The Endangered Eagle

Word has reached me via Facebook about the threatened closing of the San Francisco Eagle, and over at Joe.My.God there is an unsourced rendering of what is planned for the future. Aesthetically and culturally pleasing it is not. I have written before about what a great institution the beer bust is, and on many a dull Sunday afternoon in Baltimore I have had wistful thoughts of drinkings and doings on the Eagle patio, and looked forward to experiencing it again upon my return. I hope that a plan of action to save it will come out of tonight's meeting, whether through having it designated a historic landmark (one can only imagine the plaque for that), it being purchased, or a a bunch of rowdy queers chaining themselves to the toilets like in the good old days to defy the wrecking ball. However, I think a larger lesson that must be taken from this is that the SF gay community has to learn to adapt to a changing world in order to survive.

Many have bemoaned the passing of the leather bars and bathhouses that lined Folsom some thirty years ago, but what made all that possible was that SoMa was a marginal zone of low property values. As many have pointed out, the new boom and the coming of companies like Twitter and Zynga have brought up property values in SoMa, and for whoever owns the land on which the Eagle sits, I'm sure there are much more lucrative opportunities than leasing to a gay bar. This gentrification, if you will, of SoMa, is a ruthless, uncaring process driven by pure capitalism, and no one will be happy to see what it does to the treasured institutions and watering holes of the past (see, for example, my post about the controversy over the re-location of The Hole in the Wall). By enlisting the aid of the city it might be possible to win some battles, but the overall trend of the war is clear, and if the gay community is going to survive, it must learn how to adapt to the new conditions it faces, rather than mourn its losses.

I've seen many comments on this situation that take a very traditionalist stance; this is what was, this is what must be, and development must be opposed at all costs. As a Southerner, and someone who has lived in many places where the populace has linked arms against any change or development in the name of the past, I can tell you that what this ultimately brings is economic ruin. You cannot keep the San Francisco of the 1970s or 1980s; however golden those years might have been in some ways, they were also very lean years, when San Francisco had serious economic problems. That's what made it cheap to live there, that's what makes it cheap to live in Baltimore, but I don't think many San Franciscans want to live in a city where block after block of downtown is boarded up and abandoned, as SoMa was during this time and as Baltimore is now. The economic boom of the 90s revitalized San Francisco in as many ways as it created new problems, as in the case of The Eagle. I'm coming back to San Francisco because of the energy of the city, the opportunity it presents, and the kind of people who live there, so I want to see it grow and prosper. But I also want to see it keep the character of what makes it San Francisco, and for that to happen, there must be adaptation. So SoMa is not what it was in the 1970s -- find the new marginal space, work with the city to keep gentrification from encroaching upon it, and create the new SoMa. Instead of trying to hold back the tide and crying over what was lost, look ahead and create the new. If the The Eagle is sold, find a new space, because what makes The Eagle isn't the building, it's the people who come and create the space of a community.

UPDATE: Courtesy of SFWeekly, a report on last night's rally at The Eagle, which fills in this unpleasant detail:

But before that deal could go through, the owner of the property decided he wanted to start a bar there himself, and wouldn't allow the current owners to transfer the lease.

"He saw an opportunity to start his own business here," Thirkield said. "He blew up that entire deal."

Now, the Eagle has been given notice to shut down by the owner, reportedly a thirtysomething resident of Santa Rosa who inherited the property from family.

So what truly sucks about this is that someone from outside the city, who seems to have no experience with a bar, and likely has no understanding of the cultural landscape, is going to try and start a straight bar in a spot that has no foot traffic, and is well away from other bars or businesses that will support it. This means that it, like The Eagle, must be a destination bar. But note that the Skylark, which is owned by the person the property owner intends to turn the location over to, which is on the heavily trafficked 16th Street, was empty on a Monday night when the protesters showed up. Put all this together, and I can almost guarantee that whatever they put in there will fail within a year, especially given the certain negative publicity the bar will receive. So, some dunderhead is going to rip out a chunk of the gay cultural landscape of San Francisco for what will likely wind up being a failed business folly - somehow it would be better if The Eagle was going to razed for condos rather than subjected to this indignity.

