Free Republic

San Francisco district attorney Brooke Jenkins on Sunday released some new details, and more importantly corrected some bad information published by various outlets, about the attack on Paul Pelosi. "At the time that the suspect, Mr. DePape, entered the Pelosi home ... he was in fact looking for Ms. Pelosi. The other thing is we want to make it clear that there were only two people in the home at the time that the police arrived -- Mr. Pelosi and the suspect. There was no third person present," Jenkins said. San Francisco police chief Bill Scott said responding officers saw...

A group of San Francisco shops in the Castro District are threatening to boycott the city’s alleged inability to address the spike in crime by refusing to pay their taxes, according to reports. The Castro Merchants Association sent a letter to San Francisco city officials warning that, should the city fail to address the increase in burglaries, vandalism, homeless encampments in front of shops and residences, and individuals with mental illnesses, then they won’t pay taxes, KTVU reported. Co-president of the Castro Merchants Association and owner of Flore Dispensary and Cafe Flore, Terrance Alan, said several shops have been vandalized...

Izakaya Sushi Ran, the Castro's gastropub answer to the popular Sausalito restaurant Sushi Ran, has closed. Originally called Nomica when it opened in 2016, it changed names last fall and served izakaya-style small plates, mains, sushi rolls and cocktails. A message on the restaurant's website says the following: "Dear friends, Ya'll, we made a mistake! While rocks r a common prt of anti-homeless architecture, this particular rock is NOT. It's a Japanese garden. Izakaya Sushi is a valued member of the commnity & is supportive of its homeless neighbors. We apologize & offer deep appreciation to the staff https://twitter.com/TheCoalitionSF/status/1141401379094724608 …

Most Holy Redeemer is at a crossroads. The Catholic church in the Castro district has arguably the largest gay parish in the nation, and controversial new decisions have members worried about leadership, policies - even that the church might be shut down. And it all began with drag queens. When the archdiocese refused to allow drag queens to serve as emcees for charity events at the church's community hall, it fed rampant paranoia about antigay sentiment. The decision was initially blamed on incoming Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage who has been championed by extreme conservative Catholic...

SAN FRANCISCO – Harvey Milk's kitchen table finally has found its way home to the center of the Castro District. The gold-painted table that belonged to the city's first openly gay supervisor is part of an inaugural exhibit at the GLBT History Museum, the first of its kind in the nation. A project of the GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgender) Historical Society, the recently opened museum is bringing attention to a neighborhood with a rich legacy but, until now, no tangible center. "This is a unique cultural resource," said museum executive director Paul Boneberg, head of the historical society. The...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A suspicious fire broke out at a building in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood early today, the fourth such blaze in the area in 24 hours. . . . Police and fire arson investigators are trying to determine whether the blaze is connected to three others that broke out within an hour early Thursday in a two-block area in the Castro. No one has been seriously injured in the fires.

Tourists come to San Francisco to see the Golden Gate Bridge, AT&T Park, Fisherman's Wharf - and the naked guys in the Castro. This Sunday, a guy was standing on Market Street wearing a multi-colored hat, shoes and a glitter-covered sock over Mr. Happy. The glitter was a nice touch. Did he think no one would notice? "Personally I am not offended by naked bodies," said Dennis Ziebell, owner of Orphan Andy's Restaurant, which overlooks the 17th Street and Market plaza where the exhibitionists gather. "But my customers don't particularly want to look at the window and see that." Not...

Vandals spray-painted swastikas on a Catholic church in San Francisco's Castro District Saturday night. It appears the vandals are upset about the Catholic church's support of Proposition 8, which made same-sex marriage illegal in California. But, the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church on Diamond Street is gay-friendly. Many parishioners voted against Prop 8 and they are upset their church was targeted. "We're very disturbed by the hierarchy's support of the Yes on Eight Campaign. We've been in conversation with the bishop, which is the way I think we need to handle it. I think Catholic teaching shows us we're all...

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 hundreds of thousands of people who usually flock to an annual Halloween street party here are being warned to stay home or go elsewhere after several episodes of violence in recent years. City officials have advised would-be revelers through fliers, public service announcements and juvenile probation officers that they won't find many treats in the Castro District, home in past years to the largest Halloween happening in the San Francisco Bay area. What they will find are hundreds of extra police officers, shuttered restaurants, stepped up sobriety checks and no bus or train service after 8:30 p.m. "This is...

SAN FRANCISCO - Even on a weekday in winter, the Castro district vibrates with energy, most of it male. Men holding hands, walking dogs and lounging at cafes have long been the main attraction in a neighborhood known as a gay mecca the world over. Yet where visitors see a living monument to gay pride, longtime community leader Brian Basinger sees a cultural enclave at risk of becoming a faded museum piece - or worse, a place where gay men may one day feel like they don't belong. "When I see a stroller now, I see it as someone who...

Gay and straight parents moving into San Francisco's Castro District oppose racy porn shop windows; business owners say residents knew what they were getting into.