How's Your GAYborhood ?

[topunderachiever]

Talk about wanting your cake and eat it too. 

We fought decades to be accepted and integrated into a homogenized society, yet still expect, yearn for, and gravitate toward, our own little separate exclusionary conclave.  Tribalism does indeed rule the world.  

Edited July 21, 2021 by topunderachiever

[Luv2play]

8 hours ago, Woofiecmh said:

My current gayborhood is dying a horrible death.  In the 80's it was a run down ghetto with tons of crime but in the 90's it became the epicenter of the arts in town and gay men and lesbians moved in to renovate the beautiful and very affordable victorian and turn of the century homes.  There were lots of gay owned businesses, eclectic restaurants, and a vibrant culture that was untouched by the suburban masses.  It was amazing because you had so many gay neighbors and at one point there were about 10 gay bars in the neighborhood.  In the 2000's things were at their peak and it was like heaven and it was the best time of my life.  Then the landlords starting raising rents and housing skyrocketed so most of the gays moved away to the other up and coming neighborhoods and the gay bars and shops were replaced.  Then the suburbanites who fell in love with what we had created moved in.  Worse yet is when a local str8 bro bar developer came in and started opening up these college bars that drew a very homophobic crowd.

There are only two gay bars left both owned by the same family, one a restaurant/bar and the other a dance club across the street.  Recently the gay owner has said they're not gay bars, they're LGBT friendly!  College kids swarm the place at night for the cheap heavy pours and drink specials.  On weekends their drag brunch is now 90% straight women.  The media use to call the area the Short North Arts District but now they refer to it as the Short North Entertainment District!  For the past few years it just keeps getting worse and I keep getting more depressed.  Everything I loved about the neighborhood is gone.  I love my house which I've poured tons of money in and will have paid off soon so I don't plan on leaving but it's harder every year.  And Saturday night/Sunday morning there was a gunfight in the middle of the main street.  I heard every shot since it was at the end of my block and I happened to be awake and even heard one guy scream when he got hit.  Three injured including the two shooters all will survive.  

My next move was supposed to be Palm Springs.  Have been there several times and having grown up in Southern California it brings back a lot of memories.  But being single I worry about being able to afford living there in retirement without sacrificing the lifestyle I've become accustomed to.

If you're thinking of living in Palm Springs in the next 20 years, have you considered besides the expense, whether it will be inhabitable due to climate change? Just today it was reported over 120 people died in Portland, Oregon in the recent heat wave. I know PS is equipped for the brutal heat in the summers but how much brutal heat and for how many months before people will have to throw in the towel.

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, Luv2play said:

If you're thinking of living in Palm Springs in the next 20 years, have you considered besides the expense, whether it will be inhabitable due to climate change? Just today it was reported over 120 people died in Portland, Oregon in the recent heat wave. I know PS is equipped for the brutal heat in the summers but how much brutal heat and for how many months before people will have to throw in the towel.

Yes I have, it's been a big thing on my mind.  Same thing with Florida, will it be underwater in our lifetime.  Makes the midwest a safe place even though I'm not happy here.

[Luv2play]

5 minutes ago, Woofiecmh said:

Yes I have, it's been a big thing on my mind.  Same thing with Florida, will it be underwater in our lifetime.  Makes the midwest a safe place even though I'm not happy here.

On the bright side, maybe the party will move to you. If places like Florida and the southwest and even northwest become problematic, there will be mass migrations to more sustainable locales.

[Gadfly22]

On 7/19/2021 at 9:15 PM, Snbrd said:

I mourn the loss of Gayborhoods in so many cities. Boston's South End had several bars, coffee shops and gay businesses. The last bar just closed and the gentrified neighborhood is almost all straight.

I guess that means Club Cafe is gone. The very first gay bar I ever went inside. My bf kept bugging me to go there. I would say - We don't have to go there. We can have fun in your south end!

Anyone been to New Hope, PA lately? I haven't been for over a decade. I would visit regularly in the early/mid 2000's and even back then it was already (at least on weekends) being overrun by mostly straight day trippers from NYC/Philly.

 

[Luv2play]

On 7/22/2021 at 4:00 PM, Gadfly22 said:

I guess that means Club Cafe is gone. The very first gay bar I ever went inside. My bf kept bugging me to go there. I would say - We don't have to go there. We can have fun in your south end!

