Bay to Breakers Must Be Abolished

The horrors of the Bay to Breakers crowd in the downtown area are minimal compared to the trashing with human waste and garbage in and near Golden Gate Park, making a mess of people's homes, yards and our public sidewalks and streets. The people doing this are just drunks who do not contribute to any charity. This whole racket must end; the taxpayers are liable for all the damage and we cannot afford this. One lawsuit will certainly end this nonsense.

We need to raise the taxes on the rich with the progressive income tax to pay for social service needs; charity rackets are precisely that and this Bay to Breakers nonsense must end.

While at the beginning of this drinking party, the non-athletic Halloween in May crowd are just snotty, well fed kids, by the entrance to Golden Gate Park, we have an eyewitness to the following horror scene in a Letter to Editor by Blair M. Kemp, SF Chronicle, 5/24/08, from:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/24/EDC810P4T1.DTL
as follows:
"Editor - I am of the opinion that it is seriously time to consider discontinuing the Bay to Breakers. "

"Even with all the money Bay to Breakers raises to support charities, have they considered the countless dollars that it costs homeowners in San Francisco? "

"I am aware that the Bay to Breakers makes some reimbursement to the city for cleaning up the route of the race. This is just scratching the surface. I had to take hours away from my work and family last Sunday to stand in front of my building and prevent vandalism. Without exaggerating, I witnessed hundreds of people urinating in our block alone. I counted, in a five-minute period, 12 adult men and women urinating in one garage across the street. I had to take bleach and a hose and clean up in front of my building. Yet, as I was standing there, more than one person tried to urinate on my building and became belligerent when I chased them away. Even though the Bay to Breakers provides facilities, it does not mean people use them."

"Additionally, I had to clean up beer cans, Red Bull cans, broken glass, red plastic cups, vomit, discarded apparel and a multitude of other trash."

"So, Monday morning, May 19, I go out for my cardio-walk around the Golden Gate Park Panhandle and the Haight. Again, there are a multitude of discards and remnants of human waste extending at least three blocks out from the route of the Bay to Breakers."

"This years' race appeared to be bigger than ever. It appeared that most of the people joining the party (not really racing) were not wearing numbers. A of people never sign up and pay their fees, so the Bay to Breakers is not benefiting anyone by allowing them to participate. They are only adding to the discourtesy and the expense to San Francisco residents. Most of the people participating couldn't care less about the Bay to Breakers' cause. They want to get drunk and behave like idiots."