The 2012 Survival Guide to the Outside Lands Festival

Outside Lands is back for the 2012 three day festival starting this Friday and going until Sunday, and you know what that means for us local citizen commuters and people who live nearby... three nightmare days.

This survival guide is NOT for those of you going to the event.  This is for us locals who wants to go on our happy way to other things in life, like our jobs.

Traffic impacts:
If you normally drive north and south through Golden Gate Park, literally every park road entrance in the "Outer" district areas will be closed to traffic starting at 8PM this Thursday.

North-south alternate routes: Great Highway, and Crossover Drive (19th Avenue on Sunset end, and Park Presidio/25th Avenue on Richmond end).  If there's no bad weather or high winds, Upper Great Highway is an excellent alternative than detouring via Sunset Boulevard.

East & West routes: No known traffic closures outside of Golden Gate Park, but if entering or driving through Golden Gate Park on going east or west may experience road closures or detours.

East-West streets to avoid: Lincoln and Fulton.
Better east-west streets to use: Judah and Balboa.

Public transit impacts:
For those of you commuting on Muni lines: 5-Fulton, N-Judah, 71-Height Noriega, 28-19th Avenue, 38-Geary, and 38L-Geary Limited, expect heavy ridership.  Last year, concert goers took the 38 and 38L, which is a decent walk to Golden Gate Park to attend Outside Lands.  To give you an idea, buses packed to maximum capacity and LONG WAIT TIMES.

Alternate public transit routes:
Sunset district: 6-Parnassus, NX-Judah Express, 66-Quintara, 16X-Noriega Express, and 48-Quintara/24th.
Richmond district: 1-California, any weekday peak express buses (1AX/BX, 38AX/BX, 31AX/BX), 31-Balboa,
North-south routes: 18-46th Avenue and 29-Sunset.

Parking impacts:
If you live not far from Golden Gate Park, prepare for hell.  If you have a garage, no problem.  If you park your car on the street, you should park it there on Friday, and don't move the car until Sunday evening.

Blocked driveway?  Call 311.  Outside Lands will have one dedicated SFMTA parking officer and two tow trucks in each affected neighborhood.


Don't let this event ruin your weekend!  For more info, view Outside Land's "311" page: http://www.sfoutsidelands.com/311/

Riding a Bike at Night: Use Some Common Sense

I know I'm going to get some more hate mail. My previous post about bikes on escalators got me a heck of a lot of comments, so if you are interesting in debating this particular issue, please do leave a comment.

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Since the time change and the sun is setting around 5PM, my commute from SF State to my home in the Outer Richmond district is dark, and especially kinda creepy along the roads in Golden Gate Park due to the lack of lighting and raccoons jumping in front of your car. I'm not a fan of driving in the evening, but it's what you have to do if you want to get home (or start work extra early and leave earlier).

Almost on a daily basis during the evening commute, I notice bicyclists riding in Golden Gate Park without a headlight and/or a taillight. Even worse is finding a bicyclist with no lights, no reflectors, and no reflective clothing. With the lack of normal street lighting in Golden Gate Park, it's difficult to find a bike rider when they are not using the most basic equipment to make themselves obvious and stand out for their own safety.

Yes, there is a state law: Vehicle Code Section 21201 states the following requirements for riding at night:

1. A white lamp on the front end of the bike that illuminates the road ahead and can be seen by an approaching vehicle/person from 300 feet, OR a white lamp seen at the same distance but attached on the front of the bicycle operator (e.g. front of a helmet).
2. A red reflector on the rear that can be reflected from lawful vehicle headlights 500 feet away.
3. Yellow or white pedal reflectors seen 200 feet.
4. White or yellow reflectors on the both the front and rear tire spokes, or reflectors on both tires.

It isn't rocket science people, it's common sense.

Why we have laws when common sense should prevail is up for debate, but let's get to the facts, people who do bicycle at night should take additional precautions versus riding during the day. The law makes it clear, but people should be doing more in the name of being safe. Here's some additional suggestions:

• Put a rear tail light, especially one that rapidly flashes a LED lamp.
• Wear reflective clothing. You might look like the construction worker in the Village People, but at least people can see you better. If you don't want to wear "Caltrans Orange," why not wear a white jacket? Just please, don't wear dark clothing.
• Wear a helmet, day and night. If you get hit or fall over, would you like your skull to hit the pavement or have a cushion to lessen the blow? I saw a bicyclist cross over the cable car tracks and slipped and fell to the pavement. Not a pretty scene.
  