Underground SF for Sale!

Oh, the times I had in this place when it was home to Drunk and Horny; Lord Kook and I, along with DJ6 and Candy of Get Lucky, even tried to start up a happy hour party there. Now it looks like it, and the rest of the building, are for sale. Since I also know the people who live in the apartments above, who were affiliated with the owner, I'm curious what's up, but here's the link to the article in Haighternation with details. Given that price, which includes the liquor license, I'm tempted by this deal myself . . . .

The End of International Bear Rendezvous?

A friend in SF mentioned in passing recently that this year is the last for the International Bear Rendezvous, and this copy is on the front page of the website: "It is with great regret that we bring this successful bear run event to a conclusion." I thought this was a wildly successful event, anybody got the scoop on why it's ending?

More on Burning Man Moving to the Mid-Market Neighborhood

According to this post from the SF Bay Guardian Politics Blog, the deal to move Burning Man HQ into the Warfield building at Market and 6th has fallen through, but Larry Harvey, BM head honcho, says "We are determined to move into the mid-Market area . . . The city has been telling us and proving it with their actions that they really want us down there." Let's hope it works out; as I said in my previous post on the matter, having BMHQ in the heart of the city would be both an acknowledgment of the role that BM has played in shaping The City's culture, as well as making a difference in a part of The City that really needs it. As Harvey is quoted as saying in the blog post, "If we can get a foothold down there, those are the values [self-expression, community collaboration, and a decommodified gift economy] that we would demonstrate. We're nobody's window dressing and we never will be,” Harvey said. “We want to find common cause with the resident population. We know what it's like to break into a community and win people's trust.”

Save the Rave Hearing on March 22

Once again, electronic dance music is under pressure from the authorities, and once again folks are stepping up to the mike to make their voices heard. On March 22 the SF City Government will have a special hearing on Electronic Dance Music Events - go with your two minute speech about why electronic dance music is important to you!

http://www.savetherave.org/

Changes Afoot at Pirate Cat Radio

From Mission Local comes news of changes afoot at San Francisco's favorite scrappy, underground pirate radio station, Pirate Cat. It's unclear exactly what's up, but it seems that the founder, Daniel Roberts, has turned his attention to a low-wattage radio station he's "acquired," sort of, in Pescadero, leaving it up to the current PCR crew to reform the radio station along more collective lines. A quick check just now confirmed that their iTunes stream is down, and since I'm not in the city I can't tune in to see if they're broadcasting at 89.7, but here's hoping that the Pirate Cat will soon be back on the air.

Another One Bites the Dust: Bar on Church and The Edge

The Scene is admittedly a bit slow in keeping up with the current SF club industry news, what with being on the East Coast and all, but word has finally reached us, via Grubstreet, that the Bar on Church and Castro stalwart The Edge are shutting down and changing hands. The end of BOC comes as no surprise, since, when I reviewed it shortly after its opening in 2009, I asked why, though it was a nice bar, anybody would want to go there when it was offering everything that could be found more conveniently in the Castro. The end of the Edge is a little more surprising, though I suppose there can only be so many Daddy bars in the Castro, and this one always seemed a bit more grim in vibe and clientele than the others.

Burning Man on Market Street?

From Hank Drew at the San Francisco Public Press comes word that the Burning Man Arts Organization is considering a move from its HQ in China Basin to the Warfield Theater building at 6th and Market:

The group that builds a temporary city of more than 40,000 creative vagabonds at the end of each summer is in talks to move into the nine-story early 20th century Warfield Building, at Market Street where Taylor and Sixth streets converge

As I've said many times in the past, Burning Man, as both an organization and event, contributes more to the life of The City than most people realize. If you've ever been involved with a camp, large or small, you know how that kind of cooperative undertaking brings together a very diverse group of people, and creates a bond between them, and other participants, that goes well beyond those few days in August. Bringing the organization to mid-Market would not only provide some potential relief for the blight in that area, but would also make a statement about the values and ideas that are at the literal heart of San Francisco's civic life, and would be an acknowledgment of Burning Man's role in promoting them.

