Three Scarce Haight Ashbury Planning Studies Addressing Post Summer of Love Decline in the Early 1970s

In the early 1970s Haight Street was in decline and the City needed a plan. Haight Street is where the hippie movement first came to national prominence and where it first began to die. At the height of the hippie era, during the 1967 Summer of Love, the street was so crowded with flower children that driving a car through it was impossible. Stores catering to the hippies popped into existence all along "The Haight," and these were followed by other stores doing business with all the people who flocked there to see the hippies. When the hippie movement withered, it took the shops with it. About one-third of them were boarded up in 1973. These are the studies that influenced future planning.

Three obscure early 1970s San Francisco Haight Ashbury urban planning/redevelopment publications:

HAIGHT STREET SHOPPING AREA A Background Study, November, 1972 Published by the Department of City Planning, San Francisco. 1972 first edition. Illustrated brown paper covers, staple bound, 8.5" x 11", 30 pages, illustrated with maps and tables. VERY GOOD Condition: foxing/age toning to the page edges otherwise tight, bright, clean and unmarked.

A pivotal 1972 report documenting the Haight's transition from its 1960s counterculture peak into a phase of urban decay, and the early stages of commercial revitalization. Following the summer of 1967, the Haight Ashbury experienced a period of economic decline and increased crime resulting in commercial vacancies and shifting demographics. The study was commissioned to assess local retail health and guide economic revitalization efforts along the Upper Haight corridor. The report lays the groundwork for understanding the neighborhood's eventual transformation into a gentrified retail corridor characterized by trendy boutiques and cafes.

THE HAIGHT ASHBURY A Brief Description of the Past Published by the Department of City Planning, San Francisco. No date, circa 1971 first edition. Green paper covers, staple nouns, 8.5" x 11", 14 pages. VERY GOOD Condition: foxing/age toning to the page edges and the first page, overall tight, bright, clean and unmarked.

Documenting the neighborhood's evolution from a windswept sand dune into a bustling Victorian streetcar suburb and its subsequent transformation into the epicenter of the 1960s counterculture movement. Originally a vast expanse of coastal sand dunes stretching to Buena Vista Park. Following the construction of the Haight Street Cable Railroad in 1883, the area boomed, resulting in the dense, impeccable Victorian architecture that survived the 1906 earthquake. The Haight became globally recognized as the birthplace of psychedelia and hippies.

HAIGHT ASHBURY COMMUNITY SERVICES A Background Study Published by the Department of City Planning, San Francisco, March 1973. First edition. Yellow paper covers, staple bound, 8.5" x 11", 32, + 21 page appendix, illustrated with 2 maps. With laid-in introductory letter from the Director of SF Planning, Allan B. Jacobs. VERY GOOD Condition: foxing/age toning to the cover and page edges, light signs of use, overall tight, bright, clean and unmarked.

Historic municipal report analyzing the Haight Ashbury neighborhood's socioeconomic, housing, and infrastructural needs following the cultural shifts of the late 1960s. It evaluated the area's transition into the 1970s serving as foundational research for neighborhood revitalization and zoning restrictions that aimed to stabilize the area. Examines the availability and strain on municipal resources, transit, housing, and healthcare including community led facilities like the Haight Ashbury Medical Clinics.