Lower Haight

Lower Haight for peace! and quiet. This is a such a great neighborhood in the best location of all in my opinion. On on N Muni line, near haight ashbury, mission, japantown, and it has a few good bars, coffee, and many places to eat!
Finally it’s surrounded by parks and fresh air!

The Lower Haight was never my first pick when it came to hang-​out spots, but after experiencing some of the bars and restaurants it has grown on me.
Bars: Danny coyles is a great spot for a beer and sports plus they always have Sam Adam for $ 3. Coronado is also a fresh bar and they have over 20 beers on draft. Mad Dog in the Fog is another great spot to watch sports while sipping on a brew.
Food: There’s a taqueria across the street from Mad Dog that’s decent and it stays open late. Rosamounde speaks for itself, my favorite there is the Duck Sausage and Wild Boar.

I love it here. Relatively safe neighborhood (ok — some car crime, a garage spot is definitely worth it) — amazing diversity of restaurants, great bars, and a generally unpretentious feel to it, and a great park and public transportation accessibility.
But let’s face it. no matter where you live, no matter how amazing of a neighborhood you live in, you’re going to want to get out of it every once in a while. And this is where the Lower Haight really shines.
Want to go to the upper Haight? 10 minute walk.
Want to go to the Castro? 10 minute walk.
Want to go to the Fillmore (there is quite a bit of good live music there)? 10 minute walk.
The mission? 10-​minute walk.
Hayes Valley? 5 minutes.
Alamo Square? 5 minutes.
Noe Valley? 10 minutes.
Cole Valley? 10 minutes.
Downtown? 10-​minute MUNI ride.
Sunset? 10-​minute MUNI ride.
Pac Heights? 15-​minute walk.
I think you get the point. It’s close to just about EVERYTHING. Well, maybe not EVERYTHING. The Marina/​Russian Hill/​Nob Hill/​Chinatown/​North Beach/Fisherman’s wharf take a little longer to get to.
The retail stores are a bit lacking unless you’re into weird clothes, but that helps reduce the amount of annoying tourists you get. And if you need something, you can just walk to one of the above neighborhoods.

Sadly, it’s gotten so bad in Unilocalland that I’m stooping to reviewing neighborhoods. Don’t worry, though; after I reach my 1,000^th review, I’m going to implement a new policy for myself that basically only allows me to write five new reviews at a time. And I’ll wait longer in between the time I write reviews so that I’ll have more time to try all those places I haven’t been. Of course, if you’d like to pay me to fly to your random US city, I’ll gladly take your offer and Unilocal every non-​chain place I visit there.
Anyway, the Upper Haight-vs.-Lower Haight debate has always played loudly in my mind since I moved to San Francisco five-​and-​a-​half years ago. See, I live four blocks from Haight Street, almost in between the Upper and the Lower. My tendency has always been to visit the Upper Haight, but in the past couple of years, I’ve found out that the Upper Haight really kinda sucks. Yeah, it does. There are wonderful businesses there, and it’s got a really serene, beautiful stretch of Page Street as well as Buena Vista Park, but it’s also got really annoying aggressive «street» kids who are really annoying and aggressive.
The Lower Haight’s a little bit dirtier, but it’s got cooler places to eat than the Upper Haight, and it has pinball at Molotov’s. I still do feel more comfortable in the Upper Haight, but I also feel comfortable in Whittier, California, and you don’t see me living there. So I’ll always recommend the Lower Haight to people – except Kate’s Kitchen is overrated.

7:30am, I walked the Lower Haight today… just off the traffic zone and I fell in love with the city, again. It was that moment I realized that when I move back to San Francisco, I will live in the Lower Haight.
The cyclists will spin; all spandex and grin.
Crackheads are minimal; civic center houses the litter.
Tree-​lined streets; cute boys you will meet.
The coffee you’ll sip; the hippies will rip.

My old neighborhood… It’s actually more like 3.5 stars but I’ll round up because I am feeling nostalgic.
I love the proximity to both Alamo Square and Duboce Park… and all of the wonderful restaurants. I love the colorful, gritty vibe. It’s one of the last havens of independently owned stores and boutiques in SF, which is refreshing. It’s also a surprisingly central location… walkable to the Muni train, the Castro, the Mission, etc.
Crime is an issue in the area, especially car crime, so it definitely pays to have a secured parking spot if you drive a car. It also definitely pays to just have regular street smarts and common sense, especially if you’re out after dark.
Also, I wouldn’t say that the Lower Haight lacks in pretension. It’s just a different kinda pretension than say the Marina. In other words, this place is full of certain people commonly referred to as hipsters, which may or may not be your thang.

