Quote:
Originally Posted by brunettesrule
From http://www.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/20...really-illegal
Reps for Supervisor Scott Wiener, who authored the law, and MTA's Cindy Shamban, who's office handles street closures for fairs ans special events, told SF Weekly that they're not aware of an application for a nudity exemption for Bay to Breakers.
But at the 11th hour, we got an email from Conor Johnston. "I checked with the City Attorney, and he confirmed by reading of the code," Johnston wrote. "The nudity ban at the police code does not apply at this event." |
Thanks Brunettesrule. This version of events has always been my interpretation of the law. While the original law may not have specifically included Bay to Breakers as a nude-free event. It was later determined that this event was indeed qualified by definition thus allowing runners to continue participating nude. So ultimately by definition of the law, this event does have a permitting status. There has been quite a bit of confusion and gray area concerning Bay to Breaker nudity in recent years given the current laws. This confusion was highlighted in my original comment when I wrote that the police officers were either misinformed or over zealous regarding the new law implementation thus possibly leading to wrongful citations and ticketing.
In any case, I think we can all safely agree that the participation of nude runners in Bay to Breaker is still an accepted practice for the most part. While there may be exceptions, this race is quintessentially San Francisco and nude runners have been participating for decades. Many would argue that the nude runners or the legend of the nude runners is by far one of the biggest if not the biggest draw and spectacles of the entire race. Recent sponsors have also secretly promoted the race with various forms of advertisements that contains ambiguous or coded language that effectively encourages participants to participate freely or nude while running the race.
Hopefully anyone considering taking part in the race will get nude, run, and have an amazing time. If one is approached by the authorities, I would simply comply with any orders (if reasonable) and not make a huge deal of things. Perhaps try and sort things through later with the city if possible. I don't believe the city or race officials would want the bad PR surrounding arresting a group of nude runners in such a time-honored tradition as Bay to Breaker. However, that's just my sole and personal opinion, so do with it as you please.
Good luck.
03-25-2016, 03:32 PM
