— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
The scene from 2 weeks ago.
As you may remember, nearly two weeks ago we reported that SFPD was renewing their campaign against fun with dirt bike cops rolling through Dolores Park on a chill Friday afternoon. Well, it turns out that two weeks ago was only the beginning and the cops are now taking more drastic measures. Starting at lunch today, reader Paul S. noted “cops are riding dirt bikes through the park. I want a moped to ride through their living rooms.” He followed up saying that the cops were riding through the park “at least once an hour” and “going from group-to-group to see what they were up to.”
“What was remarkable about it was that in was a mellow Wednesday afternoon. No one was even drinking heavily. […] The cops were riding in groups of two, one group on each side of the park. After they were done bothering everybody, two of the cops would ride off and the other two would go to the top of the hill at the pedestrian bridge and just sit there watching everyone. An hour later, the other two cops would come back and they would sweep the park again.”
While we're not an activist organization, rumors have it that NIMBYs are using the recent stabbing to pressure the parks department and SFPD into cracking down on weed, beer and cigarettes. So far, they seem to be winning. So feel free to contract these individuals if you want to let them know you do not support SFPD disturbing the peace and a couple of geezers trying to push their agenda on tens of thousands on San Franciscans:
- Dolores Park Park Manager Eric Andersen ( eric.andersen@sfgov.org - (415) 831-6818 )
- Supervisor Bevan Dufty ( Bevan.Dufty@sfgov.org - (415) 554-6968 )
- Mission Station Police Captain Greg Corrales ( SFPD.Mission.Station@sfgov.org - (415) 558-5400 )
Comments (42)
How did you defend your rights back in Boston?
Out of curiosity: how close do the bloggers of this blog live to the park?
ohh you got a NIMBY to bite…
A few blocks away. But why does that matter? We all, as taxpayers, have the same rights to the park as people living across the street. Public property is not your personal backyard.
But evidently Paul S considers it his living room.
Wonder if he throws trash on the ground in either of his living rooms. Probs not. People who frequent/live somewhere tend to take good care of those places. Because otherwise they turn to shit.
I live on 18th and Mission. Close to where 3 people were shot (at what 10pm?), apparently a girl at the westward bound bus stop had an attempted robbery before the sun went down, meth/crack heads go around harassing store owners, etc. Putting all these cops in the park is a waste of energy for the city (hmm… where’s the best place to write a letter). Have cops like this at both bart stations and more people will all feel safer.
I agree people who litter are douches.
This all really stinks because I have friends coming in from out of town and I’ve been telling them for a few years how great the park is but now it’s a police state.
I’m just imagining this “gang” of hipsters roaming the park at night with some cigarettes and PBR’s all friendly and one of them feels a little stabby (as Bourdain would say).
I think a stabbing is a pretty good reason to do more patrols. I’m sorry that someone getting stabbed is making it harder for you to drink in the park. Do you know if the guy who was attacked is even out of the hospital yet?
What, and you told them what you were doing? You don’t have to answer them, you know.
Funny that you characterize people who actually LIVE in the neighborhood as NIMBYs, when most of the hipsters who hang out in the park are NOT from the neighborhood and have no problem bringing their garbage, booze and disrespectful behavior to someone else’s neck of the woods. I live next to the Park and my quality of life has gone down noticeably as the popularity of the Park has grown. Every evening, you and your friends leave the grass and sidewalk strewn with bottles, cigarette butts and garbage. My dog cut her foot open on pieces of a broken beer bottle left on the grass the other morning, but from the tone of your post, it’s clear that you don’t really care at all about how your behavior affects others. The utter narcissism and inflated sense of white, middle-class entitlement of many Park visitors never ceases to amaze. Kudos to the SFPD for making sure the laws are actually enforced. One man’s “campaign against fun” is another man’s community trying to protect itself from degradation from without.
I think it’s funny how you think living on Capp gives you street cred. Why are you so obsessed with Dolores Park anyway?
I’ve seen a lot more shady people in Golden Gate Park than in Dolores Park. But I’ve never seen a single cop at Golden Gate Park. Something is wrong here.
