August 9, 2007
SF Halloween...Over?
Now that there will be no city sanctioned Halloween debauchery in the Castro, Civic Center, or anywhere else, it'll be exciting to see the police state that's sure to erupt come 10/31.
Even though, as Wyatt Buchanan reports in the Chronicle, "officials are still trying to prevent any festivities in the Castro" and that "Bevan Dufty sent a letter to 110 owners of bars, restaurants and stores in the Castro, asking them to close shop on Halloween night," the shit is still going to go on, obviously, one way or another. (If anyone has a copy of said letter, send it our way! Thanks.)
And will SFPD arrest crazy trannies, those carrying concealed fun-sized Snickers, or pimp/ho-costumed couples between 18th Street and Market? (Through we promise to look the other way if they swoop down on anyone dressed up as a sexy devil or sexy black cat.) How will this go down?
We understand that over the past few Halloweens, several unlucky goers have been shot and/or assaulted in the Castro. We stopped heading up to the Castro eons ago. Way before a fistful of City Hall rapscallions and a few progressive website "writers" were calling us "stupid fucking faggot," we were getting bashed on Halloween night with that spot-on term of endearment, regularly.
Anyway, we plan on checking out the showdown in the Castro come October 31. What will you do?
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The city's in kind of a damned-if-they-do, damned-if-they-don't position. With all the stuff that's been happening, how could they go on having a city-sanctioned event? What kind of official justification could they give for it?
"The SFPD realized our city is so completely lawless that it would erupt into riots if we tried to cancel the thing, so we have to let it keep going. Yeah, we pretty much have no control over this town anymore. Next question please."
can I get a link for "stupid fucking faggot"?
Halloween night's definitely going to be a shitshow. My guess is that 80% of the B&T crowd, which is about 60% of the presence on Halloween, won't know that it's been cancelled and will show up looking to party/stab.
80% of 60%... Carry the 1. Yep. That's 48%... divided by stab... We can expect 24% stabbings that night.
But 24% party!
24% stabbing? I like those odds!
Seriously, they expect all the bars to *close* on Halloween? That won't happen, but expect a shitload of cops making the Castro unpleasant that night.
Just go to the Marina, B&T'ers!
Maybe we could just start stabbing straight people. There could be a cock sucking test at the gate and the losers get a bloody death!
I don't know. When I was B&T, I NEVER went to the Castro for Halloween. It just seemed like a waste of time to go out there and deal with all that craziness. But when I lived in the City -- I always went. I mean it was right there. What else you going to do?
Having now been to Halloween in New York where there big Halloween parade is heavily guarded by the police and if you don't get in at one of the "gates" well then you don't get in. I can see that this will probably be what has to happen. It's a lot less randomly fun, but I suppose it is safer.
we have a lot of hate mongering to do here if we're to compete with SFGate's comment thread.
If we cancel Halloween in the Castro, the Terrorists...er... I mean thugs, have already won.
As one of my friends said, "the SFPD killed the castro party years ago".
I agree.
what's B&T?
bored & teenage?
blunted & tweaked?
??
b&t=bridge & tunnel, aka anyone that's from the marina or the east bay
If I owned or worked in a bar in the Castro, I would not be very pleased with Bevan right now.
"Dear everyone, the Castro's at a code red terror alert. Could you forgo one of your biggest money-making nights of the year and hide in your house instead? It's all in the name of protecting the neighborhood. And don't worry, the neighborhood will probably be so grateful that they'll gladly reimburse you for all the lost revenue. KTHXBYE, Bev."
I stopped going to the Castro years ago, too. I mean, part of it is that I grew up and had kids and all, and there's no f-ing way I'd bring a child there. But also, the celebration just isn't what it used to be anyway. We can mourn its loss, but the city didn't take it away, the overcrowding did. I say, time to kick the "exotic erotic" pornographers out of wherever they assemble and make the queer magic happen again at a private event.
