Unfortunately, my being impaneled on a jury last Thursday prevented me from attending all but the last few minutes of Supervisor Bevan Dufty's meeting with Castro merchants wherein he was asking for voluntary closure of their businesses on Halloween night. This request was being made in part because of the failure of he and the mayor to adequately plan for the announced cancellation of the Castro event and the lack of another venue for the expected crowds.
After the shootings last year the supervisor and Mayor Gavin Newsom announced their plan to convene a task force to deal with the issue. According to the August 9 San Francisco Chronicle, "That task force never met because it was unanimous among city department heads – and residents who contacted those departments – that there should be no Castro Halloween, thus eliminating the need for a task force, said Nathan Ballard, Newsom's spokesman." This is an amazing turn of events since, as one of the residents of the city who offered to sit on the task force I was never apprised of that decision, nor to my knowledge, was anyone else until reading about it in the Chronicle .
After putting all their eggs in one basket and seeing the plan fall through at the last minute our elected officials decided – 10 weeks before the event – to drop their failure at the feet of the local merchants with the specious theory that if we all just close up shop no one will come to the Castro and if they do, they will simply leave when they find it a ghost town. It appears that not only did they barely have a plan A, they had no plan B at all. I suggest had the task force been convened as planned last November and that plan offered a year out it might have been met with more support than was evident on August 16. Of course, that would have required community involvement, something it appears the supervisor and mayor were loathe to have given the "unanimous agreement" they decided existed. Therein lies the rub.
It boggles the mind that two bright, articulate, and seemingly popular civic-minded politicians (aided by various department heads) could have ignored the talent, expertise, and willingness of the neighborhood in planning a sea change to an increasingly problematic event. It's not as if the Castro merchants and residents blithely ignored the problem. Supervisor Dufty was asked at virtually every monthly meeting of the Merchants of Upper Market and Castro the state of either the task force or the city's plans for 2007. All inquiries were met with vague answers and a "We'll let you know" mindset. In fact, the only community meeting ever held was on May 30 after people began to be concerned at the lack of information coming from City Hall and, frankly, forced a meeting to gain insight into the status of the planning. A meeting to which the supervisor came late and, with a one-hour limit, left everyone who attended with more questions than answers.
Another 10 weeks passed before the supervisor calls a meeting with the merchants to enlist their help in rescuing the rapidly sinking ship he and the mayor have captained since November 2006. A meeting, it should be noted, that did not include an invitation to the current president of MUMC. Accordingly, after leaving neighborhood residents, merchants, and other activists out of the loop for more than nine months the lukewarm response should have been of no surprise to the supervisor, mayor, or other city leaders who attended.
Now we find ourselves less than 10 weeks before Halloween with no plan, no answers, and no vision save the one where the merchants take it on the chin and close. For perspective, it took at least two years to implement when, some time ago, the city suggested those merchants who sell alcohol "to go" stop the practice and move toward making Halloween in the Castro an alcohol-free event. Do the supervisor and mayor believe they can convince a majority of those and other merchants to now forgo any profits on Halloween with such short notice and vague plans for fattening their bottom lines as were offered last week?
As someone who endorsed and supported both Supervisor Dufty and Mayor Newsom in their initial and subsequent bids for the offices they now hold, it pains me to be in a position where I am questioning their leadership as it relates to the situation in which we now find ourselves. But, as far as Halloween 2007 is concerned, we are clearly seeing leadership missing in action.
Patrick Batt is a 20-year Castro merchant and a former multi-term president of MUMC who has worked on several Castro Halloweens.