According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the City of San Francisco may want to crack down on Pillow Fight and other similar urban prank events. The article, which erroneously refers to these events as “flash mobs”, cites the city’s reasons as damage and clean-up. This may be the case with Pillow Fight which creates a huge mess, but as far as I know rotting flesh from a Zombie invasion is biodegradable.
Of course none of this is new. The Santacon Santas were kicked out of San Francisco in 1995 only to return years later. The Urban Iditarod, Bernal Heights Hill Soapbox Derby and Bring Your Own Big Wheel Race have had problems as well in recent years.
One thing I would like to point out to Seth Rosenfeld who wrote this article, he mentions Laughing Squid as one of the organizers of these events. Of course that is not the case, we are only reporting them the same way as other blogs would or even a newspaper like the San Francisco Chronicle. Seth did not contact us when writing this article or else we would have made a point of clarifying this for him. Fact checking is a lost art.
More Coverage:
- CatCubed
photo by Scott Beale
Here Are A Few Related Posts You Might Enjoy:
- Pillow Fight Returns to San Francisco
- 3rd Annual Pillow Fight in San Francisco on Valentine’s Day
- Pillow Fight in San Francisco!
- San Francisco Pillow Fight 2006 Photos
- San Francisco Pillow Fight Club 2009
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
This may be the least popular opinion, but I think making a giant mess on public property and not cleaning it up is seriously irresponsible. Was that really $31K worth of fun? Me thinks only if you’re not paying for it.
This is ridiculous and one of the reasons I came to San Francisco. The fun events like this are amazing and the government should only educate themselves to the local happenings and just start reading LaughingSquid so they know what’s up. It’s called RSS. LEARN IT!
Oops…I forgot to tag my first comment #getoffmylawn
Fun is fun, but clean up after yourself! I bet the Pillow Fight cleanup could have gotten done for a hell of a lot less than $31K if handled by the anonymous organizers instead of the city. Better yet, stick with event ideas that don’t inherently make a huge mess to begin with. A couple of shopping carts missing from Safeway or a few broken Big Wheels in someone’s dumpster is far lower-impact than wet goose feathers all over the fucking place.
I assume you guys understand that we did not organized the Pillow Fight, the Chronicle just makes that assumption without any fact checking. Hell I wasn’t even there this year, the event’s way to big now and just a huge mess.
I had always wondered about the clean up. These sort of things shouldn’t be a problem as long as the clean up was done by those involved (instead of expecting city workers to pick up the crowds waste). Of course that’s going to be impossible at an event like pillow fight.
That article must have made it through at least two editors. Editors who don’t understand the situation.
“Organized via” isn’t a correct description AFAIK. This is similar to the Sheriff of Cook County, Illinois calling craigslist “a source” of prostitution.
I’m sorry, this post is inaccurate.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, and does not appear in this post, the city wants these events permitted & cleaned up after, not “shut down”. if taking responsibility for your events equates to “shutting them down” it doesn’t speak well of the event organizers.
I suggest anyone interested in forming an opinion read the original article. This event caused over $30,000 of cleanup and repair costs, all paid for by the city. Plus, 12,000 gallons of water was wasted – that’s how much had to be drained from the fountain and then replaced to fix the pumps that got gummed up by feathers.
For what? For a bunch of people to make a big public display? This event could have been done in a warehouse, no problem, and not caused all this public damage.
And, @Adam – I assume you’ll be volunteering for cleanup next time? Or did you just move to SF to have fun on other people’s dime?
I think (I hope!) it’s clear to all that Laughing Squid is not an ‘organizer’ of this stuff. What I think the city (and the Chronicle) likely don’t get is that the pillowfight has grown beyond the original smallish underground event that it once was, and that stopping it will take some thing akin to (and possibly beyond) ’stopping’ Halloween in the Castro.
Inventors of fun stuff to do, take note: these gatherings may/will grow (often beyond your control) from the values that you build in to them at the beginning. I was impressed/delighted by http://theuncch.wordpress.com/ efforts at the pillowfight this year–to bring well designed, ethical, and joy-filled goodness to a pilowfight. Awesomely gamed, you nerds.
The City should focus on the sewer that is most of Market St. and the Tenderloin. A little more clean up here so you don’t get knocked back from the stench when you exit BART. BTW, the City was upset that the feathers went into the Vaillancourt Fountain. This piece of pubic art looks like total crap. Is there such a thing as a fountain having Sick Building Syndrome? It’s covered in dirt, mold and slime and looks like shit. Bono should have been allowed to completely repaint the thing!
Mike, try again, this post is about the San Francisco Chronicle article (notice the part that say’s “According to the San Francisco Chronicle”), so if you think the article inaccurate (which is is) they you should let Seth Rosenfeld know (like I have in this post).
Also… and boy, Scott, I know you don’t like it when I leave critical comments, so sorry, but, I have this typing problem… anyway… if Laughingsquid.com hosts a calendar and email list that posted this event to thousands of people, calling them to the pillowfight and providing the detailed info, do you really think it’s unfair to say this event was “organized via Laughingsquid.com”? I mean, it sounds fairly accurate to me. LS was a major conduit for the event information. “Organized _BY_ Laughinsquid.com” would have been wrong, but that’s not what they said.
Mike this has nothing to do with critical comments. Based on your logic, the San Francisco Chronicle organizes Giants games or any other events because they write about them in advance. So yes, it’s is completely inaccurate to say that we organize these events or that SFist or any other blog that writes about them is involved with their organization.
So “publicize” or “promote” yes, but “organize” no, that is not accurate.
