October 31, 2007
Halloween in the Castro: Live!
We'll do the partying and/or dying, so you don't have to.
Homebound denizens of San Francisco, the Bay Area, and the world at large. Our editor, Brock, will be coming at you live from the Castro all night. We'll bring you live reportage of the costumes, "unsanctioned gaiety," Dachau-like police state, public urination, and/or absolutely nothing happening at all whatsoever. Stay tuned.
10:45 Update: That's it. We're done here, folks. If there's a shooting or a Cher spotting, you'll have to read about it tomorrow. The Castro's lukewarm vibe has worn thin. Now we're off to Polk Street for some action! No, not really. We're actually heading to the St. Regis for Bloody Marys. Jealous? Don't be.
Thanks for reading! Now go to bed.
10:35 Update: Hot-Dog-on-a-Stick Girl has and will forever be a cool costume.
10:30 Update: There's some sort of commotion going on at the Castro MUNI station. Looks like some sort of dance off.
Also, Hot Cookie is open and crowd-free. Wish they had a Jell-o shot to spare. Alas.
10:25 Update: Did we mention that it's a bit of a police state at Castro and Market? Because it is. Our Orange County senses are tingling. Hard.
10:20 Update: No booze to be sipped, as of now. Starting to get the shakes. God help us.
Jump to the past, if you dare. Mwah ha ha!
10:10 Update: Many of the bars and restaurants aren't closed, so much as they are closed to...you. Places like Lime and Twin Peaks are having private parties. Many of the gays, it seems, are simply encased in glass. Protected.
9:45 Update: Spare a drop of vodka? Anyone?
[That means Brock needs a drink, like real bad. Somebody save him!]
9:40 Update: First (very rude!) "Dick in a Box" dude, wearing Oakley's. Is this brand of eye wear really part of the outfit? No. But yes.
9:30 Update: Badlands remains open for business, as of now. This is our only choice? Really? Bah!
9:15 Update: There's a bit of a crowd forming at Castro and Market, but it's contained to the sidewalks. Like cattle.
Also, wearing your bathrobes, gentlemen, is not a costume.
9:05 Update: Metro, open. Lucky 13, closed. Newly remodeled Mecca, loud, clangy, and annoying. Pfft.
8:45 Update: SFPD Chief Heather Fong is on the street beat, along with the FBI at Haight and Market.
8:35 Update: 7th and Market is docile and eerie. Strange. Lots of (attractive) cops everywhere. Also, there's a sad, zaftig Goth girl in front of us crying. Hysterically. We can't shake her. The poor thing.
8:15 Update: On Market and Fifth. Already we spot pot-smoking hooligans and three people dressed as Dwight Schrute from The Office. Scared and cold.
7:45 Update: Fine. We put on a smear of eyeliner. What the hell.
7:35 Update: Heading out the door. We're not wearing a costume this year. (Like last year, the year before that.) We just don't have it in us. Also, we're sober. For now.
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Well, we are curious... bi-curious? You ask? No, Castro-curious, silly! We are going to go take a peek at the Non-Halloween Un-Festivities. I promise not to pee on the street.
Are they really cops? Or are those their costumes?
My attractive cop boyfriend has texted me from the scene to say he just got his first drunkenly shouted insult, "Shitbag!"
Sexy!
What's the FBI doing there? I guess in case Osama bin Laden decides to show up and whiz on someone's lawn?
I stay cavity search 'em all and let God sort 'em out. I mean the media has to have SOMETHING?
I'm sitting here in agony waiting to hear if Brock got a drink. Someone get him an effing drink!
My Halloween suuuuucks!
The solution to the Halloween problem:
All persons must full on make out with a person of the same gender to enter the party.
That really will frighten the bad element away.
The funeral of Halloween in the Castro took place already. SFGate covered it. There was MASS press there.
Hey, even Josh Wolf showed up with his camera.
The fact that the Castro isn't even the lead story on the Ch. 11 news tonight was interesting. (They led with a kidnapping in Palo Alto instead)
Mr. David Perry, sole commenter on the Home for Halloween blog, is feeling exceedingly humbled right about now.
