4/20 may not have fallen on a weekend this year, but the event was still widely attended.
Park Station's Captain Sanford and Co. were out early to monitor misbehavior. Capt. Sanford noted the morning's landscape in a special 4/20 bulletin that went out yesterday around noon:
"As suspected, there were people arriving as early as 5:00 a.m. and many of them had already started bringing in large pits, containers, couches, and tents. SFPD quickly teamed up with the Park Rangers, the HOT Team, and Park and Rec. to contain potential problems. As of 0900 hours we have already admonished over 100 people and had tents, tables, pits, commercial popcorn machines, large stereo systems and speakers taken down and removed from the Park."
Despite Park Station's attempts at keeping things peaceful, there were a handful of violent incidents. SFGate reports that yesterday saw a couple of violent robberies, and one attack on a park ranger. ABC reported bottle throwing and (yes) truancy. There was also apparently a fire in the middle of Clayton Street.
All told, SFGate and ABC report that police arrested five people: one for assault with a deadly weapon for hitting the ranger on the head with a bottle, two more for outstanding warrants and two for intoxication. That's down from the 11 arrests of last year.
If you were in the Haight yesterday, you probably noticed the news station helicopters circling overhead more or less all day long. ABC 7 had a livestream of the action at Hippie Hill. Between the sirens, the choppers, the stand-still traffic backed up for miles, and the crowds, the neighborhood sounded a bit like a war zone.
via ABC 7
Rec and Park mounted its annual post-4/20 cleanup effort, with some help from local cannabis dispensary Green Cross, which added 40 volunteers to the effort and collected 200 bags of garbage. The estimated 10,000-15,000 people, most of whom are from out of town, who traditionally descend on Hippie Hill have a tendency to leave behind mountains of detritus, and this year was no different, with police estimating a crowd of 10,000. Last year, hauling away the roughly 10,000 pounds of garbage cost San Francisco $10,000.
As for Haight Street, by about 5pm last night, the street was trashed. We saw vomit and urine in doorways and bus shelters, garbage overflowing from trash bins, jam-packed sidewalks, and a cloud of smoke hovering over all of it. Some residents and employees took their complaints to Twitter.
My basic attitude toward this 4/20 upper haight party situation is "get off my lawn"
— Steve Conover (@sconover) April 21, 2015
4/20 is basically the worst thing that ever happened to the Haight. Cars, helicopters, stoner-tourists pissing everywhere. Worse each year.
— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) April 20, 2015
Working on Haight St on 4/20 is one of the circles of hell and today I'm living it.
— Sara K. (@Saraakay) April 20, 2015
After working @Booksmith today, I think my entire face is watering from the smoke wafting over Haight St. I'm way too old & grumpy for 4/20.
— Megan Kurashige (@mkazoo) April 21, 2015
Were you in the neighborhood? What did you see? What would you like to see happen differently next year? Tell us in the comments.
