SF gay GOP leader opposes changing city park name

by Matthew S. Bajko

The president of a group for LGBTQ Republicans has come out in opposition to changing the name of a San Francisco park site that honors the city’s last GOP leader to be elected mayor. Recreation and park officials are expected to take up a formal request to rename George Christopher Playground later this year.

As the Bay Area Reporter first reported in early February, Park, Recreation, and Open Space Advisory Committee member Ken Maley announced in January his plans to seek a new name for the park site in the Diamond Heights neighborhood. Adjacent to a shopping center with a Safeway grocery store, the hilltop greenspace has trails connecting into Glen Canyon Park.

Maley’s reason for doing so stems from Christopher supporting police raids on gay bars in the city during his mayoralty in the late 1950s. At that time such establishments were clustered in the North Beach neighborhood, attracting customers among the Beatnik residents and personnel stationed at the nearby military bases in Fort Mason and the Presidio.

But during a recent interview with the B.A.R., Log Cabin Republicans of San Francisco President Jason P. Clark said he didn’t see a valid reason for jettisoning Christopher’s name from the park site. He added that the local chapter was also unlikely to support doing so should it vote on the matter.

As for why, Clark pointed to Christopher’s record of support for several initiatives that benefited not only LGBTQ residents of the city but also people of color.

“Mayor Christopher was behind the effort to build the Diamond Heights neighborhood, and crucially, it was one of the first integrated housing developments built in San Francisco, and indeed, the entire Bay Area. Many Black and Asian citizens who were previously redlined were able to purchase in this neighborhood,” noted Clark, the Bay Area regional vice chair for the state Republican Party. “Mayor Christopher also oversaw the establishment of the Human Rights Commission here in San Francisco, whose work has helped many members of the LGBTQ+ community over the decades.”

Maley, 77, a gay man who has called the city home since 1964, had learned about Christopher’s hiring police chiefs to crack down on gay nightlife venues while doing research for a history article. It ran in the Spring 2022 edition of The Semaphore published by the Telegraph Hill Dwellers neighborhood association.

“I think it is a shame to have a park, particularly any park in the city and particularly in District 8, that is named after George Christopher,” said Maley, due to the supervisorial district now being a main nexus for the city’s LGBTQ

Political affiliation of Castro biz owners community as it covers the Castro neighborhood.

He expects to have filed by April a formal name change request with the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. It would be up to the agency’s oversight commission to either reject it or approve it.

Late last month Maley, who lives near North Beach, spoke for the first time with gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman about changing the name of the park. For him to support doing so, as he had told the B.A.R. earlier this year, Mandelman wants to see community support behind renaming the 6.8-acre park site.

Clark told the B.A.R. that he finds it problematic to remove the names of the city’s political leaders from civic sites, whether it is a city park or a public school, decades after such naming honors were approved. He pointed as an example to calls two years ago by a school board advisory group to take down the name of Democratic U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein , a former city mayor, from one of San Francisco’s elementary schools, in addition to scores of other school names honoring past political and civic leaders. (The school board shelved its school renaming plans amid intense public backlash.)

“I think it is problematic when we apply 21st century lenses back onto things that happened more than 50 years ago,” said Clark. “It makes us forget some of the progress we have made and only focus on the negative.”

Christopher, who died in 2000 at the age of 92, had attended the dedication of the new park named after him on April 7, 1971, seven years after he had left office. Accessed from Diamond Heights Boulevard, it includes picnic areas, baseball and tennis courts, a public bathroom, and a clubhouse for a nursery school. In 2021, city

Regarding your article of February 23 article, “Many Castro businesses non-LGBTQ owned, survey finds:” Just as important, if not more so, is how many businesses in the Castro are owned and run by Republicans.

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officials unveiled a $5.2 million renovation that vastly upgraded the playground but kept a few of its historic structures.

Maley in recent weeks has been in touch with the female leaders of the park’s booster group and the neighborhood association in the area. As the women told the monthly Noe Valley Voice newspaper for a story in its March issue, they want to ensure park users and nearby residents are consulted about the name change proposal prior to it being taken up by parks officials.

“I agree with Supervisor Mandelman that there needs to be a community process in the decision making about the removing of George Christopher’s name and the renaming if needed,” Betsy Eddy , president of the Diamond Heights Community Association, told the paper.

At the California Republican Party’s statewide organizing convention next weekend in Sacramento, Log Cabin leaders will be seeking to become a permanently-chartered organization. Since 2015, the affinity group for LGBTQ GOPers and their allies has been a chartered volunteer organization with the state party.

The California Log Cabin affiliate is believed to be the only one to have such official sanctioning by its state Republican Party, Clark told the B.A.R. But it requires the organization to seek being rechartered every two years and file paperwork confirming that there are at least 10 Log Cabin chapters throughout the state with each having a minimum of 10 members.

“If we get a permanent charter, it means we’ve been around and put in the work for a while. It also means we will no longer have to go through this reapplication process,” said Clark, who sits on the party’s statewide executive board.

