Dolores Hill Bombing

For a bit of exercise, we walked from Civic Center to Dolores Park last Friday on a sunny, blustery late afternoon.

It turned out that we had stumbled across the third day of a skateboarder and bike hill bombing run next to the park, on a steep downhill stretch of Dolores from 20th Street to 18th Street.

It looked hella dangerous as dozens of skateboarders shot by at superfast speeds.

The mixture of adrenaline and teenage energy exploding after being cooped up by a pandemic was a joy to behold from socially distanced sidelines.

There were a couple of vehicles helping to tow people on bikes and boards up the steep hill in an improvised version of a ski lift that had everyone laughing.

What looked most dangerous was the mixture of BMX style bikes and skateboards both going fast in different ways on the same hill at the same time, and at one point there was a huge crash between a skateboarder and a bicyclist being ridden by recent SF State graduate Andrew Sanders, who died two days later from his injuries. (Click here for an article at SFGate.)

SF Supervisor Rafael Mandelman publicly condemned the event and had the SFMTA install speed bumps at the top of the hill, as if that was going to stop a determined skateboarder out for a thrill and bragging rights.

At least these kids were not trying to endanger anyone but themselves, unlike the unmasked joggers who insist on blithely huffing and puffing their way through crowded sidewalks during a pandemic.