Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco

An article in the San Francisco Observer from February 2005 shows that the "war against graffiti" in San Francisco has been waging for a number of years. District 5 contains the neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury, one of the most famous and most visited areas in San Francisco. Some residents of Haight-Ashbury have taken it upon themselves to force the city to fight the spread of graffiti in their neighborhoods:

Daniel Homsey, District 5 Liaison in the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services, is on a crusade to put a stop to what he calls a graffiti problem that’s out of control in District 5.
“As a city employee and a native San Franciscan, I'm truly frustrated with the graffiti. It is unbelievable what is going on. The City is spending millions of dollars on cleaning up graffiti—not on parks, kids’ after school programs, meth clinic slots,” said Homsey...
There are extensive laws on the books to penalize graffiti crimes in San Francisco.
If the graffiti damage to the property is less than $400, it’s a criminal misdemeanor. For a misdemeanor, the maximum penalty is six months in jail. First-time offenders are entitled to go to pretrial diversion and be sentenced to community service in the SFPD’s graffiti abatement program. Repeat offenders can be placed on probation for up to three years, be monitored, and have to do graffiti abatement.

However, a friend of mine recently visited Haight-Ashbury and took these pictures of the graffiti she saw in a restaurant she was dining in. This is what she said:

"The graffiti would have probably been regarded as ugly and a little disturbing anywhere else, but it just totally blended in with the quirkiness of the surroundings and added to the "charm" of the restaurant - so much that I took multiple pictures."

So, while residents of Haight-Ashbury might be fighting to get the graffiti out of their neighborhood, at least some visitors are appreciating it. In addition, the graffiti certainly hasn't led to a drop in the value of housing in the neighborhood - the median price of a home in Haight-Ashbury is $1,096,337 (compared to the median price in San Francisco, which is $656,700).

Moreover, it is impossible to ignore the counterculture history of Haight-Ashbury. The beatnik poets of the 50s, the antiwar activists of the 60s, and hippies and artists from many generations have flocked to the area for decades. Because of this history, the neighborhood still embodies that counterculture sentiment (despite the fact that many of the hippies and beatniks are long gone). People move to Haight-Ashbury because of what it represents - it is a cool place to live because of its rich history. Whether it is covered in graffiti or not, whether the residents hate the graffiti or not, people have embraced the anti-conformity past of Haight-Ashbury. Perhaps graffiti is simply the latest installment in this long counterculture tradition.