Last night I was out with my bf and a friend at the Eagle. We were up on the roof deck and at one point I saw a black woman walking around with a white guy. She was pointing at things, including something in our corner of the roof, above our heads…

When she turned she had some writing on her jacket, and the white guy had NYPD on his jacket. Thought that was weird – they must be doing some sort of inspection, but why did she feel the need to have a police escort? I mean, what did she think was going to happen to her in a gay bar? But the funniest part was how much they blended into the crowd. I mean police and fire shirts and uniforms are pretty standard at the Eagle…

Then a few minutes later I see guys in FDNY shirts/jackets. Again, they just sorta blended into the crowd. Then the woman and the white guy showed up again. This time she stayed longer and I saw her jacket said DOHMH (Department of Health And Mental Hygiene). She went behind the bar and the bartender tried his best to answer her questions while her police escort waited in the wings. Ironically the bartender was wearing an NYPD t-shirt.

We were wiped and so we left a few minutes after they left the roof deck. On the second floor we saw what looked like a captain of some sort (white shirt) talking to what looked like the manager. There are more of them by the coat check and when we get outside there’s a gaggle of about 8 of them from different departments. One of them was walking just in front of us and one of the others asked him something like “So, what did you think? Was it what you were expecting?”

The whole thing just struck me as funny. I mean, what in the hell did they expect to find in a leather bar but a bunch of gay guys? If anything, with all the NYPD and FDNY t-shirts, they should have felt right at home…

Hopefully whatever violations they put against the Eagle were as anti-climatic as the raid itself. I mean, the whole thing seemed pretty silly.

I worry about the Eagle though… It never seems as full as it should be. We went to The Gym late this afternoon. It always seems busy. (I even over heard two gay guys discussing sports scores and player histories!) It’s a much smaller bar, so it doesn’t take many people to make it seem busy, but we’ve been to the Eagle a few times lately when it just seems dead. That’s not a good thing. Sure, there are a few hours every week when it’s packed, but you need more than that to keep a business profitable… I’d hate to see the only leather(ish) bar that we’ve got have problems.

And last time we were there we were talking to one of the guys from The Leatherman and they’re worried about the lease at their Christopher Street store. It’s coming up for renewal this year… That could be bad news for the leather/fetish community as well.

Then today we walked past the building where the Spike used to be. It’s all boarded up and it looks so run down it seems like it might be condemned or something. What’s the point of that? I know the neighborhood where the leather bars used to be is all upscale now, but how is no income and the place in horrible shape better than a leather bar that pays rent? I don’t know the story behind the closing of the Spike, but I just hope that if the landlord was a prick, he’s learned his lesson by now…

The raid last night just shows how the City is all scared of the leather community. I’m sure they were expecting to see wonton sex all over the place, but instead they just saw gay guys standing around and drinking beer in NYPD and FDNY shirts…

Why in the hell did they feel the need for over a dozen people do do an inspection of a gay bar? Complete with police escorts? And I can’t imagine they found much of anything – certainly nothing they couldn’t have found by doing the inspection in the middle of the day…

Sometimes I just wonder what’s going on with this City…