Hayes Valley, San Francisco
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Hayes Valley is a
neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...
in the Western Addition district of
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, California. It is located between the historical districts of Alamo Square and the
Civic Center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains of one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, ...
. Victorian, Queen Anne, and Edwardian townhouses are mixed with high-end boutiques, restaurants, and public housing complexes. The neighborhood gets its name from Hayes Street, which was named for Thomas Hayes, San Francisco's county clerk from 1853 to 1856 who also started the first Market Street Railway franchise.


Location

Although its boundaries are ill-defined, Hayes Valley is generally considered to be the area north and south of Hayes Street between Webster (near Alamo Square) and Franklin (near the Civic Center) streets. Hayes Valley's commercial center comprises the section of Hayes Street running from approximately Laguna Street in the west to Franklin Street in the east, with extensions on perpendicular Gough and Laguna streets. As of April 2012, after changes to the district boundaries used by the Board of Supervisors, the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association considers the neighborhood as a whole to be bound by Webster Street in the west, Van Ness Avenue in the east, Fulton Street in the north, and Hermann Street and Market Street in the south, with extensions as far west as Fillmore, between Haight Street and Hermann Street, as far north as McAllister Street, between Franklin Street and Van Ness Avenue, and as far south as Market Street, between Buchanan Street and Laguna Street. (This definition overlaps considerably with the Lower Haight.) The San Francisco Association of Realtors considers the Hayes Valley to be extending from McAllister Street in the north, to Market Street and Duboce Avenue in the south, Franklin Street in the east, and Webster Street (north of Fell Street) and Divisadero Street (south of Fell Street) forming the western boundaries. (This definition includes the entire Lower Haight within Hayes Valley.) Adjacent neighborhoods include the Lower Haight and small parts of the Duboce Triangle and SoMa in the south, Alamo Square in the west,
Civic Center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains of one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, ...
in the east, and the Fillmore District to the north.


Public transportation

Hayes Valley is served by several
San Francisco Municipal Railway The San Francisco Municipal Railway (SF Muni or Muni ) is the primary public transit system within San Francisco, California. It operates a system of List of San Francisco Municipal Railway lines, bus routes (including Trolleybuses in San Franc ...
(MUNI) buses, including the #21, which runs through Hayes Valley on its east-west route between
Golden Gate Park Golden Gate Park is an urban park between the Richmond District, San Francisco, Richmond and Sunset District, San Francisco, Sunset districts on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of San Francisco, California, United States. It is the Lis ...
and the Ferry Building, the #5 (also east-west), the #22 (runs north-south along Fillmore Street) and the #6 and #7, which both run east-west along Haight. Hayes Valley shares the Van Ness Avenue Muni LRV car subway station with Civic Center, Mid-Market, and SoMa West. Here, residents can take J, K, M, L, N, and T cars throughout San Francisco.


History

Native people in many small bands, now referred to collectively as the
Ohlone The Ohlone ( ), formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the l ...
tribe, lived in San Francisco part of the year, gathering food in the Mission Creek area, which included seasonal Hayes Creek, and other parts of today's city. Hayes Valley would have been thickly covered with wildflowers every spring. When it was running in the winter, Hayes Creek cut diagonally through the current Hayes Valley. It is now underground year-round. In 1776, local people came under the control of the Spanish empire with the Juan Bautista de Anza expedition, which established Mission San Francisco de Asís south of Hayes Valley.


19th century

After the 1849
California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...
, Italian emigrants from around Genoa developed produce farms on the sandy soil of the Hayes Valley neighborhood. The Western Addition was developed in the 1850s to expand the city to the west of Van Ness Avenue. Michael Hayes, who, in 1856, was on the committee which named the streets of this development, may have been instrumental in naming Hayes Street for his brother, Thomas, a large landholder in the neighborhood who was then serving as county clerk. Hayes Valley was built out with many grand Victorian residences, as well as the smaller residences built to house the craftspeople at work on the mansions. Primary streets with big houses were named for influential local citizens (Hayes and Gough) and families (McAllister), while streets with the smaller houses carry botanical names such as Lily, Ivy, Linden, and Hickory.


20th century

Hayes Valley south of McAllister Street was spared the fires that followed the
1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...
. It was a multi-ethnic neighborhood, becoming, with the blossoming of the Fillmore district after World War II, an African-American neighborhood. As recently as the mid-1980s, this neighborhood (and, indeed, the Western Addition in general) was considered one of the most dangerous places in the Bay Area.


