I'm sitting in a coffee shop on Haight St right now, about a block away from Ashbury (so I'm really getting a kick out of these replies...). For the record, Haight St. runs uphill for about a mile and a half, all the way up from Market St. The area we're talking about is the very top-of-the-hill, western-most part, known in SF as "Upper Haight" or "Haight Ashbury."

Yeah, this area is cheeseball now. The "thrift" stores charge about triple of what a real thrift store should (I saw a faded, few-years-old Quicksilver short sleeve shirt for $20, as an example, you can get them new still for about $30), most of the "hip" stores are trendy and expensive boutiques, and there are more tourists on the streets than residents. And there really are a bunch of teenage runaways singing Alanis Morrisette songs. Badly.

Yeah, there's a Gap on the corner, but to be fair, nobody wants it there - they didn't have to be invited to sign a lease, you know. They get vandalized pretty regularly, lots of graffiti sprayed on their big glass windows, and about two weeks ago the whole store was closed for the day after someone did something pretty serious (couldn't tell what, exactly). How's that for hippie resistance - violence and property destrcution?

You can still get drugs easier than you can buy cigarettes here, especially at teh very top of the hill between Amoeba Records and that pizza joint. But it's stank weed usually.

If you think you see a hippie here, you're either looking at a) a homeless dude, b) a 20-year-old living off daddy's money before daddy makes him go to business school, or c) a senior citizen that did one too many drops and doesn't know he's not in fashion anymore. All of these people will bum smokes from you if you let them.

All in all, the area has little real charm left, as near as a I can tell - even though I'm a relatively recent transplant, I can tell the area has changed, especially in the laments of true locals. So why am I here? Because I dig this coffee shop (free wireless in SF is no joke, despite the city's big plans) and I need to go to Amoeba, the best record store in the world. If it weren't for these two places - and the Toronado, which pours more beers than any other bar in SF - I'd never come up here, and neither would any other SF resident. Just tourists and lazy trust-fund faux-hippies.

Scrotastic Method: If it weren't for these two places - and the Toronado, which pours more beers than any other bar in SF -

Woah there, partner... As a Lower Haight resident, I have to point out that we, and our noble Toronado, are in an entirely different neighborhood than that boutique strip mall up the hill. Our restaurants and cafes are also amongst the city's finest.

But yeah, the Upper Haight does have Amoeba, and The Red Vic movie house, which counts for a lot... Otherwise, I got no use for it.

/Thinking about an impromptu Fark Party at Rosamund and Toronado tonight...

ugh, where are the pictures of hippie women? That's what matters here.

Update:

Walked past the Haight-Ashbury Gap location today, and the windows were papered up and the logo was off the front of the building. Have they closed up shop there, or are they just remodeling? The location still comes up on their store locater...