Divisadero vs. Upper Haight: A tale of two corridors
These days, the corner of Haight and Divisadero feels like the intersection of two fates, not just two major commercial strips.
Walk west along Haight Street from the intersection, and starting at Central you encounter tourists and shops selling souvenirs, sneakers and vaporizers interspersed with bars and inexpensive restaurants. Walk north on Divisadero from Haight Street, and you encounter upscale grocery stores, cocktail bars, barbecue smoke and four-dollar-sign menus.
Any vacant storefronts on Divisadero, it seems, are already claimed, boarded windows hiding remodeling projects.
Michael Krouse, owner of the 12-year-old Madrone Art Bar on Divisadero at Fell, says Divisadero has benefited from the quality of the restaurants that have established themselves on Divisadero, such as Nopa, Bi-Rite and 4505 Burgers & BBQ. They’ve made it a safer investment for newcomers such as Souvla and Horsefeather. “We’re in the middle of the city, so we draw people from Castro, Upper Divisadero, all different areas of the city,” Krouse says. “We don’t just cater to the neighborhood.”
Krouse and District 5 Supervisor London Breed, whose district encompasses both commercial corridors, attribute the boom to work that a city staffer named Ellen Parker spearheaded a decade ago. The city increased its police presence, installed a tree-lined divider in the middle of Divisadero Street, established a merchants’ association and offered tax credits to employers for hiring from disadvantaged areas.
“It wasn’t an overnight thing, but it happened because people worked at trying to make the neighborhood safe, and as it got better more restaurants started to open up,” Breed says. No surprise that Divisadero’s restaurants are generating 136 percent more sales tax revenue now than they did in 2010.
When discussing the Upper Haight, where those same revenue figures have grown just 21 percent, Breed calls out the same contributing factor: perceptions of safety. “We unfortunately have a lot of problems with crime, specifically people who are selling and openly using drugs,” she says.
Other merchants suggest that Haight Street’s attraction for tourists fills the sidewalks during the day, but does not bring locals to the strip at night. Christin Evans, owner of Booksmith on Haight Street and a board member of the Haight Ashbury Merchants Association, says the rising costs of doing business are a factor. “I think we’ve seen a record number of vacancies on the street as a result of unrealistic rent demand,” she adds.
As in the Excelsior, most of the vacancies are retail spaces, and the restaurants that thrive on Haight Street are low- or moderate- priced, popular with tourists and younger customers.
Breed is working with neighborhood groups to make Haight Street and the Stanyan entrance to Golden Gate Park look better, with new sidewalks and pedestrian lighting. As with Divisadero, though, any transformation of the Upper Haight won’t take place overnight.