Partygoers who planned on attending another Halloween in the Castro will have to do so unofficially this year. Saturday’s public forum at the Eureka Valley Recreational Center in the Castro left a lot of questions unanswered while showing a deep dissatisfaction by residents and activists about this year’s non-event.

“In 2003, all the way to 2005, Halloween was successful,” said Donna Sachet, a co-founder of Citizens For Halloween, an organization dedicated to bringing Halloween back to the Castro. “Then in 2006, we got news that we were going to get hemmed in.”

Last year’s Halloween night shooting, in which nine people were injured, prompted city officials to cancel the event in the Castro district and issue a task force to find a new solution. A major plan to move it to the city’s waterfront subsequently fell through.

“There was no open process,” said Gary Virgina, another Citizens For Halloween founder. He said he had applied for the task force, but the committee never materialized. “It never involved the community,” he said.

Three key players were missing from the meeting: Mayor Gavin Newsom, District 8 supervisor Bevan Dufty, whose district includes the Castro, and the San Francisco Police Department, leaving some residents who had shown up specifically to question those officials frustrated and angry.

Alix Rosenthal, who unsuccessfully ran against Dufty in last year's election and is another founder of Citizens For Halloween, said she had tried to contact several department heads, including the SFPD, the transportation department, and the public health department, but most were unable to respond in time.

About sixty people attended the meeting, and while the forum hovered over several topics, city residents seemed most concerned with the issue of public safety.

“Halloween itself has become an invasion of our neighborhood,” said George Stoll, who has lived in the Castro for over 36 years. “Last year my lover got called ‘faggot’ on the way back from parking his car.”

“I went for the first time last year and it was like a big festival at night,” said Nena Manivong, 22, a psychology major at SF State. “It makes me sad. If they can ensure that it will be safe, they should bring it back.”

Although no representatives for the SFPD were present, Captain Richard Dyer from the Sheriff’s Department, and Pete Howes, Chief of Medical Services for the San Francisco Fire Department stepped in to help answer some questions about public safety.

“I can’t represent the police department,” said Dyer. “But we’re still going to be there as if there will be an event.”

Howes, who has been involved with the event for 25 years, said his own department will have numerous ambulances, an operations chief, and two command officers on hand in case there is a problem.

The city has taken a large number of steps to discourage revelers from celebrating Halloween in the Castro, including asking 130 businesses in the district to voluntarily close as early as 6 p.m. on Oct. 31.

“The mayor’s treated this as a neighborhood issue. It hasn’t been treated as a city-wide issue. Bevan Dufty’s taken the fall for it,” said Ted Strawster, another founding member of Citizens for Halloween. “If Mayor Newsom were the mayor of New Orleans, there would be no Mardi Gras.”