{"id":43112,"date":"2025-08-07T12:21:42","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T19:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=43112"},"modified":"2025-08-07T12:21:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T19:21:43","slug":"tenderloin-supervisor-has-no-plans-to-pursue-landmark-status-for-taylor-street-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/07\/tenderloin-supervisor-has-no-plans-to-pursue-landmark-status-for-taylor-street-building\/","title":{"rendered":"Tenderloin supervisor has no plans to pursue landmark status for Taylor Street building"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<li>by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebar.com\/search?author=1&amp;searchBox=Eliot+Faine&amp;advancedSearch=1&amp;submit=search&amp;search_for=exact+phrase\">Eliot Faine<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wednesday, July 30, 2025 (ebar.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Share this Post:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ebar.com\/image\/stories\/2563\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The building at 111 Taylor Street was the site of the riot at the old Gene Compton\u2019s Cafeteria in August 1966.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo: Matthew S. Bajko<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The San Francisco supervisor who represents the Tenderloin has no immediate plans to initiate landmark proceedings on the building that saw an early transgender riot against police back in 1966. The demonstration at Gene Compton\u2019s Cafeteria occurred that summer in August, now recognized by city officials as&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.transgenderhistorymonth.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Transgender History Month<\/a>.<br><br>Today, the building at 111 Taylor Street is owned by Florida-based private prison operator&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.geogroup.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>GEO Group<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;. It has run a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.georeentry.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>reentry facility<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;for people released from incarceration out of the site for 36 years.<br><br>On the building\u2019s ground floor was the 24-hour diner where queer and transgender San Franciscans holed up when they had nowhere else to go. Compton\u2019s was where one night in August 1966 \u2013 the exact date is lost to time \u2013 a drag queen reportedly threw a cup of hot coffee in the face of the police officer who tried to arrest her without a warrant. This was the cumulation of years of trans and gender-nonconforming patrons facing targeted police violence at the diner, according to \u201cScreaming Queens,\u201d a 2005 documentary about the riot made by Susan Stryker, Ph.D., a trans academic and professor emerita at University of Arizona. Stryker is now a visiting professor at Stanford\u2019s Clayman Institute.<br><br>That act of defiance sparked one of the country\u2019s earliest protests between trans people and San Francisco police. It occurred three years before the better known Stonewall riots in New York City that is credited with the birth of the modern LGBTQ rights movement.&nbsp;<br><br>Earlier this year, 111 Taylor Street became the first property granted federal landmark status specifically for its connection to the transgender movement in the U.S. Despite the building\u2019s recognition on both the California and National Register, those classifications don\u2019t offer protection like a city landmark would.&nbsp;<br><br>In 2022, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors declared the intersection in front of Compton\u2019s, and the exterior walls of 111 Taylor Street as the city\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/sfplanninggis.org\/docs\/landmarks_and_districts\/LM307.pdf#page=9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>307th landmark<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;. It provides some level of protection to the building facade from being altered.<br><br>But the bulk of the structure was not covered by the local landmark. Local historians and preservation planners are concerned this leaves the site vulnerable.<br><br>\u201cThe city has landmarked only part of [111 Taylor Street]\u2019s facade, leaving the rest unprotected,\u201d Shayne E. Watson, a lesbian and architectural historian and preservation planner at Watson Heritage Consulting, wrote in email correspondence with the Bay Area Reporter. \u201cThe rest of the structure isn\u2019t protected under city law. So yes, the building is still at real risk unless the local designation is expanded.\u201d&nbsp;<br><br>Watson specializes in LGBTQ+ historic preservation and serves on the advisory board of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District. She co-wrote a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/default.sfplanning.org\/Preservation\/lgbt_HCS\/FinalLGBTQ_HCS_March2016.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">citywide LGBTQ context statement<\/a>&nbsp;nearly a decade ago that recommended properties like the Compton\u2019s site and others of historical importance to the LGBTQ community be deemed official city landmarks.<br><br>District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, a straight ally, had told the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/realestate\/article\/tenderloin-zoning-battle-20312869.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">San Francisco Chronicle<\/a>&nbsp;in May that he planned to introduce a resolution to expand the local landmark so it covered \u201cthe entire property in the coming weeks.\u201d Yet, he never did and recently told the B.A.R. that he doesn\u2019t plan to nominate the building as a city landmark just yet.<br><br>Instead, the freshman supervisor said his focus is on the GEO Group\u2019s operations at the site. Mahmood&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebar.com\/story\/155930\/News\/SF%E2%80%99s%20Compton%E2%80%99s%20site%20allowed%20to%20continue%20as%20prison%20reentry%20use%C2%A0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>spoke at the Board of Appeals hearing on July 16<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;in support of removing the company from the building, but the city oversight body voted to uphold a letter of determination allowing GEO Group to operate its reentry program there.<br><br>Mahmood is now preparing for a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebar.com\/story\/156132\/News\/As%20family%20mourns%20father%E2%80%99s%20death%2C%20SF%20supe%20calls%20for%20hearing%20on%20reentry%20site\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>public hearing of GEO Group<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;that he called&nbsp; to look into the recent death of Melvin Bulauan, a former resident of 111 Taylor who died about a block away July 14. Bulauan\u2019s family members and members of the Comptons x Coalition have raised allegations of \u201cprison-like\u201d treatment at the company\u2019s reentry facility.