Anyone been to New Hope, PA lately? I haven't been for over a decade. I would visit regularly in the early/mid 2000's and even back then it was already (at least on weekends) being overrun by mostly straight day trippers from NYC/Philly.

 

I visited New Hope twice, in the 1970's. The first time I was staying with an older couple who were friends of my family, and lived outside Philly near New Hope. I went there one night and dropped in at a bar called January's which was gay. Picked up a cute blond guy who took me to his home across the Delaware for a quickie. The next morning I mentioned to my female host, who was friends with my parents, that I had been there and she immediately responded, Oh, I should have mentioned that place. I thought you might have been interested.

The next year I was in the area and tried to get a room in an inn or hotel but they were fully booked up. It was quite gay in those days. There was a place with a French name after some actress (Collete? or something like that) or maybe just a local celebrity, and that place was also very gay.

Years later I met a gay couple in Fort Lauderdale who lived there in the summer. I had sex with the younger one (he seduced me, not the reverse). I swear.

[jeezifonly]

Uh oh. 
There goes the Gay-bor-hood

Gayborhoods sprang up in major cities starting in the ‘70’s when young people needed to get out of mom’s house and couldn’t afford anything nice. So they/we moved in to funky/dangerous districts, made it work, dressed it up, recommended it friends, and Voila! Gayborhood! A couple blocks at a time: tended houses. Good food. Great bars. Cute and sassy retail - only in the gayhoods. We move in and make it better and drive up the prices ,,,sadly beyond the reach of the young gays who then have to find another. Social media has reduced the direct need of safety in numbers. And invariably these enclaves become de rigeur tourist stops, so the great corn-fed masses can see how clever we all are… So creative!!

We have indeed fought long and hard for the right to be mediocre like the Breeders were the whole time I was growing into gay adulthood.

We are now safer, with more financial and civic influence in whatever community we live in, which are ALL gayer than they were 20 years ago. Nostalgia can become malignant, so I look back with gratitude (thx Silverlake!) and give the gay nod to MM couples out on the streets in my sleepier hood.

(The gay nod? It’s 50% RockHudson to Tony Randall and 50% Donna McKechnie in Turkey Lurkey. If you have to search either of those, you’re welcome! -For all the social fabric inroads made on your behalf, by those who already know.)

[+ Snbrd]

On 7/22/2021 at 4:00 PM, Gadfly22 said:

I guess that means Club Cafe is gone

Actually, that is one of the survivors. The restaurant and bar are neighborhood hangouts and there are shows a few nights a week. 

Interestingly, Cathedral Station in the South End and "dbar" in Dorchester are restaurant/bars. Maybe that's the path to survival, at least in this area. 

[Deadlift1]

On 7/22/2021 at 4:00 PM, Gadfly22 said:

I guess that means Club Cafe is gone. The very first gay bar I ever went inside. My bf kept bugging me to go there. I would say - We don't have to go there. We can have fun in your south end!

Anyone been to New Hope, PA lately? I haven't been for over a decade. I would visit regularly in the early/mid 2000's and even back then it was already (at least on weekends) being overrun by mostly straight day trippers from NYC/Philly.

 

The last gay bar "the Raven" was bulldozed a couple of years ago.  The owners bought the New Hope Motel across the street.  It's very cool.  They are slowly redoing the rooms.  They have a small bar called "The Cub Room."

[Gadfly22]

23 hours ago, Snbrd said:

Actually, that is one of the survivors. The restaurant and bar are neighborhood hangouts and there are shows a few nights a week. 

Interestingly, Cathedral Station in the South End and "dbar" in Dorchester are restaurant/bars. Maybe that's the path to survival, at least in this area. 

How about Man-ray (PR Cambridge)?

[+ Snbrd]

The ManRay site is now $1Million+ condos. Cambridge’s only other gay  bar Paradise is now a biotech company. I don’t think it has hurt applications but Harvard and MIT boys have no local gay bars. 😀

[Gadfly22]

23 hours ago, Snbrd said:

The ManRay site is now $1Million+ condos.

Wow! When I lived there that was not considered a very good part of town. Cambridge has changed!