How did a decades-long tradition of Halloween in the Castro come to a screeching halt this year? Bevan Dufty.
As longtime Castro residents and community event planners, we feel Supervisor Dufty is using fear, non-related crime incidents, improper community process, and poor event planning strategies to kill Halloween in the Castro.
Last year the celebration was from 7 p. m. to midnight with a March of Light Parade, three entertainment stages, a costume contest, gate donations, and the third consecutive media campaign to promote a safe, fun, costumed party featuring hostess Donna Sachet.
This year, planning started late by Dufty. The first such meeting on July 26 (one week's limited notice) was promoted as a discussion of safety and crime prevention measures being taken but never mentioned that Dufty already had plans to cancel or move the event. On June 29 he was quoted, "I am going to have some more public engagement around that issue and really look at trying to not have that [Halloween] event, because I'm very uncomfortable."
Just weeks away, this year's event has no information on www.halloweeninthecastro.com. Current plans include one entertainment stage, a half-hour costume contest ending at 10:30 p.m. after which elevator music will be played until street cleaning trucks close down the party at 11. And Dufty is asking bars to close early on one of their highest-revenue nights of the year. Where does he expect 300,000 revelers to go at 11 p.m., even if the bars stay open?
We feel the current plan is an intentional strategy to strip the event of its character and success to justify canceling it next year.
There's no evidence of increased violence toward the Castro or LGBT community from last year's Halloween celebration, this year's Pride celebration, or Pink Saturday. Dufty stirs fear by citing a San Diego gay bashing and a non-Pride related youth gathering resulting in crime on June 25 in the Castro. Neither of these incidents occurred in the context of the extensive safety measures taken for predictable, large community events in SF.
The November 3, 2005, B.A.R. reported, "The event [Halloween 2005], for the most part, was considered to be relatively safe, said SF Police Captain John Goldberg. There were several arrests ... but the numbers weren't extraordinary..."
The November 11, 2005, B.A.R. reported, "... city departments and officials earned high praise from organizers of the [Halloween] event, who noted many improvements over last year, including greater patrols of the neighborhood's perimeters to avoid pockets of lawlessness and tail-end violence as people headed home; a clear and accessible fire and emergency lane; and large public safety presence, to name a few."
Special Patrol Police reported being overwhelmed in 2005 but said the city cut safety monitors by 50 percent due to budget cuts.
In 2003 Dufty said he hoped four entertainment stages ending at midnight would "give people something to do besides roam the streets and drink alcohol." This year his plan for one stage and shorter hours makes no sense and we feel it will generate increased boredom and crime, especially when the police (some in riot gear) and city trucks attempt to move out 300,000 people at 11 p.m. By directing no merchant alcohol sales and zero tolerance for alcohol within the celebration area, parties will move into darker, residential areas with less public safety and no Porta-Potties.
Baiting the community with fear of hate crimes or violence is shameful given the thousands of residents, merchants, community groups, and city employees who have made this event fun and relatively safe for decades. Maybe queers should stay in the closet and we should cancel Pride and the Folsom, Hairrison, and Castro street fairs as well.
There's a trend to clamp down on or eliminate community festivals and fairs evidenced by the rescinding of a liquor license at the North Beach Jazz Festival and a failed attempt to have fair/parade organizers pay for public safety and required barricades. Soon San Francisco will be ethnically and culturally cleansed of our events that build community, showcase diversity, and attract tourism and critical revenue.
We think there is more to this than safety. Based on his voting record in the last four years, Dufty has become more conservative and he attempts to portray "what the community wants" based on his political base and neighborhood associations laced with privileged, not-in-my-backyard residents. As he enters fatherhood (and we love kids and promote family values), we see him advocate for Castro childcare centers while seniors and people with AIDS get Ellis-evicted and homeless people get the shaft with Care Not Cash.
Halloween in the Castro is symptomatic of SF being less friendly to late night entertainment, the working class, youth, seniors, renters, and commuters.
Proven strategies exist to keep Castro's Halloween safe and fun and the city needs to allocate resources to ensure this while planning additional public Halloween events outside of the Castro. A community committee should oversee Halloween to keep politics out of it.
We encourage everyone to participate in costume, respect the neighborhood, promote safety, and get involved to preserve an internationally recognized Halloween celebration that showcases the creativity and liberation of our queer community.