Adbusters Busts Up the Hipster

Maybe the best thing I've read about "hipsterdom" ever; it very nicely sums up the feelings I had while watching a hipster fashion show at The Knockout recently. When all you do is live for the cameras, be prepared to become as flat as the image you desire to be.

Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization

oh, and a great companion piece from Time Out New York:

Why the Hipster Must Die

My favorite quote:

If they can vanquish the Sweet, the path for the Vicious is less obvious. A good first step might entail purging the lawyers and bankers lurking in their company. But on the other hand, those guys are good at footing the bill. Another tactic would require the conversion of snark to self-criticism, and that would necessarily involve ignoring no-talent celebrities, and mean an end to playing it safe. The safest game in town—in fashion and music especially—is retro, and if there is no Ezra Pound in corduroys out there to say, “Make it new,” let me be the one to say, “Stop making it old.”

Can we get a little dose of that self-criticism around here, you think?

Donovan Who?

This past Sunday I happened upon an SFGate Sunday Style piece that should go down as one of the worst pieces of nightlife-related journalism I've ever read: a profile of Donovan, "one of San Francisco's busiest nightclub DJs," who is trying to start an upscale clothing and jewelry line.

Now, apart from the fact that he has no background whatsoever in the fashion industry, jewelry, or design, the thing that came up in my mind as I read this article was: Who? Funny, if he was "one of San Francisco's busiest nightclub DJs," you'd think I'd have heard of him, seen his name on a flyer somewhere, maybe even danced to one of his sets? I had to go many, many (too many, in fact) column inches into this article to find out where he even played. Let's see, he once played the basement room at 1015 (after a friend lied to the promoter about who he was), and he's played parties at (can you believe it) The Fairmont Hotel, Top of the Mark at The Mark Hopkins, and Slide off Union Square. Oh, the fame!

Putting aside the fact that this guy comes off as someone who caters to overdressed douchebags, I have to ask this: aren't there plenty of other DJs in this city, real, major DJs, with interesting lives and aspirations and projects, who would be better served by being profiled than this guy? And what editor let this writer get away with breathless assertions in the lede like "one of San Francisco's busiest nightclub DJs" without actually backing it up with facts before you get twenty paragraphs into the article?

This is the kind of writing that drives me crazy, perpetrated as it is by someone who obviously has no knowledge of the scene they're writing about, and gives both DJs, and the nightclub scene, a bad rep by making it look like it's all about money. It's groups like the Space Cowboys, Comfort and Joy, Honey Sound System, and all the other crews in the city who give our scene vitality, out of love for the scene and music, and they're the ones who deserve to have their efforts rewarded with the attention of our local press, not this guy. Maybe some day the mainstream press will wake up to the real stuff that's going on around us, rather than pimping for a guy who's all about the bling.

DJ Donovan sporting his solid gold logo necklace and diamond-studded ring at his fourth-floor SoMa loft condo.

Club News: The End of Pink, Bar on Castro = Bar on Church

According to the SFWeekly All Shook Down blog, Pink closed its doors this past Saturday, putting an end to the last club dedicated to House music in the city. That's kind of a sad thing; House was once the dominant form of dance music in this city, and there have been times when I, even as a dedicated techno and trance guy, have missed its presence. House is great when you want some easy-going 'choons to get you through the night, or through you hangover, and it's great music for socializing on the dancefloor. But Pink, as a club, is not something I'll really miss. It had a weird layout that made it uncomfortable when it got crowded, and, as numerous Yelp reviews attest, it had a pretty high douchebag factor, and was always trying to be more upscale than seemed warrented. I remember when that space was Liquid, and it hosted awesome nights full of people who wanted to go out and party and dance; when it turned into Pink, it seemed to be more about handbags and bottle service, and now that times are tight, I guess people are looking for a different kind of club experience, one that's less pretentious and more focused on the basics of music and fun.

