Graffiti and street art in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco

I have to admit I didn't know much about the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, other than its history of being the birthplace of hippie culture in the 1960s. While hippie history doesn't rank high on my list of interests, I figured it was a neighborhood I should visit just to see what it's all about. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the area now includes a lot of good graffiti and street art.

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I had just left the De Young Museum, so I walked out of the east end of Golden Gate Park and onto Haight Street at Stanyan Street. If you haven't been to the area, most of the buildings going down Haight Street are low, 2-3 story buildings with small shops on the street level and apartments above, as you can see below left.

I walked down Haight Street past all the various shops and restaurants, and there was plenty to explore beyond just the street art and graffiti.

If you want to follow my path, I continued on Haight (other than a few slight detours off on some of the side streets) until I reached Central Avenue, at which point the commercial activity on the street dropped off, and it became residential (with less street art and graffiti to see). So I turned left and headed north up Central, and that concluded my "tour" of Haight-Ashbury.

At right is a slideshow of some of the graffiti and street art highlights from this neighborhood.