How much do I love this neighborhood?
A LOT.
A WHOLE LOT.
Like, if we were dating, I might love it enough to be in an open relationship, if that’s what it wanted and would make it the happiest.
I once described Lower Haight as being the place where people who don’t belong in the other neighborhoods end up. I think it’s apt.

Expect this neighborhood to slide hard. I don’t like being pessimistic since I used to live here and loved it, but there’s only so many places you can shove a person and still consider it housing.
I lived here for almost a year then came back a few months ago and had an impossible time finding a place. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great place to live now, but there’s a quiet movement to force all the renters out and turn it into condos. In 5 years there will be a Starbucks at the corner of Haight and Fillmore to match the Ben and Jerry’s on the corner of Haight and Ashbury.
There are some highlights to the old hood — it’s centrally located to everything, there’s plenty of places for beer and wine, and every kind of ethnic food you might want is there.
Bottom line: Lower Haight is gritty and proud of it’s grit. For now, it’s the grungy, pierced younger brother of Hayes Valley, but expect it to do some growing up soon.

Parking… oh how I miss thee.
I’ve never even met you, but I miss you already. If we did ever meet… I know I would love you.
I would show you off to all my friends. I would introduce you to my family.
I would be so proud.
Please…I’m begging you… I’ve looked for you everywhere! I need you in my life!
Here’s the breakdown:
1 star because you are ample… I’ve heard of others who know you, and they say you are everywhere.
1 star because you are nearby… my neighbors seem to know you.
If you see this, please respond. You have ignored my postings on Craigslist Missed Connections. Maybe you didn’t see them? I NEED you, parking!

I’ve spent most of my time in San Francisco living in the avenues because of the cheap rents and easy parking, but then I began dating a guy who lived in Lower Haight and I was just blown away.
More than anywhere else I’d lived, LH felt like a neighborhood… it has a pulse and youthful vibe. So many shops (upper playground anyone?), restaurants (RNM, Naan n’ Chutney, Thep Phenom), bars (Molotov’s, Danny Coyle’s, Noc Noc), and coffee shops (Café du Soleil, Café International, Bean There) to enjoy. Additionally, its proximity to all the Muni underground lines make it an ideal place to live.
The people I’ve met in the neighborhood (often times property owners and landlords) truly care about the neighborhood. Many I’ve met are members of community watch groups and the like. Amazingly diverse, energetic, and artistic, Lower Haight has something for everyone. After spending the majority of my time in that neighborhood, I finally decided to move there, and now living anywhere else seems practically unfathomable.

After living in San Francisco a bit longer than when I wrote my original review, I have a new perspective on this nabe and it’s inhabitants.
I still love the place, but I probably wouldn’t live here. It’s got true grit, as the Old Doc would say, but living in grit can take it’s tole in time. Some of my favorite bars and food are here, but for day to day living you’re better off in the Mission.
That said, I still love the L.H. And I’ve gotten over my hatred of Hayes Valley (it’s actually pretty nice over there).

I moved there 1.5 years ago and I’m now moving on out. I’ve had it with the cracked out street walkers. I’ve seen this place go downhill since I moved here. Seventeen new cops have recently been assigned to this area.
There’s so many 5 stars here… you probably don’t live where I do. Maybe I’d like this neighborhood better if I lived at Waller and Fillmore. It’s very likely. But I don’t.
Later, LH, your food and cafes have been fun. Your ever increasing violence in my section has not.

Love this area!!! Had some great times here and there are some decent food places. A real down to earth area with mostly cool folks. Café Intl is old school SF ! Please keep the crime up so the yuppies go away. All criminals please feel free to jump all well dressed yuppies who invade one of the last SF spots. ha ha. Just kidding sort of. My fav bar is here but I don’t want to say where that is cause more rich and arrogant foolios will show up there.
Keepin it real! Real SF.

