Now that the 100th Bay to Breakers, and the first to be called "Zazzle Bay To Breakers," is over, it's time to consider improvements for the future. On that note, this blogger had the pleasure of meeting two runners (who were also participants and party goers, given the nature of things B2B) at the Park Chalet Restaurant after the race.
They were happy, talkative, and wonderfully opinionated.
Carol And Candy Want The Floats Back in the Bay To Breakers:
The sisters and San Francisco natives both said this year's event was "sparse" as Carol said "it's just the ambiance of everyone on their having such a good time. It seemed kind of sparse without the floats."
The Floats were disallowed for 2011 because they were seen as "rolling bars" distributing alcohol, leading to problems with falling down drunk people. In 2010, the party activity was so intense in the heat of the day that the Crossover Drive underpass was essentially blocked for emergency traffic, as this video from 2010 shows at the 4:42 mark:
This year, as upcoming videos will show, it was a lot tamer at the Crossover Drive underpass. In all, observers said the 2011 Bay To Breakers had fewer mishaps and problems than the year before.
The logical conclusion is that the new rules helped, but I still contend all of these problems would be almost totally eliminated if a big name group like The Rolling Stones or The Black Eyed Peas, or Lady Gaga took the stage at The Polo Grounds. Then, the action would be in that area, rather than all over the streets in Golden Gate Park.
Would it be perfect? No. But the crowd direction would be predictable; everyone would want to be in or close to the Polo Grounds. And the concert would go on until near dusk, insuring that people didn't have time to wander around because the Bay To Breakers was over and the Footstock was closed.
But we can toss around many different ideas for Bay To Breakers 2012. After all, we've got a year to go.
Well, unless Harold Camping gets his way!
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