No, I’m sorry, Scott… gulp… but it’s this blog post I was calling inaccurate, as I was trying to explain in the 2nd & 3rd comments of my comment… sorry if I wasn’t communicating clearly, I haven’t had my morning coffee yet.
San Francisco problems deserve San Francisco solutions: volunteer janitor flash mobs should follow. If thousands of people want to make a mess in the streets, certainly a few dozen want to dress up like their high school janitor and show up to clean up and yell at the “kids” that “somebody has to clean this up, you know! [mutter mutter] spoiled snot-nosed little [mutter mutter...]” Let’s get creative– and responsible– and let the party happen.
“Fact checking is a lost art.” That’ s an important point that conservatives have complained about for years, and main-stream media reporters have been denying for years.
For what? For a bunch of people to make a big public display? This event could have been done in a warehouse, no problem, and not caused all this public damage.
@Kupietz are you offering to handle all that? Oh..you’re not…then don’t tell people anyone what they should unless you’re willing to do it yourself. Pillow Fight is a self-assembling event at this point. Good luck with steering it!
There is of course analogues to this sort of large somewhat destructive celebratory events such as the Battle of the Oranges in Italy and the Running of the Bulls. However, those have the soothing aura of history attached to them. While the Pillow Fight and other related events may not be meaningfully connected with the past, it makes little sense to demonize all events such as this, but at the same time those that participate should consider the resulting aftermath. As such, I myself will be reconsidering my participation in these sorts of events.
For those interested I wrote more in depth on all this on my blog:
http://catcubed.com/2009/03/09/art-flotsam/
@Jeff Saltzman:
Janitors en masse sounds AWESOME. Where do I sign up?
San Francisco is like Burning Man. It lives on its reputation from a long gone past. But city politics have never been as good as the city’s reputation would want to be. How come other cities are greener than SF, more open to ART and artists.
SF has shut down reggae in the park, and many other things like Scott is pointing out. Sad… let’s declare cessation from marina, and the sunset, and then we’ll do what we want!
I’m with Jeff and Lynae. Sign me up for Janitor duty!
I’ve been needing and excuse to get a new pair of coveralls, anyhow.
And we could double as cleanup cops, making everyone pick up at least 3/4 of a pillowcase full of feathers before they go.
Now where was that megaphone?
These events should be treated like any other public disturbance with tear gas, arrests, etc.
Look, it was funny the 1st time years ago but now you look like idiots. Arrogant self-absorbed idiots at that, since you left a big mess for others to clean up.
comment by SFFX
These events should be treated like any other public disturbance with tear gas, arrests, etc.
Asinine comments like these should be treated like any other public whine with indifference and derision. Those who can do, those who can’t comment.
If the Pillow Fight had been organized by RICK!, Adorkable Girl would have been on this like lice on unwashed hair.
I read the Chronicle article on Sunday and was so surprised to learn that Laughing Squid was such a hotbed of subversive conspiracy. Got promoted in mainstream print from “list” to “figure head” – grats Scott!
The problem here is the naturally sensational nature of all municipal government. The one constant in every city in America is the capacity of its representatives to turn their honest work into hyperbole. The Valentine’s Day Pillow Fight did not leave the city holding the bag for $30,000 or $20,000 or any another similarly obscene amount of money. Directly calculating soft costs in the manner the article suggests deliberately exaggerates the real effect the pillow fight had on city resources. Seth Rosenfeld of all people should know that.
That said, the pillow fight did make a pretty big fucking mess. Even if city officials are inflating the price tag ten times over, $3k is still a little rich for a flash mob. Cheap laughs are what a lot of us are into this stuff for, and I don’t think anyone can dispute the Pillow Fight in particular ended up a little pricey.
Participants in this kind of anarchy (myself included) should and likely will do better about the impact these antics have.
If I had organized it, it would have never gotten this out of hand. I only got the word out the first year, so I don’t have a bit of guilt.
@RICK!
Your events are consistently low-impact and a shitload of fun. Both appreciated.
I agree with you rachel.. So many find it to be okay until they actually get the bill or have to do the work and actual time involved to fix a mess. Also the rule of thumb goes here too. There can be 2,000 good participants but it can only take 10 bad ones to ruin it and incite bad behaviors. Such events tend to draw those 10 type of individuals. Sad but true.. But thats were policing ones own even and people is important. Been to several cities events not just san francisco and of all types of events and its amazing with time over the years how they get “Worse” and “Worse” over those years. WHy? cause for some reason its a magnet for more and more bad individuals thinking its a place they can miss behave. Ruining for everyone else that is good.
Autonomous acts of fun are impossible to stop.
“Autonomous acts of fun are impossible to stop”
I agree. however, quite a few people might get arrested next time.
bring bail money
= ARE THESE ACTS DONE BY ‘TWEENS =
= OR PEOPLE WHO JUST ACT THAT WAY? =
The United Nations Commission on Costumes and Holidays announces the San Francisco Protocol on Abnormal Public Events, a clear framework for regulation of flash mobs through international oversight and smothering bureaucracy.
The UNCCH asks you to imagine a world in which these chaotic events are tamed, packaged, and decaffeinated. The San Francisco Protocol will finally make this possible.
http://theuncch.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/the-san-francisco-protocol/
Wouldn’t it be terrible if you were leaving your job at the Chron at 5pm on Friday all ready for the weekend to begin and you happened to run into a swarm of cardboard box robots fighting it out in front of the building? Why, I daresay coming upon such a sight could ruin the entire weekend.