At minimum, having at least a front and rear tail lamp helps a lot in locating you when you operate a bicycle at night. I think a lot of drivers would agree, the more obvious you can be, the better it is for everyone. I fear hitting a bicyclist with my car, but if you stick out like a thorn on the streets, I can start planning earlier to steer clear and let you have the lane.

While I'm at it, pedestrians should at least wear some reflective clothing. Why people jog at night through Golden Gate Park is a mystery, but please just DON'T WEAR BLACK!

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Closes Road Without Advance Notice - Forces Commuters to take 20 BLOCK Detour

It's that time again, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is back in Golden Gate Park for a three day stint. Sure, they are better than the super loud and costly Outside Lands festival, but they really made a lot of us regular commuters going north from the Sunset to Richmond district confused and for me, a little angry.

This is my normal commute: Northbound Sunset, left turn to westbound MLK drive, right turn to northbound Chain of Lakes.

View Larger Map

Here's the situation:

I was just driving on northbound Sunset Boulevard going towards MLK drive (the first road upon entering the borders of Golden Gate Park). There's a metal barricade blocking drivers from making a left turn, and two signs on the barricade saying "exit" and "one way, right turn only."

The incredibly stupid detour forced people to make a right to eastbound MLK drive, encounter HEAVY TRAFFIC, and go all the way to the next park road exit at 25th Avenue (Sunset district side). This meant a 10 block detour, then driving another ten blocks west just to get around the stupid road closure.

View Larger Map

If they removed the left turn blockage, it only takes two minutes to get to Chain of Lakes & JFK drive. Now it takes at least 10 minutes just to go around the mess, and that doesn't include the traffic and all the cars parked along the park roads (and the roads can be narrow!).


This road closure info is NOT posted anywhere at these places, so therefore, I blame them for failure to provide advance notice to us residents who depends on westbound MLK drive to get to/from work and home.

1. SFMTA's website just says park roads may be closed. No specifics.
2. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass's website has NOTHING. They don't even answer their community hotline phones, they just let it go to voicemail.

The detour:
Take the right lane upon approach to Sunset and Irving, and make the slight right turn to approach Lincoln. Left on westbound Lincoln and turn right onto 41st Avenue.

View Larger Map

The hell with it, just take Great Highway.

Bicyclists Suck in Golden Gate Park (Okay, Not Everyone Sucks)

On Tuesday during evening rush, I was going home from work in my car and it requires me to drive into Golden Gate Park to go from the Outer Sunset district to the Outer Richmond.

What irritated me during this commute is a huge wad of bicyclists who decided to blow right through two stop signs. No, it's not Critical Mass, that's not until this Friday in downtown. It was around 30 bicyclists that was like a huge swarm of pissed off bees down Martin Luther King drive, and I can see them in my rear mirror coming fast. These were bicyclists that looked like they were training to be in a bicyclist racing event because of their racing bikes and their tight fit clothing.

Here's where they were going:

View Larger Map

I was stopped at point "C" just behind a SUV waiting for its turn to make a right turn onto Chain of Lakes. I noticed the swarm come from behind me, blew through the stop sign at Middle Drive (point "B") and on approach to make a right turn onto northbound Chain of Lakes.

I noticed in my mirror that they almost caused an accident when a car with the right of way (no stop sign) had to slam their brakes, and the SUV in front of me at the intersection had to also slam their brakes because the bikes passes on the right of us between the curb and the car.

That was just creepy to see a wad of bikes just violate state traffic laws and nearly cause multiple accidents. State law clearly says that ALL bicyclists on the road must obey all traffic signs and signals; did they? HELL NO. I'm no vigilante to put a stick in their spokes, and I decided the only decent thing to do when there's safety concerns is to call the police. I don't know what happened after that, but I hope those bikers gets a ticket and enjoys their day in traffic court.

This has happened before...
About six months ago, I had the same incident happen at map point "B" where I was the car going west and had the right away, and about a dozen fast moving bicyclists decided to cut me off by blowing through the stop sign on Middle Drive.

ANGRY!
I know there's a lot of you that are angry at bicyclists, and much of the complaints happens in downtown. But let's remember that not all bicyclists breaks the law, just a handful who thinks they are superman or totally invincible to cops writing tickets. All it takes is one crash to end someone's life and haunt the car driver forever.

But nobody really targets the bad cyclists in Golden Gate Park. It is because it's easier to get away with it due to the winding roads and you don't exactly know what street they went on so you can call the cops and report it? Would you know where South Fork Drive is? Likely not for many drivers.

For the rest of you, have you experienced a bad incident with a bicyclist breaking the law? Leave a comment.

