Icer Air 2005
24 Aug 2005
Pacific Heights is set to host Icer Air 2005 on Aug 27th, which it’s organizers laud as being the first of its kind urban big-air competition. 10,000 cubic feet of snow will cover the streets, allowing top snowboarders and skiers to compete for over $100,000 in cash and prizes.The San Francisco Chronicle recently ran an article about how neighbors, monks, and even a bride-to-be are causing a big stink about the event.
So how does this relate to Potrero Hill? The organizers are looking to make this an annual event in San Francisco, and I’m hoping they move the event over to Potrero Hill in 2006.
Here are a couple of argument points:
• We have better weather AND sweeping views of the city
• The film makers of the 1990 film ‘Pacific Heights’ had the smarts to shoot the movie in Potrero Hill
• We hosted Red Bull’s Streets of San Francisco street luge event in 2001 and 2002 (click here for video highlights)
• If you look at the video footage from the street luging, you’ll see we’ve already hosted an urban big-air competition
• We’re home to the crookedest street in San Francisco (In case you’re wondering, it’s Vermont, between 20th and 22nd)
• Pacific Heights doesn’t have a Farley’s or Goat Hill Pizza
Update
Yesterday, Tony Kelly (President of the Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association) and I were interviewed by Vicki Liviakis of KRON 4 for their 9p broadcast coverage of Icer Air 2005. Our air time pretty much consisted of us advocating to hold the event in Potrero Hill, although we’d certainly need to get buy-in from neighbors who would be affected, should the event be held on their street.
My snippet on tv pretty much consisted of me saying that the neighbors of Potrero Hill are more mellow than those in Pac Heights and that we’d love to host the event here. Tony was shown on camera saying that we’re a ‘Can Do’ kind of neighborhood.
They also aired footage from the Clint Eastwood movie ‘Magnum Force’ which is part of the Dirty Harry series, since it shows car chase scenes shot in Potrero Hill. They somehow tied that into the Icer Air event … that’s tv for you.
Photo: Taken from the Red Bull Streets of San Francisco website
Breaking News
The event has officially been cancelled.
Someone in the mayor’s office must have been watching KRON 4 last night:
“Newsom said he would be meeting with the competition organizers to determine whether they can try again later this year after more details are nailed down. The contest could be held in Pacific Heights or another hilly neighborhood, such as Potrero Hill.”
source: San Francisco Chronicle
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they should have also aired footage from Burglar and Bullit…both have chase scenes on the hill.
I actually borrowed the free tape ‘Potrero Hill in the Movies’ from Four Star Video for KRON4, which is where they grabbed the Magnum Force footage from.
The video (put together by the Potrero Hill Archives Project) runs 40 minutes long, and has scenes from Burglar and Bullitt in addition to other movies shot on the hill.
KRON 4 did grab footage from both those movies, but ended up with Magnum Force.
The Red Bull event was OK and the organizers were really responsible about doing what they said and cleaning up afterwards. But, they only had bales of hay, not tons of snow. If the organizers want to have their snow event, they need to come to the community first and tell us exactly what they want, where they want it, what they’ll do to police the event and clean up promptly after it, what insurance coverage they’ll have and what steps they’ll take to assure that their tons of snow doesn’t turn into water that will flood our homes. And, the neighborhood needs to get some of the money involved. After all, the event is only being put on to make money for somebody and there is no way they should be able to use our hill and our streets and our neighborhood to make money to put in their pockets without putting some in ours, too. For example, perhaps people who live on the street where the event is held should be paid something for the loss of access to their parking and to the inconvenience of having thousands of people milling about for two days. I can tell you from the Red Bull event that access is severely limited to those living on the street (it was DeHaro for Red Bull) that is used. Or, there are plenty of good and needy causes right on our Hill that could use some money - the Neighborhood House comes immediately to mind, but there are tons of other needs, all of which can be helped with money. Let’s make this more of a partnership, with the neighborhood being a partner who is entitled to a good share of the profits from providing the venue without which the event could not occur. And, I’m not talking about $500 or $1000 “contributions.” I’m talking about a real participation in the profits, 20% or 30% to be distributed as we in the neighborhood decide. If the organizers says it’s too expensive to pay for the venue, then either make it up by charging higher rates to their advertisers or do what the rest of us do when we can’t afford to attend an event: go somewhere cheaper or forget about it altogether. These events are big big business and they can’t do it without the neighborhood’s cooperation. So, let’s hang tough and get some benefit for Portero Hill.
From the SF Gate — now let’s get this on the sunny Hills of Potrero!
“Newsom said he would be meeting with the competition organizers to determine whether they can try again later this year after more details are nailed down. The contest could be held in Pacific Heights or another hilly neighborhood, such as Potrero Hill. “
To illustrate your blog,
here is the Virtual Tour of San Francisco
With Alcatraz, Muir Woods, Golden Gate Bridge, and SBC Park ( this one is STEREO ! ) tours.
But no Potrero Hill! Can you help me to find the best points at Potrero Hill to make a tour?