Longtime Customer of Pasadena’s Last Remaining Gay Bar Creates GoFundMe Campaign to Help It Stay Open

There are some businesses which have taken a harder hit from the pandemic in the past year than bars, but not many. 

For decades,  Boulevard in East Pasadena was considered a safe haven for Pasadena’s gay community. But now, like so many other bars throughout the region, it may have to shut its doors, even as restrictions loosen and the end of the pandemic shutdown begins to emerge.

But not before frequent customer Mark Lanza gives it his best shot to save the 40-year-old mainstay.

Lanza has created a GoFundMe campaign to raise $50,000 for the bar, the only such remaining bar for twenty miles, he said last week.

Lanza told Pasadena Now he has known the bar’s owner for 10 years (and asked the owner’s name not be revealed). 

When Lanza talked to him a month ago about reopening after the pandemic, Lanza discovered, to his chagrin, the depth of the bar’s financial troubles.

“He was in pretty bad shape,” said Lanza. “He doesn’t have much money, he’s living on unemployment.”

Lanza said he was motivated to create the funding campaign because the bar has served the local LGBTQ+ community as a safe haven for so long. For decades  Boulevard Money has been the scene of karaoke contests and drag performances.

“So I did it for him. We’re just trying to raise money to help him pay the bills and keep the bar open,” said Lanza.

Money will fund replacing aging equipment, adding plexiglass dividers and building an outside seating area, Lanza said. 

Noted Lanza, sadly, “To lose this would just be horrible. I mean, it’s just going to be a terrible thing if we lose the only bar left in the area.”

The Boulevard GoFundMe campaign is online here.