I’m a former resident of South of Market, where I resided upstairs from a popular bar on Folsom Street for 10 years. Though I moved from the neighborhood about five years ago I still work in Soma and have for over 12 years at two popular bars that I consider to be fine establishments run by exemplary employers who have enriched the vitality, community and fun of a neighborhood known for its vibrant active gay nightlife for decades. In the mid 90’s when the AIDS epidemic had taken it’s toll on numerous gay businesses and the nightlife was dwindling in the south of market area a new bar appeared and rapidly rose to popularity, bringing new life to the neighborhood with a simple festive attitude and the re-introduction of rock and roll music as the featured style of music in a gay bar. That bar was The Hole in the Wall Saloon and it unquestionably brought the whole south of market bar scene back to life, achieving a world renowned reputation as the San Francisco gay bar to go to and a bar truly unlike any other anywhere. As an employee I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told this over the years.
When the owners of the Hole in the Wall Saloon later acquired The San Francisco Eagle, they brought new life to that historic meeting place for our extended gay and leather communities as well, maintaining its regular Sunday tradition of money –raising benefits for various community groups. As well as this community minded effort, during a time when artists and musicians were being forced out of this city by high rents on both rehearsal spaces and homes and as live music venues in San Francisco began to fold, the Eagle started presenting live music on Thursday nights, rapidly becoming a sanctuary for local and touring bands. This lent some hope and positive energy to a daunted scene, and Thursday nights continue to create a friendly space where many bands love to play.
I feel like I’ve said all of this before about these bars but I’m saying it now to lend a bit of background to a current situation faced by the Hole in the Wall. The owners John Gardiner and Joe Banks recently bought a property on Folsom street with plans of relocating the Hole in the Wall. The bar’s current location is a rented space in a structurally problematic building so they want to move the business to a new space which they own and can design and plan from the floor up to suit the business they created. This process requires attaining construction permits, zoning approval, proper business and liquor licensing and specific permits for operation, all of which the owners have methodically and legally set about doing. As soon as these processes were set into motion a certain Soma resident and business owner who holds a seat on the city’s Entertainment Commission and is chair of the SoMa Leadership Council seems obsessively bent on squelching every effort of this relocation and anything having to do with the Eagle and the Hole in the Wall. His name is Jim Meko and he has launched an all out campaign against both establishments, nit-picking through the history of both bars for the slightest infractions in the past, inventing permit violations that had never appeared or occurred to the business owners or authorities, organizing other neighborhood residents to parrot his complaints and submit requests for discretionary reviews and motions to reject the transference of licenses for the relocation, not to mention personally berating John Gardiner and Joe Banks, characterizing them as “bad bar owners” and urging attendees at a neighborhood meeting, “Do not trust these guys!”
Speaking as one of 21 current employees of one or both bars I would like to point out that these “untrustworthy and bad bar owners” have without fail provided a safe, sane and systematic place of employment for over a decade for many of us. They have also provided all of us employees as well as a few of their partners with full health insurance coverage, paid vacation time, and an annual employee retreat. This sense of allegiance has prevailed since the opening of the Hole in the Wall and has built a place of employment that goes well beyond just that. As far as bars go, you would be hard-pressed to find another one that treats its staff as well or a staff as committed and loyal. I think these simple facts speak volumes on the characters of Mr. Gardiner and Mr. Banks and their integrity as bar owners and businessmen.
The statements made by Jim Meko resemble the reaction of someone throwing a temper tantrum in the face of things not quite going their way, like a child who isn’t going to let anyone else have fun unless it is done his way. These statements are also slanderous, untrue, and indicate that there are probably many more off-the-handle , uncalled-for falsehoods where that came from. It really makes one wonder just where all of this negativity and obsession are truly coming from. But it doesn’t stop there. This man seems to want to stanch and harass any sense of fun, community, history or freedom to convene in the entire South of Market area, especially if it has anything to do with the Eagle or the Hole in the Wall. For someone who has resided in Soma since 1977, when Folsom was known as “the miracle mile” , why has Jim Meko endeavored to continue the down-sizing of that miracle mile into less than a block of gay businesses, primarily the ones which people historically choose to go to have fun and enjoy themselves?
As a person who holds a seat on the entertainment commission, what portion of this cities population is this man representing in his obvious and merciless attacks on these businesses? He certainly doesn’t have the people who work there in mind at all, the ones who would soon be without jobs. This clearly doesn’t concern him. Nor does he consider the numerous organizations that have relied on the Eagle as a meeting place to stage benefits for fundraising, and this is a very long list representing several facets of the community. Then there is the gay community who enjoy going out to bars, and you can’t deny their existence and history but it seems one man is actively trying to do so. His influence doesn’t simply stop with Soma, he has tried to curtail similar businesses in several San Francisco neighborhoods from North Beach to the Castro and has actively battled with the organizers of The Harrison Street Fair, the newest annual soma based event drawing a large international Bear subculture to the area.
Is this the city that San Francisco shall become, void of any sense of night-time revelry, drinking and the enjoyment of music? That’s clearly the intention of Jim Meko, that and perhaps some local political position that will ensure his power to more effectively continue destroying the nightlife culture, and dare I say the gay culture and community of this city. Who would have ever thought a gay man would want to do that to San Francisco? Are we our own worst enemy?
Though the battle at hand currently involves the relocation of the Hole in the Wall, you can tell by this individuals selfish blind determination that he’s dead set on doing anything to interrupt and harass the operation of any endeavor involving Gardiner and Banks. In doing so he is attacking one of the qualities that has made San Francisco a desirable destination for gay people everywhere for decades and definitely one that keeps many residents here and many visitors returning. The demise of the Hole in the Wall would indicate a change in San Francisco that I would have never anticipated and the beginning of the end of a fine and spirited nightlife unlike any other. I don’t think our city is willing to say goodbye to this institution or this ideal.
If you would like to voice your opinion or concern on this matter letters can be sent to: President Dwight Alexander
San Francisco Planning Department
1600 Mission St. Fifth Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
Letters should be short and to the point and I urge you to send them soon. The hearing on this matter is on May 10th beginning at 1:30 room 400 at city hall.