Walking past The Bar on Castro this morning I noticed a sign for the inaugeral launch of The Bar on Church on January 20th. I believe this was formerly known as The Transfer. Having looked into that space recently, it's undergoing some tremendous renovation, but it remains to be seen whether it will be able to attract the same crowd as is former location. I suspect, though, that Bronstein's real efforts will be focused on Jet, with the BOC serving more as a secondary player in his club lineup. There's an article about it over at gay.com, with information about the (yawn) weekly line-up. Nothing to get excited about here, folks.

Introducing Untitled and After, a New San Francisco Techno Label

In an encouraging sign that the techno scene here is still on the rise, today marks the debut of two promo tracks from Untitled and After, a new San Francisco techno label. Label head Marc Kate sent me links to his promo tracks earlier this week (thanks Jacob!), and I really liked what I heard - moody but groovy tracks built on a minimal foundation with progressive propulsion and lots of atmospheric and melodic flourishes. You can check them out for yourself here:

Untitled and After promo tracks: La Villa Strangiato and Because You Weren't There from Land Sound (mastered by John Tejeda, no less!)

Here's what Marc, who performs as Silencefiction and is half of Land Sound, wrote about the label:

Untitled & After is a new digital music label run and curated by Marc Kate aka Silencefiction.

U & A is a Techno label that explores post-Minimal sounds.

U & A exists in this tension between the focused precision of minimalism and the grand gestures of dense and deep programming and performing.

U & A’s sound is defined, not so much in terms of genre, but in terms of mood. Though U & A's roots are in Techno, the music is made by artists with a mind for texture and atmosphere, moodiness and introspection.

U & A explores the difference between tracks for the dancefloor and those for headphones. Headphone music can be epic. Dancefloor tracks can be cerebral.

U & A considers its spiritual ancestors to be My Bloody Valentine for density (audacity?) and Joy Division for minimal sounds as maximum atmospheres.

When U & A grows up, it wants to be the 4AD of techno.

http://untitledandafter.com
http://www.myspace.com/untitledandafter

Marc says he's planning some Untitled and After events for 2009, so be on the lookout here and elsewhere for more great San Francisco techno sounds from this promising label.

MTA to Regulate Taxi Industry

I've long complained about the sorry state of the taxi system here in San Francisco, having spent several Friday and Saturday nights having to walk to or from my destination because there were no cabs. According to this article in the examiner, the Board of Supervisors has voted to put the taxi industry under the supervision of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, and I say it's about damned time. While the MTA doesn't have the best track record in general, it's at least a recognition that taxis are part of the public transportation infrastructure, and need to be regulated as such.

My main hope is that they will finally bring some quantitative data to the decision-making process for putting more cabs on the street. Medallion holders have long resisted this because medallions have become a commodity resource that they control, and can profit from, but they have always held that more cabs mean less money for working cabbies. However, no one really knows what the size of the market is for taxi services, and we've relied for far too long on anecdotal information from people who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. My guess is that a study of the market would show that it's much, much larger than previously described, and more cabs won't mean fewer fares for those driving them.

Download: Interview with Dustin Lance Black, Screenwriter of "Milk," on Fresh Air

Dustin Lance Black, screenwriter and executive producer of "Milk," photo by Kevin Winter

An interesting interview with Dustin Lance Black, screenwriter and executive producer of "Milk," on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. I know that Harvey Milk and his story have recently served as an inspiration and a departure point for local San Francisco queer culture, particularly Leo Herrera of HomoChic, but I'm curious what effect the nationwide release of this film will have on our culture at large (I'm sure that's what Gus Van Sant had in mind in the first place). It seems that everyone is looking at the current financial melt-down, and the election of Barack Obama, as an opportunity for their own version of "the New Deal" to blossom, and I wonder what role the controversy over Prop 8, the screening of "Milk" across the country, and the the struggle within the Republican party to define itself, will play in shaping queer culture, identity, and rights over the course of the next administration.

