Jim Meko, a gay longtime activist in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, died Monday, August 3 at the age of 66.
According to his longtime partner, Roy Carr, 77, Mr. Meko had had a stroke July 19.
Mr. Meko, who had chaired the Western SOMA Citizens Planning Task Force and for years served on the city's entertainment commission, was known as a tough but respected advocate who cared deeply about maintaining the area's gay heritage and affordability.
Supervisor Jane Kim, who defeated Mr. Meko for the District 6 seat in 2010, called him a "stalwart" advocate.
"He loved the South of Market," said Kim, whose district includes SOMA. "He was very much in love with the neighborhood and passionate about it."
While Mr. Meko was sometimes critical of Kim, she called him "passionate and tenacious," and said, "You knew it came from a place of care."
"You never questioned his motives," she added.
Kim said she's "incredibly sad about the loss for our community," and "whether I agreed with him or not" on issues, it was "amazing to have someone who cared about every single block."
Lesbian Entertainment Commissioner Audrey Joseph, who served on the panel with Mr. Meko for years, said working with him could be "difficult."
But Joseph noted that Mr. Meko was a neighborhood representative, while she speaks on behalf of the entertainment industry.
"We had tons of arguments, which we're supposed to," she said.
Mr. Meko worried about entertainment "encroaching" on longtime SOMA residents, she said.
One of the plans he opposed was limited live performance permits, which Mayor Ed Lee eventually approved and essentially allow for things like having a piano player at a restaurant.
"He was staunchly against it along the Folsom Street corridor," Joseph said. "... I never understood his reasoning, except he didn't want that level of change."
Western SOMA has been home to a number of gay leather bars since the 1970s and plays host each year to two fetish street fairs. Joseph said Mr. Meko was concerned about preserving elements of LGBT and other communities, and he also wanted "to keep it as much of a working class, middle class neighborhood as possible."
Regardless of their disagreements, she said, "I respected who he was, and what he did, and how passionately he did it."
Mr. Meko "had a big impact on the early, formative years of the entertainment commission," Joseph said. "He helped write our good neighbor policy, he helped write our bylaws, and he set the tone for what a neighborhood representative should be."
In a 2011 Facebook post, Mr. Meko said, "Representing neighborhood concerns on the EC is not glamorous. The Bay Guardian [a weekly newspaper that shut down in 2014] once described me as 'grumpy.' Well, if a venue has been keeping families awake at night, if it's been attracting a crowd that defaces your property or, God forbid, if innocent victims are injured or killed, that merits more than a frown."
Mr. Meko was born February 13, 1949 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He majored in communications at the University of Minnesota. He moved to San Francisco in 1977, and he and Carr eventually started Best Impression printing business.
Mr. Meko's sister, Jeanne Hall, of St. Paul, said, "He bloomed when he went out to San Francisco," and it was "wonderful" that he could move to the city "and have as many opportunities as he did to be of service and help. It was a good fit."
Hall said her brother was "kind of a quiet, thinker guy," but it was obvious early on that he was gifted.
"When he was a little kid, he was in the garage building printing presses out of plywood," she said. He also taught himself how to play the 12-string guitar.
"Anything he could put his mind to, he could teach himself," Hall said.
Mr. Meko's determination helped bring changes to his adopted city.
Kim said Mr. Meko's biggest impact was "the Western SOMA plan, for sure. His perspective and fingerprints were all over that plan."
The neighborhood roadmap was in the works for more than eight years before Lee and the Board of Supervisors approved it in 2013. It addresses affordable housing, entertainment, and other issues.
She also noted that Mr. Meko was a leading voice in calling for an LGBT Cultural Heritage District and "ensuring there are ways we're going to not only commemorate" that heritage, but also "preserve it." (The status of the cultural district is unclear.)
Mr. Meko also welcomed some new gay life into the neighborhood.
Geoff Benjamin, 43, who co-owns the gay bar and cabaret Oasis, at 298 11th Street, said Mr. Meko's support of the bar before it opened on New Year's Eve last year was "striking."
"He was one of the only SOMA leaders" to come to the city's planning commission and the Board of Supervisors' land use committee and speak in favor of the project, Benjamin said.
"That meant a lot to me," he said. "It really indicated to me [Mr. Meko] was a reasonable person who cared about the community and wasn't as predictable as some people may have thought he was," or "just a naysayer."
Benjamin said Mr. Meko had seen SOMA evolve over many years, with changes including the loss of most of the neighborhood's famous gay leather bars.
"He wanted to have an impact on its next evolution" and ensure it would be "sustainable," he said, allowing for people who live in the neighborhood to coexist with entertainment venues.
"He was happy to see more gay establishments come back into the neighborhood," Benjamin said.
In an email, longtime friend Gayle Rubin said, "Jim Meko has been an irreplaceable guardian of South of Market for nearly two decades. His tireless activism and deep knowledge of land use and zoning issues have been a major force in keeping Western SOMA hospitable to gay bars, small businesses, and long term residents Many people who have benefitted from his work are unaware of his many contributions to the vitality of this neighborhood."
Besides Carr and his sister, Mr. Meko is survived by other family members and numerous friends.
A public memorial service is planned for 6 p.m., August 17 at Slim's, 333 11th Street, San Francisco.