From: MPetrelis@aol.com
Date: Fri, 9 Jul 1999 13:43:28 EDT
Subject: 7/11 SF Baths meeting, 6PM at MCC on Eureka Street





Three ballot petitions filed; two failed
Bathhouses, street renaming aiming for March

by Cynthia Laird
Bay Area Reporter
July 8, 1999

[excerpt]
Two grassroots efforts to put measures on the November ballot - one for 
a ballot measure to reopen gay bathhouses and one to rename a portion of 
Market Street after slain Supervisor Harvey Milk - fell far short of 
getting enough signatures by the July 5 deadline. 

San Francisco voters will probably decide on three ballot initiatives 
for which activists turned in signatures to the Department of Elections 
Monday. Measures regarding ATM fees and increased openness in city 
government are expected to be on the ballot, as well as another vote on 
the fate of the Central Freeway. 

Proponents of the two failed proposals plan to continue gathering 
signatures until early November in the hopes of qualifying for the March 
2000 ballot. Michael Petrelis, lead proponent of reopening the gay 
bathhouses, told the Bay Area Reporter that he and "a dozen gay men" 
gathered about 4,000 signatures in the last few months, but that they'll 
continue the effort in the hopes of qualifying for the March 2000 
election. They have until the first week in November, he added. 

Petrelis said bathhouse proponents are holding an emergency meeting this 
Sunday, July 11 at 6 p.m. at Metropolitan Community Church-San 
Francisco, 150 Eureka Street. The meeting is in response to city 
proposal to lessen restrictions on massage parlors that Supervisor Tom 
Ammiano has drafted. That proposal is not related to reopening gay 
bathhouses. 

Jim Buresch, chief proponent of the Market Street renaming proposal, 
said he gathered around 2,000 signatures. "We'll keep on chugging," he 
told the B.A.R. Buresch added that he hopes for a high gay voter turnout 
that could pass the street re-naming effort locally if it qualifies for 
the March 2000 ballot, because of the statewide Knight initiative being 
on the ballot. 

[snip]