Saturday, September 1, 2007 -- This morning started at a slower pace again, which is what vacation is all about. Turns out we couldn’t have picked a better location to stay than the B&B we’re in. We are about as far away from Fisherman’s Wharf and the tourist areas as one can possibly get, which is fine. This is really more like a NY neighborhood in that the residential and commercial stuff is mixed, you can walk most anywhere and it’s all very convenient. What you can’t walk is accessible by public transportation.
We are less than 50 yards from the intersection of Market and Castro streets, which is “ground zero” for this part of SF. We walked a bit past that to a great little diner for breakfast and had something typically Californian – organic yogurt over fresh fruit with homemade granola. Being southern boys, of course, we also had bacon and eggs, too – no whomp biscuits this time!
The morning was spent doing a walking tour of the Castro called Cruisin’ the Castro. We were the only two on the tour, so got lots of individualized attention. Kathy, the owner of the business and guide, was a wealth of information on the neighborhood.
Turns out that the Castro has only been the center of gay and lesbian activity in San Francisco since 1967 – the “Summer of Love” (another event that occurred here, although in a different neighborhood), although there has always been a natural draw and respect for diversity. She attributes this all the way back to the gold rush, when so many young men (and some women) were traveling here in search of gold, free from the restrictions of family, government and church.
Much of the organization of the Castro is due to the work of one man – Harvey Milk – who was elected Supervisor of the City. Supervisors are like Aldermen – there are 7 or 9 and they are the liaisons between the neighborhoods and City Hall.
Harvey owned a camera shop in an adjacent neighborhood. At the time, the Castro was named after the local Catholic church and known as the “Most Holy Redeemer Parish”. It was also significantly empty, had cheap buildings and was ripe for renovation. He moved his camera shop over the hill to this neighborhood and within a couple of years 20,000 other gay businesses had moved in.
Harvey was apparently very charismatic. He was also a good businessman from New York – when they wouldn’t let him join the local business guild because he was gay, he started his own and called it the Castro Street Merchants, foreshadowing the name change for the neighborhood. Then he got a permit for a street fair, which made more money for the local businesses than any other fair ever had. The next morning, the other merchants were knocking on Harvey’s door wanting to join HIS guild and the Castro neighborhood was born.
Harvey was sadly assassinated along with Mayor Marconi by another Superintendent, who was a disgruntled cop named Dan White. The cop, incidentally, was convicted of manslaughter, served 5 years in jail and when he got out he found out that he had no friends and no one would hire him because Harvey and the Mayor were so well liked. He eventually committed suicide.
To get an idea of how important the Castro is to not just California, but to the entire United States, you have to recognize that it is only 44 square blocks with a permanent population of about 24,000 persons, of which roughly 80% are Gay, Lesbian, bisexual or transgendered.
San Francisco gay pride is the largest money maker in terms of street festivals in the United States. In California, incidentally second is the Rose Parade and Third is the Folsom Street Leather Fair another gay event that has a much more adult reputation.
OK, that’s enough history – there was lots more (it was a 2 hour tour), but I won’t bore you with the rest of it.
We met Greg, a professional friend of Eddie’s, for lunch at Catch, a seafood restaurant right around the corner. It’s great to be able to sit and eat outdoors here. Catch, incidentally, is located in the building where the AIDS quilt was started. Panels for the AIDS quilt are 3 ft. by 6 ft – the same size as a casket – Only one square is allowed for each individual who has died of this disease. When it was envisioned, the guy that started it had sewing machines available in the building for anyone who wanted to use them.
After lunch we went back for a nap, which was much appreciated, and ventured out for some shopping after that. Eddie found a great new watch.
While we were out, we stopped at a place called “Magnet”. This is a storefront business that is decorated much like a spa or hair salon. It’s a lot like going into the common room in a dormitory – there’s internet access, things to read, televisions, etc. One wall is all galvanized metal panels with magnetic letters like little kids learn to spell with. People put up messages – kind of like temporary graffiti.
The most important thing this facility does, though, is to distribute information regarding HIV / AIDS and other STD’s. You can get tested for HIV, Syphilis, gonorrhea and a number of other conditions there. If you have any of these conditions, they provide counseling and referrals to appropriate assistance locations. We got some great ideas to bring back to ALFA.
The rest of the evening was spent soaking up the atmosphere of Castro. It’s very much like a small village – complete with idiots, of course – but like the neighborhoods of New York and other cities is very self-contained. If you worked there, it’s easy to see how you wouldn’t necessarily have to leave the neighborhood for anything.
After dinner (and neither of us can remember where we ate) we decided to leave the neighborhood for a while so we went over to the Lone Star Bar on Harrison Street. We’d heard that this was (a) quieter than many of the dance bars in the Castro and (b) catered to a crowd more in our demographics. It was exactly that – a nice neighborhood pub, with some loud music inside, a nice heated patio out back, and the music at a volume that was tolerable to those who don’t have any desire to do further damage to their hearing. Of course….we were back to the hotel not much after midnight.
