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www.ebar.com
Since 1971, the newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community
Empty SF storefronts on next mayor’s to-do list
Vol. 48 • No. 18 • May 3-9, 2018
by Matthew S. Bajko
Jane Philomen Cleland
Soni S.H.S. Wolf at the 2015 San Francisco Pride parade.
Dykes on Bikes founding member Soni Wolf dies by Cynthia Laird
S
oni S.H.S. Wolf, a lesbian and founding member of the Dykes on Bikes Women’s Motorcycle Contingent, died Wednesday, April 25, the organization announced May 1. Ms. Wolf was 69 and died of natural causes, the organization said in a news release. Brooke Oliver, an attorney who represented Ms. Wolf and Dykes on Bikes in a high-profile trademark case, said Ms. Wolf had been ill for about the See page 10 >>
D
ealing with the growing glut of empty storefronts in commercial corridors throughout the city is among the to-do list items for San Francisco’s next mayor. The issue has been a pressing one for years in the city’s gay Castro district, where locally-owned businesses have struggled amid increasing rents, changing demographics, and the rise of online retailing. Also transforming the neighborhood’s retail landscape has been the addition in recent years of ground-floor storefronts in new mixed-used residential developments along upper Market Street. Many of the sidewalk retail spaces have sat vacant as landlords have struggled to attract tenants, and more are on the way as several new developments are either under construction or have been approved by city planners. Efforts to fill them can be hampered by a range of issues, from landlords asking for unreasonably expensive leases to the square footage being too large for the needs of local merchants. The city also has strict rules on where chain stores can locate in the Castro and prohibits office-like uses in ground-floor storefronts. Community leaders have tried various tactics to address the issue, from marketing the Castro
: Rick Gerharter
The site of the former Sparky’s Restaurant is now vacant. It is one of several empty storefronts in the 200 block of Church Street.
to leasing agents to assisting entrepreneurs in opening their doors. A retail corridor study was conducted a few years ago to determine what businesses residents would like to see open in the neighborhood. Landlords with a vacant commercial space are required to register it with the city’s Department of Building Inspection within 30 days of it becoming empty and pay a fee of $711. Until
they lease the space, landlords are supposed to pay the fee each year. There is a legislative effort at City Hall to possibly increase the fee for landlords who fail to lease their storefronts. And there also have been calls for better enforcement on the city’s part to ensure landlords are registering when
Arrest warrant issued in 1999 cold case killing
Mixed messages for SF State’s HIV, STI testing program
A
I
by Alex Madison
young, bisexual man was violently stabbed to death in his residential hotel room in Chinatown almost two decades ago with few clues, no suspect, and no arrest. Last week, after 19 years, an arrest warrant was issued for Roy Donovan Lacy Roy Donovan Lacy in connection with the murder of Kameron Sengthavy, the Bay Area Reporter has learned. Lacy, 38, is currently in custody in Florida serving nine years for a series of bank robberies committed in the state. Lacy, who has a lengthy criminal history, has robbed 13 banks throughout California and two in Florida. He was convicted in 2016 in Marin County for three bank robberies he committed in 2012 and 2013 with his girlfriend, Michelle Marie Maxwell, in San Rafael and Novato. During his sentencing at Marin County Superior Court, Lacy was given 105 years to life, a sentence he called, “insane,” given he didn’t See page 15 >>
See page 4 >>
by Alex Madison
t took the voices of student activists to motivate San Francisco State University to once again offer free HIV and sexually transmitted infection testing to LGBT students, while heterosexual students have had that service for years. Hoping to receive an HIV test for free in 2016 at the university’s Student Health Services center, like many of his heterosexual peers had, Jose Francisco, a 23-year-old gay man, was told he would have to pay more than $200. “I initially heard from my peers that my school tested for free,” said Francisco in a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “I disclosed I was gay and, ultimately, I was not given the health services that my school would otherwise provide to my heterosexual peers for free.” At the time, the university’s health professional did offer Francisco referrals to other organizations, like the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, which offer HIV/STI and other health services to LGBTs for free. But Francisco said those agencies usually have a long wait, sometimes days, and are located across town. Francisco is a public health major and president of the Health Education Student Association at the university. In talking to LGBT community members on campus, Francisco found they, too, had similar experiences, which they
described as discriminatory. “It sort of made me question the equitability in terms of access for sexual minorities, especially sexual minorities who are more susceptible to HIV and STIs,” Francisco said. Francisco wrote an op-ed in the university’s newspaper the Golden Gate Xpress detailing his experience. With that, came change. For the first time in more than two years,
starting last month, LGBT students have the ability to be tested for HIV, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis at no cost as a part of the $314 health fee all students pay every school year. The funding for the testing comes in part by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, which has a memorandum of understanding with the university to See page 15 >>
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Courtesy Jose Francisco
San Francisco State University student Jose Francisco took part in a San Francisco AIDS Foundation campus event.
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