I spent a couple of months there in '66. Nothing seems to have changed
- NO - it wasn't terribly "safe" back then either. Why does anyone think the hippies and Hell's Angels got along so well? The Angels needed a place they wouldn't be hassled and the hippies needed an effective police force against the aspiring Idi Amins of the day preying on hippies in Golden Gate Park. Having an Angel to call on was almost better than a having a gun! (there were more where he came from, so no worry of running out of 'ammo')
So ... even as a hippie, I learned the conservative value of having a good strong military. (not to mention that you can sleep on a marble doorstep all night long and it does not get 1/2 of a dgree warmer from your body heat)
But the funny part was the complaint of the panhandler. It was true even then. Not even a gas station would let you use their rest room. So bathing was pretty much a matter of using the sprinkler system in the park. I doubt the supposed old "hippie" was there at the time. When I finally left and ended up at my brothers in LA - I am told by my neice that when I walked in, I smelled like liver.
I didn't realize the Haight was so unchanged.
The Haight was pretty amazing in ‘67. By ‘68 most of the charm was gone. By ‘69 only the most vicious bloodsuckers were still around. The city put in these shadowless sodium street lamps in and patrolled it like a concentration camp.
Those were the days!
I lived in San Jose so staying in the city was optional. By the time I actually lived in in SF I only visited the Haight once in 3 years.