Lower Haight
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The Lower Haight is a neighborhood, sometimes referred to as Haight–Fillmore, in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
.


Location

Referred to as "Pine Valley" in the 70s because of all the pine trees, the Lower Haight lies generally along Haight Street east of Divisadero Street, and between Oak Street (or Fell Street) on the north, and Duboce Avenue (or Waller Street) on south. The eastern boundary is variously placed at Webster Street, Laguna Street, or even Market Street. It is east of the more famous Haight-Ashbury, which is also known as the Upper Haight. The name derives from the significant elevation change as Haight Street climbs steeply from Scott Street to
Buena Vista Park Buena Vista Park is a park in the Haight-Ashbury and Buena Vista Heights neighborhoods of San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, fina ...
. The area straddles a shallow valley between Mint Hill and Upper Haight, sloping down from Oak Street (north) toward Duboce (south).
Duboce Park Duboce Park (\du-'BŌS\) is a small urban park located between the Duboce Triangle and Lower Haight neighborhoods of San Francisco, California. The park is less than one block wide from north to south and two blocks wide from west to east. Its we ...
, toward the corner of Duboce and Scott, is a grassy park containing a children's playground, dog park, and the Harvey Milk Recreational Arts Building. Adjacent neighborhoods include the
Western Addition The Western Addition is a district in San Francisco, California, United States. Location The Western Addition is located between Van Ness Avenue, the Richmond District, the Haight-Ashbury and Lower Haight neighborhoods, and Pacific Heights. ...
/ Alamo Square to the north;
Duboce Triangle The Duboce Triangle is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California, located below Buena Vista Park and between the neighborhoods of the Castro/Eureka Valley, the Mission District, and the Lower Haight. According to the 2010 neighborhoods map of ...
to the south;
Hayes Valley Hayes Valley is a neighborhood in the Western Addition district of San Francisco, California. It is located between the historical districts of Alamo Square and the Civic Center. Victorian, Queen Anne, and Edwardian townhouses are mixed with hig ...
to the east; and the Upper Haight to the west. The San Francisco Association of Realtors defines the area more narrowly as the "Haight–Fillmore" neighborhood, bounded by Steiner Street on the west, Webster Street on the east, Fell Street on the north, and Waller Street on the south. In 2015, many real estate listings inaccurately called the Lower Haight "Hayes Valley" but no part of Haight Street is part of Hayes Valley. The Association considers the neighborhood to be a subset of the Hayes Valley (District 6B).


Attractions and characteristics

A mixture of restaurants, small nightclubs, cafes, drinking establishments, residences, galleries, and hair salons characterizes the Lower Haight. Neighborhood institutions include John Muir Elementary School,
San Francisco Zen Center San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC), is a network of affiliated Sōtō Zen practice and retreat centers in the San Francisco Bay area, comprising City Center or Beginner's Mind Temple, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. Th ...
, The United States Mint, Duboce and Koshland parks, and the Haight Street Art Center. Lower Haight differs from Upper Haight by having a more diverse population and a smaller number of retail businesses. The
Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...
and
Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...
houses tend to be less ornately painted and maintained in the Lower Haight than in the Haight/Ashbury neighborhood, and rent can be lower. The neighborhood has been referred to as having a "grungey, post-punk bohemian" atmosphere. It can be at times a dangerous place, but the efforts of local residents, a public nuisance lawsuit in the 1990s against the crime-ridden Hayes Valley housing project, a Federal RICO case against inhabitants of the subsequent housing development, and shootings among local gang members, gradually reduced the crime rate. In response to crime, a moratorium was placed in 2006 on new liquor licenses in the neighborhood. In 2008, the San Francisco Planning Commission decided that the same historic pattern of crime is no barrier to having multiple
medical cannabis Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana (MMJ), is cannabis and cannabinoids that are prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabis as medicine has not been rigorously tested due to production and governmental restrictions ...
dispensaries there. The
San Francisco Zen Center San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC), is a network of affiliated Sōtō Zen practice and retreat centers in the San Francisco Bay area, comprising City Center or Beginner's Mind Temple, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. Th ...
is at the northeast edge of the neighborhood in an elegant brick building designed by famed architect Julia Morgan in 1922. The area is served by several San Francisco Municipal Railway (MUNI) bus lines and is within a few blocks of all MUNI Metro lines. The heart of the neighborhood, at the corner of Fillmore and Haight, is six blocks from the subway stop of Church and Market, which is also the location of the city's largest
supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...
, a
Safeway Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, d ...
. Surveys show that this neighborhood has one of the highest number of daily trips by bike per capita of any San Francisco neighborhood, and walking is also very popular. The geography of the Lower Haight lends itself to the most efficient bicycle routing from the Mission District towards Golden Gate Park and surrounding neighborhoods, and the popular bicycle route termed ''
The Wiggle The Wiggle is a zig-zagging bicycle route from Market Street to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California, that minimizes hilly inclines for bicycle riders. Rising , The Wiggle inclines average 3% and never exceed 6%. The path general ...
'' zig zags through this neighborhood.


See also

* Haight-Ashbury * Shut Up, Little Man!


References


External links


Lower Haight Neighborhood Site

Haighteration
a blog about the Lower Haight.


Friends of Duboce Park
{{Neighborhoods of San Francisco Neighborhoods in San Francisco Western Addition, San Francisco