The rainbow flag rising above our Castro neighborhood serves as a beacon to the world that this community embraces diversity and welcomes people of every color and stripe. Likewise, the city's management of Halloween in the Castro should embrace all members of the community, not just the factions who want to cancel the event.
It is a shame that the city has failed to include the Castro neighbors and merchants in its decision-making process for Halloween. As a result, many of us feel that the plans are not adequate to protect our homes and businesses, and we insist that the city invite public input as to its plans for future Halloweens.
True community partnership can lead to great success in planning large, public, outdoor events, such as SF Pride Parade and Festival, Folsom Street Fair, the Castro Street Fair, Carnaval, Bay to Breakers, and the Chinese New Year's Parade. Each of these events is organized by a community-based nonprofit that embraces public input.
Inviting neighbors to participate can lead to more creative solutions to seemingly intractable problems. It can give the community a sense of ownership over the celebration, and infuse the management of the event with cultural and historical understanding. When the public is invited to participate, controversial decisions (implicating public safety and public health, for example) can achieve broader support.
This same model is used successfully with New York City's 34-year-old Village Halloween Parade, which attracts 2 million revelers and generates $60 million for the local economy. It is run by a nonprofit board of community players in coordination with a 65-member community advisory board.
We applauded Supervisor Bevan Dufty's efforts in 2003-2005, adding fire/emergency lanes, three entertainment stages, and a contest to keep people moving through the crowd. And we were thrilled when Mayor Gavin Newsom announced on November 2 of last year that he would be appointing a public task force to manage Halloween in the Castro. The city, however, excluded both the Potrero and Castro communities from the decision to ask the Entertainment Commission to create an alternative event on Port property. The Entertainment Commission moved forward with the alternate plan, and then later canceled this effort, without putting either of these actions on its own agendas. Later, we were disappointed when the mayor announced that the city would try to shut down the event, and ask local businesses to close for the night. Furthermore, the mayor's office, Supervisor Dufty, and the SFPD chose not to participate in a community meeting held by Citizens for Halloween (C4H) on September 22.
So here we are in late October, with the city having failed at creating a task force or an alternative event to the Castro. The city will not commit to providing public toilets should large crowds show up, and private residents and merchants are being denied permits if they want a portable toilet outside. Tourism dollars are being spent to discourage tourism, small businesses are being asked to close on their most lucrative night of the year, and hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent on police overtime to protect the neighborhood from this "nonevent" – essentially shutting down a mixed use neighborhood during a national holiday. Disappointing recent news is that the March of Light Parade, started in 2001, was denied permits for Saturday, October 27 by SFPD's Mission Station and the traffic division. Will it be long before queers and friends cannot celebrate the traditional weekend before Halloween?
C4H is not advocating for Halloween to stay in the Castro. We are advocating for the city to relinquish control of future Halloween plans and to immediately establish a Halloween Task Force and/or community advisory board, which can work to ensure that Halloween in San Francisco is safe, fun, and good for local business. Appointments to the task force should be a community-city partnership with broad representation of our most experienced citizens wanting to work toward safe, fun and profitable Halloween events. C4H will be hosting another community meeting in November to support these goals.
For October 31, C4H is advocating for public safety, public health, and protection of civil rights. We are encouraging neighbors to "Light Up the Castro" to promote safety and deter crime. We are in support of small businesses to exercise their right to stay open. We have asked the city to proactively close the streets for pedestrian and vehicle safety and to allow for weapons screening. We do not support the city's strategy to keep information from the public regarding public toilets and hope city officials will announce their plans to protect our public health.
For those who choose to be in the Castro for Halloween, please respect our neighborhood. Those with cell phones who experience an emergency should call (415) 553-8090 for SFPD emergency dispatch, since 911 calls may get routed to the California Highway Patrol.
The situation is sad for 2007 but looking ahead, we're confident there's common ground for true community partnership, safety, neighborhood preservation, preserving LGBT history, supporting our local economy, and promoting unique, cultural Halloween events that befit the "Only in San Francisco" reputation for which we are famous.
Community leaders Gary Virginia and Donna Sachet are two of seven founding members of Citizens for Halloween (http://www.citizensforhalloween.com.) Sachet also is the society columnist for the Bay Area Reporter; the views expressed above represent her own and not necessarily those of the newspaper.