EDITORIAL:Boom’s loss will be felt

The end is very near for the fabled Boom Boom Room and Coast Inn, Laguna Beach’s — and some say the western U.S.’s — oldest establishment catering to gays.

Steven Udvar-Hazy, the billionaire who bought the ocean view blocks containing the bar/motel as well as Coast Liquor and the Gay Mart is reportedly moving ahead with downscaled plans for the location.

Unless someone pulls a miracle out of a hat it looks like the last call at the Boom will be Labor Day, Sept. 3.

A four-day “Closing Party” is being advertised on the Boom’s website, and it seems that Laguna Beach will soon be the site of one of the unhappiest social gatherings of the season.

Save the Boom activist Fred Karger is still hopeful that someone will step forward to reopen the Boom on a short-term basis, or until a buyer can be found for the properties — reportedly still on the market with an asking price of $20 million. But hopes have been raised and dashed before.

The boom was lowered on the Boom Boom Room more than a year ago.

Udvar-Hazy was set to close the landmark last Labor Day, but gave the operators another year to keep the business going. In the meantime, he apparently was discouraged by meetings with city officials about his plans, and put the property on the market.

Hopes were raised that a new buyer would come forward with the desire to keep the Boom intact. Karger delivered some 5,000 signatures on petitions to the Laguna Beach City Council asking for city intervention in the future use of the properties, and even took out an ad in Daily Variety begging Brad Pitt and George Clooney to invest in the Boom’s future, which drew national attention to the campaign.

For certain, over the past year, the issue of the Boom has gone beyond that of the demise of a popular local watering-hole and gathering place.

Karger and gay activists argue that, without the Boom, Laguna will lose its niche as a safe haven for gay visitors and residents — and the gay community will lose an “anchor.”

On the other hand, some note that gays no longer need “safe houses” because same-sex couples are no longer unwelcome in mainstream society. (Indeed, where Boom patrons used to require police escorts to their cars to avoid gay-bashers, this is no longer the case.)

It is sad the Boom will apparently follow in the footsteps of Woody’s, the little bar/restaurant one block north that stood for many years as a beacon to the gay community.

Perhaps the demise of the Boom — if it does close for good — can be seen as a sign of progress, rather than failure. But the loss will hurt.