Gay Boulevard

“Gay Boulevard” is the main street in any city area frequented by gays. At a Manhattan community board meeting in July 2008, board member Allen Roskoff said: “I refer to Eighth Ave. between 14th and 23rd Streets as ‘Gay Boulevard.’” This quote was widely repeated in the news.
   
Christopher Street was previously an unofficial “gay boulevard.”
 
       
Gay/Bisexual Male Suicidality Studies
Out On A Limb N/A - by David Rothenberg: [49]
Racism in the gay community is a swept-under-the-rug topic. At least in the white segment of this divided community… After Stonewall, it was assumed, falsely so, that there would be a great awareness of racial hostilities. Expectations were perhaps too high… We learned that many folks brought their mainstream baggage into gay activism. Racial fears and stereotypes created a division in the gay community and lessened its effectiveness
 
Chelsea’s Eighth Avenue in Manhattan evolved as a gay boulevard for mostly white gay males. It was a gradual reaction to Christopher Street being peopled with an increasing number of blacks and Latinos. It has been a fascinating and distressing sociological migration, the gay equivalent of white flight to the suburbs. This is hardly noted or discussed among white-dominated gay groups.
 
The Villager
Volume 75, Number 23 | Oct. 26 - Nov. 01, 2005
Gate may be closed to gays in park’s crowd-control plan
By Lincoln Anderson
Responding to persistent complaints from Village residents about droves of gay youth streaming off the Christopher Street Pier onto Christopher Street, the Hudson River Park Trust is reportedly contemplating enacting a new crowd-control tactic that will keep the gay youth from going onto the world-famous gay boulevard — at least when they initially leave the park. 
 
Stonewall Streetfair - Gay street fair NYC
S.V.A.‘s Stonewall Streetfair 2007
The Stonewall Streetfair is confirmed by the S.V.A., endorsed (and signed) by the Community Board #2, approved (and signed) by the N.Y.C. Community Assistance Unit and has been scheduled (contract is signed) by Clearview Festival Productions.  The S.V.A. has, however, made application for “a change of venue” yet within Greenwich Village for this year.  The requested space on Washington Street has been vacated by Heritage of Pride (“HOP”), another GLBT organzization.  Thus, it is not a “new” streetfair.  It has been existing.  S.V.A.‘s request has been rightly and nicely approved by Community Board 2—under new and better management the last year or so.  The S.V.A. is awaiting reevaluated results of that reasonable request from New York City’s Community Assistance Unit (“CAU”)..........  The result is in:  Because the City wants HOP to stay at that location and not move their streetfair to Gay Boulevard in Chelsea, the City is not giving said location to anyone else—not even the S.V.A., the people who ignited the Gay Rights movement in that very Greenwich Village.  Thus, the City loses money, the S.V.A. loses money, HOP loses money, the vendors lose money, many workers lose money, everyone loses money!!!!!  Who is the absolute imbecile who is ultimately responsible for this totally stupid and wrong decision?!
 
==========S.V.A. Streetfair==========
Saturday, September 29th, 2007
on Gay old Greenwich Avenue in Manhattan
from Seventh Avenue to Avenue of the Americas
crossing Perry St., Charles St., West 10 St., Christopher St.
 
Chelsea Now
Volume 2, Number 42 | The Weekly Newspaper of Chelsea | JULY 17 - 23, 2008
Board backpedals on Eighth Avenue bike lane proposal
By Diane Vacca
Community Board 4’s Transportation Planning Committee enthusiastically presented and recommended the city’s proposal for a bike lane on Eighth Ave. at Wednesday’s full board meeting. But the committee might not have been prepared for the onslaught of opposition from the rest of the board.
 
The plan, for a new bike lane along the avenue from Bank to 23rd Sts., was recently introduced by the city’s Department of Transportation, much like the current one running from 14th to 23rd Sts. on Ninth Ave.
 
“We’re very happy about it,” committee co-chairperson Jay Marcus said at the meeting. Others, however, didn’t share his sentiment.
 
“I think it will very, very seriously transform Chelsea… in a way that doesn’t benefit [it],” said board member Corey Johnson, the first person to comment.
 
Board member Allen Roskoff was more specific. “I refer to Eighth Ave. between 14th and 23rd Streets as ‘Gay Boulevard,’ he said. “Large numbers of gay people go there… It’s where we feel at home. … The atmosphere there—the restaurants, the activity, the people walking— it’s a home to many of us that no other avenue is. I don’t think these changes are for the positive in any way, shape or form.”
   
Gothamist.com
August 1, 2008
Bike Path Not Gay Enough for 8th Ave Gay Boulevard?
A DOT plan to install a protected bike path on Eighth Avenue – similar to the one that’s already been implemented on Ninth Avenue from 14th to 23rd Street – has been rejected by Manhattan Community Board 4, which includes Chelsea. The proposal, which would not require the elimination of any traffic lanes while buffering cyclists from motorists, was previously approved by the board’s Transportation Planning Committee, as well as Community Board 2.
 
Chelsea Now reports that the committee “enthusiastically” presented the DOT proposal at Wednesday night’s meeting and recommended it for approval, but seemed unprepared “for the onslaught of opposition from the rest of the board.” Board member and long-time gay rights activist Allen Roskoff led the dissent:
 
I refer to Eighth Ave. between 14th and 23rd Streets as ‘Gay Boulevard.’ Large numbers of gay people go there… It’s where we feel at home… The atmosphere there—the restaurants, the activity, the people walking— it’s a home to many of us that no other avenue is. I don’t think these changes are for the positive in any way, shape or form.