Gay Shame

San Francisco owes a huge debt of gratitude to Miles O’Reilly. The owner and namesake of O’Reilly’s, a popular Irish pub in North Beach, has staked $6.5 million into the Holy Grail, a restaurant on lower Polk Gulch – an area largely known as a seedy spot for drug dealers, hustlers and homeless.

O’Reilly says, “I put my life savings into making a statement on this street. Polk is one of the most prominent streets in the City. We are trying to rejuvenate this area, and it already seems to have taken a turn for the better.”

Consequently, Lee Cole recently decided to put a new coat of paint on the Polk Street building that houses his roller skate store, saying he wanted the place to look nicer to fit in.

“Miles O’Reilly is a man who cannot look at ugliness. He changed the neighborhood overnight.”

Carolyn Abst, current chair of the Lower Polk Neighbors Association, said O'Reilly had taken a big gamble on the neighborhood and was exactly the type of business she wanted.

"We are not trying to be like Chestnut or Union, though we do want people to come here and feel safe. We are just kind of about cleaning up our act. We want a fruit stand, and we'll take a Starbucks, too."

Incredibly, an activist group known as Gay Shame that champions “radical queers” has the gaul to charge gentrification is pushing the out ‘hookers, hustlers, drug addicts, homeless, trannies, needle exchange services and social deviants.”

• The Polk Gulch Saloon, a renowned place for drag queens and transsexuals, is now the chic Lush Lounge, which serves bright-colored cocktails and caters to the happy-hour crowd.


• Reflections, a place where johns were known to drink, is now a dance club called Vertigo that brings in DJs and young clubbers.
  
• The Hemlock, a hangout with live bands and lots of local hipsters, replaced the historic gay bar The Giraffe.


• Rendezvous, the last male hustler bar in the neighborhood, closed about six months ago, and a wine bar called SNOB opened a few doors down.

One member of the group who identified himself as Mary says:

“Polk Street is one the last remaining places there has been cross-class, cross-gender and cross-sexuality, an interaction between street cultures. To see that steadily replaced by high-end destinations for partying suburbanites is really heartbreaking and intolerant.”

Boo-Hoo, Boiz-2-Gurlz. No one’s showing Scary Mary the door. Just watching her scurry cross the floor for the corner. Hey babe, Why cry over a fresh coat of paint? Take a walk on the mild side. Ask your johns to pay a buck or two to get his kicks for you. Or, set sail to Oakland to cast away to castaway drunks and downtrodden as well as pussies like you who want dick, but don’t have the balls to solicit in their own neighborhoods.

Celebrate Halloween every night as always, just don’t bitch about clean, safe streets and a promising economy… when you really mean you want your tricks and treat on the cheap. Adapt or perish. And, it wouldn't kill ya to try some home repairs of your own... mascara touch up for midnight masquerades or a couple coats of foundation to play trannequin in the light of day. It’s time to renovate, not pontificate.

Complete Aricles:

• Polk Gulch Cleanup Angers Some - Gentrification Pushing Out 'Hookers, Hustlers' by Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writer
  
• It Takes a Village to Shoot Smack by SFist