4 views of Bay2Breakers 2006

Four views (among thousands) of B2B 2006


(1) C.W. Nevius blog:
posted 21 May 2006, Sunday, 3PM:
"Nudes, booze, and penguins:
Another Bay to Breakers morning":

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/indexn?blogid=18

........

(2)
San Francisco MAYOR NEWSOM misses nudes at B2B 2006

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/22/SPGK8IVS8F1.DTL
[......]
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, running in his "seventh or eighth'' Breakers,
set a personal best of 59:04 while among the throng of 62,000.
"I can't believe I broke an hour,'' Newsom said. "This is exciting.''
However, the mayor did have one gripe:
"I didn't see any naked people.
They had alcohol checkpoints.
I felt like I was in another Bay Area county.''

.........
(3) B2B costumes:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/22/BAGG9IVV8G1.DTL

.........
(4)

B2B 2006
(as experienced by Tortuga)


For Bay to Breakers 2006, SUN hoped to meet and demonstrate at the top
of the famous Hayes Street Hill, in Steiner Street, near Alamo Square.
George was there from 8am to 9am, alone; then he joined the footrace.
Pam (Ducky) and Turtle (Tortuga) arrived late, sometime after 9;
and demonstrated there until the tail end of the crowd had passed by,
and the police had re-opened the street to smogmobile traffic,
pushing pedestrians back onto the sidewalks.
When the street was re-opened, Turtle had to cover up temporarily.
Tho SF cops tolerate nudity IN and during the footrace, one can't hang around nude
after the party has moved on. At this time, Ducky went home.
Then Turtle hurried along sidewalks, along with fellow stragglers, trying to catch up
with the tail end of the official event.
He did so near the beginning of the Pandhandle (near the DMV, Baker and Fell).
[ Note to non-SF readers: The Panhandle is a long thin strip of Golden Gate Park,
between parallel Fell and Oak streets, stretching from Baker to Stanyan. ]
There he realized that the park, including its panhandle, is the BEST place to watch B2B (whilst Alamo Square is merely second-best). Here musicians and picnickers can relax
comfortably in a grassy area with trees, and they can remain (if they wish) even after the
adjacent section of street has been re-opened to smogmobiles (that is, closed to walkers).
While thousands marched westward in Fell Street, hundreds preferred to walk in the Panhandle, until the two streams of pedestrians merged at Stanyan,
entering the main part of GG park.
Turtle followed the tail-end crowd of beer-fueled partyers part-way thru Golden Gate Park, as far as the new art museum. Most of these walkers stopped and danced wherever bands were playing along the route.
As the day warmed up (temporarily), he was able to photograph a body-painted nude couple (who looked like pagans), a group of top-free women, and others.
Then he walked back to Hippie Hill, in the eastern (Stanyan) end of GG park, which usually hosts a drum crcle on weekend afternoons.
Later in the afternoon, rain drenched The City.

......
B2B 2006 taught Tortuga that the Panhandle is more fun than Alamo Square.
So our 2007 plan will be different from 2006.

We may meet in the Panhandle, on Baker, just south of Fell, at 9AM
on B2B Sunday 2007, weather permitting.

To get there, take the N Judah streetcar to Cole Street; then walk downhill (north),
past Haight Street, to the Panhandle; then walk to Baker (at east end of Panhandle, near the Dept. of Motor Vehicles).
.........
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