Haight-Ashbury: Hippie Mecca without Peace or Love.
If you are most anywhere USA walking down the street and you are suddenly aggressively confronted by four or five individuals with dogs demanding money; if you refuse, you are threatened with the dogs, spit on your face or worse. Again, most anywhere in the USA you’d be in your right to feel in danger for your life, you’d be in your right to call police and have them arrested, to take the dogs away and to address your grievances against those punks in court. But there is a place where such behavior is not only tolerated but defended: Haight-Ashbury, the birthplace and time capsule of the Hippie Movement.
For a while,citizens tried to get this issued resolved by a simple prohibition against loitering called the Sit/Lie Law, but it was view by the Liberal Powers That Be as a bigoted stance against those poor individuals forgotten by society and blah-blah-blah. Neighbors were scared of these protected gangs and the quality of life (Yes, even residents Hippieville deserves a decent quality of life) suffered accordingly. It wasn’t until one of these peace-loving abode-impaired individuals attacked and almost gauged out the eyes of a resident that the law finally voted in.
How can people be so heartless and vote on the freedom of those less fortunate to sit, lay down, impede pedestrian traffic, strong arm visitors and residents?
Community activist call the new law as “cruel and heartless.” He goes on to say:
More than beacon, SanFran is like one of those blue lights you hang on your back porch during the summer and attracts all kinds of bugs.
Hippie Please!