21st century

Since the turn of the century, Hayes Valley has transformed into a vibrant urban destination, blending new local businesses with long-standing community character. Thanks to thoughtful housing policies and community advocacy, the neighborhood has maintained its diverse population while welcoming new residents and amenities. The area now features a mix of historic architecture, innovative housing developments, and thriving small businesses.


Central Freeway

The elevated Central Freeway section of U.S. Route 101 was built in the neighborhood during the 1950s. Damaged during the
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake On October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. Pacific Time Zone, PST, the Loma Prieta earthquake occurred at the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz Cou ...
, it was closed afterward and eventually demolished after local activists campaigned for its removal. The destruction of the Central Freeway has spurred
gentrification Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...
which has revitalized the neighborhood, and has made it one of the trendier sections of town with an eclectic mix of boutiques, high-end restaurants, and hip stores on Hayes Street. In 2005, a section of the freeway was rebuilt to end at Market Street, with the new, tree-lined Octavia Boulevard running north through Hayes Valley along the previous path of Octavia Street to Fell Street. Between Fell and Hayes streets at , a neighborhood green terminates the boulevard, providing seating, green space, a play structure for children, and a changing exhibition of public art. It is named Patricia's Green for Patricia Walkup, a local activist who volunteered her time for many years to fight neighborhood crime, and co-led the campaign to tear down the remaining part of the Central Freeway that ran through Hayes Valley. In 2010, the city-owned lots between Fell and Oak, and Laguna and Octavia, where the previous Central Freeway on- and off-ramps for Highway 101 were situated, were transformed int
Hayes Valley Farm
an education and research project with a focus on urban permaculture and activating the urban commons. The project was founded on an interim use agreement between Hayes Valley Farm, the San Francisco Parks Alliance, and the Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Community volunteers had permission to use the 2.2 acre lot until the City moved forward with other development plans for the site. In June 2012, the media reported that approval had been given for retail premises and housing to be built on the site. An Avalon apartment complex is currently under construction at the site.


Culture

In early 2013, the SFJAZZ Center, a brand new jazz concert hall, opened in Hayes Valley. It is considered the "first free-standing building in the West built for jazz performance and education."


Cerebral Valley

Cerebral Valley is a term referring to the concentration of generative AI-focused communities, startups, and "hacker houses" that emerged in Hayes Valley during the AI boom of the early 2020s. Events such as the Cerebral Valley AI Summit, hosted by Eric Newcomer and the voice-AI startup Volley, have since taken place in the neighborhood. According to the ''
Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'', investor Amber Yang of Bloomberg Beta popularized the term "Cerebral Valley" in January 2023 to refer to the concentration of AI-focused communities and "hacker houses" in the neighborhood. Group hacker houses focused on
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
grew in popularity in the early 2020s due to layoffs in
Big Tech Big Tech, also referred to as the Tech Giants or Tech Titans, is a collective term for the largest and most influential technology companies in the world. The label draws a parallel to similar classifications in other industries, such as "Big Oi ...
, a return to in-person events after the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, and lower barriers to entry to AI innovation. The ''Washington Post'' credited the rise in events and houses around AI as being part of the revival of the San Francisco tech scene. On app Partiful, event listings increasingly advertised their locations as "Cerebral Valley". By June 2023, the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' described Cerebral Valley as the center of the AI scene. Garry Tan of accelerator
Y Combinator Y Combinator, LLC (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator and venture capital firm launched in March 2005 which has been used to launch more than 5,000 companies. The accelerator program started in Boston and Mountain View, Californi ...
stated in April 2023 that Hayes Valley had become Cerebral Valley that year. Many of the hacker houses in Cerebral Valley are based out of historic Victorian homes near Alamo Square. According to the '' San Francisco Standard'', the hacker houses and associated "grind culture" are a return to the roots of
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...
that led to the growth of companies such as
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
in the early 2000s. Notable hacker houses in Cerebral Valley include AGI House and Genesis House, which was founded in March 2021.


Notable residents

* George W.C. Baker, Los Angeles City Council member, 1931–1935, attended Hayes Valley Grammar School


Notable buildings and structures

* Charles Dietle House * Ida B. Wells Continuation High School * International High School of San Francisco * San Francisco Zen Center * SFJAZZ Center


References


External links


Hayeswire: The Hayes Valley Blog

Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association

San Francisco's Irrepresible Hayes Valley


{{Authority control Neighborhoods in San Francisco Western Addition, San Francisco