Re-Printed from Bay Times
Letter to the Editor
Save Café Flore
Published: November 22, 2007
I have been a loyal patron of Cafe Flore since around 1981. Throughout the burgeoning years of “coffee house culture”, and radical changes in the Castro, Cafe Flore has always been my favorite hangout. To this day, if it’s nice outside and I just want to go somewhere to read, write or chit chat, Cafe Flore is my destination. My little inside joke with myself is, “If I sit there long enough at Cafe Flore, eventually I will run into SOMEone I know.” Back when I was new in town and didn’t know very many people, it was very important to have such a place to go.
As I think back to the early 80’s there are only a few businesses in the Castro other than Cafe Flore that still survive under the same name: Twin Peaks, Castro Theater, All American Boy, Cliff’s Variety, Midnight Sun, Badlands, Sausage Factory and Moby Dick. Though some of the owners my have changed, they’ve mostly been able to maintain the same vibe, which is really difficult to do.
I am concerned that the Cafe Flore I’ve known all these years may be in trouble, though. In order to keep up with the costs of running a business in an increasingly expensive neighborhood and a payroll of 35 employees, Cafe Flore has applied to extend their liquor license two additional hours, and expand their food service to 24 hours. Seems like a reasonable request, right? Apparently, some tired old queens in the neighborhood think that allowing Cafe Flore to serve pancakes at 5am is going to lower their property value.
Huh?
Or maybe these old queens around the corner are concerned that if Cafe Flore is open for drinks till 2 instead of midnight (along with their public restroom) it will cause more people to pee on their petunias? Hmm. Wouldn’t actually be better to have one more toilet available at 2am?
The gay men who bought houses in the Castro 20 or 30 years ago are all now in their 50’s and 60’s. They bought here because it was a fun place to be gay, and they wanted to bring home tricks to a place that was only walking distance from the bars. Now that they’ve grown up and had their fun, they don’t think anyone else should have any fun anymore, so they are pushing agendas that appeal to the geriatric set.
Neighborhood groups all over the city are being taken over by professional “whiners” that have nothing else to do but sit through meeting after meeting and push through agendas designed to make San Francisco a boring suburban family-friendly retirement village. Just look at the attempts to stop Kink.com in the Mission and Hole In The Wall in SOMA brought on by professional whiners from neighborhood groups. In the Castro, it’s the same people who opposed Halloween since the early 1990’s and still haven’t provided any meaningful alternatives other than “end it”.
From talking to people involved, I tend to suspect the opponents of Cafe Flore’s expanded permits don’t really care about the issue at hand. Their motivation is just to have the ability to wield power in their little kingdom and make the neighborhood more boring in any way they can.
Cafe Flore is going before the Planning Commission on Thursday, December 6 at 1:30pm in Room 400 at City Hall. Cafe Flore has been told they will need an “overwhelming” show of support by letter or testimony at the hearing in order to get their permits approved. Don’t let the fuddy duddies ruin the Castro!
Visit SaveCafeFlore.com and write a letter of support.
Mark Kliem
San Francisco
