Following in the footsteps of 24th Street over the hill in Noe Valley, Supervisor Dufty’s proposed amendments to San Francisco’s Planning Code to allow new full and small self-service restaurants to open within the Castro Neighborhood Commercial District with Conditional Use Authorization (i.e., on a case-by-case basis) and to allow self-service specialty food establishments as-of-right (with community notification) are before the Planning Commission this week.
The amendments would also remove the custom tailored fast food provision which was crafted specifically for a Noah’s bagels which is now a Sprint store vacant.
The Planning Department recommends the Commission approve the amendments.
∙ Castro NCD Restaurant and Eating Uses Amendments [sf-planning.org]
∙ Growing Pains For Noe Along 24th [SocketSite]
Just don’t take away my 7-11.
Or as I like to call it, “The downstairs refrigerator.”
My concern about this is that allowing more and more restaurants and food service “stores” in a neighborhood already well-served by a myriad of choices will continue to push out other neighborhood-serving businesses, especially services (shoe repair, tailor, locksmith and the like) and smaller specialty retailers. It will also dilute the relatively finite customer base for restaurants and make it harder for long-time established restaurants, many of whom may be barely hanging on, to survive.
It’s impossible to argue that the neighborhood is insufficiently served by restaurants now. Do we really want to turn the Castro into North Beach?
For god’s sake get rid of the moratorium on new bars! You’ve got a complete monopoly on ownership – minus q bar – and it shows. If either of two main bar owners were forced to compete – you might see a a bar scene in the castro which is something other than black painted plywood and a disco ball.
It’s pathetic!
“It’s impossible to argue that the neighborhood is insufficiently served by restaurants now. Do we really want to turn the Castro into North Beach?”
If you’re 22 and leaving Badlands drunk its fine for restaurants. But its not well served by good restaurants. Just look at Frances. Its booked up for the next 3 months. So theres definitely a demand there for the good ones. Yes. There are quite a few restaurants hanging on by the skin of their teeth but they need to adapt or die. If they’re good at Meatloaf and people want something else, that’s life.
If new restaurants put some of the old ones out of business, that would be a good thing. The moratorium has kept the standard for food in the neighborhood well below that of nearby areas.
As a gay man I virtually never enter the Castro because I can’t think of a reason to go there.
The majority of restaurants are terrible, the bars are terrible, and the vacant store fronts are terrible. With all due respect to Dave above, many of the restaurants are holding on because there is no competition that would force them to do better.
Please someone save the Castro from itself.
BTW, the phone store is closed. I just saw the old public television series on the Castro and listened to the pre-1970’s residents recall the “old days.” Now we will have another set of “old timers” to take their place. One thing that really still is amazing to me is that so many people begin their comments about the neighborhood with the statement “The Castro is supposed to be…….” Maybe better to let it evolve. Too many landlords think it’s a cash cow and nobody should be there but them.
Meanwhile…it’s so funny to compare this to areas nearby that aren’t technically part of the NCD. Starbelly and Frances are going gangbusters, and L’Ardoise (in the Duboce Triangle) seems to be doing fine too. And, on the low end, Ike’s is a phenomena, so much so that it’s getting pushed out.
While I would agree with Badlydrawnbear in general (and about the bars in particular), there is actually quite a lot good food in the “greater” Castro, and things will look up further with this change. I just wish that one particular bar owner would stop hoarding so much real estate. Will the Patio EVER open again?
I do think that badlydrawnbear is being overly, like way overly dramatic. If you see bad things then they will be bad, to you.
There are plenty of good restaurants in the Castro..as for bars, well you make them what you want to be. For some they are fun, period.
I have known the Castro now for 33 years and it keeps evolving and changing. It’s never dull, and it’s fun.
I saw that same video on PBS last night and the Castro has changed quite a bit since then. The unemployment/economy has really made a big dent. I’ve eaten at Fuzios and The Cove during weeknights and on occassion I was the only person in the restraunt…pretty shocking compared to the dot-com days.
I finally realized the bars are for “drinkers” and not alot of fun anymore.
I hope that little store that took the place of the gay museum does well, but so many others are closing (earth-tones) and with so many empty store fronts, NAIA is also closing this week, that it really is drab despite the new street park (which reaks of urine in the mornings).
Still a great place, but wish is were doing better, but that’s true for so many people that I know as well.
The Castro is a gastronomical wasteland. As the capital of Gay America, we should have better restaurants, but the eatery ban only serves to keep entrenched businesses from enjoying any kind of competition, much the same way that rent control works.
This gets played out in every neighborhood in SF that has restrictions. Why do i have to pay 7 dollars at coles for a light switch which costs 1.50 at home depot? Because of the local service (which is underwritten by a chain hardware vendor!) give me a break. SF enforces these little monopolies that all but ensure mediocrity and high prices – all in the name of staying local and keeping out chains. The market here is most definitely not free.
My thoughts for new food shops in the Castro:
“Les Natali’s Oakland Style BBQ Chicken & Ribs”
“The stroller connection” — 100% arsenic-laced, 100% of the time.
“Thai Bordello House” Where cute boys share their Thai noodles!
“Leather steak” — where the meat is cooked black & blue.
“Pavement to pork” — a cheerless, windswept & loony-packed twist on al-fresco dining.
“Little Orphan Annie’s” — red-headed lesbian owned & operated!
This might make sense except that there is at least one restaurant space that has been vacant for the better part of a decade, thanks to the narcissistic machinations of the owner. Dufty is doing this mostly to allow a soup store to open up at the corner od Castro and 18th where a swank home furnishings store has opened temporarily. This is also a gift to the mostly out-of-town (even out-of country) propoerty owners who have no idea what the local amrket is like and keep insiting on higher and higher rents.