The Bay Citizen: Change With a Straight Face Barrels Into the Castro

Cartographically true, it refers to the city’s famously gay mecca. But these days, there are concerns that the neighborhood is becoming slightly less bent.

A Different Light Bookstore, which specialized in gay and lesbian literature for 26 years, shut last weekend — the latest in a series of closings of longtime businesses that were gay-owned and operated or catered to gay clientele. The neighborhood is littered with empty storefronts.

Amid this gloom, however, there is one burst of excitement that has crowds lining up, drawing visitors from throughout the Bay Area and beyond: Sunday brunch at Lime on Market.

With “bottomless Mimosas,” the restaurant and club has become so popular that it can take weeks to get a reservation. Patrons regularly defy stanchions and block sidewalks as they wait to cram inside where techno pop music blares at rock concert decibels.

“It’s the only place like L.A. in San Francisco,” a British man said last month as he was shooed inside by the bouncer.

The crowd, to a large extent, is straight.

But even in a part of the city known for anything-goes partying, the scene at Lime has soured some residents and led them to ask, What’s happening to our neighborhood?

Scott Wiener, who represents the neighborhood on the Board of Supervisors, said his office had received a litany of complaints in recent months.

“A lot of extremely drunk people behaving obnoxiously loud, urinating in public, vomiting,” Mr. Wiener said, running through a list of concerns from constituents. “A few accounts of homophobic slurs,” he added, but he thought those incidents were rare and asked that they be played down.

There have also been reports of locals’ casting anti-straight aspersions at Lime patrons.

But most of the frustrations seem to center on the idea that outsiders have invaded the Castro primarily for one reason: to get drunk.

Visits to Lime on several Sunday afternoons in March and April documented a number of incidents: patrons drinking what appeared to be alcohol outside the club; customers so groggy they had to be held upright; people staggering from the club and walking directly into moving traffic; and puddles of vomit sullying the block.

“It’s an issue because of the behavior that’s happening as a result of overserving,” said Andrea Aiello, executive director of the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District, a neighborhood improvement program.

For $7, customers can consume unlimited Mimosas (bottomless Bloody Marys are $12) — a recession-friendly offering. Lime is one of several establishments in the city now serving alcohol this way.

Such all-you-can-drink promotions are legal, but “definitely a concern, as is anything that promotes intoxication,” said John Carr, spokesman for the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. “It’s frowned upon.”

The results of this bargain-basement inebriation have overwhelmed some nearby businesses. There have been reports of brawling, and male customers have been spotted relieving themselves on the walls of nearby shops and residences. On Sundays, two businesses have posted “no restrooms” signs to keep tipsy Lime customers away. (The lines can be long for Lime’s restrooms.)

Ms. Aiello said that her organization reached out last month to the club’s owner, Greg Bronstein, to work on resolving the problems, but that he was unresponsive. Mr. Bronstein twice scheduled interviews for this column, but failed to follow through and stopped responding to messages.

Mr. Wiener said he had spoken to Mr. Bronstein and elicited a promise to control customers. On one recent Sunday the club’s exasperated doorman, who looked like a male Grace Jones, was seen struggling to control the crowd to little avail.

Scott?James?is an Emmy-winning television journalist and novelist who lives in San Francisco.
sjames@baycitizen.org

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With Deal, J.&J. Tries to Change Discussion

The $21.3 billion deal for Synthes, a Swiss-American medical device maker, would make Johnson & Johnson the largest player in the market for surgical tools and implants to treat trauma patients, and would make it a more powerful competitor in the $37 billion worldwide market for orthopedic medical devices.

Synthes is a leading maker of screws, plates and surgical tools used to stabilize traumatic injuries. The deal is a move aimed at appealing to investors who have been troubled by Johnson & Johnson’s failure to quickly resolve significant and apparently systemic problems in the company’s consumer products division, which have tarnished once-golden brands like Tylenol.

Johnson & Johnson’s chief executive, William C. Weldon, championed the new deal in an interview on Wednesday, citing what he hoped would be cooperation between the company’s existing orthopedic and spinal implant division, DePuy, and Synthes. “We’ve got the opportunity to create the most innovative and comprehensive orthopedic business in the world,” Mr. Weldon said.

Trauma products are more profitable and less vulnerable than other kinds of medical devices to changes in broad economic trends, he said. The combination of Johnson & Johnson’s global presence and Synthes’s products, he said, created a new opening in emerging markets for the combined company.

Many Wall Street analysts praised the deal, even as some groused that it would not immediately add to earnings.

“J.& J. will be able to offer hospitals an inescapable breadth and depth of products that will offer one-stop shopping in reconstructive implants and trauma repair,” said Rick Wise, an analyst at Leerink Swann. “You are going to have to do business with J.& J.”

