Laguna’s gay activist Fred Karger may be entitled to a little “schadenfreude” — translation, enjoyment of another’s misfortune — in the AIG mess.
That’s because Karger’s nemesis, Steven Udvar-Hazy, is a major shareholder at AIG and his airplane leasing division — formerly the proverbial “cash cow” of the company — is now cash poor and may be going begging to stay in business.
And Karger has a deal for him: make some quick bucks by selling the Coast Inn and Boom Boom Room.
Karger has been fighting to save the iconic — now shuttered — gay bar where Rock Hudson hung out with other celebrities in the closeted ’50s and ’60s. The bar was around since the 1920s and is believed to have been the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the state, if not west of the Mississippi.
Udvar-Hazy purchased the site and Coast Liquor, with its Gay Mart nearby, as well as a residential property, a couple of years ago when the real estate market was over-the-top. The Boom Boom Room — already on its last legs — was closed a year later, and the last major piece of Laguna’s historic gay area went bye-bye. You can find most of it relocated to the desert at Palm Springs — where the famed Dinah Shore lesbian confab swings into high gear this weekend — but it’s just not the same as the ocean-breeze-filled Boom.
Apparently, Udvar-Hazy has set his sights on purging Laguna of its gay identity: He closed the Boom, never opened anything else there, announced that his plans for the property will definitely NOT include a bar or restaurant — and to add insult to injury his son donated $1,000 to the campaign for Proposition 8, the same-sex marriage ban.
At some point, Udvar-Hazy put the property back on the market after a meeting with city officials didn’t end with support for some ambitious redevelopment plan. Karger says he brought Udvar-Hazy well-qualified — translation: well-heeled — suitors willing to fork over enough to buy the place outright. But the bazillionaire (or former bazillionaire) hemmed and hawed and eventually declined to sell to these parties — who promised to reopen the Boom as a gay establishment.
