Knight: Venues are barely surviving. We need to help.
The glamorous wigs still sit atop foam heads. The sequined dresses dangle from their racks. The large red heels rest, impatiently, in a closet.
All that’s missing at the Oasis — San Francisco’s beloved drag club and cabaret — is the audience. All that’s coming in are the bills.
D’Arcy Drollinger, owner of the South of Market nightclub and a drag performer himself, said that between rent and other costs, he’s spending $1,000 a day just to keep the 8,000squarefoot space shuttered. He’ll hold an oldschool telethon Saturday in which drag queens will take donations over the phone as a lastditch effort to save the club.
His desperation is mirrored by owners of entertainment venues across San Francisco — the kinds of places that make living in this expensive, frustrating city worth it. Nearly a year into the COVID19 pandemic, PianoFight in the Tenderloin can hang on only another month without more help. Same for the Balboa Theater in the Outer Richmond, where the movie screen remains dark.
Readers, this isn’t some abstract crisis. It’s up to us regular people to keep the Oasis and other San Francisco venues that we treasure afloat until government help arrives. At the same time, it’s up to politicians and bureaucrats to see the emergency and act with greater haste.
Former President Donald Trump, perhaps an unlikely potential savior of the Oasis, signed a $2.3 trillion appropriations package on Dec. 27 containing $900 billion in stimulus money. The bill included $15 billion in grants to shuttered venues. Theaters, museums, movie houses and other entertainment venues can
qualify for grants worth 45% of their 2019 revenue or $10 million, whichever is less.
Well, they can eventually.
Nearly 10 weeks after the money was approved, Drollinger and others still can’t even apply for the funds. There’s no application process, and a spokeswoman for the Small Business Administration, which is administering the fund, said there’s no
estimate for when it will be ready.
She added that the administration is “working expeditiously” to ensure “all the mechanisms required by law” are in place. Here’s betting Drollinger has a different definition of the word expeditious.
After all, 10 weeks has put him $70,000 further into debt. And he and other business owners can’t apply for the new round of Paycheck Pro
tection Program money if they intend to apply for the venue grants. They must, with very little information, choose between the two.
Meanwhile, a $1.5 million pot for shuttered venues pledged by San Francisco Mayor London Breed last month still hasn’t been approved by the Board of Supervisors. It won’t be taken up by the budget committee for another two weeks.
“It feels a little like the Wild West where you don’t know what’s happening,” said Drollinger, who’s tried to stay afloat with virtual events, his Meals on Heels dinnerdeliverybydragqueens program, a streaming service of drag shows and outdoor dance classes.
“It’s smiling and putting the wigs on and dancing as fast as you can when you know everything is slowly falling apart and there’s no aid coming,” he said.
The mayor did make a video for Drollinger’s telethon, but he’d surely prefer money. Jeff Cretan, Breed’s spokesman, said, “The mayor has asked us to push this as fast as we can. It’s never quick enough.”
Breed last year committed $24 million in grants and loans to small businesses, but only $4.6 million has been disbursed in grants and $10.4 million in loans. Breed recently committed $62 million in other grants and loans, but that still needs Board of Supervisors approval later this month.
Rob Ready, artistic director at PianoFight, is active in the city’s Independent Venue Alliance and a separate collective called the San Francisco Venue Coalition. They’re focused on ensuring the survival of the city’s vital arts spaces.
He said the venues, on average, have lost 90% of revenue and laid off 94% of staff. Yet they must pay rent and utilities, and they expect to be among the last businesses allowed to reopen — at least at 100% capacity. The solution simply doesn’t pencil out without major government help.
“The fact that the city’s only dedicated drag nightclub has had to hang on a year with no help from the city of San Francisco, that’s really sad,” Ready said. “This money’s got to move.”
Asked to describe the financial picture for PianoFight, Ready responded with one word: “Bad.”
“In about a month, we’re going to have to make some really difficult decisions if no money comes through,” he said.
Adam Bergeron, owner of the 97yearold Balboa Theater in the Outer Richmond, said he got the first round of PPP money and a federal loan last spring, enough to last through October 2020. Back then, that seemed like it would buy plenty of time. Five months later, he said, he’s desperate.
He was waitlisted for a city small business loan two months ago and was told last week to reapply with more complete paperwork. In the meantime, he sells Tshirts, tote bags, beer and popcorn in front of the theater on weekends and nets about $1,000 per week.
“It’s a barely treadingwater kind of situation,” he said, noting he’s two months behind on rent, with all of his bills in arrears. Plus, he has to pay back that federal loan and will have to pay back the city loan if he gets it this time.
“If there’s no influx, maybe we can last another month,” he said.
Sherri Young, founder and executive director of San Francisco’s AfricanAmerican Shakespeare Company, said she’s heard nothing about when she might qualify for the federal aid for shuttered venues.
“Not a peep!” she said. “Being suspicious of how politics work, there’s always that feeling that something’s going to happen to negate the money coming in. We’re all just trying to feel our way around in the dark.”
Anastacia Powers Cuellar is executive director of Brava for Women in the Arts, which owns the Brava Theater on Potrero Hill. She said she believes Brava will make it through the pandemic, though it has lost $1.5 million in revenue during the pandemic and laid off 20 people.
“The first couple of months, I cried. I still do,” she said. “It’s just all very frustrating that the need doesn’t motivate more immediate action.”
My advice for readers? Pick three to five small businesses or arts venues that you cannot bear to see the city lose. Find a way to support them as much as you can. Shop in person or online. Buy tickets to virtual events. Donate. Buy gift certificates. Tell your friends to do the same. Share your devotion on social media. Otherwise?
“This city’s going to be a wasteland, and there’s going to be nothing,” Drollinger said. “When San Francisco reopens, all of the small venues, the entertainment venues, are going to be gone.”