Your tax dollars at work.
Actually, I think that Brock took the cake for suckiest evening... ;)
A dull city at last!
They did it.
The NIMBYs finally destroyed the best night in the city.
Sad. This means that this tradition is dead.
If we all had shown up in mass, they would have realized it was going to happen anyway, and dealt with it.
We let them win.
Wow. Even New York has killed their West Village halloween parade -- I mean it's messy. And cops are everywhere. And you'll be kept out from the barricades if it gets too crowded -- but they haven't stopped it. And yes, there's still a random fight and stabbing every now and again. That's life.
DC too still has its halloween in Georgetown and High Heel Race in Dupont. Again, stupidity reigns -- but no one actually goes about stopping the whole thing.
Talk about overreacting.
This reminds me of the turn from 1999-2000. Everyone was certain that this was going to be a mess. And SF did everything they could to scare the living hell out of each and every one of us for even thinking about going to the Embarcadero or Market Street. And of course there was all the Y2K fears as well -- Planes were going to fall from the sky! -- and then NYE hit and -- nothing. It was deader than a doorknob. I went to some thing at Townsend which was fine, I guess, if you like circuit parties. Not enough drugs though, and the one guy that I end up meeting is straight and there with female friends from Vegas.
SF has taken the party out because it apparently can't deal with a little collateral damage.
San Francisco should be boxed up and shipped to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.
it already has been, PR.
I spoke to an atty who lives in the Castro. Back in the day, he was out shaking his bootie on Halloween with everyone else in the Castro.
Now he's a grown-up and doesn't want any whippersnappers on his lawn. Age apparently takes away your sense of humor. How depressing.
(I can see his side though. They weren't stabbing/shooting each other back in the day)
Puh-leeze, people. Had Halloween continued in the same vein as last year, think about what could have happened. Just because San Francisco cancelled the party this year, doesn't mean the death of fun. Give me a break.
The crowd had gotten too out of control for such a small neighbourhood. Believe me, the majority of residents in the Castro were happy. Most of the people who are complaining don't even live in the Castro.....
Last time I was in the Castro on Halloween, probably four years ago, there was a guy walking through the crowd with a live chainsaw. It was an aggro, anti-fun, douchebag scene the whole night. Drunk, non-locals vs. the cops.
Plus, I'm just not a big fan of huge crowds anyway.
Right Leanne but this was a horrid way to handle it.
Why not charge sufficient admission (say $20 a head) to non residents to pay for proper security? Treat it like a street fair. Residents of the Castro get in free, drivers' license required. Non residents have to pay up.
Instead the city sent out these ham handed "NO fun" flyers and inconvenienced thousands of innocent transit riders, all so SF or at least the Castro could look like Danville.
Now maybe the Castro wants to look like Danville. Fine. If so, nightlife goers the other 364 days of the year might want to take their business elsewhere.
aj has a point.
perhaps it's time for a commuter tax, but instead of taxing incomes, we tax partiers from the 'burbs who wanna gawk at the gays and shoot guns and the like.
might be a good idea. then take the money and pay it to the police so they can make extra money and take a little and have free drinks for san franciscans?
The suspects in the 2006 Castro Halloween shooting were from SF gangs, not East Bay gangs...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/02/MNGG3M4KA31.DTL&hw=halloween+castro+shooting+2006+suspect&sn=004&sc=480
from the article...
"Bad words were exchanged. One person hit somebody with the bottle -- somebody in that group pulled out a firearm and started shooting,'' Fong said." >>
A moot point, I guess. Especailly to the folks who got shot.
D'oh! In my haste I left out the part of the article I was most interested in...
"Police said Tuesday's incident began with what Chief Heather Fong called a "stare-down" between about 15 members of a street gang based in the Sunnydale housing projects in Visitacion Valley and a similar-size group from the Lakeview area of the Ingleside district.
"Bad words were exchanged. One person hit somebody with the bottle -- somebody in that group pulled out a firearm and started shooting,'' Fong said.