San Francisco Bay Area "Shelter In Place" - In the trenches

Various | March 22, 2020 | ProtectOurFreedome

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I've been monitoring a lot of local San Francisco Bay Area boards for what people are doing during the "Shelter In Place" order. Turns out the outdoor trails are full with crowds not seen in years. It's like people are treating this as an unexpected paid holiday. Here is a sampling of what I've found...

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Drove by panhandle of Golden Gate Park [San Francisco] today. Packed with people walking and riding bikes, way worse than a regular Saturday. Meanwhile the entire sunset district (including the parks I saw)were empty. Went on a bike ride to the beach and back and only passed one other cyclist. Most of the city is empty and beautiful yet everyone goes to the same spot.

---

This is exactly why I haven't been going to the trails, which sucks since that's one of my favorite ways to exercise my dogs. People are treating this as a weird snowday free-for-all and all common sense goes out the window. Even the neighborhood walks are fraught with people blocking sidewalks in large groups.

---

San Ramon reporting in, Iron Horse trail has been packed lately, the side streets and parks as well (with people doing recreational activity, walking, pets, etc). It's like...4-5x the regular amount, I'd guesstimate.

---

...you must be talking about the [Berkeley] fire trails behind the school because I completely agree. They are absolutely packed right now and the 6ft rule goes right out the door when you're walking on some of the skinnier paths.

---

I live in west marin, and all the trail heads were completely packed with cars today. Non- locals everywhere!

---

Maybe the health people shouldn't have repeatedly told people to go exercise.

---

20 years living in the East bay and I’ve never seen Briones Open Space as crowded and as many cars ever

---

Same out at Black Diamond Mines. I got there at 8:30 in the morning and couldn’t find parking. I’ve never seen so many people out on some of the more remote parts of the park.

---

I drove to the Sonoma Coast, expecting it to be quiet, only to find every beach along Highway 1 packed as if it were memorial weekend; definitely felt shame on the way home for excusing myself from the rules.

---

We're allowed to go to state parks. My wife and I went to the beach too. All the parking lots along highway 1 were gated. Cars were parked all around the gates, and in no parking zones. A sheriff's deputy was ticketing everyone who parked illegally. The one thing that struck me is that cyclists were way worse than normal. We kept coming around corners on CA-84 with cyclists riding in the middle of the lane. Dunno what's gotten into people.

---

I went today to a usually very quiet trailhead and it was packed :( people really didn't make enough effort to maintain a safe distance. If I go out again I'll go to quieter spots early in there morning but this has to stop. People are so cavalier. There were a bunch a kids 4 abreast across the entire trail/fire roads.

---

I went running today in the park near my house. Stayed off the narrow singletrack, stuck to the 20’ wide main roads. So many groups strung out 4-6’ apart, side by side, taking up the whole road.

---

I went for my normal Saturday ride (30m), and every clown with a bike was out. It was insane. Idk if the icing was the old guy on a tricycle biking the wrong way down a 35nph street, or the dude in camo on a fixie tackling some hills. Nobody is staying home.

---

Beaches were mobbed today and traffic getting in and out of Half Moon Bay was horrific.

---

Went to walk around sycamore grove park today...fully packed when I've only seen a handful of people there normally.

---

I went for a solo drive up to the vista point on Skyline today and there were more people there than I've ever seen (which made it an easy decision to just sit in my car to take in the view). Everyone outside of their car were in groups and seemingly without a care in the world. Every single turnoff was packed with cars too. Pretty ridiculous.

---

The whole coast, from ocean beach to halfmoon bay was packed, one week of Netflix and everyone had become an outdoorsman....

---

It was like that in Roseville today too - park across the street from me was packed with families and I saw tons of kids at the playground. There was even a dozen or so adults playing touch football.

---

Same, here - in the South Bay. My husband and I went to a county park about a mile from our house that’s generally not very crowded. Plus, most of the trails are wide fire roads, so we figured we’d be able to keep a good distance from the few people we’d see there. How wrong we were - not only was the place the busiest we’d ever seen, but most people we encountered during our hike were not taking seriously the need to keep one’s distance from others. And we saw quite a few groups of people who were most certainly not all members of the same household.

No tourists!

Stinson Beach, March 21, 2020

Saint Patrick's Day Traffic Jams!

[Wuli]

Why not? Aren’t the politicians promising a paid vacation for everyone?

[BenLurkin]

Probably the most beautiful city in the United States.

[kearnyirish2]

NJ and NY are leaving their state parks open, but they are closing playgrounds (there and elsewhere).

People should get outside because it isn’t normal to remain indoors for so long (for many); they are stressing to stay away from other people.

[olivia3boys]

I’m in the Bay Area too. Decided last Sat to just not leave my house at all for the duration except to walk only around my house in my empty neighborhood.

Really unless going to an essential job no one should be driving anywhere at all; I don’t get it. I’m practicing what Trump said a few days ago: “Enjoy your living rooms.”

I plan to do that throughout April or longer—luckily I have a job that easily translates to telework and I can homeschool my kids (and have been since March 13th).

Everyone in the Bay Area is still running all around, going to crowded grocery stores—daily.

It’s disappointing but understandable—people need to eat. We should be eating our canned/frozen food for 2 weeks though, to flatten the curve, for 15 days. . .I thought that was the idea. Maybe no one has canned or frozen food?

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

A beauty that is only skin deep.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I’m in the South Bay / Peninsula in the Mountain View area.

I sure don’t see “Everyone in the Bay Area is still running all around, going to crowded grocery stores—daily.” the roads are at 20% or less of regular traffic. I’ve been holed up for four days now with one hike in the hills. I had to go to Menlo Park yesterday for an appointment - it was dead. There was some shopping traffic at the Draegers supermarket, but that was it.

I think I’ll head to the hills today for another hike.

[ifinnegan]

People know infection is not running rampant throughout the community.

[ifinnegan]

Great post, by the way. Thanks.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Your welcome. Glad you liked it.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The entire Bay Area and beyond is incredibly beautiful. From Mendocino to Big Sur is just amazing. If only you have the income to live here and can tolerate the absolutely idiotic governance and public policies.

[xp38]

They’re doing quarantine wrong

[xp38]

skin is pretty poopy IMHO

[faithhopecharity]

nobody believes the state government or the large city mayors in California

they are all corrupt as Hell and, as the saying goes,
they lie horozontally all night
then
they lie vertically all day

[Howie66]

Used to be, from what I understand. It’s suffering greatly from Liberalvirus.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

They’re doing quarantine wrong

We are probably doing it ALL WRONG. See Is Our Fight Against Coronavirus Worse Than the Disease?. It's worth reading the whole thing.

[hanamizu]

In France, medical authorities are discouraging recreational bicycling. The reason surprised me but made sense: If you fall off of your bike and hurt yourself, you’ll end up going to the hospital, which right now in France is bad for both you and the hospital.

[olivia3boys]

Sorry let me clarify people aren’t “running all around” to stores etc other than groceries because most are closed.

But yes many are instead (from reports I’ve heard as I’m not doing it) heading to hiking trails and parks etc where there are crowds. . .I think the point of quarantine is to avoid crowds, not join them. . .

[thecodont]

Thank you for this post.

I’d just like to add that motorists seem to be a bit more reckless, so if you are a pedestrian crossing the street (in a marked crosswalk), be careful.

[forgotten man]

San Francisco became a beautiful city AFTER it burned to the ground in 1906. I am not making any suggestions.