Hearing on Proposed Culture and Music Amendment, Friday June 27

Terrance Alan has been spearheading a movement to amend the San Francisco city charter to include a section on preserving music and culture - among various other practical things, this means that all downtown development, such as the proposed Easter Neighborhoods plan, would have to take the existence of current cultural and music venues (clubs) into consideration when putting together development plans. It would also stipulate that any increases in fees for cultural events would have to be approved by the Board of Supes, rather than just being levied by city department (this has been a huge issue for events like How Weird, and even Pride, which have faced exorbitant fee increases that challenge their ability to produce the events).

Having made its way past the Entertainment Commission, the new amendment is slated for a hearing this Friday, June 27, at 10AM in front of the Board of Supervisors' Rules Committee at City Hall, Room 263. If it passes this hurdle, the next step would be a vote before the Board, and then I believe it goes to the voters for approval in November. So, if you have an interest in seeing San Francisco nightlife preserved, you should go and show your support at this hearing.

Update on Promoter Permit Legislation: Rejected Unanimously at Entertainment Commission Meeting

At Tuesday's meeting of the Entertainment Commission over fifty members of the public, including a wedding planner, representatives of non-profit and fundraising agencies, two members of the Board of Supervisors, venue operators, and promoters all stood up at the podium to voice their opposition to the new promoter permit legislation. At the end of the meeting, all five attending commissioners also opposed it, and the President of the Commission, Audrey Joseph, said that when the review of the legislation was moved from discussion this week to an action item at the next meeting of EC, they would tell the Board of Supervisors they did not support it. Since no one spoke up in support of the new legislation, including anyone from Sophie Maxwell's office, which introduced it, this appears to be dead in the water. To drive the final nails in the coffin, everyone opposing this should still write to their supervisors and let them know how you feel, since, with this much opposition, few Supervisors would be willing to buck against their constituents to support it.

I went into the Commission meeting with a real sense of anxiety over how this could turn out, though I knew that at least Commissioners Alan and Joseph were sympathetic to the opposition. There were only a few people in the room when I showed up at 4.45, including several people I had contacted personally, so I was afraid we would be a minority voice, but then the room began to fill up and soon reached overflow capacity. I had planned to speak, but it really wasn't necessary, as every point I would have made was brought up by someone else. It was very gratifying to see how the whole entertainment community, with clubs and promoters and non-profits from across the musical and sexual spectrum, could come together like that. When I was talking with David Peterson of Fag Fridays and Temple later, he said it reminded him of 2000, when the SFLNC came together to deal with the club crackdown from Captain Martell of the Mission District. It made me think that we need to have a greater sense of solidarity among the nightlife community, because we really are all in it together, and we need to come together more often, and more effectively, to restore San Francisco to its rightful place as a center of world-class nightlife.

I was also thrilled to see Supervisor Bevan Dufty come in and state, in unequivocal terms, his opposition to the legislation, including the possibility of amending it. Dufty has taken a lot of heat over the Halloween debacle for the past couple years, and has been pilloried as a representative of the bourgeouis gay class that has "ruined" the Castro, but I've seen Dufty out clubbing, and in our discussions with him a few weeks ago, I was impressed that he clearly understood the implications of this legislation and would have nothing to do with it. He might be guilty of being more of a pragmatist than the ideologue that many people seem to want in their Supervisors, but I can't really fault him for doing what a politician is supposed to do, which is to seek out compromises that can work for everyone, and come down hard on those things that make no sense for anyone. I was happy to join in the very enthusiastic applause he received after making his comment.

Gerardo Sandoval sent his legislative aide, Luke Klipp, to represent him. Sandoval seems more equivocal, according to Klipp's statement, since he recognizes the problems with this legislation but is "willing to work" with Supervisor Maxwell on it. If you happen to live in Sandoval's district, you might want to shoot him an email and let him know that there's no way that this legislation can be made to work.

By my count, there are at least four Supervisors who will oppose this legislation, either wholly or in party, leaving only two more to find to get it killed. My feeling is that, if Sophie Maxwell is smart, she will withdraw it, rather than face political embarrassment over having it defeated in a Board vote, and come back to work directly with the entertainment community to deal with the issues that brought this about in the first place. And shame on the Mayor's office for setting her up with this ill-conceived bit of political theater.

Minutes of the meeting, including video, will eventually be up on the Entertainment Commission Meeting Information webpage.

Updates on Club Six and The Hole in the Wall

Back in April I wrote about the difficulties being faced by the venerable "dirty little biker bar," The Hole in the Wall Saloon, as they tried to move to a new location, while in late May I wrote about Club 6's struggle to deal with noise complaints being filed by residents of the SRO hotel above the club. Though a bit late with the reporting on my side, it looks like both situations have reached some accomodation. According to this Examiner article, the Hole in the Wall was expected to get clearance for the move from the Planning Commission, while Jim Meko, who also sits on the Entertainment Commission and was fingered as the ringleader for neighborhood groups who opposed the move, said he would drop his protest of the bar's move to the ABC Board if the planning commission gives it the stamp of approval. Meanwhile, according to this Examiner article, Club 6 went before the Entertainment Commission and got slapped with a 30-day license suspension, but this was held in abeyance, seeing as how the club owner, Angel Cruz, had taken steps to rebuild the ceiling of the club so that noise levels above it wouldn't exceed 88dB. However, if the club violates the noise ordinance within the next 120 days, they'll face another 60 day suspension in addition to the 30 days held in abeyance - in other words, they'd have to close down for three months, and that would probably be the end of Club 6.

