Halloween in the Castro "Cancelled"

According to this article in the San Francisco Chronicle Halloween in the Castro has been officially "cancelled." While this practically means that they won't block off the streets, bring in porta-potties, or increase police presence, it's anybody's guess what it really means. Ted Strawser of the SF Party Party has a good quote:

"People are still going to go to the Castro," said Ted Strawser, founder of the San Francisco Party Party, a group that opposes the move. "Without services, they're just going to pee in the street, and without entertainment, mischief will occur."

I'm unsure what will happen; without anything to draw people there, will there be crowds of people aimlessly milling around in the Castro? I imagine that the bars will continue to do well, but will the bridge-and-tunnel kids want to hang out at Daddy's? Will SFPD have to come through and clear the streets of costumed revellers? I guess we won't know until Halloween is here.

More on Extended Closing Times

Last night's blogger meetup concluded with only the party boys left at the bar - myself and Ted Strawser of the sfpartyparty. We got into a discussion about extended closing times for bars that was proposed by Terrance Alan of the SF Entertainment Commission and how we would like to put some grassroots muscle behind getting the legislation through. That bars close at 2AM in San Francisco is not only silly in comparison with other major American cities (even in Atlanta they don't close until 4AM), but it creates a lot of problems as large numbers of drunk people spill out into the streets at the exact same time every Friday and Saturday night. Resource competition becomes fierce as everyone is trying to get a cab at the same time, more drunks are put on the roads as they look for another party locale, long lines stretch down the block as folks queue up to get into afterhours clubs, and, in general, a large number of drunken people hit the streets of San Francisco all at once.

I remembered that Britain recently decided to change pub and club closing hours so that bars can now stay open 24 hours a day, rather than having to close at 11PM (pubs) or 2AM (clubs). The press declared that this would result in crazy drunkeness and that alcohol industry profits would soar. Well, as it turns out, by letting bars set their own hours, resulting in a staggering of closing times (so to speak), alcohol-related violence and public disorderliness have substantially decreased throughout Britain, and the drinks industries have not seen any substantial change in their profit numbers. Here's an article in The Telegraph from last November that looks at statistics gathered a year after the change in licensing laws, and another from The Independent. So, based on the British experience, it would seem that many of the problems currently associated with bars and clubs in San Francisco, most of which stem from large crowds of people pouring into the streets at the same time, could be solved by changing bar closing times, or even giving bar and club owners the power to set closing times for themselves. We already have bars that open at 6AM (like Twin Peaks and The Mix in the Castro), so why not let the bars decide for themselves what time they want to close based on what is economically viable for them?

Ted and I were finishing up our drinks around 9PM last night, and as we talked about this, we realized that if we were in New York we'd probably be making plans to get some dinner, then maybe finish off at a club (if it wasn't a school night for both of us). Instead, by the time 11PM rolls around, most people are ready to settle in because there's not that much time left in the evening. The whole cultural complexion of this city could be altered by making this one change, and I for one would love to see what happens.

A Hit, a Veritable Hit!

So last night I was at Fritjz on Hayes attending a monthly gathering of bloggers organized by Ted Strawser of the sfpartyparty (who deserves big congrats for his role in getting the road closures in Golden Gate Park through). We were all sitting around, having some beers, talking shop, when in stroll these two girls in identical outfits, identical black wigs, and identical big black Jackie O sunglasses, carrying a digital video camera that was on. They inquire whether one of our group is Dean Barbella of gavinnewsomsucks.com, and when Dean puts up his hand, they promptly announce that they are from a website that supports the Mayor (I won't help their cause by mentioning them by name), throw two beers upon him, and make a hasty retreat. We were all stunned, then started laughing our asses off. As I later told Dean, I wished that I had acheived such a state of notoriety that people wanted to throw drinks in my face. We all speculated how soon it would be before the video would be on YouTube, and the answer seems to have been within about an hour. Dean has the video, with his own commentary, up on his site, you should really check it out for a great glimpse into the world of SF politics. And if you pause it just as the girls come out onto the patio you'll see me for about a half second - I'm the only one wearing sunglasses.

SF Bloggeratti

Thanks to an invite from Ted Strawser of the San Francisco Party Party I found myself in the company of bloggers from SFist, BeyondChron, and other San Francisco mini-media empires at Zeitgeist last night, where I discovered that bloggers are much like their old-media journalistic counterparts when it comes to liver capacity. I had some great conversation with folks like E. Doctor Smith (who plays an interesting electronic instrument of his own invention) and Joe Eskenazi of BeyondChron, and got an editor of a major San Francisco weekly stoned. As we passed the pipe he introduced me to a friend of his who turned out to be DJ Smoove of the Space Cowboys (among other affiliations). We wound up having a discussion about whether or not another DJ who was a friend of theirs had recently turned into a "trance bitch," which of course got me going since I considered said DJ to be more of a progressive house DJ, based on the couple times I've heard him. The crux of the matter was whether or not progressive house was the same as progressive trance, and you can guess where I came down on that. Things concluded with the the acknowledgement that "progressive" could be applied to any kind of dance music (including breaks, kids, let's not forget about what breaks would be like without builds and breaks), and that there really was a difference between progressive house and progressive trance. This is what happens when you get into stoned conversations with a breaks DJ on one side and a techno/trance DJ on the other - lots of pissing to mark territory. The entire affair put me in a mischievious mood, hanging out with all these alternative media types and getting soused on a school night, and I look forward to the next gathering of the SF Bloggeratti.