Haight

Understand

The Haight is made up of two neighborhoods: Haight-Fillmore, usually called the Lower Haight, and Haight-Ashbury, also known as the Upper Haight. The two neighborhoods are separated by a large hill and are bisected by Divisadero Street. The neighborhoods have somewhat separate histories. The Haight-Ashbury gained international fame in the 1960s as young white Hippies moved into the area and made contact with poor, young black residents in the neighborhood and surrounding areas like the Lower Haight and the Western Addition. Together, these outcasts forged the counter-culture movement for which the Haight is most well known.

Today, both the Upper and Lower Haight are residential neighborhoods served by businesses and transport along Haight Street. However, the Upper Haight is the busier tourist destination, because of the stronger identification with the Hippie era. Into the 1990s, the Lower Haight had lower rents and a larger African-American community, but that difference has eroded with the rise of rents in both areas and the steady dwindling of San Francisco's black population. The most obvious difference to a visitor today is that the Upper Haight has many more head shops and stores catering to Hippie-nostalgia foot traffic.

In the 1960s large portions of the predominantly African American Fillmore District were involuntarily relocated to the Haight-Ashbury due to the disruptive urban renewal movements of the time. At the same time, middle class whites began moving to the growing suburbs of the Bay Area, causing home values in the area to plunge. The neighborhood, with its then-surplus of affordable Victorian homes, was ripe for housing an influx of African American families as well as Beats attracted by the growing intellectual, anti-establishment community surrounding the local universities, as well as an emerging (pre-Castro District) gay and lesbian community.

With the onset of the Vietnam War, many white middle class college kids derailed by the draft now began to move into the Haight, identifying with the counterculture trends already taking place in the neighborhood and adopting Hippie ideologies and alternative lifestyles. Many thrived while other lives were ruined by destructive drugs such as speed, heroin and cocaine, and some remain committed to the Hippie dream to this day. While gentrification has turned the Upper Haight into something of a counterculture theme park (although it is also home to many young, homeless drug addicts, though no longer of the peaceful, Hippie variety), there are still plenty of eclectic finds to uncover here and one can still can get a sense of the once-bohemian nature of this area.

Get in

By car

Fell and Oak Streets, parallel one-way streets running east-west across the northern edge of the district, offer a relatively easy way to get into the district via car from Downtown to the east. A few major north-south streets which pass through Haight are Fillmore Street, Divisadero Street (which merges into Castro Street to the south) and Masonic Avenue. Parking in the area can be very limited, however, and it's far preferable to use alternate transportation for the Upper Haight area.

By public transit

MUNI operates the 7-Haight/Noriega bus route running the length of Haight Street, connecting the area to Downtown. Nearby streets parallel to Haight also serve the area, for example the 5-Fulton and 6-Hayes north of the Haight district. Additionally, a few lines run north-south through the district: 22-Fillmore, 24-Divisadero, 33-Ashbury/18th and 43-Masonic.

The -Judah Muni Metro line (partially underground) also runs parallel to Haight Street several blocks to the south. An easy way to access the western portion of the Haight district (near Cole Valley) from Downtown is to take the N-Judah outbound to Cole Street, then get off and walk north. It runs under the hill topped by Buena Vista Park. The N-Judah continues westward, stopping at University of California, San Francisco before heading into the Sunset neighborhood.

Get around

If you are walking really quickly, it will take about 20 minutes to walk from the Lower Haight to the Upper Haight - and it will be good exercise going up a large hill.

Stay safe

The Haight has been a magnet for wandering youth for decades and that continues today and is part of the neighborhood's character. Some of the people can behave poorly - aggressive panhandling and obnoxious behavior sometimes happen, but it's more likely you'll be asked for money or to buy soft drugs. However, these people are almost never violent. Either ignore them or be brave and strike up a conversation: they might have an interesting story.

Both areas of the Haight can be dangerous and uncomfortable late at night after the bars close. Travel smart when on foot at night. There are always other people walking up and down Haight Street so you won't be alone.