The Neighbor’s pub was vandalized early Tuesday morning, only days after its soft opening last Thursday evening on Pacific Avenue near Laurel Street in downtown Santa Cruz.
Seven years in the making, the opening of the pub marked the culmination of owner Frankie Farr’s tireless effort to bring an LGBTQ+-oriented bar to Santa Cruz and establish a dedicated commercial space for the queer community to socialize and connect.
Farr — who uses gender-neutral they/them pronouns — told Lookout on Wednesday that they noticed black discoloration near the front doorway and initially thought it was graffiti. Looking more closely, they noticed that the Americans With Disabilities Act-compliant door push button was melted and burned off, burned napkins had been shoved into the door frame and a homophobic slur carved into the door’s glass. Farr said they believe that someone attempted to start a fire inside, based on the burned napkins put into the door.
“I was like, ‘You’re kidding, we’re not even open a week,’” they said. Farr said they reported the incident to the police, who deemed it “arson with a hate incident, but not yet deemed a hate crime.”
Santa Cruz Police Deputy Chief Jon Bush told Lookout that detectives are pulling surveillance video from nearby businesses to try to identify suspects, but that they currently do not have any leads.
“We are committing a detective to this case due to the significance and severity of it,” he said.
Farr added that they are “a little in shock that it happened so fast,” but said they knew running a queer business openly risks drawing hate because “there are a lot of people who clearly do not want us to exist.”
Farr said the pub will remain open for normal hours — Thursday and Friday from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m.
“We’re very fortunate that nobody was inside,” they said. “However, there are apartments above and those residents don’t deserve this either. They could have been seriously injured.”
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FOR THE RECORD: This story has been updated with comments from Santa Cruz Police Department Deputy Chief Jon Bush.
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