suspect.  I mean, white wine served in stemware and cream pies?  And where is the weird lady in the jester hat sucking nitrous out of a Cheez Whiz can?  This isn't the Dolores Park I know and love.

Anyway, I'm sure there's like a million stoked dogs savagely gnawing on sauce-soaked grass right now.  Hopefully someone films that.

[via Grub Street]

Dolores Park's Weed Truffle Dude Gets Big Spotlight in iOS 6's Maps

We here at Uptown Almanac haven't upgraded to iOS 6 yet because we were told the new maps are garbage, but looks like tech blog tantrums were full of their usual frantic shit because iOS Maps has all the hot tips on where we can get effin' ripped—in 3D.

That's right, “Mission Delores Park's” [sic] infamous Truffle Guy, responsible for making many Marina girls freak out and cry, now has prominent placement in Apple's otherwise inadequate maps app—a necessary feature that the Google Dream Team failed to deliver. UA tipsters Lindsay fills us in on her discovery:

RIDIC. I'm sure it's because, of course, he's on Yelp and that is where the data come from. But still.

Yes. But still.

Happy Thanksgiving, dope fiends!

Neighbors Explore Converting Dolores Park's Street Median Into a Pop-Up "Pee Area"

Everyone knows the bathroom situation in Dolores Park is shitty.  You either wait 15-30 minute in a line for the luxury of relieving yourself in the noxious ruins of a once civilized bathroom, or risk getting busted by the cops as you spray down the Muni tracks.

But things get real bad during special events, notably during the Dyke March, when lubed-up revelers take their full tanks to the surrounding stoops and alleyways.  Neighbors are fed up waiting for the city to maybe do something about it, so the “Valencia Corridor” neighborhood group met with Supervisor Scott Weiner and representatives from the Dyke March to figure our how to deal with the chaotic spillover.

Although we missed what must have been a hilarious community meeting full of double entendre and fresh baked cookies, the meeting notes posted by Pete Glikshtern reveal bold proposals.

First, allow the neighbors to sum up their concerns:

The Dyke March was started around 20 years ago as a political action by a relatively small, focused group of persons and, has gradually grown into the gigantic event it is today.

More so than any of the other large-scale events at Dolores Park, the March brings a torrent of pee down upon the streets immediately adjourning the Park.

This we all know.

Nothing shocking here; neighbors are frustrated with The Great Flood that comes every time the lesbians come together to listen to dubstep.  Seems legit.

See, the March packs the park with 20,000-30,000 folks, but only provides 50-75 portapotties.  This is well under the required one plastic pottie-per-100 participants that most street fairs are supposed to have.  The neighbors have a few ideas with how to deal with the problem: 1) help fundraise for more toilets, 2) get potties on blocks people usually pee on, 3) start the March earlier in the morning to cut down on afternoon debauchery, 4) more cops to keep people in check.  All seem like reasonable, measured solutions to a sanitation problem.

However, they have a few more “creative ideas” to solve the pee problem once and for all, without getting cops and cash involved:

-turning the median on Dolores into a pee area by surrounding it with covered fencing, thereby facilitating privacy and squatting

-reaching out to the Burning Man community, specifically the Pee Funnel Camp, to help with volunteers and “equipment.”

What do you guys think?  Are you down to pop a squat in the middle of a four-lane road?  Or maybe lay down in the grass if that's your sorta thing?

Locate Your Friends in Dolores Park With This Handy Map

In an example case of the Uptown comment section not being used for evil, reader “as” has an alternative suggestion to the silver windsock device:

i've got a better idea. if everyone can get on this same standardized graphic that i've just spent five hours making, then we will never have any more confusion!

Read on for bonus jokes and weird technological gibberish.

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