My Opinion about Outside Lands - Not So Bad After All

There's been a mixed reaction about Outside Lands and while my blog used to be the hotbed of controversy when the event had its first year, The Richmond District Blog of San Francisco got over 170 comments, and it was pretty heated.

There's a handful that says, it was fine, others argued it wasn't fun because the noise was so bad. Even one of my friends who lives in University Park North (a.k.a. Stonestown Apartments) could hear the bass, and that's a far distance away from the park.

The Sound
As for me, life wasn't so bad in the Outer Richmond. Last year, I could hear some of the bass rumbling my walls and my ears, but this year, I didn't hear anything. That's a little odd, or maybe it's because the stage and speakers on the Polo Fields was facing east instead of west. I did notice some sound when I was on Geary and 19th walking around having some Joe's ice cream, but I surely didn't hear any music when I was inside earlier having curry at Volcano.

Traffic
Traffic wasn't that bad to go north and south. There was some rumor mill that Great Highway was closed all weekend, but that wasn't true at all.

I took my car on Friday and traveled along Great Highway in the morning without any difficulties. Going back around 6PM was a little troubling with heavy traffic between Lincoln and Fulton, but this was normal traffic people would expect on a weekend during a gorgeous day (those who wants to enjoy a day at the beach).

On Saturday, I decided to go out for an evening at the movies. Things went quite smoothly because I left my house at about 8PM and returned around 11:15PM encountering no traffic; only just a few stragglers walking around for a bus stop.

Muni
I'd have to say that Muni was my only major complaint for this entire event. I took the 38L inbound with no difficulties to reach Japantown for the Nihonmachi Street Fair.

Going back was a total hellhole. I just missed the 38L and looked at the Nextbus sign for the next vehicle. It said the next limited bus would be nearly 25 minutes. I waited and waited while four 38 local buses passed by, each one packed to the maximum capacity. I finally hopped onto a limited bus for a horrendous bus ride to Arguello to stop at the bank. I then had to wait for the next limited... the next one was packed, and so was the next few local buses. Muni had a bunch of out of service 60 foot articulated buses just buzzing by, and finally had to force my way on the next limited bus just so I could get home.

I knew most of the passengers on the bus was Outside Landers because they wore a green wristband, and a huge wad of them got off at 25th and 33rd Avenues.

I'm curious of why they took the Geary lines. More direct service is provided by the N-Judah, 71-Height Noriega, and 5-Fulton. I knew Outside Lands rented the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, but it looks like a lot of people went cheap and didn't opt for the express shuttle service. What's strange is the Geary lines are much further away from the Civic Auditorium at Civic Center than the other lines people can take that goes closest to the site in Golden Gate Park.

What did you think of Outside Lands? Leave a comment.

Lastly, regarding the photo, I couldn't find anything amusing to use, so I used a Muni training bus accident photo.

Surviving the 2010 Outside Lands Festival

It's that time of the year again when the Outside Lands festival returns to conquer Golden Gate Park with music, traffic, and everything else in between.

Akit's Complaint Department is here to give you all the tips you need to make it an easier weekend for all of the Sunset and Richmond district residents who has to put up with this stuff.

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First of all, Outside Lands will NOT be starting this Friday and having a three day music orgy. This year's event will only be on Saturday, August 14th and Sunday, August 15th. This is a big relief for those who commute on Muni to and from downtown on weekdays.

Second, for neighbors who live near Golden Gate Park, you should have received a letter from the event organizers. It's hard to identify as they mailed it to "Resident" and the return address says "Outside Lands" in very small print. If not, click here to read the same info on their site.

Important Phone Numbers:

• (415) 752-2098: Outside Land's community hotline will be manned on Saturday and Sunday from 10AM to 11PM if you care to bitch and moan at the event organizers. Be warned, this is not a government agency and thereby not responsible for maintaining public records of phone calls.
• (415) 831-2774: SF's Park and Rec's office will have signs available for residents who want to tell people to not block their driveways.
• (415) 553-0123: The non-emergency line of the police if people start getting out of line. Call 911 if it's a really bad problem.
• (415) 553-1200: Department of Parking and Traffic's hotline if you want to report illegal parking, including blocked driveways.
• (415) 554-7410: Supervisor Eric Mar's office for the Richmond (District 1). Highly likely nobody will answer the phone on the weekend.
• (415) 554-7460: Supervisor Carmen Chu's office for the Outer Sunset (District 4). Also unlikely to answer phones over weekend.
• 311 or (415) 701-2311: San Francisco 311; the all in one place to get answers and file complaints; manned by some of the most incompetent idiots in San Francisco.
  

