Ready For A Revival Of Gay Bathhouses In San Francisco?
With a pandemic that’s nowhere near over, is this what people need or want in San Francisco: More bathhouses? Via KPIX:
In an effort to create more safe spaces for San Francisco’s LGBTQ community, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman on Tuesday proposed creating new zoning regulations that would allow for the revival of gay bathhouses.
Under Mandelman’s proposed legislation, a new zoning category for adult sex venues would be created, making way for such businesses to be permitted in historically LGBTQ-affiliated neighborhoods like the Tenderloin, South of Market, Upper Market, and Castro.
The proposed legislation builds off legislation drafted by Mandelman in 2020 that updated stringent city health and safety standards governing commercial adult sex venues that were first imposed in 1984 — the height of the AIDS epidemic. At the time, the city sued operators of gay bathhouses and other consensual adult venues, citing them as a public nuisance and prompting most to close.
Although the 2020 update took into account the advancements in sexual health awareness and preventative measures and was approved unanimously by the Board of Supervisors, the city’s Planning Department determined that bathhouses didn’t fall under the city’s adult business planning code.
Mandelman’s latest ordinance would establish a completely new adult sex venues zoning category, paving the way for bathhouses and similar establishments to be permitted in specific neighborhoods.
The Planning Commission is expected to consider Mandelman’s proposal sometime next month, before heading to then heading to the Board of Supervisors’ Land Use and Transportation Committee.
I would think dealing with the out-of-control homelessness and lack of affordable housing in San Francisco might be more important than giving gays another smelly and dank place to have sex. But, maybe a bathhouse is more lucrative for the city and brings in more tax dollars than an apartment building for poor people. Then again, given that you can piss, shit, and shoot up drugs on literally any street corner you want in San Francisco, what’s the point of going inside a dark bathhouse for sex? Save your money and just fuck in the middle of the street. No one cares what you do in public in San Francisco.
