This created for a fun ride with minimal athleticism, maximal gridlock, and time to look at people's costumes and listen to music.
Everyone made lots of noise by the hotels. I hope it helps. Many of these downtown hotels charge $200+ per night, and their costs for paying workers can't be that much higher than ordinary Motel 6 in a rural area. It isn't so plausible to believe that San Francisco hotels are right at the financial edge. Hotels in Gallup New Mexico charge about $25/night. When I was on strike, it got boring after a couple of days, or even hours, so it is great to see them keeping up the energy for so long. The economy does not require slaves to stay afloat. In fact, with mechanization of many tasks, the average workweek should be going down and material standard of living should be rising, rather than the opposite.
Most of the focus was on halloween and fun, but the election with its ensuing chaos left people in a sort of political mood. There were a few political costumes- fascists, Woody Guthrie, Gavin Newsom. I was a Burger King worker. Sorry that I have no pictures of that. It was dark.
At the Hyatt, a police officer blocked more people from getting close, but there seemed to be a 'left them go' type of chant. At Nob hill, we slowly circled the square and stood around forever, and people got into diversions like getting naked. We went down the hill, and slowly, the 2000 (guessing) riders went through gaps between stuck cars. Who drives around Union Square at that time anyway. We cheered on hotels in this area, and one on the south side of Market.
Police have been very well behaved, for the most part, to the central part of the group. While in New York this month, the police department tried to ban an injunction banning critical mass rides, the police here directed traffic and let people do dancing and rapping in the intersection by Dolores park.