&nbsp;<br><br>\u201cOur focus right now is on the hearing, to understand the current status of the facility and assess next steps from there,\u201d Mahmood said in a phone interview with the B.A.R. \u201cWe are aligned with the community in trying to get GEO Group out of the Tenderloin and out of [111 Taylor Street].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read the rest of this story below<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>and never miss another!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sign up today&nbsp;to receive trusted LGBTQ news in your inbox.Please select the newsletters you&#8217;d like to subscribe to:Bay Area Reporter newsletterNews is Out weekly newsletterBay Area Reporter health newsletterSubmit<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Monica Hook, vice president of communications for the GEO Care division, previously stated via email that the GEO Group was not taking questions regarding Bulauan\u2019s death. But according to Hook\u2019s statement, Bulauan left the facility without authorization on July 13. He was reported and discharged by GEO\u2019s Taylor Street Center. The center was notified on July 15 that Bulauan had died, and it had no additional information.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for landmarking all of 111 Taylor Street, Mahmood told the B.A.R. he has not ruled it out. After the upcoming subpoena hearing, he said, &#8220;Anything is on the table,\u201d and that he will look to the results of the hearing for \u201cthe best path forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The date for the GEO Group hearing is not yet confirmed, but Mahmood anticipates it will take place in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Landmarking offers some protections<\/strong><br>A city designated landmark affords safeguards under&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/codelibrary.amlegal.com\/codes\/san_francisco\/latest\/sf_planning\/0-0-0-27871\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>Article 10<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;&nbsp; of the San Francisco Planning Code, which declares the protection and perpetuity of culturally significant sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though, with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ceqanet.lci.ca.gov\/2024110311\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>the recently approved demolition of San Francisco\u2019s No. 299 landmark<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;to make way for a high-rise and a new fire station, there is trepidation regarding the strength of those protections among preservationists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kerri Young, programs and communications director at San Francisco Heritage, told the B.A.R. in a phone interview that it\u2019s been a \u201cbad year for preservation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere have been a lot of misunderstandings about the role of preservation. &#8230; The goal is to retain these special places while continuing to help the city flourish around it and with it,\u201d Young said. \u201cIn the midst of these state housing laws and upzoning across the city, preservation protections that we have like landmarking \u2026 they\u2019re some of the last tools that we have to protect some of our special places.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An effort to reclaim 111 Taylor Street is being led by local activists, residents, historians, and scholars as the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.comptonsxcoalition.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>Compton\u2019s x Coalition<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;.&nbsp; Their rallying cry is to \u201cliberate\u201d the site of the GEO Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the tools of this effort is city landmark designation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wilder Zieser of the coalition told the B.A.R. July 24 that individual efforts have been made to \u201cadvance the historic landmark designation for years.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, Stryker said that local landmarks are important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAchieving a city historic landmark designation can help bring under-appreciated events in a minority community&#8217;s history into greater public awareness, and hopefully lead to greater appreciation of diversity that actually exists but might otherwise remain unknown,\u201d Stryker stated in an email to the B.A.R.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jupiter Peraza, a trans woman who is a Compton&#8217;s x Coalition legislative research committee member, said that Mahmood&#8217;s plans are responsive to the community&#8217;s needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;As of now, [city landmarking] is still in the works. We also acknowledge that there are things that have come up in our journey to liberate the building,&#8221; she told the B.A.R. July 31, referring to the death of Bulauan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I think that the redesignation falls in a celebratory mood that doesn&#8217;t really reflect where we are now with the building,&#8221; Peraza added<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Peraza also praised Mahmood and his office for taking direction from the Tenderloin community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been great to collaborate with Supervisor Mahmood&#8217;s office,\u201d said Peraza. \u201cThey are great partners, and they truly understand the vision of what we are trying to do in honoring transgender and queer history of the Tenderloin, specifically at 111 Taylor.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The landmark process can be initiated by anybody, including community members. But, if the process is initiated by a supervisor, the city\u2019s Planning Department and its Historic Preservation Commission have 90 days to take up the matter and hold a public hearing on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the oversight body\u2019s vote on the landmark request, the supervisors then take it up to take final action on the matter. They do not need the property owner\u2019s support to approve the landmark, as explained by city planners in a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/default.sfplanning.org\/Preservation\/landmark_districts\/proposed\/duboce_park\/Final_FAQ_Landmark_designation_process.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">guide<\/a>&nbsp;about the local landmarking process.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Updated, 7\/31\/25:<\/strong>&nbsp;This article has been updated with comments from Jupiter Peraza of the Compton&#8217;s x Coalition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Share this Post: The building at 111 Taylor Street was the site of the riot at the old Gene Compton\u2019s Cafeteria in August 1966. Photo: Matthew S. Bajko The San Francisco supervisor who represents the Tenderloin has no immediate plans to initiate landmark proceedings on the building that saw an&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/07\/tenderloin-supervisor-has-no-plans-to-pursue-landmark-status-for-taylor-street-building\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43112"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43113,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43112\/revisions\/43113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}