Streetlight Records in Noe Valley and Open Mind in the Castro Shutting Their Doors

Walking past Open Mind Music on Market Street recently I noticed a "shop closing" notice in the window, and now, courtesy of the All Shook Down blog on SFWeekly, comes notice that Streetlight Records is closing its flagship store in Noe Valley.

I've been chronicling the demise of record shops in San Francisco ever since I started this blog, and it seems that the trend will only continue. Having shopped in both Streetlight and Open Mind, I get the sense that what did them in was having a breadth of stock that required a large space, but that didn't, in the end, generate enough throughput to keep up the rent. I think that, for record stores to survive, they're going to have become small, niche-focused businesses that don't keep a lot of outdated stock on hand (there were several dozen square feet of Open Mind dedicated to old dance vinyl that, even at 99 cents each, nobody would really find that interesting). There will always be audiophiles who want their favorite Pink Floyd albums on high-quality vinyl, but fewer and fewer people are going to want to pick up The Wall on vinyl that's over twenty years old when you can get the same album on CD for pretty cheap (or just download it from eMule). I think that we have also entered into an era in which consumers are less interested in albums and are more likely to just buy individual tracks that they like; buying a whole album of stuff when you only really want one or two tracks seems to make about as much sense to a modern consumer as buying 8-track tapes that you can't rewind.

On the Passing of Proposition 8

I promise that soon, soon, I'll get back to writing about music and parties and all that fun stuff, but my mind has been more occupied with the events of the past week, both uplifting and depressing, than it has been with thoughts of where I might be able to have a good time. While the election of Obama has certainly cheered me, the passing of Proposition 8 has really made me wonder about the way in which the mass can be moved by fear and thinly disguised hate to deprive other human beings of their essential humanity through legislative means.

Part of my personal reaction to this has been to think that I can never trust the African-American or Latino communities again, and to be just a tad disgusted that those communities, which should understand something about legislative discrimination, could be moved in such numbers to undertake that kind of discrimination against another group. I heard an African-American pastor who was a leader of the Yes on 8 Movement say that he thought it was absurd to compare gay civil rights wth the black civil rights movement, because "nobody was being chased down by dogs or beaten by police." And yet, it's only been recently that Mathew Shepard was left to die on a barbed wire fence, and every day gays and lesbians face harassment, both physical and mental, and some pay for their sexual orientation with their lives. The only difference was that, until now, there was no institutional, legalized discrimination against them; with the passing of Proposition 8, we now see how that process begins. This is how the Nazis also began their persecution of Jews through the Nuremberg laws that set prohibitions on their ability to marry non-Jews, and, as a Southerner, I also remember miscegenation laws that prohibited interracial marriage (and which legislators also tried to insert into the US Constitution). Slaves, of course, were not allowed to marry because that would have meant soiling a sacred sacrament. Funny, isn't it, how the once-oppressed so eagerly adopt the ideas and methods of their former oppressors.

What bothers me the most about this, however, is that people who have no relation to me, my life, or the lives of my friends, seem to feel that its their place to dictate how I should live, and what I should or should not be allowed to do, based on religious beliefs that I don't share. Do we really want to live in a world where religious belief and practice is dictated by majority rule?

As CW Nevius writes in today's Chronicle, the supporters of Proposition 8 seem surprised by the anger directed toward them. As I commented on that article, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap." If your actions are motivated by loathing of other people, don't be surprised if that loathing is returned. For now, I hope that the legal challenges to Proposition 8 will move forward, because it is a dangerous thing to enshrine in law the denial of rights to other human beings based on religious belief. That is the path that leads to the ovens.

From Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court Decision that overturned anti-miscegenation laws throughout the US:

Marriage is one of the 'basic civil rights of man,' fundamental to our very existence and survival.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not to marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.