Transit Information:
Outside Lands is offering private shuttle buses for the second year in a row to drive people to the event and back. The three pick-up locations are: Marina Square, Daly City BART, and 22nd Street Caltrain. For the locals who don't want to go to the concert, Daly City BART's parking lot won't fill-up because it's illegal to park in their garage and ride the shuttle to the concert, it's only for BART passengers only.

Taxicabs will be heavily used and abused, so be wary that if you depend on a taxi, you might not get one this weekend. Warning, watch out for price gouging by legal cab drivers, and never ride an illegal taxi or livery car. (Tips from the Taxicab Commission).

As usual, the cheap concertgoers will take advantage of Muni, which means more pain for us residents trying to get somewhere. Here's some tips I provided last year (modified due to certain lines not running on weekends):

Avoid the following Muni lines (in no particular order):

• 5-Fulton **SEVERE IMPACT**
  
• 71-Haight/Noriega
• 28-19th Avenue **THE BUS FOR CHEAPSKATES WHO DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR THE SHUTTLE FROM DALY CITY BART**
  
• 29-Sunset
• N-Judah **SEVERE IMPACT**
  

Alternate lines to ride:

• 6-Parnassus (inner Sunset residents)
• 18-46th Avenue (outer Sunset & Richmond residents, in exchange for the 29-Sunset)
• 31-Balboa (Richmond district residents)
  
• 38-Geary (everyday) and 38L-Geary Limited (doesn't operate on Sundays)
• 43-Masonic

Driving around the event from hell:
The same park roads will be shut-down from last year. Here's my driving tips from last year's event:

If you must drive, definitely stay away from these East-West direction streets.

• Fulton
• Cabrillo
• Balboa (maybe)
• Lincoln
• Irving (it's always crowded with the merchants on those blocks from 25th Avenue to 19th Avenue)
• Judah

If you are trying to go North-South, you can still drive through:

• 19th Avenue (GG Park South) via Crossover Drive to North entrances 25th Avenue and Park Presidio. EXPECT DELAYS.
• Great Highway, but do expect traffic delays as the Sunset Blvd. road entrance to Golden Gate Park will be shut down and forced to used Great Highway at Lincoln.
  
• Stanyan (east edge of GG Park)

Other Information:

• If you live near the event site and park your car on the street, park it on Friday night and don't move your car until Monday morning. Once you move your car, don't expect to find a space in your area.
• If you need to take care of any required business like grocery shopping, get it done as early as you can.
• For information about park access and details on park road closures, click here.

The best alternative:
If you want to have free entertainment without paying tons of money to Outside Lands, why not join me this weekend in SF's Japantown for the annual Nihonmachi Street Fair? Free music, great food, and lion dancing.

Lastly... Your rights as a San Francisco citizen during Outside Lands:

1. You have the right to complain to your district supervisor, police department, mayor's office, or any other appropriate city agency.
2. You have the right to have your complaint heard by a competent individual and you shall expect a response within a timely manner.
3. If you need help, call 311. If you believe the information they provided to you sounds incorrect or unhelpful, either hang-up and call again, or demand a supervisor. If they refuse to take complaints on certain matters regarding the event, keep cramming it down their throats until the report is filed.
4. Any comments, suggestions and complaints filed with a city agency, including SFPD, DPT, and 311 are considered public records under the Sunshine Ordinance. Calling Outside Land's hotline may not be considered as "part of the record."
   
5. If you notice limo or towncar drivers trying to pick-up passengers "on-demand," this is illegal under San Francisco law. Take down their plate and their unique chauffeur vehicle number on their rear bumper and call 311.
6. If you still hear concert music beyond 10PM, the end of the day's event, report it to your city supervisor and police department.
7. If you notice something shady going on in your neighborhood, don't sit on it, and give the cops a call.

Outside Lands Festival 2010 - It Won't Start on a Friday

There's some much needed cheering for all you Sunset and Richmond district residents who had to suffer through two years of the Outside Lands Festival that started on a Friday and went through to Sunday.

Yeah, you know that feeling when Outside Lands started on a Friday, it was pure hell trying to get home from downtown. If you took Muni, you probably noticed the massive overcrowding on the 5-Fulton or the N-Judah lines full of drunken partygoers who could afford to attend the event. For those who have to travel north and south, such as myself to my job at SF State, many of the park roads were closed and we are forced to take already crowded artery routes like Crossover Drive (19th Avenue/Park Presidio) and Great Highway. For once in many years, the backup at the Upper Great Highway was over a mile long to go north.

