Last spring, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District in the South of Market neighborhood once known as the Valley of the Kings. Story by marialaganga and photos/video by melmelconphoto.
Charlie Wittke, second from left, enjoys a cigar alongside"Pup Too," on a leash, at the SF Eagle in San Francisco's Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District.
If Catalyst can’t find a new home in this era of high property values and even higher rents, San Francisco will be left with only one commercial dungeon space. The question is whether these and other efforts will be enough to save the subversive soul of the leather neighborhood, which has been under duress since the 1970s.
Before the huge construction cranes came to roost, changing the San Francisco skyline for good, Ringold was a prime cruising destination, hidden and dark. Men would prowl the alley after the bars closed, Van Laarz said, to “find that partner that they hadn’t found at the bar and have a sexual experience in the great outdoors.”
The black stripes represent BDSM, Van Laarz said. Blue stands for Levi’s, a leatherman’s wardrobe staple. The heart symbolizes “the heart and soul of leather people around the world.” Leather-themed businesses, musicians and artists were drawn to industrial, working-class South of Market by low rents and the fact that it largely emptied out at night. But it also drew the attention of city planners and developers. Large swaths were razed to build the original Moscone Convention Center, which opened in 1981, office towers and high-rise hotels.
At a San Francisco Board of Supervisors land use and transportation committee hearing last spring, urban planning took a back seat to discrimination, poverty and the sense that the city seemed to have turned its back on some of those who made it special. And of hurt, like Rand Hunt’s: “I went to high school in west Texas. …Everyone in my town was a Southern Baptist and I feared for my life every day. …I wanted to come to San Francisco because I knew I would be safe there and it was our capital city. … And my [leather] culture is vanishing quickly.”
Bartender Troy Dwaine said he grew up in Sacramento and drove to SoMa on weekends. Today, he rues the rising number of condos and the shrinking presence of gay bars.
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Listen here, chaps: San Francisco's leather district is facing 21st century challengesLast spring, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District in the South of Market neighborhood once known as the Valley of the Kings. Story by marialaganga and photos/video by melmelconphoto.
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