It’s true, golden gate park is very dangerous. There was a very public stabbing by the de young only a few months agoand a lot is kept under wraps as well. Those hobo stoners have told me about numerous vicious attacks in the park I’ve never found reported in the paper. I’ve witnessed animal abuse, drug abuse… Oh man and what about Buena Vista park? Buena Vista park at night???
Stonewall. Kent State. Dolo.
My name is Local McNimbydouche and I live in SF. I expect to have my ass kissed because I bought overpriced property in an urban area and I expect sf to be as white and quiet and clean as the shitty suburb I moved toned from. I will scream and yell and use straw man arguments and I will demand paramilitary solutions to neighborhood problems. I will count on wishy washy spineless liberal politicians like Bevan Dufty and Gavin Newsom to enforce my will. And if that doesn’t get mememememe everything I want right now (as I am a selfish spoiled self important person whose mommy and daddy catered to like a prince or princesss) then I will go on blogs and make asinine comments because we all know that a well worded comment changes minds and is all important on the information superhighway.
Man, if you had been in SF when punk rock was happening, you would not have survived.
I think most people would vote to allow responsible drinking, and stop the moto-cops.
I would, even though I think bitching about not being able to drink in Dolores Park is pointless. Just find another park that isn’t drawing so much police attention.
The news reports say that past one in the morning there were 12 people who stabbed the guy. Subsequent reports are they have caught 33% of the those at the crime. I’m not an expert on police work, but I don’t think the motor-cycle cops and patrol cars at 1 PM is going to do much to help catch those who stabbed the guy.
First, I’m going to write in Local NcMimbydouche for the Board of Supervisors election.
Second, I love how no one in this city has any sense of moderation or compromise. Bike cops every hour, REALLY?!? What is that solving? As a tax payer if I am extremely angry about my tax dollars being used to protect rich white people from beer cans and trash. There are assaults and robberies going on constantly in this city and this is what cops are doing?!?
And to the guy who complained about the trash and litter at Dolores, did you not notice the part when you moved in? Last time I checked the park has been there for sometime and being a major city with limited green space one would assume that a park of such size would get used with some regularity. Oh wait…I understand, you wanted the park all for yourself (and your dog) and didn’t want to share it with anybody (aka young people and minorities).
I think complaining about the litter is completely justifed. We live in a city and nobody expects it to be perfect. But fucking clean up after yourself. The garbage after a Saturday or Sunday is really just embarrassing. Trying to condone makes you look like a selfish, spoiled, entitled brat.
Yeah, but also people could take some of their trash back home with them if it won’t fit in the trash cans there. There’s no excuse for littering, it’s fucking lame.
the NIMBYs are complaining that non-neighbors are coming into their park and leaving trash. If they’re right, maybe they just live too far away to reasonably transport an empty 30 rack home.
Isn’t it great the way the bottles and cans are always picked up by the recyclers. Its the paper trash, bottle caps and cigg butts that are sometime left. But most people do clean up after themselves, and that is how it should be.
I think it’s really funny how you talk about “your tax dollars” and then lambast rich people. You’ve contradicted yourself immediately - the rich people pay a lot more taxes than you. So if you are upset that your $13 in city taxes isn’t fighting enough assaults and robberies, but the rich people’s $8,700 in taxes want some of that to go towards cleaner parks without stabbings…you’ve just beat yourself at your own game.
The morale of the story is that you shouldn’t dare discuss rights and wants given to you by the fact that you pay tax dollars…and then say rich peoples rights and wants aren’t as important. They pay much more in taxes than you.
Finally - you called this a city with “limited green space”. Have you lived anywhere else? San Francisco is the most park-riddled city in the US.
Hey! I’m paying a minimum of 92k/year for those cops to clamp down on litter, more if they are racking up overtime! My special snowflake status means it is important and I will pay top dollar for those cops! Who cares if we have to take food from children or cut cops where there is violent crime? I demand satisfaction and am now going to the Mission Station to hold my breath and throw a tantrum! Yes we CAN!
From what I see, there are more and better Rec and Park employees fixing the sprinklers and picking up trash, than when this was mainly a dog park. Dolores Park looks good because there have been people using it.