Now we can breathe a sigh of relief, Outside Lands will only be happening August 14th and 15th, a Saturday and Sunday. This means us commuters can cheer on the fact we can commute with minimal impact, unless if those event organizers get the permits to close-off the park roads on Friday the 13th.

Need to vent Outside Lands anger? Do it HERE

Strangely... there's not many forums out there right now that are letting people comment like crazy about Outside Lands and the impact on communities. Last year, SFGate, SFist, Curbed SF, and my blog were the primary places for disgruntled people to complain.

This year, a lot of people are noting their experiences on Twitter with the hashtag "#outsidelands," some noise complaints, and Muni problems.

Just a few minutes ago, SF Appeal posted their own Friday recap. Kudos to them for posting it up faster!

Update: Want to read over 30 disgruntled comments? See SFGate's little hidden comments page about the event here. A lot of people are not happy with the sound, now with accusations that the sound management folks jacked-up the bass.

Here's some of what I've noticed on Friday:

• Gridlocked traffic going northbound on Great Highway on the [upper] portion starting at Lawton and ending at Balboa (1.3 mile backup).
• Heavy traffic going southbound on Great Highway from Balboa to Fulton (0.3 mile backup).
• Backup going southbound on Great Highway from Santiago to Sloat (0.8 miles).
• Gridlock westbound on Lincoln between Sunset Blvd. to Great Highway (0.8 miles) with illegal right turns in second right lane on westbound Lincoln at Great Highway intersection.
  
• Gridlock westbound on Fulton from at least Chain of Lakes/43rd Avenue to Great Highway.
• Traffic was clear going eastbound on Fulton and Lincoln.
• Drivers didn't realize the next east-west streets like Irving and Cabrillo was much quicker to drive through.
• Muni suffered, including lines that don't go nearby, like the 18-46th Avenue that suffered through the traffic mess on the brief drive on the Great Highway portion.
• Today, Supervisor Mar is meeting with Outside Lands organizers about the noise problem, including the bass that can be heard way beyond the boundaries of the event.
  

As always, I have my helpful survival guide to Outside Lands available to you with helpful phone numbers if things start to become a problem.


Here's some additional info I'm also going to update the survival guide with:

Your rights as a San Francisco citizen during Outside Lands:

1. You have the right to complain to your district supervisor, police department, mayor's office, or any other appropriate city agency.
2. You have the right to have your complaint heard by a competent individual and you shall expect a response within a timely manner.
3. If you need help, call 311. If you believe the information they provided to you sounds incorrect or unhelpful, either hang-up and call again, or demand a supervisor. If they refuse to take complaints on certain matters regarding the event, keep cramming it down their throats until the report is filed.
4. Any comments, suggestions and complaints filed with a city agency, including SFPD, DPT, and 311 are considered public records under the Sunshine Ordinance. Calling Outside Lands' hotline may not be considered as "part of the record."
   
5. If you notice limo or towncar drivers trying to pick-up passengers "on-demand," this is illegal under San Francisco law. Take down their plate and their unique chauffeur vehicle number on their rear bumper and call 311.
6. If you still hear concert music beyond 10PM, the end of the day's event, report it to your city supervisor and police department.
7. If you notice something shady going on in your neighborhood, don't sit on it, and give the cops a call.
   

(Screenshot taken at 6:25PM)

Outside Lands FAIL: Shutting down Ocean Beach parking lot WITHOUT NOTICE

On my regular commute on the Great Highway to work this morning, I noticed the Ocean Beach parking lot between Fulton and Lincoln was fenced off this morning all lot entry points.

As usual, last night, the Federal Park Police and National Park Rangers were out in force to kick-out all people parked at the beach lot at 11PM, but these temporary barricades were up sometime between 11PM and 8AM blocking all access to parking.

The barricades were not placed by SFPD, in fact, they looked like they were rented from some event company.

The phone call:
I called the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) this morning to find-out why the lot was closed, assuming the lot was owned by the federal government because the federal government police officers are enforcing the late night no-parking policy.

After waiting about 15 minutes for a reply, I was informed the lot was owned by the city, but he explained to me the lot closure was for Outside Lands. The closure is from Thursday to Tuesday.

While nothing against the GGNRA, I explained to him that there was no notice given of a lot closure because that would tick-off all the surfers and the frequent tour buses that pull-over for their break and let the visitors go to the Beach Chalet. GGNRA's policy for their lots (such as Land's End/USS San Francisco Memorial lot) is to give at least a week's notice.

