Once the psychedelic heart of the famous Summer of Love, Haight-Ashbury is where throngs of youths, drifters, and free-wheelin', free-lovin' individuals converged for an all-out celebration of acid-induced peace and love.(Those who missed out can head down to The Booksmith and pick up Tom Wolfe's Th.
To immerse yourself in the culture, cuisine and political radicalism that California is famous for, there’s no better place to start than the distinct neighbourhoods of San Francisco
The most famous (and infamous) houses of Haight-Ashbury
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Catherine Madden / @catmule
Haight-Ashbury in the late 60s wasn t all love, flowers and tambourines. Almost as soon as the fabled Summer of Love began in 1967, dark forces crept into the bright Victorians and steep side streets around the Haight. While the world was celebrating the counterculture movement in San Francisco, violent crime, sex work, a sexual health epidemic and countless drug deaths riddled the neighborhood.
This tumultuous side of the hippie dream was maybe exemplified best in the violence of the Hell s Angels, who moved in across the street from the Grateful Dead, and later killed a man in front of Mick Jagger at Altamont, or in Joan Didion s grim portrayal of an encounter with a child given LSD by her parents in the neighborhood in Slouching Toward Bethlehem.