They came from Russia, South Africa, Brazil, Japan, and Australia — on almost any given weekday at 10 a.m. they can be found at the rainbow flag pole at Castro and Market streets, ready for a two-hour walking tour of the crossroads of the queer world.
Or is it, still?
Kathy Amendola, a lesbian who has been running Cruisin’ The Castro Walking Tours for the past 18 years, told the Bay Area Reporter she will have to cut back on tours because of dangerous San Francisco street conditions.
“My tour members are appalled that outdoor drug use is acceptable,” Amendola said. “One member of my tour group said, ‘This would never happen in my city.’ It shouldn’t happen in any city.”
Amendola’s business is the city’s first and only legacy business tour company. Now, she’s announced she’s leaving the Castro Merchants Association for what she sees as a reluctance to be tough enough with the police and public officials.
“They have no vision of what we can be and it is frustrating for myself, knowing how great we can be, how we can be a heritage site,” Amendola said.
The news comes just as San Francisco works to restore its reputation, lowered by rampant property crime, open-air drug use and sales, and business woes. According to a report from the Institute of Governmental Studies released in the spring, downtown San Francisco ranked last among 62 North American cities in recovering from the COVID pandemic.
The pandemic exacerbated issues that had already been salient in the Castro neighborhood — particularly empty storefronts, onerous regulation, and blight. And while progress has been made on the latter two in recent years, even boosters of the city concede the needle has only moved so much.
The city that for decades was the gay Oz now asks how much more of its rainbow will fade.
Read more at ebar.com.
John Ferrannini 