Changes Afoot at The Transfer

All you scenesters have probably noticed that changes are afoot at The Transfer - Frisco Disco got booted, Sno-Drift has moved to UndergroundSF, and Joshua J ended Big Top there when he started M4M at UndergroundSF. In addition, I've heard that general manager Yasser was fired a few weeks ago. So, you might be wondering what's up over at that grubby little dive of a club?

According to a source within the industry familiar with The Transfer and owner Greg Bronstein, the closing of Jet to expand it into the next door space on Market has caused Bronstein to turn his attention to his other properties (he also owns The Bar on Castro and Lime), and he wasn't too happy with what he saw at The Transfer. Apparently his intention is to make it "more gay," and to try and bring its cash flow up to the same level as The Bar on Castro (which reportedly brings in multiple thousands of dollars a day gross). Given that The Transfer has a crappy sound system, and is a tiny, uncomfortable dive bar in a bad location, I wonder how it will ever meet the same standards as The Bar, but then it's not my business, either.

One of the more interesting manifestations of Bronstein's attempts to remake The Transfer can be seen in a recent ad for the bar in Gloss, which goes like this:

NEWS FLASH
Being Laid Off Doesn't Mean You Can't Get Laid At The Transfer
"I didn't know you could check out cute bartenders, dance to hip hop, and drink $1 drinks all at the same bar," says Bon Qui Qui

So, in an attempt to revitalize The Transfer as a gay bar, Bronstein is reaching out to cheap, unemployed fags who are into hip-hop, and has chosen someone whose name translates to something like "good who who" as a spokesperson? Yep, works for me.

City Enacts New Noise Control Ordinance

According to this article in the SFGate, The City has enacted a new noise control ordinance for the first time since 1973. The interesting part is down toward the bottom of the article:

Noise violations would become infractions instead of misdemeanor offenses, which officials believe will make enforcement easier. The city's Entertainment Commission would for the first time have authority to regulate low-frequency bass and drum noise.

The EC has been complaining for a while now that they don't have any real enforcement tools, but I wonder exactly how this is going to play out. I think this does not bode well, for example, for Club 6, and gives any neighbor a way to harass other clubs out of existence.

Pondering the State of the Scene

This past Friday the boyfriend and I went down to The Stud for the Shadowplay reunion party, which also served as the ending party for Lucky Pierre and Heat, which had previously occupied two of the The Stud’s Friday night slots. We had a good time, but I wound up spending most of my mental energy running through the catalog of other nights that have ended this year, and what this might mean for the current shape of our scene.

So far this year I’ve seen the end of The Workout, Frisco Disco, and (though they’re not officially done yet) Lights Down Low for the indie/electro/bloghouse scene; The Grind, Fag Fridays, Big Top, Drunk and Horny, Lucky Pierre, Basket, and Trannyshack for the gay scene; Heat, and (again, looking ahead to the closing of Club 222), Techno Tuesdays, and the end of the regular Dirty Bird parties at Anu among the more music-centered nights.

Of course everything is cyclical, the club industry is founded on whim and trend, and eventually more nights will come forth to replace the ones that have passed (it looks like Richard Oh?! and Sleazemore are just moving their scene to Vessel, for example, but on a Wednesday night). But it does give one pause when you look at the present state of things. The gay scene is looking increasingly like the same thing being iterated over and over again; bear party, circuit party, top 40/hip hop night, neo disco party, drag cabaret, lather rinse repeat. And while it’s gratifying to see techno, or at least tech-house, gaining in popularity among the straight set, it’s also difficult to rouse any sense of excitement for heading to yet another party at Mighty or Mezzanine.

There are certainly people doing interesting things within their own scenes; Kontrol, Auralism, and Staple are helping build the techno/tech-house scenes, Honey Sound System has brought underground energy back to the gay scene, and even the couple times I’ve been to Bearracuda the DJs showed a musically adventurous streak. But it feels like San Francisco nightlife is contracting, rather than growing, with a limited number of event producers taking the same ideas around to the increasingly limited number of venues that are available. When I first started this blog it was with a sense of excitement about what I would find as I prowled the clubs and bars of San Francisco. Now, as I put together the weekend events calendars, I find it very difficult to work up enthusiasm for much of anything; the word that comes to mind most often is “stale.”