He plans to be at the convention to press Log Cabin’s case with the upward of 1,000 delegates in attendance. A simple majority vote among the attendees is needed to approve the permanent charter.

“We haven’t started counting the votes, but the state party board supports it and the party chair supports it,” said Clark. “But as they say, never count your chickens before they hatch.” t

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http://www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook’s online companion. This week’s column reported on the annual scoring of California legislators based on their votes for LGBTQ bills.

Castro vacancies are the problem

This report on many Castro businesses being non-LGBTQ owned is a secondary problem.

The major problem in the Castro is the plethora of vacant and boarded up stores, bars, and cafes, Harvey’s being the latest to bite the dust. Frankly, I don’t care who owns these vacant businesses. Just get them up and running. Somebody. Anybody?

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For this report the B.A.R. spoke to neighborhood stakeholders about those vacant storefronts, new developments on the Harvey’s, Cafe Flore and other spaces – and signs of hope for a neighborhood renewal.

Among those signs, the former Cafe Flore (2298 Market Street) –soon to be Fisch and Flore – will be having a celebration from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 4, to say goodbye to the restaurant that opened 50 years ago and say hello to the new tenant in the space. Also, a new cannabis dispensary at 268 Church Street is set to be approved at Thursday’s meeting of the planning commission.

‘They won’t budge’

Cheryl Maloney, an agent with Vanguard Properties, is interviewing prospective tenants for at least two Castro-area properties, including the former spaces of Hamburger Mary’s (531 Castro Street) and El Capitan Taqueria (4150 18th Street). Maloney said the Castro presents unique challenges for both property owners and prospective tenant businesses.

“In the Castro it’s high rent; it’s the same rent as Chestnut Street,” Maloney said, referring to the business corridor in the wealthy Marina neighborhood. “Castro attracts young kids; people come here to party so it needs to be the right kind of fit – retail needs to be the right kind of fit, bars and restaurants need to be the right kind of fit. And the gays are a tough crowd. If you’re ostracized by the gays, you’re screwed.”

And it’s a distinctive neighborhood in a unique town. From the Gold Rush to the dot-com bust to the latest tech exodus, San Francisco is a “boom town,” Maloney said.

“Everyone exoduses, everyone comes back,” Maloney said. “I’ve seen it three times.”

And therein lies the rub: both Maloney and Mandelman agreed that the reticence of property owners to lease to new businesses now is due to the expectation of better times in the future. Maloney used the Harvey’s space (500 Castro Street) as an example. A Compass listing shows Harvey’s is for sale at $475,000. Mandelman said owner Paul Langley and his partner, Richard Dingman, are asking $17,000 rent a month.

Maloney called the current proposed rent “insane.”

“The business lost money in the current climate in the Castro,” she said.

“I’d be really leery unless I had super-deep pockets – and I’m fearless,” she added. “They know it’s a high traffic, in good times, and high-tourist area and they won’t budge.”

Mandelman said that Dingman told him the $17,000 figure is what “they [Langley and Dingman] were getting before the pandemic.”

“I did comment that seemed to me to be high and more than most businesses would pay in the current circumstances,” Mandelman said. “I am hoping they are flexible.”

Mandelman said that, in general, “I think landlords believe they should get more rent than market.”

“It creates an impasse,” he said. “At some point I have to believe the landlords will lower the rent. In the nearterm, it’s a problem for the neighborhood, it’s a problem for many neighborhoods in San Francisco, and as each landlord doesn’t lower their rent, it makes it less likely rents will return in the medium-term. It’s a collaborative thing.”

Mandelman said that while there are prospective business owners with established track records who want to open up shop in the Castro, they “have found they can’t make their concepts work with the rent being asked.”

Mandelman called this holding pattern a problem of “collaboration.”

“Landlords seem to be OK with the appreciation they are getting from the value of the asset and do not need active use,” he said. “I think there’s several different actors who I think need to be more aggressive in renting out their spaces – though I don’t want to comment on any in particular – but it would be in the interest of the neighborhood and of all the property owners collectively because if they are ever going to collect that rent, we have to turn around the neighborhood. The neighborhood is suffering.”

The B.A.R. called the Paul Langley Co. for comment. Misha Langley (no relation to Paul) answered the phone and referred the B.A.R. to realtor Steven “Stu” Gerry for comment, except to say that the rent being asked is not “insane.”

“That’s categorically not the case,” Misha Langley said.

Gerry did not respond to a request for comment, but within minutes of the call with Langley, Gerry’s colleague, Realtor Guy Carson, called. He said that the $475,000 is for the liquor license and the “privilege” of using the space. As for rent, he denied a price had been set.

“That hasn’t been set yet,” Carson said. “That’ll be determined later.”