Basically, there's two FAILS:

1. San Francisco Government (in particular, SFPD, DPT, and the Golden Gate Park management) for failure to place notices of a city owned parking lot closure.
2. Outside Lands for not mentioning this in their "311" page and letter to neighborhood residents.

What a great start... piss off the surfers!

SF Residents - How to Survive Outside Lands

Get your aspirin ready because hell is starting this Friday through the end of Sunday. OK, actually it starts this Thursday at 8PM.

As you may recall from last year, Akit's Complaint Department was the lead opposition against the Outside Lands for such major problems as:

• Overselling tickets to the point where people were breaking down fences to get around the festival.
• Failure to give proper road closure information to SF 311, 511, city supervisors' offices, and the local police stations.
  
• Destroying the park's irrigation system.
• Massive amounts of litter in the park.
• Muni overcrowding and overloading.
• Limo companies illegally trying to pick-up passengers and ripping them off in cost.
  
• Loud and drunk people doing their "business" at people's homes.
• Noise so loud, you can hear it a mile away from the event site.

Read the stories that grabbed me over 500 visitors a day, and lasted for nearly a week:
No Park Street Closure Information
Muni Terrible, Complaints, and Not Making any Friends
Goodbye, Get Lost, and Never Come Back

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This year, I am still opposed to this event. The city is the pimp and basically sold their beautiful park for a cool $1.5 million dollars for a few years to literally rack up costs that will nearly meet or exceed the money being raked in.

Once again, there will be tons of people going to Golden Gate Park, playing loud music late into the night, and leaving the area on public transit. If you think this is going to be pretty, expect the worst.

Outside of the negative crap, I will acknowledge some improvements versus last year's mess:

1. Tons of signage are on lamp posts all around Golden Gate Park and points towards major event entry points and main exits to streets.
2. Golden Gate Park finally installed street name signs at nearly every intersection (something we citizens have been begging for decades).
3. Shuttles, thank god, private shuttles.
   
4. Mass mailed every resident in the Richmond and Sunset districts about the event, with at least two weeks notice. The letter is basically this website page from SF Outside Lands.

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Here's Akit's guide for neighborhood residents to survive Outside Lands:

If you get ticked-off by something gone wrong from Friday through Sunday, call their community hotline at: (415) 933-6901 (number fixed).

Akit suggests you should also contact your city supervisor. If you have Muni problems or witness cab and limo drivers ripping people off, call 311 (415-701-2311).

Remember, reporting to public officials goes on public records (Sunshine Ordinance); calling Outside Land's public hotline may not be considered part of public records.


Almost all Golden Gate Park road entry points will shut-down at 8PM this Thursday and will re-open at 11PM on Sunday. I say, expect the park roads to re-open much later, say early Monday morning before the commuters take Chain of Lakes. Road closure info here.

Since Outside Lands starts on FRIDAY, you should make some alternate plans to ride MUNI to work, SF State, public school, or wherever it goes near Golden Gate Park. Avoid the following Muni lines (in no particular order):

• 5-Fulton **SEVERE IMPACT**
  
• 71-Haight/Noriega
• 71L-Haight/Noriega Limited
• 28-19th Avenue **THE BUS FOR CHEAPSKATES WHO DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR THE SHUTTLE FROM DALY CITY BART**
  
• 28L-19th Avenue Limited
  
• 29-Sunset
• N-Judah **SEVERE IMPACT**
  

Alternate lines to ride:

• All Muni express buses like the 16X, 31 AX and BX, 38AX and BX (weekday peak hours only).
• 6-Parnassus (inner Sunset residents)
• 18-46th Avenue (outer Sunset residents, in exchange for the 29-Sunset)
• 31-Balboa (Richmond district residents)
  
• 38-Geary (everyday) and 38L-Geary Limited (doesn't operate on Sundays)
• 43-Masonic
  
• 66 Quintara and transfer to 6-Parnassus at 9th Avenue (all Sunset residents)
  

If you live near the concert site, or somewhere close to Golden Gate Park (even if away from the main site), park your car on the street Friday and don't plan to move it until Monday. If you have a garage, good for you (and bad for me).

If you must drive, definitely stay away from these East-West direction streets.

• Fulton
• Cabrillo
• Balboa (maybe)
• Lincoln
• Irving (it's always crowded with the merchants on those blocks from 25th Avenue to 19th Avenue)
• Judah

If you are trying to go North-South, you can still drive through:

• 19th Avenue (GG Park South) via Crossover Drive to North entrances 25th Avenue and Park Presidio. EXPECT DELAYS.
• Great Highway; but JFK Drive entrance closed, and you won't have a lot of luck parking at Ocean Beach or Beach Chalet.
• Stanyan (east edge of GG Park)

Outside Lands has promised at least two tow trucks and a parking officer dedicated to both the Richmond and Sunset districts. While this sounds like a nice thing to do, remember the parking officer will be overloaded and may not be able to address issues such as a car blocking your driveway because hundreds of others will complain too.

