First Week Around Haight

It was Monday night, just after dusk and starting to get cold fast.  I still had over an hour to kill before heading into the Kezar Pub for dinner and to watch the Sharks game.  The streets had cleared out from the normal crowd,  the tourists were absent and shops were closing their doors. Most of the people left outside were transients and drifters.

I decided to look for a cafe to get some hot cocoa and a place to stay out of the wind. I passed the Haight Ashbury Music Center and noticed a young man, around 20, sitting next to the front door.  He held up a cardboard sign that read “Guitar strings” and had a guitar, missing all but one string, laid across his lap.

I approached him and said, “Hey man, lets get you some guitar strings, I could use a new set myself.”  He was stoked.

As we stood at the counter, he asked me what kind to get. “I don’t even know how to play yet.  I just got this guitar today.”

I picked out a pack of three sets, my favorite strings. Two for him, one for me.

As the cashier rung up the order, he thanked me sincerely and introduced himself as Meech.  Originally from Virginia, he had been between Santa Cruz, Humboldt, Monterey, Big Sur, and Oregon, all since last November. He said his next stop is Hawaii.

After I taught him how to string and tune his guitar, I explained that I was a journalist covering the Haight district and was excited to have such an interesting neighborhood to write about.

“You’ll see some fucking crazy shit, man. For sure.” said Meech.

A few days before that, Friday, I met two men having lunch.  I asked them what they thought about the amount of homeless people around Haight Street.  Joe Moreau, a public relations employee for a non-profit organization, believed that the homeless don’t cause as much trouble as one might expect. “Transients don’t want to harm anyone, they just live life differently.”

The other man, Gregoire Pau pointed out that the homeless people were there before the money came into the area through tourism. “They’re grandfathered in.” said Pau.

Later that same day, I flagged down a bicycle cop and asked him the same question.  Officer James of Park Station SFPD wouldn’t give his last name, but said that the transients  cause all kinds of problems that range from drugs to fighting, harassing shopkeepers, public urination, and theft.

I spoke with a man who was having a yard sale.  He told me I should go see Stan Flouride who works over at Robert’s Hardware. “He’s a historian and he’ll talk your ears off.”

I found Stan working in the back.  He took his break and he gave me a “quick” 30 minute summary of the history of the Haight district. He began all the way back to the 1870s, when Golden Gate park was being developed and Haight Street was intended to be a tourist attraction featuring an amusement park where Golden Gate Park ended and Haight Street began.  He invited me to one of his walking tours which he hosts on Saturday, promising more detail in the history of how the neighborhood was founded.

Haight has a great mix of people, from all walks of life.  All of them I never would have spoken with if it wasn’t for this class. It’s only been one week, but I’ve got too much information to cram into one post.  Hopefully this will make upcoming assignments easier, now that I have a sense of the area.