SFist: Halloween in the Castro: Live!

BeejW

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:20:36 -0800

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.

BeejW

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:18:59 -0800

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.

Greg

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:14:35 -0800

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?

aj

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:43:59 -0800

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.

Leanne

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:12:25 -0800

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.

mdw0526

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 10:28:42 -0800

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.....

bluecanary

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 10:00:26 -0800

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)

aj

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 08:45:04 -0800

it already has been, PR.

PRBurkley

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 08:37:43 -0800

San Francisco should be boxed up and shipped to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.

DC1974

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 08:02:49 -0800

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.

egarner

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:24:08 -0800

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.

KWillets

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:48:51 -0800

A dull city at last!

Spencer Williams

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:11:53 -0800

Actually, I think that Brock took the cake for suckiest evening... ;)

aj

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:05:03 -0800

Mr. David Perry, sole commenter on the Home for Halloween blog, is feeling exceedingly humbled right about now. Your tax dollars at work.

Agent510

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:03:24 -0800

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)

elihu_hernandez13

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 22:39:56 -0800

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.

cranky

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 22:32:17 -0800

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.

Spencer Williams

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 22:07:25 -0800

I'm sitting here in agony waiting to hear if Brock got a drink. Someone get him an effing drink! My Halloween suuuuucks!

wsanders

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:49:54 -0800

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?

brokenlogin

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:00:25 -0800

My attractive cop boyfriend has texted me from the scene to say he just got his first drunkenly shouted insult, "Shitbag!" Sexy!

AlamedaAnnie

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:59:38 -0800

Are they really cops? Or are those their costumes?

Shibi

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:10:16 -0800

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.