The Gold Dust Lounge, the famous San Francisco bar on Powell Street that was the focus on a sad battle between the Bovis Brothers and the Handlery Hotel Family, is closing and today’s it’s last day. It’s moving to a new location on Jefferson in Fisherman’s Wharf, where I think it’s going to make a ton of money. I had to go and enjoy an Irish Coffee or two before it closed. Regardless of how one feels about the issue, it’s always right to celebrate a place that has history.
Something I need to get out of the way: I’m a blogger, not a reporter or journalist. I’ve said that again and again. I blog and vlog my view of a situation, period. I’ve never taken up the position of “Save The This” because I come from an economic development background, and always see the chance to find an opportunity anew. It was for that reason I did not take up the cause of keeping the Gold Dust at its current location; I think it’s got a chance to really be a killer money maker on Fisherman’s Wharf – but that blogged, there’s no reason people have to take up arms and hate each other.
When it gets to that point, I think people need to just take a time out. I don’t know this issue intimately, so there’s a lot I don’t know – much to the surprise of people on both sides. All I saw was what I got today, which is an assumption that I was entirely against the Bovises, which is crazy because I was never deep into this deal to start with. I will say the Gold Dust Lounge people never returned my call, where the Handlery people did. There you go.
I’m not going to name names on either side, but I will say that all of the people involved are good people, even if they don’t think that of each other. The issue became way too politicized, and I think at some point, some actions seemed to be beyond reason. It’s time to chill and have a drink.
That’s what I did at The Gold Dust today. It’s too bad that it had to happen, but I still think if things had not been allowed to become war-like, The Handlery’s would have acted differently. The fact that must be remembered is – like it or not – The Handlery’s own that space. A better move would have been to buy it from them, but that’s expensive hindsight. I don’t know if the Gold Dust would have remained, but anything good can happen when people are nice to each other. From what I’ve been told by people on both ends, there’s a lot of bad feelings that really could have been avoided by both parties.
Stay tuned.
Bill Carroll