If your glass of alcohol is bigger than your head, call a cab

Just like every other holiday (except Thanksgiving, which is still perplexing to us), police will be out in force this Memorial Day weekend, cracking down on all you intoxicated drivers cruising around town.

The hardcore enforcement starts at 12:01 a.m. Friday and carries on through Monday at midnight -- when plenty of drunks will be passed out.

So what can you expect over the weekend, besides chilly temperatures? Cops, cops, and more cops followed by a DUI checkpoint. Be especially careful when you are driving over the Bay Bridge -- it will be saturated with CHP officers.
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San Francisco prefers to drink alone

If SceneTap's facial detection cameras have revealed anything, it's that San Francisco just might be tapped out on the oversaturation of social media. Sure, we're among the first to consume any technology to maintain an annoying presence online, but when it entails something as seemingly intrusive as facial detection, well, then suddenly we want to remain anonymous.

Facing outrage from patrons, some bars decided not to let SceneTap install those creepy cameras in San Francisco's watering holes, which would use facial detection technology to tell potential patrons the general age and gender of the crowd.

Charles Hall, operator of Bar None in the Marina, initially agreed to have the camera installed in the bar. He said SceneTap had approached him a few months ago, offering him the cutting-edge technology that he thought would help business. Little did he know, this decision would leave him -- and plenty of other barkeeps -- facing promises from patrons to boycott boozing wherever the cameras turn up.

Here's the kind of Yelp reviews Bar None was getting after SF Weekly broke the news about the new technology making its way to San Francisco:

Anyone that would put a face recognition video system in a social club is off their rocker. You might as well bring the Cheaters tv show with you! Bad planning guys -- and it has hammered your business.

After reading those reviews, Hall said the bar decided to back out of its verbal agreement with SceneTap. "It's possible I'll lose business over it, but to what extent, I don't know," Hall told us.

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You are supposed to sit on the toilet, not shit on it.

This year's Bay to Breakers will look -- and feel -- a bit different than what you've come to know in year's past. For starters, there will be no floats allowed and no "wheeled objects" permitted -- that includes moms (or dads) with strollers and bicycles.

And remember the roving tiki bar in 2005? Or that giant duck float from 2010? Gone.

Last year, race operators released a slew of new rules restricting the only-in-San Francisco traditions that have shaped the bizarreness of B2B since its inception. Much of that fun was alcohol-induced, but now race participants have to leave their booze at home. And no dog or headphones, either, because you know what they say: If you act like children, you will be treated like children.More >>

Shots of you doing shots

Update May 16: Leilani Brennan, owner and operator of Eve Lounge, claims she had talked with SceneTap about the technology, but has no plans to use the cameras.


UPDATE: Read our Q&A with SceneTap's CEO explaining the technology.

Last year, San Franciscans were pretty freaked out when they learned that some of their favorite watering holes had installed cameras and were live-streaming footage of them taking one too many shots of Patrón. To add to an already sinister Friday night, local bars have decided to go ahead keep tabs on you via facial recognition technology.

SceneTap, the Austin-based nightlife startup, is officially launching its facial detection software at 25 bars in San Francisco on Friday, including Mr. Smith's and Pete's Tavern. Using a free iPhone or Android App, you can get a snapshot of the San Francisco bar scene, including male-to-female ratio, average age, and crowd size -- all in real time. In short, you can find out if there are enough women to hit on before you bother getting decked out for the night.

So here's how it works, according to SceneTap: Bars place special facial detection cameras inside venues, which pick up on facial characteristics to determine approximate age and gender of the bar crowd. All your personal information remains anonymous, and nothing about you or your face is stored long-term.

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As if motorcycles aren't annoying enough

If you think it will be easy to successfully avoid any DUI checkpoint in San Francisco this Cinco de Mayo, well, you are wrong. Police have informed us that on Friday, they will be deploying roving cops on motorcycles to go after drunk drivers on the road.

Capt. Denis O'Leary explains the logic behind the motorcycles.

"Our Harley Davidson Road Kings have a lot of maneuverability advantages over regular patrol cars," he said. "We can ride right up to the driver's window and check for any signs of alcohol or drug impairment."

"There are a lot of motorcycles on the road, and you would be amazed at how many people do not notice us until they hear the sirens," he added.

The motorcycle gang will rev up at 7 p.m. on Friday and continue through 3 a.m. on Saturday.

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​CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story erroneously presented 2010's Daily Beast rankings, in which San Francisco was America's 3rd drunkest city, as the 2011 rankings. As is apparent in the comments section of this blog post, the links on the Daily Beast site are a little confusing, and our misinterpretation of them resulted in this mix-up. We regret the error.

San Francisco reliably comes out on top in national polls of which metropolitan area ranks highest in ribald practices. In June, we brought you the important news that our city had been deemed the country's sluttiest.

Our drinking, it seems, is not quite up to that level. According to a survey of health statistics by The Daily Beast, San Francisco has dropped from the the country's third-drunkest city in 2010 to 22nd drunkest in 2011.

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