I’ve devoted endless conversations to this topic, trying to put my finger on what combination of factors has led to this situation, trying to determine if my own jadedness has finally taken over completely, if we are truly in the midst of shift in San Francisco culture, or some combination of both. I don’t doubt that my own experiences in clubland have had an impact on me over the past year, nor do I doubt that the economy has had an impact as well. I also don’t know if I really have enough breadth of experience to talk about San Francisco nightlife as a whole, since I know that there are some clubs and scenes, like drum’n’bass nights at Underground SF, and dub nights at Club 6, that seem to be doing quite well. I do know that at the meeting of the Entertainment Commission to discuss the promoter permits I heard promoters from across the spectrum express the sentiment that San Francisco nightlife is in trouble, but the very circumstances of that gathering might have prompted the participants to paint a picture of the club scene in gloomy tones.

So gang, tell me what you think: is the scene slowing down, or is it just me? Are there things you get excited about, or do you also find yourself thinking that drinking at home with friends is more appealing than dashing off to the club? When you go out, what are you looking for, and what do you find? I really want to know, cuz I need some inspiration.

The City Continues to Screw Up Halloween

According to a story in today's SFGate, the City's attempt to create an alternative Halloween event is once again falling apart. You may remember that last year they cracked down on Halloween in the Castro, leading to one of the more depressing Halloweens I can remember, and there was some idea floating around for a while that they were going to do a big party out on one of the piers - you know, in the middle of nowhere, where it's cold. However, the City was unable to put anything together, and so we it was the Year Without a Halloween.

This year Halloween falls on a Friday, so you can bet there will be plenty of people ready to party. And once again, the City has dropped the ball. It seems that they had pretty much the same concept, but were dependent on corporate sponsorship, and charging everyone $31 a pop (why $31, why not $30, or $35) to go to a party with - wait for it - Destiny's Child. Whooo, that sounds like something I'll line up for.

As it turns out they can't get the money they wanted, so they're cutting back on things like tents - you know, things that keep you comfortable if it's rainy and cold. They say no performers have dropped out, but seriously, who is going to go to this, even if it's free?

I haven't mentioned this before, but back in March when I got laid off, I applied for the job of the new event coordinator for the Entertainment Commission. I thought I had a good chance, given the people I had recommending me, my experience with event organization, and having my finger on the pulse of the San Francisco Scene as I do. When I chatted with Audrey Joseph about the job, she told me that it would probably be largely concerned with dealing with things like Halloween. Fine, I thought, I have some ideas around that.

The person they hired (I didn't even get an interview, btw, and they had to extend the application deadline twice before they got what I suppose they considered a good applicant pool), was Laura Fraeza, whose background is in big corporatized events. According to an interview in the Bay Area Reporter, "She plans to use her local connections to bring promoters on board for this year's Halloween celebrations." Well, that's worked out really well, hasn't it?

The problem is that no corporatized event, featuring a lame Top 40 musical act, with an admission fee of $31, will ever attract people in the same way as an unstructured, open street event. And you will never be able to get corporate sponsors to pony up big bucks for an event like Halloween where there's a chance that something could happen that endangers their corporate brand. There is simply no value in being associated with the event in the same way as there is something with inherent cool, drawing a specific demographic, as LoveFest, Pride, the Outer Lands Festival, The Treasure Island Music Festival, Noise Pop, etc.

My suggestion, and the policy I would have tried to implement, is to give Halloween back to the neighborhoods, and encourage neighboring cities, like Oakland, to create events of their own. The reason the Castro got so packed was that it was the only game in town, or even in the area. If every neighborhood came up with their own plan for Halloween and encouraged residents to participate, if Oakland decided to have a Halloween event in Jack London Square, then you would be able to distribue some of the load to different locations. Unfortuantely, I think the City has become convinced that the only way to try and deal with Halloween is to try and control it by putting everyone into the same place, without realizing that no one wants to do that.