If you need to take care of any business, from grabbing breakfast at your favorite dim sum restaurant, or buying groceries, do it in the early morning. Less traffic congestion equals a brighter day.

And if you decide to sequester yourself at home, I don't mind playing against you online on my Xbox 360.

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If you have any suggestions on how to survive Outside Lands this weekend, post a comment!

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Added information as of 11:45AM on Saturday, August 29, 2009:

Your rights as a San Francisco citizen during Outside Lands:

1. You have the right to complain to your district supervisor, police department, mayor's office, or any other appropriate city agency.
2. You have the right to have your complaint heard by a competent individual and you shall expect a response within a timely manner.
3. If you need help, call 311. If you believe the information they provided to you sounds incorrect or unhelpful, either hang-up and call again, or demand a supervisor. If they refuse to take complaints on certain matters regarding the event, keep cramming it down their throats until the report is filed.
4. Any comments, suggestions and complaints filed with a city agency, including SFPD, DPT, and 311 are considered public records under the Sunshine Ordinance. Calling Outside Land's hotline may not be considered as "part of the record."
   
5. If you notice limo or towncar drivers trying to pick-up passengers "on-demand," this is illegal under San Francisco law. Take down their plate and their unique chauffeur vehicle number on their rear bumper and call 311.
6. If you still hear concert music beyond 10PM, the end of the day's event, report it to your city supervisor and police department.
7. If you notice something shady going on in your neighborhood, don't sit on it, and give the cops a call.

Golden Gate Park Shuttle? Does anyone ride it?

I have to really question the folks who manage Golden Gate Park. As we all know, the entire city is in a budget mess and that includes the Park's department as well.

As you may also have known, the parks folks have pimped their park out to the OutsideLands festival for $1.5 million, and everyone knows that last year's event was an entire disaster, not just for Muni and the people who suffered, but the park's irrigation system was destroyed, grass damaged, and litter everywhere.

So how does the Golden Gate Park management get the money to contract a shuttle service from Bauers charter bus service? Bauers is known for their ultra premium commuter service that shuttles people in comfort to their work places and in prominent locations in certain cities.

And... the buses used are mini sized buses with those super comfy commuter seats.

The price: $2 for an all day ticket.
Sounds like it's subsidized.

I was waiting for the 44 Muni bus next to the De Young Museum last Saturday and a one of those shuttle buses pulled-up. Did I see anyone in there? No.

It's almost like the farce known as CultureBus. Empty and wasteful. Save the city budget, stop wasting money government folks.

Akit is not happy: OutsideLands Releases 2009 Concert Dates (August 28-30)

Word from the local blogs (City Insider & SF Citizen) is the OutsideLands festival will hold their 2009 event from August 28-30, which means another three days of hell for the entire city.

So... will the city experience once again the agony of the following:

1. Loud noise heard for miles?
2. Sardine packed Muni buses and trains?
3. Missing Muni buses?
   
4. Trashing of the park, even though they claim to be a "green" event?
5. Limos and Luxury Towncars illegally trying to sell you a ride for an insane price?
6. Failure to notify city residents of park road closures and delays?
7. Drunk people vomiting all over the street?
8. Overselling the concert?
9. People knocking over temporary fences before a stampede breaks out?
10. $100K to $200K in irrigation damage in the park?
11. Idiots at San Francisco 311 who can't give you accurate answers?
12. Calling your local police station for information, but telling you that they don't know either? (Yeah, just wait until an ambulance is trying to rescue you, but can't get through because the city, once again, screws-up information).
13. And the list goes on and on...

My old postings to read:
My investigation into lack of street closure info and getting support.
A huge conglomerate of complaints from random citizens.
And the post-event report.

The city claims they will get 1.5 million dollars for leasing the land to OutsideLands to destroy, cause havoc, and sure piss-off the surrounding neighborhoods. It's not 1.5 million per day, it's 1.5 million for THREE DAYS.

And I'm going to bet that the city will spend more than 1.5 million dollars in that three days doing what they do best:

1. Police overtime
2. Muni overtime
3. Meter maid overtime
4. SF Park Service overtime
5. Sunset Scavenger extra pickups
6. Gasoline costs for cop cars, buses, and other city vehicles.
7. Maintenance costs for the vehicles above.
   
