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Much like the aforementioned heterosexual pride parade of Bay2Breakers, and the dirtier street fair known as Dore Alley, this year's Gay Pride Eve celebration in the Castro is facing some possible restriction from the SFPD, and may face cancellation altogether. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the organizers of Pink Saturday for the last decade or so, have been trying to negotiate with police and the city in order to expand the footprint of the festivities down Market Street and to add beer concessions and more live entertainment -- making it more of a nighttime version of Castro Street Fair. Bar owners, who know there'll be tons of people in the neighborhood, have no objection and welcome the Sisters efforts to corral the situation.
But according to The Sword (link semi-NSFW) and the Bay Area Reporter, the police department has been reluctant to allow full beer concessions at the event, saying they can not afford the overtime for the extra staff they would need for a full street festival. The Sisters argue that they will pay for 150 extra private security personnel so that police won't have to do any more than previous years, and the event (which only netted them $267 last year after paying out almost a $100,000 in costs and charitable grants) isn't worth the effort for them to manage anymore. One source said they feel like the cops are trying to shake them down for more money -- going so far as to say that the event could either abide by the alcohol restrictions, or the Sisters would have to pony up $250,000 in overtime for the cops. A decision on the matter is two weeks away, but Sister Barbi Mitzvah is quoted as saying she is "feeling very confident" the city will cave.
Related factoid: Did you know that four of the five largest (best attended) street festivals in San Francisco are gay? The one that isn't is Love Parade / Love Fest.
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Can we get a few buses full of tourists to let their camera wielding passengers out at Dore Alley?
The looks on their faces would be so precious.
I thought the whole idea was that that kinda crap (sometimes literally) is easily avoided.
The Love Parade is a European idea, so I think we can safely label it 'gay'. That's the rule of thumb that everyone else uses when commenting on my shoes and man purse.
Doesn't surprise me that any attempt to use security rather than "union approved SFPD" would meet resistance, but it does sound like a racket.
it's in their interest for there to be more crime. how do you find more crime? start territorializing every public congregation in the city.
Let's do some math to see how many fat-cat cops will be there for $250,000. If you assume 6 hours of time per cop for the event, which is super generous considering they run the street sweepers starting at a few minutes before midnight, and $100 an hour (starting cops get $30, senior cops get more, overtime is 1.5x or 2x...so $100 seems reasonable), you get 417 cops! There's no way the SFPD would actually supply that many, so they're just engaging in budget hole filling.
Before anyone goes off about crowd barriers and other things, those are included in the event permit fee and are separate.
Yeah, I'm thinking the city caves on this. Either they have an event not on their terms with no permit, or they have an event on the Sisters' terms, who have a proven track record of throwing events for thousands of people safely, and raising money for charity when they do it.
Oh wow, I know that guy... Mr. Pink.
What is with the amount of YOU SHALL HAVE NO FUN pressure in this city lately? I moved here because it was a fun place, but now they're turning it into a suburb. =( A suburb without a city to be a suburb of.