The California city of Oakland found out this week that it is to lose two of its best-known LGBTQ venues.
Club 21 and Club BNB adjoin one another. The property they occupy was taken over in 2018 by a real estate developer. The new landlord informed both venues that they will have to close by January 15, 2020.
According to KQED, this will just leave Port Bar and the White Horse Inn remaining in Oakland. The latter is believed to be the longest-running gay bar in the US.
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Club BNB (formerly the Bench and Bar) has been running as an LGBTQ venue since 1978 in different locations, while Club 21 has been running since 2010. They both moved to the current location in 2015.
Both venues are popular with people of color, with different club nights appealing to African Americans and Latinx crowds, such as La Bota Loca and Club Papi at 21
The clubs have been operating on a month-by-month lease for the past few months and have been seeking new homes, but Carlos Uribe, the general manager for both, told KQED that finding anywhere affordable has not yet proved successful.
He says the developer who now owns the block wanted the clubs to start paying $45,000 in rent per month – twice what they currently pay – or move out by mid-January.
“We don’t want to close,” Uribe told the Bay Area Reporter. “We are losing queer spaces left and right, not only in Oakland and San Francisco but around the country.
He says the final day of business will be January 12: “We’re gonna party right to the end.”
Related: America’s Oldest Gay Bar Turns 80, Looks 40
Queer venues around the US have faced increased challenges and a spate of closures in recent years. There were an estimated 2,500 gay bars in the US in 1976, but that’s down to around 1,400, according to gay travel guide, Damron.
Meanwhile, in 1973, there were 118 gay bars in San Francisco. Today, less than 30.
Many factors have led to the closures, from the more mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ people decreasing the need for separate spaces; people meeting one another via hook-up apps rather than on the scene, and escalating real-estate prices and rents in former gay neighborhoods.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
Its sad that this club is closing because of a criminal rent increase but I think an article on how nearly all of our community members are dealing with the cost of living in major cities these days is long overdue. Its hard to believe no freelance journalist has thought to do this. Disposable income is what bars and clubs rely on people to spend in order for them to stay in business but in NYC, SF, D.C., Los Angeles and a few others that disposable income is now a distant memory or has simply become extinct. Two and three jobs just to pay rent or mortgage is a strong indicator of how people are struggling to simply survive. But no matter how hard they struggle the gym memberships will always be the last to go.
natriley
In quasi socialist countries like the Netherlands. Small business is protected by rent control. Landlords can’t double rents.
masterwill7
Well, I’m from the Netherlands, and what your saying is not true. We have a max increase a year of 5.1% for social minimun rental homes! This is just a small percentage of homes. The rest is unlimited, definitely for businesses! Second, we are FAR from a socialist country, look it up in your own CIA factbook.
balttymore
As a former resident on SF, I was blown away that there was 118 gay bars there one time!
winemaker
sadly this isn’t surprising. I live in San Francisco and this is happening everywhere here. It seems there’s no commercial rent control like residential rent control. Many small businesses fold after outrageous rent hikes and slowing business. it wouldn’t surprise me the property is owned by some chinese conglamorate as they already own so much property in San Francisco, Los Angeles etc.and are evicting residents and businesses right and left without just cause. Time to forbid foreign conglomerates from buying up US real estate
Den
What is especially galling in the Bay Area is that commercial rents are so jacked up properties remain vacant for years sometimes. It is as if landlords want the vacancies for the tax benefits (as most commercial landlords here own many properties), so they prefer the rents to be out of reach.
nitejonboy
No offense to Oakland, but I’m pretty sure the oldest operating gay bar in the country is in New Orleans.
Wicked Dickie
“…Both venues are popular with people of color, with different club nights appealing to African Americans and Latinx crowds, such as La Bota Loca and Club Papi at 21…” Not surprising at all. I live in Dallas, and all the “black” gay clubs are closed, but you can surely find 6-10 white gay clubs that 1. antagonize and discriminate against POC, so we don’t visit there and 2. only play techno, or pop music.
dinard38
It’s the same in my hometown Chicago. There’s only ever been like two “black” clubs at one time….not counting Jeffery’s Pub on the south side. Haha. But you go to Boystown, you’ll have a zillion white clubs on Halsted.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
I’m still brokenhearted over the closing of Man Country. As rundown as it had become it was clear that the end was near but it still packed a crowd every weekend. Now its three stories will be part of a luxury condo/apt complex. It was inevitable but at least it wasn’t left a ghost because of a rent hike.
rustyiam
Oakland is a chit hole!
j41005
San Francisco is not any better.