Police Sgt. Chuck Limbert patrols Castro Street as early revelers parade on the sidewalk.
Posted on 11/01/2007 10:34:51 AM PDT by SmithL
San Francisco -- San Francisco got the quiet Halloween night it had hoped for Wednesday as revelers stayed clear of the Castro district's no-party zone.
"People are behaving well. We're happy," Neville Gittens, a police spokesman, said late Wednesday evening. "All of the city's planning and notification is paying off."
By midnight, city workers had taken away the metal police barricades that had lined parts of Castro and Market streets and the crowds had dwindled to about 100 people. Even the city streetsweepers had rolled through the neighborhood.
Many of the neighborhood's bars and restaurants closed early in response to the city's efforts to shut down this year's Halloween bash to avoid a repeat of the rowdiness and violence that led to the shootings of nine people last year. Then an estimated 200,000 people had crowded into the area for the annual party that's often described as "the gay Christmas."
Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who represents the Castro district, was one of the leaders of the effort to kill the party. He walked through the area Wednesday night, his only costume a baseball cap pulled low over his forehead.
"So far, so good," he said.
Not everyone was happy about the changes.
Paul Ellis, 50, has lived in the Castro for 24 years. He was out on the streets dressed as Henry VIII.
"It's my party in my neighborhood, and that's why I'm out here," he said, although he admitted that it was nothing like last year. "The party has definitely been curtailed ... tepid and bland is a polite way of saying it."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Police Sgt. Chuck Limbert patrols Castro Street as early revelers parade on the sidewalk.
Had some 200,000 in Hollywood yesterday.
One good thing came out of it, Paul: you’re a shoo-in if they ever make a Burger King movie.
Damn - I seen the words ‘Castro’ and ‘dead on arrival’ and got my hopes up :(
Same here for a second.
This was meant to keep all the Nambla members at home away from kids.
“People are behaving well. We’re happy,”
I take it ‘behaving well’ means the usual buggery, pediphilia and open drug abuse.
It's not clear to me what that means in San Francisco. No murders? No public sex with dogs? What?
4 shot and 1 stabbed here in NYC freak parade.
Same here!
Yes, as is well known, straight Christians also celebrate their holiday by marching down the street in buttock-baring leather chaps and slave collars.
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