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The 'Haight-Ashbury' is a district of San Francisco, California, USA named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury Streets, commonly known as 'The Haight'. The 'Haight-Ashbury' generally encompasses the neighborhood surrounding Haight street, bounded by Stanyan Street and Golden Gate Park on the West, Oak Street and the Golden Gate Park Panhandle on the North, Baker Street and Buena Vista Park to the East, and Frederick Street and Ashbury Heights and Cole Valley neighborhoods to the South.
The area also referred to as 'The Upper Haight' enjoys a much different history than the Haight-Fillmore or lower Haight district, which is lower in elevation and part of what was previously both the predominant African American and Japanese neighborhoods in San Francisco's early years. The names of the streets themselves are taken from pioneer and exchange banker Henry Haight^[1], or, (though it is arguable) the tenth governer of California, Henrey Huntley Haight, his nephew, and one of the city's first politicians, Sup. Ashbury, of which little is known. Both Haight and his nephew as well as Ashbury are said to have had a hand in the planning of the neighborhood, and, more importantly, Golden Gate Park at its inception.
The district is famous for its role as a center of the 1960s hippie movement, a post-runner and closely associated offshoot of the Beat generation or beat movement, whose initiated and "beatific" youth swarmed San Francisco's "in" North Beach neighborhood two to eight years before the "Summer of Love" in 1967. The 60's era and modern American counter culture has been synonymous with San Francisco and the upper Haight neighborhood ever since.

Contents

History

Culture

See also

References

External links

History

Before the completion of the Haight Street Cable Railroad in 1883, what is now the Haight-Ashbury was a collection of isolated farms and acres of sand dunes. The new haight cable car line, completed in 1883, connected the west end of Golden Gate Park with the geographically central Market Street line and the rest of downtown San Francisco. The cable car and land grading and building techniques of the 1890's and early 20th century reinvented the Haight-Ashbury as a residential upper middle-class home owners' district. It was one of the few neighborhoods spared from the fires that followed the catastrophic San Francisco earthquake of 1906.
The Haight was hit hard by the Depression, as was much of the city. Residents with enough money to spare left the declining and “crowded” neighborhood for greener pastures within the growing city limits, or, newer smaller suburban homes in the bay area. During the housing shortage of World War II, large single-family Victorians were divided into apartments to house war workers coming home from the peirs; others were converted into boarding homes for profit. By the 1950s, the Haight was a neighborhood in decline. Many buildings were left vacant after the war. Deferred maintenance also took its toll, and the exodus of middle-class residents to newer suburbs continued to leave many units for rent.
The Haight Ashbury's elaborately detailed 19th-century multi-story wooden houses became a haven for hippies during the 1960s, due to the availability of cheap rooms and vacant properties for housing in the district. The bohemian subculture that subsequently flourished there took root, and to a great extent, has remained to this day.
San Francisco and the Haight gained a reputation as the center of illegal drug culture and rock and roll lifestyles soon after, especially with the use of marijuana and LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs. By 1967, the neighborhood's fame chiefly rested on the fact that it became the haven for a number of important psychedelic rock performers and groups of the mid-1960s. Acts like Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin all lived a short distance from the famous intersection. They not only immortalized the scene in song, but also knew many within the community as friends and family.
The fabric of the neighborhood was forever altered in 1967 during the Summer of Love, much to the dismay of many residents. Psychedelic rock music was entering the mainstream, and received more and more commercial radio airplay. The song "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" became a hit single. The Monterey Pop Festival in June further cemented the status of psychedelic music as a part of mainstream culture and elevated local Haight bands such as Big Brother and the Holding Company and Jefferson Airplane to national stardom. A July 7 ''Time'' magazine cover story on "The Hippies: Philosophy of a Subculture", an August CBS News television report on "The Hippie Temptation"[1] and other major media interest in the hippie subculture exposed the Haight-Ashbury district to enormous national attention and popularized the movement across the country and around the world. Thousands of disaffected youth migrated to the Haight-Ashbury district, including many runaway teenagers, irrevocably altering the social structure of the neighborhood. The Diggers, a local "community anarchist" group famous for its street theatre and for providing free food to residents every day, held a "Death of the Hippie" parade as the new residents poured in.
In response to this new population migrating to the Haight-Ashbury, and the growing medical crisis caused by increased drug use and lack of health insurance, Dr.David E Smith opened the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic on June 7, 1967. His goal was to provide free medical care without prejudice under the motto that "Health care is a right, not a privilege". The Clinic still operates in the Haight-Ashbury District today, and continues to provide support and care to those who lack the resources to get it themselves.^[2]

Culture

The district has lost little of its status as a center of alternative lifestyles, though much has changed. The area still maintains its bohemian ambiance, though the effects of gentrification are apparent to a great degree. Perhaps the best illustration of the district's slide into the mainstream was the arrival of a Gap store, a major international retailer that (ironically) started in San Francisco in the late 1960s, and later fell to mixed reviews by the city's trendy inhabitants. As of January 31, 2007 the Gap Inc. no longer operates a store on Haight-Ashbury. Though Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream is now located at the famous Haight-Ashbury intersection, the neighborhood remains a thriving center of independent local businesses. It is home to a number of independent restaurants and bars, as well as clothing boutiques, book sellers, head shops and record stores including the well-known Amoeba Music. The cohabitation between throw-backs to the fifties lounge scene, organic and spiritual new age via the sixties, punk rock of the seventies and beyond is one of the neighborhood's most interesting and endearing aspects. A good way to see it all is at the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, held on the second Sunday of each June.
To a great degree, the main commercial area's blend of diverse street life engulfs all types in the carnivalesque and liberal surroundings, just as it had in the sixties. Recent police and community efforts help maintain park curfews and "no camping policies" as well. The area suffers little in the way of crime, especially when compared to San Francisco's rougher neighborhoods. Both commercial and residential property in the area are in high demand today, a testament to the long history and many attractions of Haight Ashbury.John M. Glionna, There's not a lot of love in the Haight, ''Los Angeles Times'', May 29, 2007.

See also

★ Amoeba Music

★ The Diggers

★ ''Haight Ashbury Beat''

★ I-Beam (nightclub)

★ Lower Haight

★ Magnolia Thunderpussy

★ The Red Victorian

★ David E Smith; Founder of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic (1967)

References

1. San Francisco Streets Named for Pioneers
2. Haight Ashbury Free Clinics website


★ Perry, Charles. ''The Haight-Ashbury: A History''. Wenner Books, 2005. Original publication: 1984.

External links

★ Haight-Ashbury Street Fair

★ Haight-Ashbury