EDIT: Um, so I moved back here. Not because I like this neighborhood, but because I got a mega-​below-​market 2 bedroom and it’s a mile from my work. I still hate it, so there.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I lived here for a couple years. I hate this place. People ripped off my motorcycle parts. Someone got shot in front of my house. The #22 passed outside my bedroom window 24 hours a day.
The convenience factor was amazing, sure, but convenience has a price. It is at least $ 800 a month and a bunch of lame people (INCLUDING yuppies, spoiled college kids, tweakers, and teen gangstas) and pretentious places that think that well drinks cost $ 5 each.

Old neighborhood = West Hayes Valley (AKA Alamo Square/​Nopa by CLers and the Fillmoe’ by those who know what’s good for them.)
New neighborhood = Lower Haight.
Based purely on those street light banners, I love my new neighborhood a million times more. What the frick does «HaYES Valley» mean? Who’s the design school drop-​out that thought of that clever and witty banner?
Give me my Upper Playground art collective Lower Haight banners over that crap any day.

The lower Haight. So funky. So diverse. So «get out of my face.»
Highlights: Naked Eye Video, The Page, Duboce Park, Toronado (can anyone say Belgian Beer Month??)…
And only a stone’s throw from the Castro, the Mission, downtown, and (if you need to indulge that whitey flighty that is your Jungian Shadow) the Fillmore. Seriously, it takes me 20 minutes to get *anywhere* on public transit, and 10 minutes on a bike.
My only complaint, as a single-​ish mom, is that parking is impossible, and in bad weather getting the grub and the babe back to the apartment without blowing down the hill is no easy feat. But I didn’t move here for easy, did I!
Aaaand the constant influx of 24 year olds with something to prove is kind of annoying, but you get that all over San Francisco. Hell, I was one of those way back when.

I actually dream of going down the hill and moving to Lower Haight. Incredibly convenient to the places I want to go to (Castro, Sunset, Mission, Hayes and occasionally downtown) and with far, far better food than the Upper Haight. And best of all — no aggressive street punks asking you for change! There is sleaze, but it keeps it real. I love you, Lower Haight and am happy to spend my lunch hour & coffee breaks in your streets.
Edit: I live here now & dear god, I love it so much. After a year of living in the Upper Haight, moving here has been like dying & going to a heaven. A sweet, sweet heaven filled with actual SF residents & best of all, no street kids. This is totally my favorite SF neighborhood after La Mision.

The Lower Haight’s host to several cool stores and restaurants. But I think of this area as more of a transfer point to get on/​off the 22, J, or the N. If you’re so inclined to head to the Upper Haight on foot, you’ve got a good workout ahead of you.
Their slogan? The LH — keepin’ it real!

this neighborhood is NOT NOT NOT Hayes Valley. That is a bullshit marketing term used by real estate agents to throw you off the scent that this place was once part of THE FILLMORE. which, in turn, is contributing to its further gentrification by people who would rather live in an ever-​so-​slightly-​edgier Marina than co-​exist with black people.
i’ve lived here for ten years. when i moved to SF in the early 90’s the old projects were still up and crime was bad here — the hood was actually MUCH rougher than it is now. i was advised to avoid looking for a place here then, but when the dot-​boom hit and finding a reasonably priced place that was also vacant and not being sharked by DINKs became near-​impossible, i ended up in the Lower Haight. those were the days: sharing a joint on the sidewalk outside Faster Bamboo, chilling with new records at Tweekin’, brunch at Spaghetti Western, white chocolate mocha at Bean There. slide the couch out onto the sidewalk and kick it. during the boom i used to describe my hood thusly: «some of my neighbors drive Range Rovers. some of them shoot people.»
there are lots of benefits to living here, which have been detailed in the other reviews. the problems i see with the neighborhood are losing the friendly, relaxed, unsanitized vibe that’s been here so long. it’s only scary here if you choose to look at it that way. but think: some of those people you might see on the street and be scared about are your neighbors, and some of them might (rightfully) be scared of you too.
RIP Spaghetti Western, Naked Eye (in the old space with the old staff), & The Top

People from cleaner and ritzier ‘hoods gasp when I say I live in the Lower Haight. «Is it safe?» they inquire. I just laugh with a sinister grin and say «I like it.»
As Brian M. said we’ve got a diverse selection of eats (mostly cheap) and drinks. Not only that but we’re close to two lovely parks, home to many churches, not to mention two excellent cafes– Bean There and Café du Soleil. Public transportation couldn’t be easier here, either.
Is the LH for everyone? No. And thank god almighty for that.
It has, however, proven an unexpectedly lovely place for me to be.