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Friends describe woman’s shooting death
Vol. 46 • No. 29 • July 21-27, 2016
AIDS Walk Worthington runs draws 10,000 again for Berkeley mayor
by Matthew S. Bajko
G
ay Berkeley City Councilman Kriss Worthington has decided to run this November for mayor of the East Bay city. It is the second mayoral bid by the long-serving council member, who first ran for the elected post in Kriss Worthington 2012. This December will mark his 20th anniversary since joining the council. Tom Bates, who has served as Berkeley’s mayor since 2002, has said he will not seek re-election this year. Several members of the council have been running to succeed him for months, and the race for the open seat is expected to draw half a dozen or more candidates, though Worthington is expected to be the only LGBT person in the race. See page 13 >>
by Seth Hemmelgarn
F
riends of a lesbian who was shot to death in a parking lot near a gay San Francisco nightclub in 2013 described in court how she had put up her hands and pleaded with the suspect beCourtesy SFPD fore he shot her and Michael Sione a friend. Green Melquiesha “Mel” Warren, 23, had been at Club OMG, 43 Sixth Street, celebrating her girlfriend’s birthday when Michael Sione Green, 27, allegedly shot her after a minor car crash at about 2 a.m. November 17, 2013. Green, who’s in custody on $50 million bail, faces numerous charges including murder and attempted murder. He fled to Florida after the shooting but was arrested there in May 2014 and extradited to San Francisco. Testimony in court in recent days indicated that the driver of the car Warren was riding in hit another car in the parking lot, which is near Sixth and Jessie streets. Marshella Ryan, one of Warren’s friends, testified Thursday, July 14 that a woman got out of the car that had been struck and approached the driver of the other vehicle, Warren’s friend. She “reached into the car” and struck the woman, Ryan said. Ryan then wept as she recalled Warren’s last moments. She said Warren got out of the car and walked to the back, where at least one person pushed her. She stumbled, put up her hands, “and said ‘Wait,’” Ryan said. “When she said ‘Wait,’ she got shot,” Ryan, who heard two shots, said. “After Mel got shot, I ran toward her,” she said. “I thought the shooting had stopped,” but “then the shooting started again” as the gunman fired on the driver, who was still in the car. Warren died that morning, but the driver survived. Like the others, Ryan had also picked out the person identified as Green from a video clip. “I was 100 percent sure,” she said. “We looked each other dead in the eye.” When asked whether she saw the shooter in the courtroom, Ryan pointed toward Green and said, “Yeah, there you go.” See page 13 >>
O
ne participant in the July 17 AIDS Walk remembered his friend Calvin Ray Perry, (1956-1991), by displaying sunglasses and a black mustache. The 30th annual AIDS Walk, held in Golden Gate Park, drew about 10,000 walkers and raised just over $2 million for Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital’s Ward 86, Project Open Hand, Project Inform, and many other Bay Area HIV/AIDS service organizations. Organizers said that the target benchmarks set by the new AIDS Walk San Francisco Foundation board were met for the three main beneficiaries. Walkers enjoyed the 10k route, and a concert afterward.
SF LGBT theater remodels its lobby space Rick Gerharter
by Matthew S. Bajko
versations and community-related events,” said Hodgen. “Once we ith the aim of improvstop talking to each other, everying the aesthetic expething starts to fall apart.” rience for its audiences, As for the bar, it is being reloas well as seeing an uptick in revecated to the end of the left-side nues, a San Francisco-based LGBT hallway. It will be built where a theater company is remodeling its conference room has been at the lobby, bar, and box office areas. bottom of the steps leading up The 35-year-old New Conservato a donors’ lounge. Drawings of tory Theatre Center is housed in the new space show it sporting the basement of the city-owned blue-colored sofas and bar stools, building at 25 Van Ness near Marlighting fixtures and flooring. ket Street. Its underground location By creating a more inviting bar and cramped entryway has lacked space for patrons, the theater’s the environment that induces ticket leaders hope to increase sales. It Courtesy NCTC holders to want to meet up for An artist’s rendering shows plans for the renovated lobby area at the operates on an annual budget of cocktails prior to shows or linger New Conservatory Theatre Center. nearly $1.5 million. after a performance. “Definitely, that is one of my “That is exactly what everyhopes as the person who balances to create a much more welcoming space and body says,” acknowledged Barbara the books,” said Hodgen. “As far people will be able to better circulate in it.” Hodgen, the nonprofit theater’s executive direcas the mission goes, it is more about creating The box office will be reconstructed in the a comfortable patron and community experitor the last five years. “We want a more inviting, space where the bar has been to the left side of comfortable space for our patrons.” ence. In terms of financially supporting that the entranceway. And off to the right of the en- mission, yeah, I am hoping the bar picks up.” The entryway is shaped like a barbell, noted Hodgen, with hallways leading to larger spaces tranceway will be a new small presentation area Work on the $300,000 remodel project, fronting the doorways to the main theater. on the left and right sides and a box office in the funded through a capital campaign the theater The theater company experimented during its middle. The remodel, which will use a blue color undertook, began this week. On Sunday, July just finished season with how to better program scheme, natural wood elements, and feature a 17, the theater closed its offices for seven days video wall, aims to make better use of the con- that space. It held audience talks, trivia nights, and shuttered its box office, which is expected lectures, and special performances and plans to figuration and brighten up the interior spaces. to reopen Wednesday, August 3, due to the con“We have always had traffic flow problems continue such events in the remodeled space. struction commencing. “We want to also utilize the lobby much more in the lobby because the box office sticks out See page 14 >> into it,” she said. “We are moving the box office as a community resource and a place to have con-
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