| Castro District |
Website Links For Castro |
Information AboutCastro District |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT THE CASTRO, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA | |
| neighborhoods in san francisco | |
| gay villages in the united states | |
| castro | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
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The Castro is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California , which is also known as Eureka Valley . DESCRIPTION Castro street, which runs through the neighborhood, is best known for being the heart of San Francisco's Gay community. The Castro is also a commonly used abbreviation for the Castro Theatre , a landmark movie theater located in the Castro community. San Francisco's Gay Village is most concentrated in the Business District that is located on Castro Street from Market Street to 19th Street. It extends down Market street toward Church and on 18th Street on both sides of Castro for a block or two. The greater Castro includes the surrounding residential areas. It is bordered by the Mission District , Noe Valley , Twin Peaks , and Haight-Ashbury . It may be considered to include Duboce Triangle and Dolores Heights , which have a strong gay presence. Castro Street itself runs south through Noe Valley, crossing the 24th Street business district, and terminating a few blocks farther in the Glen Park neighborhood. The street was named for Joaquin Isidro de Castro, an 18th century Spanish soldier who took part in Juan Bautista De Anza 's expedition to California. HISTORY OF THE CASTRO The Castro came of age as a gay center following the controversial Summer Of Love in the neighboring Haight Ashbury district in 1967. The gathering brought tens of thousands of middle-class youth from all over the United States. Dreams of love, peace, drugs, and sex were dashed as conditions quickly deteriorated and violent crime became rampant. During the 1950s and 1960s , when families left the big cities for the Suburbs , the Eureka Valley also suffered this fate. By the early 1970s , rents were low and people who had been pushed out of homes by the Gentrification of the district nearby began to settle in the Eureka Valley. Local real estate agents played a key role in the process of gentrification. By 1975, Harvey Milk had opened a camera store there, and began active political involvement as a gay activist, further contributing to the notion of the Castro as a gay destination. Some of the culture of the late 1970s included what was termed the "Castro Street Clone", which was a mode of dress in vogue with the gay population at the time, and which gave rise to the nickname "Clone Canyon" for the stretch of Castro Street between 18th Street and Market Street. There were numerous famous waterholes in the area, contributing to the nightlife, including the Corner Grocery Bar, the Norse Cove, the Pendulum, and the Elephant Walk. A typical street scene of the period is perhaps best illustrated by mentioning the male belly dancers who could be found holding forth in good weather at the corner of 18th and Castro, on "Hibernia Beach", in front of the financial institution from which it drew its name. The area was hit hard by the AIDS / HIV crisis of the 1980s. Beginning in the 1980s, City officials, however, began a crackdown on bath houses and launched intiatives that aimed to prevent the spread of AIDS. Posters advertising online dating services besides those promoting safe sex and testing line kiosks along Market Street and Castro Street. Like any other part of a vibrant city, the gay community and Castro neighborhood continue to address these and other issues of gender, race and class amongst others. SPECIAL EVENTS PLACES OF NOTE
DEMOGRAPHICS In November 2000, the ''Noe Valley Voice'' reported the following statistics for city District 8, which includes Noe Valley, Diamond Heights, Glen Park, Twin Peaks, Corona Heights, Duboce/Reverse Triangle, and Castro/Dolores Heights. The paper cited a 1999 poll of registered voters by David Binder Research , a prominent local polling agency.
REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS
http://thecastro.net/ |