Oakland LGBTQ nightlife scene experiencing renaissance
OAKLAND -- For years, Oaklanders looking for a fun gay night on the town had to either cross the bridge or hop on BART. No matter how hard it tried, the city known as the Sunny Side of the Bay has always lived in the shadow of its neighboring gay mecca.
But that might be changing.
Walk over to Oakland's Downtown area and you might find yourself doing a double-take.
At 6:00 p.m. on a Wednesday and Sean Sullivan and his business and life partner Richard Fuentes are already slammed with a rush of customers.
Less than a month since the opening of Fluid510, the place is hopping with an eclectic mix of people, many of them LGBTQ.
"We stand for gay, for straight, for everyone in the community," Fuentes said.
With two bars and a dance floor, this sleek 5,000-square-foot venue could easily rival some of the most iconic hotspots in San Francisco. But this place is nowhere near The Castro; it's way across the Bay in Oakland.
"We're planting the seed and taking the baby steps to start to create foot traffic for all of Downtown Oakland," Sullivan said.
While still much smaller than San Francisco's LGBTQ scene, something is clearly happening in the East Bay.
Peter Gamez, the president of Visit Oakland, a tourism non-profit, said as LGBTQ acceptance increases and remote working grows, so has the need for local gay bars and restaurants.
"There's definitely a renaissance going on," Gamez said. "You can see it by the amount of new bars and businesses. I believe that in the LGBTQ community there's going to be up to seven new businesses on one street alone."
According to George Smith, the Vice President of Oakland Pride, there's a reason for that. He said, unlike San Francisco, his city's LGBTQ community is extremely diverse.
"I think it's very important that we have a hometown watering spot and a place to dance and have fun," he said.
A 2020 survey by the Bay Area Queer Nightlife Coalition found that African-Americans, women and transgender people said they didn't feel safe or included in most of San Francisco's nightlife spaces.
It's one of the reasons Jalen Wesley said he prefers going out in Oakland.
"We're more in the center and that's something unique that I don't always feel in San Francisco," he said.
And it's not just gay bars that are experiencing a boom lately. According to Visit Oakland, the city has seen a double-digit increase in tourism spending for the second year in a row.
Even so, Oakland still faces many obstacles in its recovery, mainly public safety. In May, Oakland saw 100 robberies in one week.
"The challenges that Oakland faces are safety and security," Gamez said. "The perception of Oakland not being safe will definitely slow down tourism."
Sullivan and Fuentes, who also own Port Bar up the street, are now hoping to find that proverbial pot of gold. This one might just be at the end of Oakland's rainbow.
"Oakland is a scene without venues," Sullivan said, "and now we're providing the venues to lift up the scene here for the entire community."