Haight-Ashbury

Janis Joplin and Jerry Garcia hung out in this world-renowned district back in the day -- and it would blow their minds to see how much their hippie pads are worth now. Nearly four decades after the Summer of Love, the Haight has become a perfect example of San Francisco 's contradictory counterculture of peace, love and property values. Neighborhood activists live in million-dollar Victorian homes ; the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic offers free health care while just down the block, club kids pay ridiculous prices to have their tongues pierced. Shoppers along Haight Street can spend a few dollars on hookahs and henna kits or a few thousand on vintage clothing and custom-made shoes. Near beautiful Buena Vista Park, where the 1960s guerilla street theater group The Diggers gave away free whole-wheat bread baked in one-pound coffee cans at the Haight's Free Bakery, foodies can now wait in line at white tablecloth cafes for East African injera bread and gourmet coffee. And the ever-present tourists can have their pictures taken at the corner of Haight and Ashbury, where the backdrop now includes a Gap store. It may be a trip, but it's all good.

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