As a response to some of the comments on my comment, I am a person of color, not a white person who wants the neighborhood to be as “white and quiet and clean” as the alleged suburb I moved from. My family has owned the property near the park for almost 40 years, and yes, there has been a change in the last 10-12 years and no, there wasn’t nearly as much noise or trash in the park in years past as there is now. I’m not complaining about some situation I moved into.. It’s about watching the character of my neighborhood sour over the years. So for all of you who think I’m some spoiled, white, NIMBY whining about wanting a “clean, white” neighborhood, I am a native San Franciscan whose family has been here for more than 40 years, and believe, me, I require no lecturing about how neighborhoods have changed. I’ve seen nearly a dozen families driven out of their homes near the park, by gentrification, etc. You all worry about how cops actually enforcing the laws will “change” San Francisco, when none of you seems to know the first thing about how the City really has changed over the years. My original post was meant to maybe make people just for a moment stop and think about their behavior. No one thinks that their having one six pack of beer, blasting music etc., and leaving behind their remnants in the park is a big deal, but when 500 other people think and do the same thing.. It adds up, and it’s practically ruined the park.
People in the park, make the park safer.
When the stories about the gardeners selling plants and all hit the television and newspapers it should have made a difference, but little happened. The improvements at Dolores Park happened later when the park started to be used by more people, than dogs. After the park was being used by people we got personnel who could fix the sprinkler system.
you guys act like you never went to high school.
PUT YOUR LIQUOR IN A DIET COKE CAN (thnx bill murry)
& SMOKE YOUR WEED OUT OF A SNEAK A TOKE.
but I stopped going to dolores awhile ago, why? I got a house with a roof.
Um, gang? Dolores Park is not nearly the crime ridden shithole it was in the 80s and 90s. I remember it being a place to avoid:
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2010/08/dolores_parks_bad_old_days_r…
I would think people who’d been here for “40 years” and are locals would have known that.
Funny how memory in SF can be so short sighted.
Parched lawns at San Francisco park: A spreading sea of brown grass has ChronicleWatch tipsters worried about maintenance at Mission Dolores Park. Robert Cromey of San Francisco says the park looks like it hasn’t been watered for months. “No more green grass and trash galore,” says tipster Joseph Kamel, who walks his dog in the park twice a day. “It’s been forgotten by local authorities.” Other tipsters complained about vandalism and filthy bathrooms. Status: Parks spokeswoman Rose Marie Dennis acknowledged that staffing problems have resulted in the park’s decline, but she told ChronicleWatch that it’s on her agency’s radar and has been the subject of extensive community meetings. After an expose about park gardeners sitting down on the job last year, two Dolores Park gardeners were put on leave, Dennis says. Five gardeners rotating in have been working 40 hours a week – half the time the previous staffers put in. Dennis says the park’s irrigation system is frequently vandalized, compounding the problem. She says the aging system can be operated more effectively by staffers familiar with its quirks. On Tuesday, she told us two new gardeners for the park are due to start by the end of the year. “We know that it will make a difference,” says Dennis, adding that the new gardeners will also be monitoring the restrooms. – Who’s responsible: Yomi
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/19/BAGP7FANQF1….
I’d rather have gardners and trash collectors coming through once an hour during the day, and having the cops come through at night, after 10pm, when the park is supposed to be “closed”….unless the cops are writing tickets for littering during the day, they aren’t doing anything but “waving the blue flag” and making overtime
Bottom line is, pack it in and pack it out. If everyone treated it like their front lawn there would be no problems with trash. The stabbings are another story… Would be interesting to see if the cops are around after midnight. I live on the East side of the park adn several of my friends live on the west side. I have to walk all the way around now if I am alone to get home. NOT COOL! That hill is steep at 2am!
Hey everybody, If you want a chance to hear from the Mission police captain, Rec and Parks officials, and Supervisor Dufty on this very subject, then come to the community meeting on September 1st, 6:00 PM at Mission High School. Right now, the police and RPD are only hearing from one side of the discussion. Tell them your side. Learn more here: http://www.doloresparkworks.org
When I visited New Orleans where there is no prohibition : ) against public drinking, I was amazed at how normal it seemed, it was no big deal at all. The walls were not tumbling down, there were no drunken orgies in the street, It had never occurred to me until then what a stupid law it is. It has never stopped one bum from drinking, I don’t think it’s ever stopped anyone from getting drunk, it’s against the law to be drunk in public anyway which is another ridiculous nanny state law. Drinking a beer or being drunk does not equate to being a menace to society.
