Bay 2 Breakers (SF) vs. Keep Austin Weird (Austin)

So, recently there has been a huge uproar in the bay area (SF really) about the upcoming Bay to Breakers event in May. In tradition, it has been one of the craziest parties in SF, drawing near to over 80,000 people to the embarcadero before starting the 12k run to the ocean (through Golden Gate Park ending at Ocean Beach) I've participated in a few of these, and it is always flipping awesome to see the shit that people come up with as far as costumes go. The record for this race was somewhere in the ballpark of 110,000 runners. Starting in 1912 as a way to lift the city's spirits after the great fire of 1906, it is the longest consecutive running footrace in the world. (runs from same start to same finish) Some years, the participation was down to under 50 people, but has never stopped.

There is even a group that runs it backwards, dressed up as Salmon, swimming up stream. hahahaha I remember seeing them that year (2004), and here is a video from 2006.

Recently though, the rights to this event were purchased by one of the sponsors for this run, being ING.com, and they've have decided that they needed to tame it down a notch, and implemented new rules that included, NO ALCOHOL, and NO ROLLING FLOATS! What the fuck!? This all but negates what the whole bay to breakers experience is. Including some really amazing and imaginative floats, as well as the "poor man's" float...ie. shopping cart with a keg in it and some kind of decoration. hahahaha genius!

Yes, while the front running bastards, maybe 5,000 actual runners are done and gone before the rest of the crowd even gets started, it's still a race mired in tradition that must not stop.

Unlike Austin's "Keep Austin Weird" movement, and event that was started more along the lines of protesting commercialism and over development of Austin, this race in SF is one of the funnest events of the year, started mostly to bring the spirits of the city up after a devastating event. (Fire of 1906)

The Hash House Harriers have been running an event here for many years...usually stopping at Stowe Lake ( in GGP) for the after party. They usually make a long weekend of this event...here is some photos from 2004 that I dug up. First few are of the run on Friday, and they rented the whole floor at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown for the after party. It was nuts, we had hashers that were having to show the little Chinese dudes how to tap the kegs faster, cause we were going through so much beer.



One of the beer stops in North Beach. Some friends from Dallas h3, and yes, this is when I was harrier...hahaha the flowing locks, long since gone. :(

This was hilarious, the homeless dude, had some rap jammin' on the boom box while asking for money, but wasn't impressed when one of the hashers decided to dance for him and then ask the homeless dude for money...for dancing. HAHAHA :D
Day of the event, Sunday morning, luckily there was beer at the start, and lots of tortillas...for the great tortilla toss...and trying to bean the reporters up on the scaffolding before the race even starts.
The theme for this year ended up being "The Gropenator" as this is the year, that Governor Davis was ousted from office and Arnulhd "get to the choppa" Schwarzenegger then took over. Not a lot of people in SF liked him, so they went with the whole groping events, that were in the media, and built the "gropenator" as you see below.

We (the collective hash) groped EVERYONE, even some of the reporters who thought it was hilarious. Hashers took turns carrying this float the whole way.
This is (I think) Fell st. leading into GGP. Jam packed. They have bands playing on street corners, and people along the way have house parties on their front yards. Great party.

So like all great things, some people are going to complain, and rightly so, cause with all that alcohol, there is always a group of people (large group) that will fuck it up for everyone else. The amount of drunkenness and trash left at the end, had a lot of people up in arms.
I think if the city, just provided better facilities (more porta-potties, better security, and maybe more accessible trash collection) it would be a different story.
Anyway, with the new rules, there was a grass roots movement that went into effect, and within several days over 4k people had joined, and communicated with city officials, to come to a decent compromise and keep this tradition alive. They secured an audience with city officials, race organizers, and sponsors to talk it out and mediate to some kind of compromise.

some groups:
Facebook group
Save Bay to Breakers
Petition to Save B2B


What has Austin done to Keep Austin Weird!??