[infopop]

You see the headline from the San Francisco Chronicle, pretty much says it all: SF’s oldest gay bar closes after five decades

In this case, it's the Gangway in the Tenderloin. The article goes into a small tangle of ownership and liquor license transfer which result, for now, in the former bar about to become the "Kung Fu Action Theater & Laundry" - that is, unless it doesn't.

More interesting for cruising history:

There’s a lengthy bar history at 841 Larkin St. The address has been home to a drinking establishment of some kind since 1910, 51 years before the Gangway began publicly identifying as a gay bar.

With its shuttering, the Gangway joins a long roster of now-closed gay bars in the city, a trend some attribute to changing San Francisco demographics, gentrification and, even more simply put, acceptance of LGBT people in the wider community.

While it was open, the Tenderloin haunt was treasured by the city’s older gay crowd. Filling seats at the bar were working-class patrons from diverse backgrounds.

So here's another datapoint in that long trend of LGBT establishments closing. Is it due to gentrification or assimilation/integration of (ahem! ungainly phrase!) "sexual minorities" into the mainstream? Or is it that patrons for these bars - people like me? - are simply getting older, going out less, and (gulp!) not so much into App culture for hooking up?

I don't want to recap discussions we've already had so I'll close here and move on.

Bob S. ~ Manager/Editor

[jonn3]

I suspect there will be more to this story...

The cumbersome name for his new venture is Kung Fu Action Theater & Laundry, which Young last year said would be a place where people can do laundry and watch kung fu movies. It won’t be a bar, he said, despite the location’s liquor license.

Liquor licenses in California - especially if this is one of the old "grandfathered" licenses which allows you to serve alcohol without food - are a valuable commodity. To spend that money to put in a laundromat seems a bit crazy.

What impresses me is the fact it was there for 50 years as an "out of the closet" gay bar. To have opened a gay bar in the 1960's was pretty impressive - even in San Francisco!

[infopop]

In the 80s when I moved to the DC area I sort of circled around before settling in the middle of the District. First I was in Arlington, Va., then in Takoma Park, Md., then finally buying a studio apartment co-op in near 18th & Columbia in DC.

Anyhow, in Maryland I used to go to a laundromat near the University in College Park called "Suds." It not just washers and dryers but pizza, beer, TVs, and a few of the old video arcade game machines - PacMan or SpaceInvaders or whatever.

Odd combination, don't know if it lasted, but rents were a lot lower then.

[Mojavebottom]

I went to Gangway and most of the gay and alt hang outs when I lived in the city from 74 to 80. At that time we only had bars, bath houses, cruising spots and papers like the Berkeley Barb as a means to meet and link up. And guys who were in the closet made use of the aforementioned means to link up with not only rent bois but gay guys who were in to straight action. My partner and I toned it down as we got serious about life but the clubs in the Castro, Tenderloin and South of Market/North Beach were all great places to go and have a drink, meet very interesting people and link up with folks who had similar interests whether or not for sex. It seems today folks depend on the web for linking up and it is not working out well for most. Getting out and making eye to eye, or eye to fanny contact is still the best way to meet folks for any intent. Just my two cents worth.