Newsom, Dufty Try to Kill Halloween

Halloween in the Castro is no longer just a fun street party. Hoodlums come from far and wide with their deadly weapons to roam the streets and cause serious problems. This Halloween party should be moved to the Civic Center where the hoodlums, all straight men by the way (with due respect to straight men who are not hoodlums), will not be able to cause problems. It might interest all readers to know that all of the streets fairs and carnivals are attended mostly by tourists, not San Francisco residents. Both tenants and homeowners, and 2/3 of us are tenants, mostly in old rent-controlled housing as that is all we can afford, prefer to enjoy peace and quiet in and around our homes, as that is what home means. The only reason the street fairs exist is to promote business for the commercial areas of town. The Gay Freedom Day celebration has become so commercialized, and the Civic Center party attended mostly by straights, that the politics that was once prevalent are gone. We still must have a parade and celebration, of course, but without all the private profit booths, and commercial floats. If that means it is smaller, so be it, so long as the pro-gay politics prevails. This city has enough billionaires to pay for it if the City cannot afford it, and the billionaires will not miss any of the money. It will probably be the one good thing they did in their parastic lives, and I am sure their CPA can figure out the tax writeoff scheme in contributing to a non-profit need. After all, we still do not have gay marriage, and the schools are still filled with homophobia.

The author of the commenrt has his/her facts so wrong on the attendance at LGBT pride celebrations that who can beleive any pof her/his other factoids. Or si the author anti-fun and doesn't want to see street parties in the Castro, an d doesn't want "straight people" to interact with queers at our June events. Yes there is a business side to it adn that is mainly schlocky goods. And yes, Castro at Halloween has some bad things, but don't the baby out with bathwater, as the old saw goes. Lighten up and enjoy yourself.

The City & County of San Francisco is liable for all the personal injury and property damage that occurs to the people and residences of any area where the City allows a street party to occur. The damages won in such lawsuits are paid by the taxpayers of San Francisco, both renters and homeowners. That money is needed to house the 15,000 homeless and provide social services to the thousands of poor people in this City. The 11 p.m. closure is generous, considering it is a weeknight, when most of us go to bed early to get up for work and school the next morning. By 11 p.m., this nonsense will have taken place for about SIX HOURS, more than enough time to gawk at adults prancing around in costumes, and too many guzzling alcohol as the bars and liquor stores are usually open. Contrary to the idiot's article above, the perfect storm was created LONG AGO, when the City allowed hoodlums to take over this street party. Every year the police have to clear the streets of the thugs who of course do not work or go to school and are more than willing to destroy the neighborhood and threaten people's lives all night long. Any thinking person can easily see the problem and the obvious solution is to eliminate the stupid party from the Castro. They can either have it at the Civic Center or move it inside, and many Halloween parties, both large and small, are held indoors. There is no residential neighborhood anywhere that can or should allow any danger to their person or property for any reason.

Last year a saw a group of about 20 black teenagers (around 14-16 years old) running through the crowd assaulting random people. I saw one guy fight back who was viciously rat packed by these hoodlums. Though there must of been hundreds of witnesses, I haven't heard any discussion of this.

I also saw various low level unwanted groping by some poorly behaving young men.

While I'm not necessarily for shutting down the event, the need to something about the violence is serious.

The City of San Francisco (we taxpayers, renters and homeowners) have been paying for 3 stages in the past, lots of police and sheriff overtime, ambulances, fire trucks and portable toilets. A cop starts at $80,000 a year plus benefits. This year, we are paying for the same, but it is down to 1 stage, which they plan to shut down long past the bedtime of most people on a weeknight, namely 11 p.m. RESIDENTS WILL BE BARRED FROM CERTAIN ENTRANCES, and will have to find the entrances marked in green on the following map:
http://www.halloweeninthecastro.com/2006.html

Our tax dollars are paying for re-routing our buses and trains, which we need and use in great numbers day and night. See the above website and
http://www.halloweeninthecastro.com/images/MUNIHalloweenService.pdf

We taxpayers are paying our Municipal Railway to manage ticket tables at Civic Center, Van Ness, Church and Castro stations who will be selling special $2.50 round trip tickets. There will be no change provided from the change machines at Castro and Church Stations as we can be sure the hoodlums would tap those to the max before anyone can use them.

This nightmare is costing the taxpayers HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS for no good reason whatsoever and clearly does not belong in a small residential neighborhood. The streets from 15th to 19th Streets, with 4 blocks of 19th Street will be closed and 1 or 2 blocks in 2 directions of the other streets will be closed. IT IS NOT CLEAR WHAT HOURS THESE STREETS WILL BE CLOSED. The money that is being spent by the City of San Francisco should be spent on improving Muni service daily and social services needed by the thousands of poor people of this City. THIS WORTHLESS EVENT SHOULD BE CANCELLED IMMEDIATELY AS IT IS A MENACE TO OUR FINANCIAL AND PERSONAL SECURITY. If anyone thinks this is wonderful, they should (a) pay the entire bill of this worthless event, which may very well total $1 million, and (b) host the same 300,000 people in their own neighborhood, at their personal expense. MOST PEOPLE ATTENDING THIS EVENT AND ALL OTHER STREET PARTIES/FESTIVALS IN SAN FRANCISCO ARE NOT SAN FRANCISCO RESIDENTS. At least the street fairs are daytime events and end at 6 p.m. The Chinese New Year parade is in the rainy winter, and most of it ends by 9 p.m. This has nothing to do with the politics of the despicable anti-tenant Democratic Party supervisor from the Castro area, Bevan Dufty, who wants this event shut down, and everything to do with how our tax dollars are spent, the personal safety of the residents and quiet enjoyment of the homes and neighborhoods of everyone who lives in San Francisco. I HOPE THE DAILY PRESS PUBLISHES THE ITEMIZED COST BILL FOR THIS ENTIRE EVENT PAID BY THE TAXPAYERS OF SAN FRANCISCO.

