On any given weekday morning or afternoon, you may have spotted Bill Heter walking around the Castro with a band of dogs in tow.

Recently, we joined Heter for a walk around the neighborhood to chat about his life, changes he's seen in the Castro, and his concerns about the incoming presidential administration.

Born in San Francisco and raised in the Central Valley, 71-year-old Heter moved to San Francisco in 1977 for a full-time dispatching job with California Parlor Car Tours. He settled in the Castro, where he's now lived for 40 years.

Along with dispatching, Heter worked part-time at The Pump Room gym on Market St. between Sanchez and Church at the height of San Francisco's gay gym culture. The Pump Room would become Women's Gym, which catered to a lesbian clientele.

After working at the Pump Room for a few years, Heter moved up the street to The Muscle System (now Alex Fitness) in 1980.

Over the next two decades, Heter worked as a manager and instructor at The Muscle System. Then he worked the front desk when it became Gym SF. After Gym SF closed, Heter decided it was time to leave the gym.

In the 70s & 80s, "nobody had a trainer," said Heter. "People just came to the gym because they wanted to explore the limits of their own body," he explained. "The gym used to provide training, and that was my primary function." 

Back then, most gyms offered inexpensive memberships and "few people could have even afforded having a trainer or even thought about it," said Heter.

In those days, many people were meeting at bars and clubs, and the gym was a place where "people were more serious about working out," said Heter.

It wasn't until after the AIDS epidemic that Heter began to notice a change. "People were afraid to go to the bars and began meeting at the gym."

In the early 90s, Heter began to notice the emergence of personal trainers. "Now, everybody's gotta have a trainer." Heter said a vast majority of trainers are more like psychologists. "Their primary function is to listen to you and every once in a while you'll do an exercise."

Heter sees another transition going on where more and more people are meeting at coffee houses. "There's people with a lot more disposable income and they'd like to meet in more upscale places."

"I remember people being far more rugged and stoic back then," said Heter. Today, "people are much more touchy-feely and asking, 'how do you feel about this?'"

Getting into dog walking "wasn't planned," but he needed to keep busy, he said, "or else I'd go nuts."

Most mornings, Heter walks his own dog Molly, an eight-year-old part Malamute, along with Troika, a Siberian Husky, two red Huskies, 10-year-old Bowie and three-year-old Ranger, Rocky, a nine-year-old Pomeranian Sheltie mix and Yuri, a five-year-old black lab.

All the dogs are rescues; though Molly is male, he's named after Demi Moore's character in Ghost.

He walks the dogs slowly, often taking multiple breaks because, as he explains it, he has bad knees "from years of running and squatting at the gym."

Heter also suffers from deficits caused by a stroke he suffered at age 30, but he doesn't let it stop him from getting around the neighborhood. 

In recent years, Heter said the Castro's homeless population has grown as the economy changed dramatically. "More and more people have just enough to keep their heads above water."

He said he sees two categories of homeless people; people who've fallen on hard times due to economic reasons, and those dealing with substance abuse and mental health problems — people Heter believes we're not going to be able to reach.

Heter said he suspects that sweeps of homeless encampments underneath the freeway along Division Street, and ahead of last year's Super Bowl City, have pushed homeless people into the Castro.

Turning to the upcoming inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, Heter believes FBI Director James Comey inquiry into Clinton's private email server really help Trump win. "That was so transparent," he said.

When we asked Heter's concerns about Trump, he said,"part of my concern is that son of a bitch is lazy" and that the new president is out to "enrich himself at the expense of the entire country."

Additionally, "he is so thin-skinned and occupies a job that's not an asset," referring to Trump's Twitter habit.

Heter supports Trump's nomination of retired Marine General James Mattis as Secretary of Defense on the grounds that he's "an intellectual and a military historian," however. Heter, a veteran, served in the Army from 1963-1966 in Korea as a Clerk Typist and Classified Message Carrier.

"I despise all officers," noted Heter, but Mattis "slept on the ground with the troops enduring the same experiences," so "that's my kind of General," he said.

Aside from the changes around the neighborhood and the country, one of the best parts about taking the dogs out "is getting to stop and chat with friends" and "the smiles I get from strangers when they see the dogs," said Heter.

Heter said he plans on walking the dogs for three or four more years. Until then,"it's fun, and it gets me out."