I just hope this doesn't leave Noe Valley as the target of Halloween thugs ... they actually have kids in them there parts of the City!
I remember back in the day when I actually enjoyed the fact that my neighborhood was the center of Halloween, now I just hide in my apartment.
What we "faggots and faggot friends" ought to do is make a pact to dress ourselves up to the nines and head on over to another neighborhood for the night. Someone already mentioned the Marina, but why not take it down to Fisherman's Wharf and enlighten/frighten some tourists? (The F car goes all the way there from the Castro, we should make use of it!) If we do that for a few years, maybe it'll be come the new "go to" neighborhood for the night. After all, they say we have a way of making neighborhoods hip again.
mikes, as someone who works close to Fisherman's Wharf, I say that that is an *excellent* suggestion. Take over the tacky tourist trap and give those visitors to our fair city their money's worth!
#14, i like the idea of heading over to the warf for halloween. i can't count how many times tourists snap shots of the local perverts, so this would be a win-win for everyone involved.
I've lived in the Castro for 36 years. Halloween USED to be fun. I looked forward to it every year.
Now it's become a war zone. If they can't control it, they need to end it. It's become dangerous, filthy, and chaotic.
Tourists in the Castro and San Franciscans in Fisherman's Wharf? It's just crazy enough to work!
There is no "I" in team, but there is a "U" in douchebag! Thanks Bevan! Worst Castro Supervisor EVAH!1!!!
Uhm, didn't Big Willie try to put an end to Halloween in the Castro? And ..... didn't it fail MISERABLY? Oh, but Bevan says "Stop it, you meanies!" And so the the meanies left and never came back and the Castro was saved. The End.
Right. I love a good fairytale as much as the next gay, but please Mary!
What I don't understand is how New Orleans and other cities can have drunken frat parties in the streets, but shy, petite San Francisco is not able to? You can't tell me that Halloween doesn't bring money into the City. Since when is SF anti-money? Is it just that the SFPD is even more woefully inept than usual on this one night of the year?
Bevan waited until the last minute to begin planning for this, and when it immediately fell apart abandonned any effort to do ANYTHING. "Folks, it just didn't work out, so we, the City of San Francisco, are going to be out of town that night. That's right...uhm, we are going to .....be visiting our sister city of Paris France. Been planning it for awhile, forgot to mention it. So it wouldn't even pay to swing by! Oh by the way, we have to remember to stop delivery of the NY Times for that week!"
Jesus, can anyone else say "Clusterf#&*!"?
Suz just won Comment Of The Year.
[18] said Jesus, can anyone else say "Clusterf#&*!"?
I got the first two syllables OK, but it's a bit garbled after that.
[4] I'm against stabbings, but I think you're onto something with the cock sucking test at the gates. How does one volunteer for the test team?
I used to go when the event was smaller, and people were super creative with costumes. We didn't have to worry about getting shot or catching straight cooties.
Now I just stay home sipping pumpkin martinis and watching Joan Crawford movies like, "Straight Jacket" where there are lots of heads hacked off with an ax. Better than getting stabbed for real in the 'stro.
18 here, Sorry about that!
Clusterfuck is what I meant to say, but my foaming at the mouth was getting on the keyboard and I was afraid that it would result in a Left Coast version of the Pepsi Syndrome*....
*An obscure reference to a Saturday Night Live skit that took over the show and established for me, as a 16 year old, that Bill Murray was a comic genius.
San Francisco, stop trying to pretend you are New York, buy referring to the "Bridge and Tunnel" crowd.
San Francisco, stop trying to pretend that you are New York by referring to a "Bridge and Tunnel" crowd.
Cindy Lou Who is the costume to beat, this year.
#23 & #24: San Francisco has been using "bridge & tunnel" since the 1970s. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_and_tunnel) New York doesn't have a monopoly on the term.
But it should be B&T&P people. And the P technically opens it up to the continent of North America. NYC truly has only B&T invaders.
People are still going to come. That supervisor is a scarey cat. A fat chicken.