There will be no sanctioned “Halloween” party this year, but the City has no public plans besides urging people to stay out of the Castro – and telling businesses to close early. A Task Force that Mayor Newsom and Supervisor Bevan Dufty launched last November never met, and efforts to move the party fell through when the City left other neighborhoods out of the process. Now Castro residents fear that partiers looking for trouble will still show up anyway.

A September 22nd town meeting at the Eureka Valley Recreation Center hoped to answer questions on what the City has planned – but Newsom, Dufty and the Police Department did not show up, leaving the Fire Department and the Sheriff’s Office to field questions not in their jurisdiction. And while most Castro residents say they don’t want Halloween in their neighborhood, at least give the group “Citizens for Halloween” credit for demanding some type of pro-active planning.

Nine people were shot at last year’s “Halloween in the Castro” – a tragedy that many say was the final straw for an event gone out of hand. But advocates say that this was due to inadequate community involvement to make it a successful event. “From 2003 to 2005,” said activist Donna Sachet, “there was more community input – with emergency lanes, police protection and gates manned by volunteers.” Taking the event out of neighborhood hands, she argued, was a recipe for disaster.

When Newsom and Dufty announced a Task Force after last year’s tragedy, there was supposed to be “expanded community input” – and the group was to meet on a quarterly basis. But Castro resident Gary Virginia applied to be on the Task Force, only to get no answer and learn that the group never met. “The outreach was selective,” he said, “and there was no community process. We want to open that process. We feel safer when we involve the community.”

And it looks like the City has a “wait-and-see” approach about what will happen Octboer 31st. Peter Howes from the Fire Department was vague at the meeting about whether there will be any street closures – saying that it “depends upon how many people show up.” They’ve been in discussion with the Police, he added, about emergency access lanes – but said “it’s a Police issue” about whether parking would be prohibited.

Rich Dyer of the Sheriff’s Department said they will have 125 deputies on duty that night, will provide the Police with vans in case they need to arrest people, and will keep an observation in their Command Center at 14th and Folsom. Unlike last year, there are no plans for any weapons screening. “Our plan basically is ‘wait-and-respond,’” he said, “and hopefully we won’t have to.”

The Police Department – who potentially could have answered many questions at the meeting – did not send a representative, although event organizer Alix Rosenthal said that she had spoken to Chief Heather Fong's assistant. And while Dyer said that the Departments “have been meeting for months” and “the plans have changed dramatically,” these meetings are not open to the public and they would not say what the plans are.

Even neighbors who are glad the event was cancelled this year were unhappy about the lack of substance about what will happen Halloween night. “I’d like to suggest the [Sheriff’s] Command Center be stationed in front of my house,” said one frustrated resident. Another resident stormed out of the meeting, after saying “the best idea is to not have Halloween and have an overwhelming police presence to keep people out.”

But other residents who don’t want Halloween in the Castro were skeptical about simply saturating the area with cops. “It could be provocative,” said Demian Quesnel of the Eureka Valley Promotion Association. Even Sheriff Rich Dyer explained that if you commit too many resources, “it becomes more difficult to respond.” If you have a virtual lock-down of the neighborhood with police patrols, what will happen to Castro residents who are simply out on the street that night running an errand?

Besides public safety, other concerns were raised at the meeting. While the City has asked 126 local businesses to close on Halloween night to discourage attendees, only 13 agreed because it’s one of their most lucrative nights. The City will not provide portable toilets to deal with public urination and defecation from revelers, so the group “Citizens for Halloween” has raised money to provide a free toilet for any business that wants one.

The problem, of course, is that the City cancelled Halloween in the Castro this year without including neighbors to come up with a solution, or to propose moving it to another location. Efforts were made to move it to South Beach or to Potrero Hill, but neighbors in those areas were not consulted either – resulting in such plans to fall through. Now we have no City-sponsored event, an effort to tell people not to go to the Castro, and no public plans on how to deal with people who may still show up.

“The neighborhood itself no longer celebrates Halloween,” said Quesnel, who has lived in the Castro for 36 years. “It’s an invasion, but this year will be a disaster because there is no plan. It’s outrageous that we’re having this discussion so close to the event, when we should have had it six months ago. People are going to want to create trouble, and there’s going to be nothing else going on.”

It’s very Gavin Newsom to respond to a crisis by announcing a Task Force. But when politicians call a Task Force – even if nothing gets accomplished – they usually at least meet once. Here, promises to have a collaborative effort that involves citizens who may not always agree to avoid tragedies like last year’s shootings were broken. In that vacuum, a group of citizens has come together to demand solutions.

The fact that only the Fire and Sheriff’s Departments bothered to attend Saturday’s town meeting is disturbing. About 30 residents showed up at the Recreation Center, and while there were mixed opinions about what should happen in the long run, the neighbors asked relevant questions about what will happen this year. Let’s hope that the Castro will be safe on October 31st, but it’s still an open question about how we will get there.

EDITOR’S NOTE: In 2006, Paul Hogarth endorsed Alix Rosenthal for District 8 Supervisor against Bevan Dufty, donated $200 to her campaign, and briefly served on her campaign committee. Rosenthal is one of the co-chairs of “Citizens for Halloween.” Send feedback to paul@beyondchron.org