8. City Supervisors and their staff working extra hours answering complaint calls and e-mails.
9. Fixing destroyed park fixtures, irrigation lines, patches of grass.
10. Lawsuits brought forth by residents.
11. 311 needing extra people to handle the extreme number of phone calls and complaints.

And lastly, why host an event on a FRIDAY? Do they understand that Muni is already operating at capacity during regular commutes, and just adding a hundred thousand people to the mix will put the system in a wreck? If they want to win support, you don't piss off the weekday commuters trying to get home on the outbound lines that goes next to and even several blocks away from the event site (this includes, but not limited to N-Judah, 5-Fulton, 29-Sunset, 31-Balboa, 71-Haight/Noriega, any peak express buses heading west, etc.).

The concert company should start thinking about leasing as many tour buses, school buses, and literally any bus they can get their hands on to transport people to/from the event site to major transit hubs, like Daly City BART, downtown, local ferry terminals, etc. And maybe they could also lease some local ferry boats to transport those folks home across the bay after a late night concert. If they want to recover the costs, do what Bay to Breakers does, charge them for a special pass that gives them the privilege to ride the vehicles.

Outside Lands Festival to return for 3 years... Is this a joke?

"Welcome to San Francisco, where GREEDY government people screws this city."

That's our new slogan because the a new report shows that the San Francisco Park and Rec department has just signed a three year contract to have the OutsideLands festival come back. The city claims they will make $1.7 million a year with this contract.
Did I hear this correctly... OutsideLands II, III, and IV? NO THANKS.

If anyone recalls from Akit's Complaint Department, I posted three blog entries during August 2008's event and attracted so much attention, I received the highest number of visitors and comments ever in a single day. Even one of my newly hired co-workers knew about these blog entries.

See articles here:
"Outside Lands Festival - No Park Street Closure Information"
"Outside Lands Festival - Muni Terrible, Complaints, Not Making Friends"
"Outside Lands Festival - Goodbye, Get Lost, and Never Come Back"

Bringing back Outside Lands? Is the city nuts? So the city raises $1.7 million dollars for each one, but the reality is the city will more than likely fry that $1.7 million and more tax dollars on police overtime, traffic officers, additional Muni vehicles, Muni overtime, trash cleanup, claims of damage by homeowners nearby the park, and plenty more.

And does $1.7 million also cover the anger the residents of the Sunset, Richmond, and Panhandle areas will suffer? Traffic jams, no neighborhood parking, people trashing the neighborhoods, urination and deification in the streets, and the loud noises? People have complained of the noise from Golden Gate Park all the way from THE PRESIDIO. Even a concert at the Polo Grounds in the 70's got complaints from UCSF HOSPITAL, and that's really far away.

Golden Gate Park does not have the appropriate capacity to host a three day nightmare. One day events that are held on a Sunday are good because of low traffic, and it doesn't put a severe impact on the surrounding neighborhoods.

But when you make it a three day event, including on a Friday, you don't just piss-off the residents, but you also tick-off the Friday commuters who have to ride sardine packed trains and buses when trying to get home, and the park road closures WITHOUT ANY NOTICE. Last year, commuters were really mad at both Muni and Outsidelands for the suffering.

And to just prove my point about the event from hell last year, here's a photo from the NextBus program that Muni participates in:


If this event ever returns, the city and event organizers will once again SCREW THINGS UP. Here's a list of things that will go wrong:

• The park will get trashed. The event's goal is to be "green." Yeah right, even the employees littered.
• It's way oversold.
• Muni can't take this kind of abuse. Drivers can't be forced to work days they are not scheduled for, and their union will probably support that.
• OutsideLands organizers will not provide money to provide additional transportation.
• Call these phone numbers and visit these websites: 311, 511, your local SF Police station, your local fire station, your local paramedics station, 511.org, SFMTA.com, the concert's website, and your city supervisor's office. They'll give you all different answers on park road closures. Just wait until you have a heart attack and the paramedics can't rescue you because they were NOT TOLD WHAT ROADS ARE CLOSED.
• Not enough porta toilets, I guess people will be doing their business in a neighbor's front yard.
• One word: STAMPEDE.

If the city still has a chance: ELIMINATE THE CONTRACT. Find a promoter that is willing to host events on Sundays ONLY (three Sundays in the row is not bad).

Send OutsideLands to CANDLESTICK. They've got one hell of a large parking lot and stadium to use.

(First two photos courtesy of Flickr user reidspice under a Creative Commons license.)