Meanwhile, the Eastern Neighborhoods Draft Impact Report was just released this week, and it includes three options for re-zoning the Eastern Neighborhoods, which includes SoMa. Since the Eastern Neighborhoods represent some of the largest tracts of space available for residential development, there's sure to be some impact on the ability of clubs to open, or even function, in the area that has been traditionally reserved for them. According to the Examiner article Entertainment Commissioners Terrance Alan and Bowman Leong are working with members of a civil grand jury to determine the future of entertainment in the area. Let's hope that they are able to figure out a way to bring some badly needed housing development to the area while also still maintaining what remains of San Francisco club culture.

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.

New Call to Extend Closing Times to 4AM

According to this article in the Examiner Terrance Alan, in his role as a member of the Entertainment Commission, is once again trying to get the state legislature to change last call from 2AM to 4AM, a measure that was last considered in 2004. I think Terrance is completely right on this one when he says that the mass exodus of people from bars and clubs at 2Am is behind most of the noise and other complaints lodged against bars and clubs. Anybody who has rolled out of Drunk and Horny at 1.45 on a Saturday night knows about all the jacked-up people looking for something to do who then congregate on the sidewalk while they try to find out where the afterparty is. If bars closed at 4AM you'd have much more of a steady trickle between 1AM and 4AM, as Terrance points out, in addition to the fact that people tend to binge drink and emerge a lot more fucked up than if they were taking it in throughout the night (this was also confirmed by the British when they looked into extending closing times for pubs). Closing at 4AM would also alleviate the problems of cab hell that emerge when everybody is looking for a way home at the same time.

Also in the article, The Zebra Club in North Beach gets its license suspended after a deputy sheriff gets punched in the face, and the owner of Club 6 in SoMa (on 6th Street, one of the worst streets in SF), is issued a citation for noise.

Comfort and Joy's Afterglow Afterparty

Queer Burning Man camp Comfort and Joy staged their third Afterglow afterparty at the spacious home of a generous benefactor in the USF neighborhood this past weekend, this time going all out and producing a mini-Trannyshack that featured peformances by both camp members and special guests such as the reigning Miss Trannyshack, Raya Light. The show started well over an hour late and ran about two acts too long, but Raya's performance to Charlene's "I've Never Been to Me" was one of the most amazing and disturbing things I've ever seen, taking full advantage of the "private party" to do some things you could never get away with at The Stud.

Resident DJs Neco D and Lord Kook (also of Drunk and Horny fame) provided the tunes along with guests DJ Mermaid and Xan-X (Ambi-sonic). Neco D laid down a fun, upbeat 80s set, hitting enough well-known tracks to spark nostalgic conversations in the kitchen but also injecting enough unique choices (though I see the t-shirts everywhere, I've not heard Joy Division at a party in a while) to avoid the banality of a This Was the 80s compilation. Faced with what was probably an unexpected "extended" set Neco D soldiered on admirably with support from Lord Kook while the girls got themeslves together, and by the time the show was ready they had such a dancefloor groove going I really wished they had just been able to do away with the show and let us dance. Mermaid took over after the show with a classic disco set that seemed to find general favor with the crowd, but I was too comatose on the couch in the kitchen after eating a brownie to notice much. I was really there to hear Lord Kook, anyway, and after a "command performance" by Erika Kandy Kane I finally got to hear him go on 3.15. Though going on well after the peak and limited to only an hour and fifteen minute set, Lord Kook managed to encompass everything from Modeselektor's "Silikon" to The Infidel's "Love Like Semtex," with enthusiastic and ecstatic (of course) responses from a smaller but hardcore dancefloor. Xan-X picked up from him with more tribal "downtempo" beats from the likes of Sphongle, but this was clearly in prepartion for lowering the flaps and coming down into chillier regions.

The crowd was a terrifically diverse mix of hipsters, Castro clones, bears, faeries, and gay glitterati including Jeff and Gary, John Wood, and Terrance Alan. For the alterna-gay crowd this was clearly the place to be, and after 1.30 the carry-over from Drunk and Horny pushed attendance up close to probably 200 people. As they packed in and the temperature climbed the shirts (and other things) came off. The basement playspace was too hot and too crowded for me to deal with, but clearly that wasn't the case for others. Breakfast champagne was being poured when I left, and a friend reported in at 1PM on Sunday that he, and quite a few other people, were still there.

This was Comfort and Joy's first fundraiser of the season, and word is that they have two more events in planning now, one at a club with two other groups in April, and another for Pink Saturday in June. If you want a party that will remind you of why we love San Francisco, you should check out an Afterglow.