Dolores Park Hill Bomb happens anyway, cops look like fools

On Saturday, the annual Dolores Park Hill Bomb took over Church Street, with almost a thousand people spectating and dozens of skaters and bikers having a thrill bombing down Dolores Hill.

Numerous community groups came out to support skaters. A local skating advocate Aaron B. and his community partners handed out free helmets that they helped raise money for. A volunteer coalition of autonomous street medics and healthcare providers was stationed at the bottom of the hill, and attended to skaters and bystanders who had various injuries and scrapes while letting EMTs fill in for serious incidents. Members of Safe Street Rebel, Community Liberation Programs, and other community groups brought food, water, did traffic control, and cop watched, as well as handed out pamphlets letting skaters know their rights on San Francisco streets.

It was a safe, wonderful event. Skaters had a great time, residents from the neighborhood came out to watch and cheered, and everything wrapped up safely.

We're asking community members who support the Hill Bomb to keep up the pressure on the City to make this a sanctioned event next year, rather than over-policing the community yet again. Here are three steps you can take:

1. E-mail Sup. Mandelman at [email protected] or attend his office hours this Saturday, July 13 from 9:30 to 11:30 AM. (To attend office hours, e-mail [email protected] and say you would like to join.)
   1. Tell Mandelman that the cops did absolutely nothing to make the Dolores Hill Bomb safe
   2. Mandelman and City departments should commit to start planning now for next year's Hill Bomb, by adopting a harm reduction plan that was circulated to City officials weeks before this year's event
   3. Mandelman should issue a public apology to the skating community for saying there was nothing he could do to make the Hill Bomb a safe event
2. Attend the next Police Commission hearing, this Wednesday, July 10, at 5:30 PM. To make public comment, you must attend in person, or you must request a disability accommodation (which must be done 3 days ahead of the meeting by calling (415) 837-7070). Details here.
   1. Police Commission meetings usually happen the first three Wednesdays of every month, so the subsequent meeting should be on Wednesday, July 17.
3. Get organized and involved for next year, reach out to community groups and talk to friends, family, and members of your community about this event and how We Keep Us Safe and NOT the Cops.

No thanks to the cops or the City for making the event safe. For the whole week before the event, local piggy Supervisor Mandelman, SFPD Chief Bill Scott, and the entire City apparatus mobilized to try to block the Hill Bomb:

• Mandelman and the cops held a "community meeting" the Monday before the event, where they repeated they intended to shut down the event if skaters showed up
• SFPD Chief Scott reiterated again on Friday: “We do not intend to allow a hill bomb tomorrow”
• On Saturday, they completely barricaded Dolores Street, from 18th-21st street. Barricades were put on the park side of Dolores, as well as across each intersection. They even put barricades along the whole sidewalk between Dolores St. and the park, as well as on the paths up the center of the park. Barricades were zip-tied together to prevent them from being separated. Many park-goers were confused about the heavy police presence, and were deterred from using the park. People with disabilities and those with strollers were either prevented from using the park entirely, or were seriously inconvenienced.

SF Public Works installed more "Botts' dots" or "raised pavement markers" on Dolores Street at 20th Street. These dots make biking, skating, or even riding a motorcycle on Dolores Street extremely dangerous, and even local city employees privately acknowledge that they have to ride on the sidewalk around the dots to ensure their own safety.

Apparently, the cops didn't realize that San Francisco had more than one hill. Instead of skating down Dolores Street which was completely barricaded, skaters moved a mere one block over to Church Street, and held the event there instead. All of the planning to stop the event, all of the cops, and all of the barricades utterly failed to stop a single skater from enjoying an annual local event that has been held for decades.

It's worth pointing out a few things from the event:

• One person did get detained on Saturday, for supposedly "obstructing a vehicle" in the middle of the park, and was then cited and released. Needless to say, this was an intimidation tactic by the police. This person was doing nothing wrong in the park, and if it weren't for the heavy police presence, this person would have been left alone.
• The J Church MUNI line was suspended during the day of the event. Who asked for this to happen? Were transit riders even notified, so they could take other routes? Official MTA signs were posted at transit stops along Church Street about the closure, but they simply mysteriously appeared the day before the event.
• Church Street is a more dangerous street to bomb down. In particular, at the bottom of the hill, there is a raised curb, train tracks, and a bus platform right in the middle of the street. One skater hit their head on the curb and had to be taken to the hospital by EMTs, but thankfully they were still in great spirits when they were carried away. Had the cops not blocked off Dolores Street, skaters would not have been put in more danger. Luckily, people on the street mobilized to find cones to soften any further collisions.

• Supervisor Mandelman tried to take credit for the safe Hill Bomb on Twitter, and the SFPD similarly said their operation was a success. However, the Supervisor and the cops did absolutely nothing to make this event safe. They reiterated multiple times they intended to stop the event, and they mobilized to install so much street infrastructure to prevent the event as well. Over $6,500 alone was spent on the barricades themselves. That's not even counting the millions of dollars in police and sheriff overtime. Ultimately, it was all for naught.

We're thrilled that the Dolores Park Hill Bomb was safe and fun for everyone this year. We are now calling on the all City agencies to start planning early, to work together to make next year's Hill Bomb an even safer event, not by attempting to stop the event, but by working with the community to make it safe. A local skating advocate has already created a plan. (They have also tried to get a grant for 2 other events to help capacity build for the Hill Bomb, as well as talked to multiple City officials about the plan, but was denied for both.)

Imagine, if instead of the heavy cop presence, the City did the following:

• Notified area residents and drivers of the street closure along Dolores
• Allowed MUNI's J Church line to continue operating, by allowing the Hill Bomb to proceed as planned on Dolores Street
• Obtained hay bales and water barriers and other soft-hit obstacles to line Dolores Street, to mitigate any injuries if skaters should fall or spill
• Offered free skate safety gear, like helmets and pads
• Helped create smaller spaces of the hill where kids can still experience the event in a safe manner
• Encouraged local residents and local community groups to come out to the event, to bring food and water, and to watch and cheer on the skaters

We at Safe Street Rebel support safe street infrastructure designed for communities and not by cops, and that includes infrastructure for skaters to have safe events!