January 28, 2016 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter

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Austin keeps it weird – and queer

ARTS

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SF Ballet Gala

On the Tab

The

www.ebar.com

Serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities since 1971

Vol. 46 • No. 4 • January 28-February 3, 2016

Plans for sex offender rehab site cause stir

BESTIES

Time to vote for the best

by Seth Hemmelgarn

P

lans to move a rehabilitation center for sex offenders into San Francisco’s Duboce Triangle neighborhood has prompted complaints from neighbors and a city supervisor that there hasn’t been sufficient outreach. Sharper Future, which for years has offered services to offenders at 1540 Market Street, had planned to move into the ground floor of the building Maitri hospice owns at 100 Church Street Thursday, January 28 and open within days. The neighborhood is popular with families with children, and the agency would be going into a space not far from parks and schools. But it appears that one of the entities in the dark about what’s planned for the site is the city’s planning department. In an email to the Bay Area Reporter Tuesday, department spokeswoman Gina Simi said, “We are actively working to obtain more information about their current plans for the site to determine the appropriate permitting process.” See page 12 >>

by Cynthia Laird

B

uilding on the success of last year’s Bay Area Reporter readers’ poll, the 2016 version is again full of nominees ranging from drag kings to LGBTQ youth activists. Dubbed the Besties: The LGBT Best of the Bay, voting starts Thursday (January 28). People can vote online at www.ebar.com/ besties2016 or complete the paper ballot that appears on pages 31-32 in the BARtab section. Voting ends March 2 and winners will be announced in the Bay Area Reporter’s April 7 issue, which coincides with the paper’s 45th anniversary. This sixth annual readers’ poll includes nominees in seven categories: arts and entertainment, community, nightlife, restaurants, services and shopping, sex, and weddings and destinations. As with last year’s ballot, each nominee grouping includes an option for readers to write in their own suggestion. The paper decided to stick with the format used last year because it generated the most responses in the history of the readers’ poll. Readers seemed to like the choices of nominees, and almost everyone completed the entire survey. Some of the new entries this year include best grocery store (chain and independent), best local getaway, best pet hotel, and best beach. In the popular nightlife section, there are new categories for best drag king, best faux queen, and best live stage show in a bar or nightclub, along with favorites like best bartender and best DJ. Also new this year is a drinks category, where readers can vote for their favorite beer and other adult beverages. In the community section, new this year are categories for best health-related nonprofit and best HIV/AIDS nonprofit, along with favorites like best LGBT event and best LGBT sports league. Also new is the best Realtor category, and best ride-hailing category, which includes the nonprofit Homobiles that serves the LGBTQ community and its allies, along with Lyft and Uber. In the best LGBT youth activist (under 25), this year’s nominees are Austin Padilla and Ruby Spies. Padilla is a gay man and a founding member of the Getting to Zero committee, which is San Francisco’s effort to drastically reduce HIV transmissions by 2020. See page 14 >>

Maitri hospice has entered into a lease with Sharper Future for the ground floor space of their building at 100 Church Street.

Castro merchants seek Super Bowl business Rick Gerharter

by Matthew S. Bajko

W

ith a special advertising campaign and a series of bar events and other promotions, Castro merchants are hoping to score some Super Bowl business next week. The National Football League’s championship game between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers will be played Sunday, February 7 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. Leading up to the sporting contest will be multiple events in San Francisco, beginning Saturday, January 30 when the free-to-enter Super Bowl City opens at Justin Herman Plaza in front of the Ferry Building. Yet due to the decision by city transit officials to run buses instead of the iconic F-Line trolley cars along Market Street, many merchants cried foul that they would not see any uptick in business from the estimated 1 million people expected to visit during Super Bowl Week. As the Bay Area Reporter reported in December, Castro merchants slammed the San Francisco Bay Area Super Bowl 50 Host Committee and city leaders for their decision to mothball the historic trolley cars for three weeks to accommodate the construction, duration, and then demolition of the fan village at the foot of Market Street. They feared few tourists would jump aboard the replacement buses and eschew altogether going to the gay Castro district. In response to the merchants’ complaints, the Mayor’s Office of Workforce and Economic Development ponied up roughly $2,000 for a

Rick Gerharter

Helen Wo, left, and Stephanie Tree, diehard Bronco fans, cheered their winning team at Hi Tops bar during the AFC championship game last Sunday.

special marketing campaign to drive visitors to the Castro district, said Daniel Bergerac, president of the Castro Merchants business group. And various groups are paying to runs ads in the B.A.R. Thursday and next week promoting the gayborhood. As part of the promotional push, banners went up this week at three downtown Muni and BART stations encouraging people to visit the Castro. They read, “Why just stare at seal lions when you can pet actual bears?” a tongue-incheek reference to hirsute gay men. Along with instructions on how to reach the “Friendly Castro” via Muni’s underground trains, the banners also direct people to the website http://www.visitsupercastro.com/. It went live this

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month to promote to out-of-town visitors the various stores, restaurants and bars in the Castro, which the site denotes is “A Super Community.” According to an email sent out earlier this month to Castro Merchants members, there will also be 2,500 bright pink bus ad cards promoting the gayborhood inside Muni buses and wayfinding signs at key points around Super Bowl City instructing visitors how to get to the Castro. “You always hope for more,” said Bergerac, a co-owner of Mudpuppy’s Tub and Scrub on Castro Street. “I think, overall, we did pretty well. I am excited to see what sort of response we get out of it.” Jesse Woodward, co-owner of Hi-Tops, the gay sports bar on upper Market Street in the Castro, said he expects to see the usual bump in business that his bar has experienced during past Super Bowls. If the San Francisco 49ers were playing, Woodward said his bar would likely see even more of an uptick in customers. “It has always been a big day for us so far. I think, definitely, the busiest would be if the 49ers were in it,” he said. “So I think it will feel like every other Super Bowl. That is to say it will be crowded and busy for us but not as busy as if the Niners were in it.” To help drum up more business this year, Woodward is bringing in gay former football player Michael Sam to greet fans at Hi Tops from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, February 5. Sam came out just prior to the 2014 NFL draft and was chosen by the St. Louis Rams. The team shortly See page 13 >>

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January 28, 2016 Edition of the Bay Area Reporter by Bay Area Reporter - Issuu