the city councle will just move it to a more managable area where the large crowds won't disrupt the neighborhood and residents of the castro. this will be a good move for all concerned

After the sixties, urban planning was rethought to make it almost impossible for crowds of any reasonable size to gather comfortably. They don't want to see large groupings, because they can get "out of control"- imagine what can happen if a million people were to come together to do a direct action. And this is just a party!

Halloween fallout: Nine shot, 3 stabbed, dozens arrested in Bay Area
CELEBRATIONS TURN SCARY IN SANTA CRUZ, FREMONT, SAN FRANCISCO
By Patrick May
Mercury News
While members of the trick-or-treat set devoted Wednesday to their personal candy inventories, dozens of Bay Area adults spent the day counting something else -- stitches from stabbings and gunshot wounds or jail time for out-of-control partying that landed them in handcuffs.

From one end of the region to the other, gunfire and street brawls tainted festive and otherwise peaceful Halloween celebrations. And in at least two major incidents, police said, gangs were to blame.

San Jose, which has had problems in the past with unruly crowds attending downtown Cinco de Mayo and Mardi Gras celebrations, did not throw a holiday bash and reported no major incidents.

But in Santa Cruz, a 14-year-old boy and an adult male suffered non-life-threatening injuries after being stabbed in a gang-related fight near Pacific Avenue and Cathcart Street, leaving a nasty blemish on a widely heralded event that drew as many as 25,000 people downtown.

In Fremont, a 17-year-old boy was stabbed twice in the abdomen while trick-or-treating, an attack police said may have been gang-related. Witnesses said he and his friends were jumped by more than 10 teenagers while walking through Ardenwood Park. He was taken to the hospital and is expected to recover.

And in San Francisco's Castro District, a gang fight that started with a thrown bottle and verbal back-and-forth ended in gunshots that sent at least 10 people to hospitals, though none of their injuries were life-threatening. Nine people were shot and another was injured in the ensuing panic. Two were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries and the others were released after treatment. No one has been arrested in the shootings.

The incidents spawned a new round of hand-wringing over public Halloween parties. The one in San Francisco was sanctioned by authorities; the Santa Cruz gathering was not.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom declined to put the kibosh on future Halloween merry-making -- for now.

``Thank God no one was killed,'' Newsom said. ``What can be done? Is this an event that has simply outgrown the area? Can we put ourselves in the position to allow something like this to happen again? Obviously the immediate feeling is no, we cannot.''

After decades of drawing crowds in the hundreds of thousands, this year's event brought back ugly memories of 2002, when four people were stabbed. A concerted effort by police and city officials to tighten the lid on things has led to a heavier police presence, a ban on public consumption of alcohol and security fences to rein in the marauding masses.

But some who live and work in the area said Wednesday they were fed up with the spiraling violence that, given the heft of the crowds, may be uncontainable.

``Things started off calm, but the vibe got weirder as more and more people showed up,'' said Aiden Douglass, a waitress at the Squat & Gobble Cafe & Crepery on 16th Street at Market, where gunfire erupted around 10:30 p.m.

``I've lived in the Castro for seven years and seen the crowds get bigger and bigger each year. But the violence keeps getting worse, too, with all these people squeezed into an enclosed space on Market. They need to stop it, because too many people are getting hurt.''

Police said two people sustained serious injuries, one with a gunshot wound to the head. Both are expected to recover.

The day-after mood in Santa Cruz was far more forgiving. Police, city officials and the downtown business community all seemed comfortable with the course of the evening, despite the gang-related stabbing at night's end that sent two people to the hospital.

Police spokesman Zach Friend said a greater show of law enforcement personnel -- 120 officers this year vs. 60 last year -- helped keep the crowd of at least 20,000 revelers in line.

``Last year, we had seven stabbings, so we're down,'' he said. ``We had a few assaults this year and 51 arrests, mostly for being drunk in public. But we had significantly less trash and less violence than we've had in previous years.''

The biggest challenge for police, Friend said, is keeping track of the dozens of gang members who swarm into Santa Cruz Halloween night from as far away as King City and San Jose, drawn to what he said was now the de facto Party Central ``for the entire Monterey Bay region.''

Local gang-unit detectives, joined by colleagues from Salinas and Watsonville, worked the crowd, confronting and photographing at least 50 known gang members, most of whom quickly left the area. But next year, he said, more gang detectives will be needed to cover the growing ranks of trouble-makers in town.

``You have to remember that our normal population is 56,000, so we had about half that entire population crammed into the one-mile stretch of Pacific Avenue,'' Friend said.

Yes, this event has problems.

No, it won't just disappear if you close your eyes.

Therefor,
let's think NOW
about 2007...

...

For 2007,

please see also

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/11/08/18328103.php


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