from the archives
i started to write about this and i was like, "wait, i already did!" (but on my private blog a while ago)
Monday, August 19, 2002
speaking of proving me wrong, mark moved back to atlanta. he was down at the transbay terminal about to book his bus (!) ticket when he saw a greyhound poster offering free bus tickets to runaways who want to return home. so mark made a few phone calls and managed to convince greyhound that he'd "run away" to SF and wanted to return home. that girl knows how to work it! there were a lot of reasons that he left, but one of the biggies is that he was really disillusioned with san francisco. and who wouldn't be? you hear about it your whole life and then you get here and nothing lives up to the expectations. i explained to mark that atlanta has a huge gay ghetto because the south is a prejudiced place -- that people only "circle the wagons" when they're being attacked. and in SF, we can live just about anywhere and be ourselves, so why should we all live in the same neighborhood? he actually seemed to understand what i was saying, but for a 20 year old who wants mile after mile of boys and gay shops to cruise, san francisco's post-discrimination demographic transformations left him bored with only a 5 block stretch of castro and market to entertain him.
it's actually been interesting to watch the transformation of the castro from my first visit in 93 to now. someone could probably write a book about this whole thing, but what really strikes me is how our acceptance in mainstream america has completely gutted the castro of a lot of its culture. in 1993, you couldn't go to a big-chain bookstore in suburban america and find book about gay people anywhere but the psychology and self help section. but now that there's amazon.com and now that even the barnes and noble by my parents house in orchards, washington has a full-on gay literature section, places like 'a different light' no longer need to stock "lesbian mommies' guide to baby's first kwanzaa" because the queer masses can just buy it at home rather than making a pilgrimage to san francisco for their annual taste of high gay culture.
so now a different light sells best-seller novels. and porn. just like most of the stores in the castro. skip the squishy subjective crap and just look at the stores that comprise our ever-humbler, 5-block stretch of our (ahem) "center of the gay universe": over a dozen places to buy or rent porn, over a dozen places to get meatloaf and mashed potatoes, almost a dozen places to buy a pipe to smoke crystal from, a dozen bars, half a dozen places to conduct real estate transactions, half a dozen places to get overpriced lowfat pasta and cocktails, (speaking of cocktails) half a dozen pharmacies, half a dozen fitness supplement stores, two dozen ATMs, two bookstores, zero four-star restaurants, zero museums. and i'm not complaining or lamenting or tsk-tsking or anything. i just think you can learn a lot about a neighborhood by looking at what kinds of businesses survive and prosper, versus asking any resident about what the "state of the neighborhood" is at any given moment.
i have this map of SOHO in new york that shows every single business in the neighborhood. i'd love to have a map like that of the castro, on my computer, with color coding for business type, and with a complete historical database in it. i'd love to compare today to 1990. or 1978. or 1955. some grad student needs to create that as part of his or her thesis. write it all down and rest for a while...
ok, gotta go, it's almost noon. bk
Monday, August 19, 2002
speaking of proving me wrong, mark moved back to atlanta. he was down at the transbay terminal about to book his bus (!) ticket when he saw a greyhound poster offering free bus tickets to runaways who want to return home. so mark made a few phone calls and managed to convince greyhound that he'd "run away" to SF and wanted to return home. that girl knows how to work it! there were a lot of reasons that he left, but one of the biggies is that he was really disillusioned with san francisco. and who wouldn't be? you hear about it your whole life and then you get here and nothing lives up to the expectations. i explained to mark that atlanta has a huge gay ghetto because the south is a prejudiced place -- that people only "circle the wagons" when they're being attacked. and in SF, we can live just about anywhere and be ourselves, so why should we all live in the same neighborhood? he actually seemed to understand what i was saying, but for a 20 year old who wants mile after mile of boys and gay shops to cruise, san francisco's post-discrimination demographic transformations left him bored with only a 5 block stretch of castro and market to entertain him.
it's actually been interesting to watch the transformation of the castro from my first visit in 93 to now. someone could probably write a book about this whole thing, but what really strikes me is how our acceptance in mainstream america has completely gutted the castro of a lot of its culture. in 1993, you couldn't go to a big-chain bookstore in suburban america and find book about gay people anywhere but the psychology and self help section. but now that there's amazon.com and now that even the barnes and noble by my parents house in orchards, washington has a full-on gay literature section, places like 'a different light' no longer need to stock "lesbian mommies' guide to baby's first kwanzaa" because the queer masses can just buy it at home rather than making a pilgrimage to san francisco for their annual taste of high gay culture.
so now a different light sells best-seller novels. and porn. just like most of the stores in the castro. skip the squishy subjective crap and just look at the stores that comprise our ever-humbler, 5-block stretch of our (ahem) "center of the gay universe": over a dozen places to buy or rent porn, over a dozen places to get meatloaf and mashed potatoes, almost a dozen places to buy a pipe to smoke crystal from, a dozen bars, half a dozen places to conduct real estate transactions, half a dozen places to get overpriced lowfat pasta and cocktails, (speaking of cocktails) half a dozen pharmacies, half a dozen fitness supplement stores, two dozen ATMs, two bookstores, zero four-star restaurants, zero museums. and i'm not complaining or lamenting or tsk-tsking or anything. i just think you can learn a lot about a neighborhood by looking at what kinds of businesses survive and prosper, versus asking any resident about what the "state of the neighborhood" is at any given moment.
i have this map of SOHO in new york that shows every single business in the neighborhood. i'd love to have a map like that of the castro, on my computer, with color coding for business type, and with a complete historical database in it. i'd love to compare today to 1990. or 1978. or 1955. some grad student needs to create that as part of his or her thesis. write it all down and rest for a while...
ok, gotta go, it's almost noon. bk
Thai restaurants on Broadway in Seattle, manicure salons in the Inner Sunset around 9th and Irving, ???
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