Inner-City Revitalization and Cultural Succession: The Evolution of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury District

The Haight-Ashbury, newly "gentrified," is representative of an important contemporary trend in urban America—the movement of predominantly young, white professionals to the inner city. This San Francisco neighborhood attracted widespread attention as a vibrant hippie haunt during the "Summer of Love" of 1967, but quickly deteriorated thereafter into something of a "drug ghetto." Recently the Haight-Ashbury has experienced a remarkable revitalization. Increased property values and rents have displaced small businesses and low-income residents, however, threatening the neighborhood's widely valued social and ethnic diversity. These changes are examined to identify the form, extent, and consequences of gentrification in the Haight-Ashbury.