Carson also said he did not know if Paul Langley and Richard Dingman were legally married; they’d been married in 2004’s Winter of Love in San Francisco (those marriages were later voided by the California Supreme Court), but it’s unclear from publicly available records online if they were subsequently married in a ceremony recognized by the state of California.

A representative of the Paul Langley Co., who has since stepped away, provided the B.A.R. with a statement credited to Paul Langley about the decision to close Harvey’s. The statement read that “despite the extraordinary financial contributions from Harvey’s owner and founder, Paul Langley, to remain open for the sake of our community, the challenge of doing business in an era of high inflation, mandated benefits, lack of tourism, urban decline, and an impending recession, has caused a degree of losses that could no longer be sustained.”

The statement continued in thanking customers for their support.

“Since the pandemic, we made every effort to maintain operations in order to support our staff, our performers, and our neighboring businesses, while continuing to provide you with an experience that reflects how much we have valued your patronage for the past 27 years,” the statement continued.

“The amount of recognition, love, and support that Harvey’s received since closing our doors on January 22nd, has been simply overwhelming,” it stated. “Words can’t express how much we’ll miss you too, how grateful we are for the joy you brought, and how much we appreciate you for being such a wonderful part of Harvey’s for all this time. We don’t know what will come next for this cornerstone of the LGBTQ+ community. Whatever it is, we hope that you will cherish it as much as you have cherished your moments with us, here in the heart of the Castro. Love, Harvey’s.”

Opening this year

Harvey’s isn’t the only longtime restaurant space in the Castro to sit vacant. Cafe Flore, which first opened in 1973, quietly closed over the 20192020 holiday season.

However, it is planning on being open again this summer. Serhat Zorlu, a straight ally, announced last year he’s opening a cafe in the space. At that time, however, it was reported in Hoodline that the cafe would be open by the end of 2022.

“We’re pretty much close to getting permits,” Zorlu told the B.A.R. in February, adding that his concept is “a sustainable seafood restaurant.”

Zorlu and Castro Merchants Association President Terrance Alan, a gay man who held the lease for Cafe Flore from building owner J.D. Petras, told the B.A.R. that the permits are necessary to do construction on the inside to replace aging plumbing and electric fixtures.

Zorlu is leasing directly from the landlord, Alan said, adding that he had to give up his lease during the COVID lockdown due to the piling rent cost.

“The construction project is to update the entire facility so it’s [Americans with Disabilities Act] accessible, put in an ADA bathroom and update the 75-year-old electric and plumbing systems so it’s up to snuff,” Alan said. “It will retain its charm and be improved for the next 50 years, because this is the 50-year anniversary.”

The project will “require moving everything inside the building around” for the time being, Alan said.

“The look and feel of the building will all be retained and not taken down. Really, it’s just an interior update,” Alan continued, though there will be new outdoor heaters for the patio, too.

Zorlu said that “if everything goes well,” he’s looking for an opening in June or July.

Alan said the March 4 event will celebrate the space’s history and say goodbye to the old interior before the changes are made, as well as introduce people to Fisch and Flore. There will be finger food, but not lunch, he clarified.

And the Cafe Flore space isn’t the only one planning a renaissance. Q Bar (456 Castro Street) told the B.A.R. on February 8 that it plans to reopen in the spring.

Les Natali, a gay man who owns the former Badlands, Hamburger Mary’s, and now-closed El Capitan spaces, told the B.A.R. last month that a deal was near with gay nightclub owner T.J. Bruce (owner of Badlands Sacramento and Splash San Jose, among other haunts) for Bruce to take over the former Badlands space (4121 18th Street), saying Bruce could open a club there in as little as two months.

The former Hamburger Mary’s and El Capitan spaces both have prospective tenants, Maloney told the B.A.R. for a previous report.

However, as the B.A.R. reported last week, Natali has stopped returning the B.A.R.’s calls to ask if a Badlands deal has been signed, and Bruce said he could no longer speak on the topic.

Natali is also in the process of surrendering the nightclub’s liquor license, though Bryce Avalos, a communications analyst with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, told the B.A.R. that “If the location is able to immediately begin operations, re-activating the license could be immediate.”

Jones singled out one person he thinks is doing her best to try to ameliorate the situation.

“I think there’s some real heroes in the neighborhood, including Andrea Aiello,” Jones said, referring to the lesbian executive director of the Castro Community Benefit District. “I think she has really stepped up.”

The B.A.R. spoke with Aiello, who with Alan and the merchants’ group is spearheading the “I’m Available” campaign to let business owners know the finer points of coming to the neighborhood and which spaces are available.

(Posters for the I’m Available campaign have already appeared on the old Harvey’s space.)

“We had some grant money to do work around vacancies,” Aiello said. “We knew from previous work we’d done that brokers were not really excited about working to get vacancies filled in the Castro, pre-pandemic. It became really clear in a focus group that it was just too hard to open a business in the Castro and was more worth their time to get vacancies filled downtown. The Castro had a bad reputation for neighbors stopping projects.”

That reputation “still lingers” as

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