Johnson & Johnson is offering 159 Swiss francs (about $181) a share for Synthes — of which 55.65 francs is cash and 103.35 francs is Johnson & Johnson common stock. Derrick Sung, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said some investors were disappointed that the company was not planning to make use of its stockpile of foreign cash for the deal.

“It’s dilutive, at least for the first year,” he said. “There was an expectation that it would be accretive in the first year.”

At the annual shareholder meeting on Thursday, some investors are expected to raise concerns about Mr. Weldon’s management and his compensation. “I don’t think they would have done the deal if they didn’t need a distraction,” said Erik Gordon, an assistant business professor at the University of Michigan who has been a frequent critic of Mr. Weldon’s leadership.

The company stands at a crossroads as Mr. Weldon nears the end of his tenure. Even as Johnson & Johnson plans to use the Synthes acquisition to improve its position in the device sector and its performance, the company must still resolve major manufacturing problems in its consumer division and work to regain consumer trust. During a conference call with investors on Wednesday morning, some analysts asked whether the company was equipped to handle both a substantial acquisition and significant remediation.

Some investors fault a lack of management oversight for major problems, like last year’s manufacturing lapses at the company’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit, which was responsible for the recalls of nearly 300 million items in 2010, including for popular brands like Motrin and Rolaids. McNeil closed its Fort Washington, Pa., manufacturing plant to overhaul it, and is now operating under a consent decree with federal regulators.

Johnson & Johnson bought Pfizer’s consumer business, including brands like Listerine, for $16.6 billion in 2006, and some analysts have speculated that the unwieldy acquisition, along with cost-cutting measures, may have contributed to the problems that developed at McNeil.

 

With Deal, J.&J. Tries to Change Discussion

The $21.3 billion deal for Synthes, a Swiss-American medical device maker, would make Johnson & Johnson the largest player in the market for surgical tools and implants to treat trauma patients, and would make it a more powerful competitor in the $37 billion worldwide market for orthopedic medical devices.

Synthes is a leading maker of screws, plates and surgical tools used to stabilize traumatic injuries. The deal is a move aimed at appealing to investors who have been troubled by Johnson & Johnson’s failure to quickly resolve significant and apparently systemic problems in the company’s consumer products division, which have tarnished once-golden brands like Tylenol.

Johnson & Johnson’s chief executive, William C. Weldon, championed the new deal in an interview on Wednesday, citing what he hoped would be cooperation between the company’s existing orthopedic and spinal implant division, DePuy, and Synthes. “We’ve got the opportunity to create the most innovative and comprehensive orthopedic business in the world,” Mr. Weldon said.

Trauma products are more profitable and less vulnerable than other kinds of medical devices to changes in broad economic trends, he said. The combination of Johnson & Johnson’s global presence and Synthes’s products, he said, created a new opening in emerging markets for the combined company.

Many Wall Street analysts praised the deal, even as some groused that it would not immediately add to earnings.

“J.& J. will be able to offer hospitals an inescapable breadth and depth of products that will offer one-stop shopping in reconstructive implants and trauma repair,” said Rick Wise, an analyst at Leerink Swann. “You are going to have to do business with J.& J.”

Johnson & Johnson is offering 159 Swiss francs (about $181) a share for Synthes — of which 55.65 francs is cash and 103.35 francs is Johnson & Johnson common stock. Derrick Sung, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said some investors were disappointed that the company was not planning to make use of its stockpile of foreign cash for the deal.

“It’s dilutive, at least for the first year,” he said. “There was an expectation that it would be accretive in the first year.”

At the annual shareholder meeting on Thursday, some investors are expected to raise concerns about Mr. Weldon’s management and his compensation. “I don’t think they would have done the deal if they didn’t need a distraction,” said Erik Gordon, an assistant business professor at the University of Michigan who has been a frequent critic of Mr. Weldon’s leadership.

The company stands at a crossroads as Mr. Weldon nears the end of his tenure. Even as Johnson & Johnson plans to use the Synthes acquisition to improve its position in the device sector and its performance, the company must still resolve major manufacturing problems in its consumer division and work to regain consumer trust. During a conference call with investors on Wednesday morning, some analysts asked whether the company was equipped to handle both a substantial acquisition and significant remediation.

Some investors fault a lack of management oversight for major problems, like last year’s manufacturing lapses at the company’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit, which was responsible for the recalls of nearly 300 million items in 2010, including for popular brands like Motrin and Rolaids. McNeil closed its Fort Washington, Pa., manufacturing plant to overhaul it, and is now operating under a consent decree with federal regulators.

Johnson & Johnson bought Pfizer’s consumer business, including brands like Listerine, for $16.6 billion in 2006, and some analysts have speculated that the unwieldy acquisition, along with cost-cutting measures, may have contributed to the problems that developed at McNeil.