Re: Where were the speakeasies located, what neighborhoods?

10/27/11 - posted by Paul Rosenberg

From "Wettest in the West: San Francisco & Prohibition in 1924" in California History, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Dec., 1986), pp. 284-295:

Although the Eighteenth Amendment mandated prohibition on a national level in 1920, San Franciscans continued to register their distaste for prohibition at the ballot box. San Francisco's overwhelmingly negative vote was instrumental in defeating yet another state prohibition measure, the Harris bill, in 1920. When the Harris bill appeared on the ballot again in 1922 and was approved by California voters, San Franciscans voted against it by a three-to-one margin (91,000 No votes to 32,000 Yes votes.)
In an unsuccessful 1926 attempt to repeal the Harris law San Franciscans voted 85,000 for repeal to 30,000 against.
Nor did prohibitionists gain any support from city government in San Francisco: The San Francisco Board of Supervisors maintained an open hostility toward prohibition enforcement throughout the twenties. In 1921, for instance, the board reprimanded two police captains for actively enforcing prohibition laws and in 1926 the Board passed a resolution which opposed any use of city or county police for the enforcement of prohibition.

For holders of San Francisco Public Library cards the full article is at http://www.jstor.org/pss/25158410