When did those laws change? I was in New Orleans last month and the bartenders still ask “for here or to go?”
Just got back from Dolores Park after a bit of Friday afternoon. Same at it ever was. no popo in sight. Was this story hyperbole?
No, this story was not made up. There really were police on dirt bikes riding up and down the hills last time I was in Dolores Park, which was between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 15th. I was sitting at the top of the hill near the Church St. end of the tennis courts with my bike and my new orchid I bought, just me and myself, soaking up the sun, enjoying the new grass they just put down. I saw two officers on dirt bikes ride directly up to the top of the hill next to me to talk to a Spanish-speaking family with very small kids having a cook-out. I thought it must have been because cook-outs or grills are against the law in the park and somebody called or something. I don’t know what the officers said to the mother of the family, but they did not make the family close up the grill, so it must not have been the grill. It looked like profiling to me, because the park was loaded with people and the officers did not stop to talk to anybody else.
Anyone can see that many SFPD officers, even the ones taking calls from an office, are not very helpful, proactive or professional in times of crisis or otherwise. I have seen them literally turn their backs on crime that is occurring right in front of them, because they are indifferent, and probably afraid. A cop’s job is supposed to be respectable and require a certain degree of tenacity and ambition. Instead, their energy goes to politically-driven, inconsequential non-actions. For instance, I know someone who got a $75 ticket for jaywalking. I know someone else who was pulled over for allegedly running a stop sign, though no stop sign had been run, because it turned out there were witnesses. Yet here we are, hearing about shootings all the time and never anyone caught, stabbings and no suspects found. Crime in San Francisco is very high, in every neighborhood, murders are frequent and consistent, yet no one seems to want to admit it or talk about it. Where are the cops? I rarely see officers patrolling our streets, so on this day of August 15th, it was hard for me to see them patrolling the park in this crude manner. Fine if they want to patrol the park, but profiling is illegal and unprofessional, and if they are going to patrol the park in the day, I want to see the same vigor at night when the crime is actually happening, not just in the park but in all of the city.
Personally, I believe police presence can be community-empowering when done right. I think if any city should show how it’s done, it should be San Francisco, since we are such progressive leaders in so many other ways - even Obama said we should model other cities after SF. Why then, do we have such an unprofessional police force? Why then, are crimes not handled in an assertive manner?
I do agree with more trash/recycling bins. I don’t agree with having people come by to pick up trash after young people who leave it, but to be honest, I don’t really see young people leaving trash and not cleaning up after themselves. Additionally, I don’t see just young people at the park - there are families in the playground, families near the tennis courts, dog walkers of all ages toward the upper side of the hill, and people of all ages scattered about everywhere. I think many people don’t want to share public spaces, just as much as many people don’t want to/don’t know how to clean up after themselves. Then there’s everybody else. That’s the way it works. You have your jerks, and then you have everybody else. But why are we so concerned with petty things like who’s in the park when people are dying all around us and it’s so ignored that it’s not even reported in the news?
Is this a pride thing?
By pride time, it seemed that there were 50 porta-potties and a major cleaning effort. Fun was allowed to excess. Can’t Bevan and rec and park take the same pride in this park the rest of the year by having sufficient porta-potties and trash cans.
Are you jealous of Pride? Just kidding.
As you can imagine, Pride, like all other San Francisco events, has porta-potties and a clean-up crew because it is a designated annual event that draws thousands more than your average day in the park.
The kind of money and effort it would take to manage porta-potties (which I am glad we don’t have - think porta-potty + the general public on a daily basis - yikes!) is impossible, which is why we have pay toilets in many parts of the city now. Personally, I like the pay toilets. They’re self-cleaning.
Speaking of self-cleaning, is the park really that dirty that we need a clean-up crew? It looks to me like people clean up after themselves.
But yeah, more trash cans is a really good idea.