San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Celebration:
Dave Gifford cheers in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were declared winners of the presidential election. Crowds took to the streets in the Bay Area and nationwide to celebrate the election results.
The Bay Area was barely awake when Joe Biden’s win over Donald Trump engulfed television screens, computers and social media after four days of votecounting, but as the news spread, people took to the streets in spontaneous celebrations with strangers, banging pots, honking horns and, in one case, singing “Happy Days Are Here Again.”
In mostly liberal San Francisco, two masked strangers highfived with their elbows, adhering to pandemic protocol, amid exclamations of “All right!” and “Finally!”
It had been a tortuous wait for a final result, with the lead flitting back and forth in critical states, as Trump hurled false allegations of fraud and voters on both sides endured sleepless nights.
“A weight has been lifted from my shoulders,” said San Francisco resident Alison Kirk, who was walking her dog Olive shortly after the news hit the airwaves. “It’s a relief I won’t be embarrassed by my president 50 times a day. Our long national nightmare is over.”
Over the past four years, Chelsea Garcia and Aaliyah Sowards said, they didn’t feel like they belonged in Donald Trump’s America.
“Especially as two women of color, it didn’t feel like a place where we could walk around safely,” Garcia said.
But as they stepped out onto San Francisco’s streets Saturday morning with their German Shepherd mix, Cye, they said it felt fresher, even a “little free.”
Sowards felt proud to be an American.
“I don’t think I’ve ever said that before in my life,” she said.
Over in Dolores Park, crowds started to gather midmorning, with a “F— Donald Trump!” chant growing louder by the minute.
Across the country, similar outpourings of emotion flooded into Times Square in New York and in Washington, where fireworks exploded and crowds gathered outside the White House, with signs ordering Trump’s eviction. Later, an impromptu parade followed a brass band on a truck.
There was a sense of relief from those who feared what another four years of Trump would mean for them personally.
Wearing a Mexican flag face mask and Biden/ Harris Converse shoes, Teresa Rodriguez said she awoke in San Francisco Saturday to honking and yelling.
“It was the most incredible feeling I’ve felt during the last four years of my life,” she said. “It’s just the elation, the joy and the hope — we know that this is going to be a united America once again, and it’s so exciting to be part of history right now.” Mark Bowen woke up Saturday morning to a cacophony of car horns outside of his Market Street apartment. He quickly put on a tank top, grabbed his purple, blue and pink bisexual pride flag and made his way to the Castro district.
“This is the best day of my life,” Bowen said while a portable speaker he was carrying blared Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.”
Bowen joined several hundred other revelers who danced, sang and embraced in the street. Asked how Biden’s win made him feel about the future of the country, Bowen said that, for now, he just wanted to live in the moment.
“I’m right here right now,” he said, before becoming drenched with a nearby popped bottle of champagne.
After Trump was elected in 2016, Austen-Woods wasn’t sure, as a gay woman, what her future would be with Trump as president. Four years later, she still wasn’t entirely sure about the coming weeks, months or years.
“I don’t know what the future holds,” she said, “but I can already tell we’re in a better place than we were yesterday.” Some disagreed.
Chad Mahalich, 39, an attorney in Contra Costa County, woke up to the sound of his phone buzzing with breaking news notifications announcing that Joe Biden had won the election.
The disappointment hit hard. “I think Biden was the worst candidate to bring the country together,” he said. “I don’t think that the American public have a lot of confidence in how this election was counted.”
While Biden maintained a more than 4 million lead in the popular vote, a handful of states remained too close to call until Saturday morning.
Despite accusations of a rigged election, there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
After a morning update in ballot counts from Pennsylvania, several news outlets, including the Associated Press and Fox News, all called the election for Biden.
Not everyone believed them, including Trump supporter Ray Qualls, 79, as he sat under a white tarp adorned with AmerBay
ican flags at the Brentwood Farmers Market. He sat behind a table with stacks of brochures advertising, “How to be a good Christian” and asking, “Are you going to heaven?”
“It’s not over yet,” Qualls said, adding that the courts will have to investigate whether there was any election fraud, though he acknowledged it was unlikely.
Whether Biden could unite the country, Qualls said he doesn’t “have faith in that.”
Despite such lingering doubt about the outcome, the Bay Area and California as a whole were quick to gloat that their native daughter, Kamala Harris, had become the first woman, first African American and first Asian American to be elected to the vice presidency.
Armando Chenyek, 58, detoured from his usual Saturday bike ride to join a celebration at Marin Circle in Berkeley.
He said he appreciates Biden’s experience and steady nature, but that Kamala Harris’ enthusiasm will play a big role in the new administration.
“One thing the party has going for it is Kamala Harris,” he said. “She’s not perfect, of course, she’s a politician. But if I have to have a politician represent me, she’s among the ones I’d want.”
In Berkeley, Donna Jones was one of more than 100 people filling the Marin Circle island and lining the streets, some waving American flags and banging pots and pans.
She was among the more than 90% of Black women voters in the United States who voted for Biden, a significant contingent in the outcome. She headed to the fountain with a pot and lid when she heard the news.
“It’s a celebration of the downfall of Donald Trump,” said Jones, adding she had been “miserable, but hopeful” the past few days.
Her plans Saturday night? “Exhale,” she said. “I can finally turn the television off and go back to reading.”
While Jones planned on a quiet night, many revelers were just getting started when it turned dark and San Francisco City Hall was lit up blue.
The Castro continued to be at the center of the party, with a level of enthusiasm, excitement, relief and jubilance not seen in months since the pandemic shut down the city.
“I haven’t felt this light in years,” said Chelsea Bell Stahl, 33, who drove from San Bruno to the Castro. “This is such a momentous point in history and I wanted to be here to celebrate with my community.”
Just hours after Biden and Harris claimed victory, people of all ages— and at least one naked man — were dancing, hugging and cheering. All with their masks on.
“It’s so beautiful,” Stahl said.
Jill Tucker, Michael Cabanatuan, Michael Williams and Sarah Ravani are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jtucker@ sfchronicle. com, mcabanatuan@ sfchronicle. com, michael. williams@ sfchronicle. com, sravani@ sfchronicle. com Twitter: @ jilltucker, @ ctuan, @ michaeldemianw, @ sarravani