Update
Roving sideshows wound their way through several Richmond neighborhoods early Saturday morning, waking residents with the sounds of revving engines, fireworks, and police sirens.
Residents from Hilltop to Point Richmond report being awakened between the hours of 12:30 a.m. and 3 a.m. Saturday morning, as police worked to disperse several sideshows that were moving across the city.
Frustrated Richmonders took to social media to make sense of the noise, many expressing frustration with sideshows, which continue to be a problem in Richmond and around the Bay Area.
Sideshows, speeding, and donuts still a problem in Richmond
Nearly two years after the Richmond city council voted to mitigate the problem of sideshows and speeding through a program of public education and traffic calming strategies, the problems still persist, much to the consternation of residents. Just after 3 pm last Friday afternoon, police cleared traffic and parked cars
Linda Hemmila
Weekend gunfire, graffiti, and sideshows annoy Richmond neighbors
Saturday night was a wild one in several parts of Richmond, with police responding to a high number of calls, including gunfire near 23rd Street. Neighbors in the area of 26th and Gaynor say they heard gunshots sometime after 11:30 p.m. Police responded to a Shotspotter activation just
Linda Hemmila
Sideshows are the main event in Richmond
Richmond hosted several sideshows over the weekend, attracting hundreds of cars and groups of onlookers between Friday and Sunday night as police worked to stop the shows and disperse the crowds. Officers responded to 45th and Macdonald after a group of about fifty cars gathered in what appeared to be
Linda Hemmila
"It was a freaking yet another sideshow, Carlson/ Bayview. It was one of the loudest ones I've ever heard! I live nearby and I have to deal with this pretty much 3 or 4 times a year! We called the cops and they, in my surprise they showed up faster than before! I hope at least some of them got caught! My dog was shaking and my 85-year-old mother was scared and not well because of what these freaks are doing," said Panhandle resident Afsaneh Ghadimi wrote on NextDoor.
Nisi Cobanoglu of the North and East neighborhood also heard the racket.
"I hear it too, and I’m near 80 and SPA, I guess they’re chasing them all over Richmond. Never a dull night around here," Cobanoglu said.
While sideshows are illegal in California, local authorities have struggled to contain them and are frequently outnumbered by participants, making enforcement challenging.
According to Lt. Donald Patchin, Richmond police assisted officers from the California Highway Patrol with sideshow enforcement at one location.
"We had eight separate reports of sideshows at various locations throughout the city Saturday into Sunday morning. The only location where enforcement action was taken was during an outside assist to the CHP on El Portal at I-80, approximately 4 a.m. That area is CHP jurisdiction, and we responded to assist them. We ultimately towed six vehicles and issued two citations for CVC 23109(c) – Aid/Abet in the exhibition of speed," Patchin said.
Early morning Sideshow wakes neighbors as police work to disburse crowd
Residents woke to squealing tires, sirens, and a helicopter overhead when a sideshow brought an estimated 200 cars to the intersection of San Pablo and Solano Avenues early Sunday morning. Just before 2 am, police began clearing the sideshow, sending cars fleeing through the neighborhood north to Esmond and Mcbryde
Linda Hemmila
Two years ago, the problem of sideshows went before the Richmond city council, which decided to deal with sideshows through public education programs that outline the ills of stunt driving, and by way of traffic calming measures such as speed humps, roundabouts, or Botts dots, rather than issuing citations or creating an ordinance.
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