Thanks to a combination of bad behavior, lax policing and politics, San Francisco is spending $400,000 a year just to pick up the picnic and party trash left behind by thousands of people who gather at Dolores Park every weekend.

Park workers spend hours cleaning up empty beer, wine and Champagne bottles, as well as what’s left of the rum-filled coconuts sold by one enterprising vendor — all in a park where littering and drinking are supposedly against the law.

Enforcement of those laws, however, does not appear to extend to the hipster hangout known as “Dolores Beach,” in part because the park system has only two rangers to patrol the city’s more than 220 parks — but also because the city does not want to put a damper on the fun.

“No one wants to begrudge anyone from enjoying a six-pack or a picnic,” said Supervisor Scott Wiener, whose district includes the park. “People need to do what their parents told them to do — pick up after themselves.”

But they don’t, and whenever the temperature climbs over 65 degrees on a Saturday, a festival-size crowd of 7,000 to 10,000 descends on the park — but without any of the festival requirements.

The result is 14,921 cubic yards of garbage a year — 75 times as much trash as is left at the comparably sized Alamo Square park across town.

In fact, take away the California Academy of Sciences, Botanical Garden, Kezar Stadium and de Young Museum, and 1,027-acre Golden Gate Park generates just one-sixth the amount of trash per year as 14-acre Dolores Park, according to Recreation and Park Department officials.

What’s more, Rec and Park spokeswoman Sarah Ballard said, “there is a sense of lawlessness in Dolores Park, and it doesn’t stop once a majority of the crowd goes home.”

Police spokesman Officer Albie Esparza, who spent eight years working in the Mission, said the department simply doesn’t have the resources to patrol the park routinely.

“If you’ve worked in the Mission, you know that call after call is for a violent crime — a robbery in progress, a burglary or a domestic violence call,” Esparza said. “The priority of the department is to respond to violent crimes in progress.”

Esparza says officers do try to respond to “low priority’’ park complaints. But often, by the time they arrive, the caller has disappeared or the situation has dissipated.

Esparza said the department does not keep track of citations for public drinking and littering, but he acknowledged that few — if any — were ever issued in Dolores Park while he was working the beat. Typically, he said, if he caught someone drinking alcohol, he would ask the person to pour it out or be cited.

And from what we’re told, Rec and Park doesn’t do much to enforce the rules, either.

Rec and Park staffers believe the city’s anything-goes attitude at Dolores Park has led to a spate of lawlessness, including Thursday night’s playground-trashing and the incident involving two teens who allegedly hot-wired a construction vehicle and went on a doughnut-spinning joyride on newly laid sod.

Supervisor Wiener, however, says the answer is not a crackdown — which critics call a “war on fun.” Wiener wants more rangers on hand to help educate the park crowd to clean up, and to stop urinating and throwing up outside park neighbors’ homes.

Meanwhile, the party goes on.

To Bibi or not to Bibi: Bay Area Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee (Oakland), Mike Thompson (St. Helena), Zoe Lofgren (San Jose) and Jerry McNerney (Stockton) boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to a joint meeting of Congress on Tuesday, while Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco attended.

Newly elected Democratic Rep. Mark DeSaulnier of Concord wasn’t sure what to do. Attending the speech could be considered a slight to President Obama, while boycotting it could offend his Jewish constituents.

“And on this issue, I think the president’s course of action with Iran is right, at least compared to the alternative,” DeSaulnier said. “I went back and forth all morning.”

DeSaulnier ultimately decided he would follow Pelosi’s example. But by the time he reached the House floor, every seat was taken — including his. So he wound up watching Netanyahu on TV in the House cloakroom, just off of the floor, with the rest of the spillover crowd.

“I didn’t agree with everything he said, but he said it well,” DeSaulnier said. “The guy is very good at what he does.”

Off pitch: The other day we told you that the business-boosting Bay Area Council — with the blessing of Mayor Libby Schaaf — had sent George Lucas an invitation to build his much-maligned cultural arts museum in Oakland.

The group reminded the “Star Wars” creator that “urban legend suggests that you drew inspiration from (Oakland’s) towering maritime container cranes for the giant ... Snow Walkers that appeared in 'The Empire Strikes Back.’”

Not a smart move.

The Chronicle’s Peter Hartlaub interviewed Lucas several years back, and “the one time he appeared angry at me was at the end, when I asked about the port cranes and the AT-ATs,” a.k.a. Snow Walkers.

“He strongly denied the connection, and seemed like he was sick of the subject,” Hartlaub said.

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or e-mail matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross