Castro Halloween Plans Come Together
Wednesday, October 3, 2007 at 2:10pm 4 comments (last by Jamison)
600 police officers will be on hand for the annual Castro Halloween Party this year, even though it's been cancelled.
The party is still likely to attract tens of thousands from around the city and bay area despite the event having been cancelled and dozens of bars, clubs and restaurants in the neighborhood are closing down to prevent a repeat of last years shooting of nine people as well as the stabbings and gay-bashings that plague the event each year.
4 Comments
Jamison Saturday, October 6, 2007 at 9:25am
Mandating costumes would be difficult (how exactly do you define a costume?) and though there has been a no-weapons policy in place, but it's easy to slip through.
Alix Rosenthal, who is heading a group trying to keep the event going this year, suggested last year there could be a small charge for admission to discourage anyone just coming to cause trouble. There's an admission charge (or at least a suggested donation) for most every other street fair, so why not halloween?
Anonymous Sunday, October 14, 2007 at 10:04pm
Why not mandate the admission charge, and make it 3x for non-San Francisco residents. While many bridge and tunnel folk would find it offensive, I suspect it would eliminate 90% of the problems.
Jamison Sunday, October 14, 2007 at 10:41pm
There are plenty of bridge and tunnel folk who don't cause any trouble while the shooter last year was a resident.
William Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 5:41pm
I noticed last year that the people that are there to cause trouble are not even wearing a costume.
A dress code and a non alcohol/non weapons strict policy could work better than 600 policeman rounding up the Castro to avoid thousands of frustrated party goers that will be angry and looking where to air their frustuation somewhere else.