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Over a Million See Nation’s Oldest Pride Parade

By Bill Sywak

With approximately one million people at this year’s 44th annual Pride Celebration, the big story was the crowds of marchers from leading San Francisco and Bay Area tech and other companies, all in shiny white and bright colors and having a great time.

Last year’s huge boost in crowds from all over the area and indeed the world carried over from the euphoria of the legal sanctioning of same-sex marriage that had occurred a few weeks before. That same celebratory fever seemed to carry through into this year, with families ten-deep on sidewalks, looking at the 23 floats set up at Pier 54, the most ever.

Police Called in as Kink.com Protests Outside Armory Grow Violent

By Ted Andersen

On the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York, a number of local protestors found themselves at the painful end of police batons after demonstrating against a high-profile prison-themed party near the Castro.

The incident happened the Saturday night of Pride weekend when fetish porn purveyor Kink.com hosted a “Prison of Love” party at its headquarters in the historic Armory building on 14th and Mission streets. In response, two direct action groups, LAGAI-Queer Insurrection and Gay Shame San Francisco, organized a march of close to 100 people to crash the party, from the outside.

Sidewalks Before and After:
A Tale of Two Neighborhoods

Lost revenue ills faced by local merchants now put in the rear view mirror

By Keith Burbank

The painstaking jack-hammering of the City’s sidewalk-widening project may now be finished in the district, but Castro Street businesses are still reeling from slower customer traffic during the prior months of construction.

“As expected, the sidewalk widening project has been difficult,” said Terry Asten-Bennett, manager of Cliff’s Variety. Asten-Bennett just concluded her term as president of the neighborhood merchant’s association. “The worst part was when the gates were up and the corners were difficult to navigate.”

Mobile Showers Non-Profit Finds Area Fundraisers

By Brittany Vargas

Doniece Sandoval, founder of local non-profit Lava Mae, wants to create a mobile revolution. Her mission is to bring what she believes is a basic human right – access to clean water and sanitation – to the burgeoning population of 6,436 homeless San Franciscans, more than half of whom are un-sheltered, according to the 2013 Homeless Point-in-Time Count report.

Lava Mae will attend to this need by providing mobile showers, refurbished from decommissioned Muni buses. The mobility of the units allows Lava Mae to circumvent the high cost of rent in the city while allowing them to serve a greater area. The project launched its first bus last month and will continue providing showers on Capp Street between 16th and 17th streets on Saturday’s from 7 a.m. to noon.

Frameline Comes Home to Castro

By Maya Lekach

The spotlight was on the Castro and the LGBT community during the last 11 days of June as the Castro Theatre played host to Frameline38, which was the 38th edition of the first-ever gay & lesbian film festival in the world.

What started out as a tacked up sheet and some Super 8 films at a community center on Page street 38 years ago has grown into the largest LGBT film festival worldwide - one that has films from over 35 countries and an attendance of up to 65,000 people, a big change in only a few decades.

Walking the Castro Neighborhood...

June in the Castro is our signature month, building on a multitude of events and celebrations and culminating in the gigantic Pride Parade, the first in the US (1972) and the largest as well. Last year’s parade came on the (high) heels of the landmark same-sex rulings - long overdue, as most civil rights victories are - in an explosion of pure joy reminiscent of what we see in the newsreels of the victory celebrations after World War II, only last year women waited to embrace women and men to kiss men. For coverage of this year’s parade, check out the accompanying article and photos.

For “Pride” this year we had our newly widened sidewalks on Castro, though they can give us neighborhood regulars a disorienting experience. When you’re skilled at maneuvering around fireplugs and telephone poles and oncoming pedestrians, and suddenly you have what seems like a football field alongside you, it takes some practice to give yourself permission to walk all by yourself in that vast space.

Tuesday, March 25

7:35 a.m. Ord & Corbett Mini Park: No camping; Officer Sung cited 2.

9:40 p.m. Noe & Duboce: Theft of visible items left in vehicle

Monday, March 24

9:10 a.m. Duboce Park: No camping; Officers Crockett and Sung cited 3.

Chiu’s In-Law Unit Legalization Bill Spurs Response

By Keith Burbank

San Francisco residents’ interest in secondary housing units or in-law units has begun. “We had about a dozen calls last week” about in-law units, said William Strawn, spokesperson, San Francisco Department of Building Inspection. Strawn said the inquiries were related to the legislation sponsored by District 3 Supervisor David Chiu.

Showing Spirit

International Issues at Heart of 44th SF Pride

By Heidi Smith

This year marks the 44th anniversary of the San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade. The world renowned event will be held over the weekend of June 28 and 29, 2014. With over 200 parade contingents, 300 exhibitors, and more than 20 stages and venues, the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration and Parade is the largest in the nation. The theme this year is “Color Our World with Pride.”

State Senate Passes Leno Bill To Curb Ellis Act Eviction Epidemic

Ousting tenants made costlier by City

By Ted Andersen and Keith Burbank

The California Legislature is considering a bill to close loopholes in the Ellis Act. S.B. 1439, authored by State Senator Mark Leno, which would require a five-year moratorium on Ellis Act evictions to prevent speculator-driven activity that has affected San Francisco.

Myriad companies set up shop in area

By Maya Lekach

Although spring is now turning gradually into summer, there are still new beginnings in store for the Castro neighborhood as it prepares to welcome a collection of new businesses in the coming months.

These stores range greatly in variety. Some of them teeter dangerously close to, or surpass, the cut-off for San Francisco laws towards formula retail chains (11 national locations). Others are completely locally owned, some even so by neighborhood business owners.

Interview

Cheer SF Takes Spirit to the Superlative

By Wendy Oakes

Whether they’re at the annual Giants’ Until There’s a Cure game, at a local public school, or at the Gay Games, Cheer San Francisco brings with them their great spirit, fun, dedication, generosity, and spectacular cheerleading. The all-volunteer organization has been entertaining and contributing to the community locally and internationally since 1980. I spoke with Nguyen “Win” Pham, director of communications at Cheer SF, who began as a cheerleader with the group in 2002.