Faced with thousands of anti-China protesters, San Francisco authorities pulled a last-minute switch during the torch relay yesterday. The late change rerouted the torch away from thousands who had crowded the city's waterfront to witness the flame's symbolic journey to the Beijing Games.
Instead of the planned route, the torch was relayed along a shortened route before it was finally taken to the airport and put on a plane without a formal goodbye.
Olympic and local officials held a brief ceremony at the airport, thanking torchbearers and supporters and calling the relay a success.
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Newsom insists it wasn't a case of "bait and switch." "There are a lot of hurt feelings and I'm sorry for that, but at the end of the day my job as mayor is to keep people safe," Newsom told KCBS. "Real people, innocent people, the two people that were in wheelchairs that were torchbearers, to keep them safe and not put them in harm's way."
Despite the seemingly haphazard nature of the torch run, the mayor considers it a success because there were no riots and no injuries.
San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong said that she also stands by the difficult decision.
”I was not going to allow people on that route, whatever the reason that they were there, to be injured. The only way that we would be able to move through that route was with officers with helmets and batons,” said Fong. “I’d much rather be standing here talking about why we changed the route, than to stand here and be talking about why many people were injured, and why many people were arrested.”
Only five people were arrested in connection with the torch run.
The family of a man with Down syndrome, who was one of the Olympic torch bearers, stands behind Newsom's decision to change the route.
The Sunnyvale family considers it an incredible honor that Michael Bailey was a part of Olympic history. Bailey, who was selected as Special Olympian of the Year by the San Jose Sports Authority, was one-half of a pair carrying the torch on a stretch of Van Ness Avenue. "He had a great time," described Michael's father, David. "He was all smiles and was very excited and reports that we had from his fellow torchbearers that were riding on the bus with him and all said what a great time he had."
Bailey was waiting along the Embarcadero to see his son, and was in the dark about changes in the route. "From our perspective, yes, disappointed we didn't get to see him but I'm supportive of the decision that got made to move it because being down in the Embarcadero area and observing what the situation was there, my personal feeling is that it would have been a pretty ugly scene had they tried to run the torch through the Embarcadero," David offered.
Wednesday's Olympic torch relay turned out to be a banner day for BART. The transit agency carried more passengers than ever before.
The Olympic torch relay actually wasn't the only major event taking place in the city. The San Francisco Giants were playing at AT&T Park, as well. "We had enough service out there," declared BART chief spokesman Linton Johnson. "The trains were out there, they were longer."
According to Johnson, ridership figures were impressive. "Yeah, it looks like the Olympic torch relay race as well as the Giants versus San Diego game put us over the top." The transit system logged a record number of passengers: 391,900. "It created the number one most ridden day on BART in BART's 35 years of history."
It was a busy day for MUNI as well. "We saw quite a few people in the morning using MUNI Metro to get to Embarcadero," explained spokesman Judson True.
However, there wasn't a noticeable increase in CalTrain ridership. "If we had had significant numbers of people, we would have seen trains being delayed," warned CalTrain spokesman Christine Dunn. "We didn't see that."
Golden Gate Bridge ferries also reported little change in ridership.
Photo courtesy of CBS5
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS/AP) - San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is apologizing to those who were disappointed when the Olympic torch relay route was changed Wednesday. However, the mayor isn't apologizing for his decision.
KCBS' Chris Filippi reports
