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With the Bay Bridge out of commission "indefinitely," doesn't that mean there'll be far fewer East Bay teenagers coming to the city for Halloween and therefore fewer events of the stabbing/shooting variety? After watching the (somewhat lackluster) Halloween episode of Trauma the other night, in which the Castro is talked up as the biggest Halloween party destination in the world, we feel like maybe it's time for some impromptu planning. Sure, there's always BART... but why can't we reclaim our big, crazy holiday party in the face of such transportation adversity? All we know about right now (apart from dozens of individual parties) is this Embarcadero FlashDance, but we'll be sure and let you know if we hear of anything else.
CLARIFICATION: This post does not reflect the opinions of SFist in general, but merely represents the momentary musings of the author, Jay, who is himself an LGBT person who lived for five years in the East Bay. It reflects no racist sentiment, but rather the emotional response of many who enjoyed Halloween in the Castro before it began to feel like a place for outer Bay Area teenagers (and some from SF as well) to come and gawk, get drunk, and fight with each other. The end.
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uh, the phone call was coming from inside the house - a lot of the a-holes that "ruined" halloween were born and raised in ess eff.
...and even more of them probably weren't.
This might work if they close down 101 from the peninsula as well.
we'll use 280 or el camino >P
Hey Jay - That's a snarky dig to the East Bay.
Didn't we all see racial tension and violence on Muni the other week?
Perhaps you should reassess your perceptions and be careful how you generalize; surely you realize you're coming off like a white marina yuppie from Boston don't you?
Are you even a SF native, or even from California?
Only three generation and above San Franciscans named Alioto should post on this item!
Hey there, sorry to come off as elitist or Marina-sounding. Frankly, having lived here almost a decade and having lived in the East Bay for half of that, I do not knock the East Bay or use the term "East Bay" as a stand-in for "non-white." But I am honestly annoyed that the Castro Halloween celebration felt hijacked by ne'er-do-well teens at some point, and regardless of where they are from, they ruined it for everyone. I agree it is a broad and perhaps irresponsible generalization.
Yo Jay -
It's cool - words are a narrow band-width medium and it is easy for them to be misinterpreted.
Maybe it should be a question of editorial judgment that allowed your post in the first-place, considering the very judicious (rejected) contributions to the *ist blogsosphere that I am aware of.
However, we are all complex beings.
Speaking to your post - I too understand the "youth" that you've remarked about - don't forget the apocryphal saying by Socrates:
"The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority...They contradict their parents,
chatter before company...and are tyrants over their teachers."
"trauma" premiered?
This blog post is flat out racist and rude particularly to the many LGBTQ people who live in the East Bay and still do enjoy the Castro sometimes. To blame all of San Francisco's issues on the EB is so misguided. I'm surprised Sfist would promote such a stupid short comment to the front page of this blog. If you knew anything about the Castro you would know that the gay community there has been planning our own halloween party all along just like we did last year.
bravo, impressive drama!
Shouldn't you be reading "Oaklandist"? Stay home.
fyi I live in San Francisco.
Amen.
If you knew anything about the Castro the gay community there has been planning our own halloween party
So, we can't even joke about keeping the East Bay out, but Castro gays can plan their "own" party? What, us Castro straights aren't invited?
the gays plan it... i mean come on all the bars in the castro are gay but of course you castro breeders are welcome ;) its just the pr thing the city does the whole "stay home" thing helps keep it a more low key event, without having to go around being predjudice idiots like the poster of this blog.
homonormative much?
Sure, people can still get dressed up and go out to bars, but without street closure and police cooperation it isn't really the same. But sorry -- was not meaning to denegrate LGBT East Bayers -- just the (mostly) non-gay teenagers who show up to ruin things, who as I pointed out could easily take BART. I guess I made a poor joke that many SFist readers are being sensitive about. SORRY GUYS.
I didn't get the racist thing from your comments (especially given there was no mention of race, just location). Honestly, I assumed you meant the white frat boys in training who seem to enjoy being hateful, not necessarily any other minorities. It's just too bad that a few people with a complete lack of intelligence ruined what used to be a good party.
Don't apologize, they're just being oversensitive twats.
i agree with 4 and 6. you're being elitist.
PS i'm southbay riff-raff and dont need no stinkin bridge to go and annoy you in person!
Hypersensitive bedwetters.
The Castro halloween trauma episode was filmed in Russian hill - I watched it. They used the alhambra as a stand in for the castro theatre.
FWIW, The Alhambra was playing a fictional "drag bar" called the Alhambra, which was neither a stand-in for the Castro Theater nor for itself. The interiors were shot at the Great American Music Hall (you can tell cuz of the big curlicued GA's on the door portals).
How would out-of-towners be all the trouble for the Castro halloweeny fest? I do believe there is public housing only a few blocks away on Divisadero, people over there got bars on there windows for some reason.
You're on to something, though it isn't on Divisadero. 2 Halloweens ago, little crap-bag kids threw rocks at my car at Haight and Octavia when I drove by, which IS NOT NORMAL.
The last time I went to Halloween in the Castro, a few years back, there were packs of teens who were so out of control, I saw cops practically running to get away from them. I'm talking 20-30 kids wearing street clothing with coordinated colors, and baggy pants that could easily have been packing heat.
I've spent a lot of time in that neighborhood, and never once seen kids wearing clothes like that, let alone in a menacing pack of 20-30 talking shit to any and all around.
I was there the last year of the celebration. Whether East Bay is a code word or not there's no racism here. Does anyone who knows what actually went on dispute that the the violence was from black (not Latino, not white) teenagers? Or is it racism to simply repeat the actual facts of what went on?
Then since no black people live in San Francisco, they were obviously from outside of the city.
I can't believe this post is controversial. I've been to Castro Halloween many times. It's true that it was the out-of-control drunk suburban teens who refused to even dress up who ruined it.
sorry if the truth hurts.
I had the same thought when the bridge closed-- maybe h'ween in the castro will be a fun freak show again!
I'm still not going. The kids were clearly not from the neighborhood, a statement I can make after spending enough time in the area to recognize quite a few people on the street on any given day.
Whether they were from outside the neighborhood or outside the city doesn't matter--there are plenty of disenfranchised dead-enders who spend the rest of the year shooting each other in our local projects.
Oh, and news-flash: these kids looked 15-17 to me, and poor. Given how bad the parking is in the neighborhood on halloween, I'm guessing they took public transit, Muni or BART, and didn't use the Bay Bridge.
I noticed The east bay brings in better looking people.. SF has bums and assorted creeps on the streets that are scary any day not just Halloween. Wung Fung Poo
Oh for Heaven's sake people— there is nothing remotely racist about this post. If you think so, you are projecting. "East Bay" is not a racial slur. And as a LGBT person who has spent time all over the Bay Area as well as the Castro for well about 15 years, yeah, the outer-tourists took a community costume event and made it looky-loo and dangerous.
While crushed in the throng one recent year—escorting a visiting small-town gay person who just HAD to see the Castro on Halloween—I heard lots of "damn faggots" comments from clearly non-neighborhood teens. (I still don't know why they came to the Castro on Halloween if they hate gays so much.) I finally turned and asked one of them, "If you don't want to be around gay people, why did you come here?"
And then I got smashed across the face and they disappeared into the crowd while my friends helped me off the pavement.
I use to revel in the community party that was Halloween in the Castro back in the day. Count me now as another one "many who enjoyed Halloween in the Castro before it began to feel like a place for outer Bay Area teenagers (and some from SF as well) to come and gawk, get drunk, and fight with each other." And us.