Basically, the HANC is a buch of old hippie throwbacks. Yes, this is Haight-Ashbury. Yes it was the home to the Summer of Love. But that was almost fifty years ago. Get over it. The world has changed, and so has the neighborhood. By all appearances, the powers behind HANC are people who moved in under rent control for $150 a month (one-bedrooms are now around $2,000/month), or bought their houses under $50k back in the day (a two-bedroom house in the Haight runs over $1.5 million these days, easy).
Real estate is not the same, the residential make-up is not the same, camping in the streets should no longer be "cool."
Basically, the HANC is all-loving and thinks it is a God-given right for the anyone to camp in the park, beg/streal for drug money on the street, and defecate in my doorway. Seriously. (They had to take out the garden hose behind my building because the end was regularly covered in shit. No joke.)
Being "Homelessness" in Haight-Ashbury is not what it was in the 60's. And drugs are no longer wuite so cool. HANC seems adamant that the Haight be a home for the lost and no one should harsh their buzz. By all appearances, HANC seems clueless that these aren't love-children basking in the park taking a toke. These are crack and meth freaks, and shouldn't be given stipends to "live free in the Haight." I pay a fortune for my little studio. I've lived in the neighborhood for over a decade. I consider myself a member of and investor in the neighborhood. And living near Haight-Ashbury hasn't made me a hippie, but the polar opposite. (Lordy, I am so freaking far to the left, but in this neighborhood I'm considered a right wing.) I've only heard HANC espouse neighborhood opinion, but never solicit it. If I had more time, I'd try to infiltrate the "coalition" and renovate from the inside. Word among the young (30s) in the neighborhood is that many have tried. ("They tried and failed?" "They tried and died.")
I love the Haight. I love the freedom and funkiness of it all. I love my freaks. But hip-to-be-homeless and aggressive crackheads need not be part of the quilt.I've gone on this rant because there used to be a grocery store in the neighborhood. I didn't shop there much because I would spend more time in the check-out line than shopping. That, and the place was so overrun by Golden Gate Park campers and street trash, cleanliness was a serious issue. The wise purchased produce elsewhere.
This store closed down a couple of years ago and has laid vacant ever since. Building anything in SF is a nightmare of zoning, City wheel-greasing, and endless neighborhood counter-interests. Not to mention that everyone has an agenda and will stall anything to get their way.
I had heard rumors on the (Haight) street and the MetroBlog SF reported yesterday that a Whole Foods is attempting to renovate the corner:
There will be a public hearing this Thursday (2/28) to discuss the results of the EIR for the new Whole Foods expected to go in at the site of the old Cala Foods Market. This location has sat empty for the past couple of years while the community debates what kind of development befits the area. Whole Foods has come forward with a proposal for review. And guess what, the hippies hate it and the yuppies love it.Count me in the yuppie camp. I want I clean grocery store on the site of an old, dirty grocery store. I'm such scum.
The MetroBlog post says that the Haight-Ashbury Neighborhood Coalition (naturally) is against it, but that the Haight-Ashbury Improvement Association is for it. I hadn't heard of the HAIA before, and their website is pretty useless.
However, I might take a late lunch and go downtown for the hearings this Thursday. Better yet (now that I've read that web page), I'll just tune in via the computer.
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