The Haight has gone through many transformations in the last 150 yrs. Originally the area was a quiet lower-middle class neightbood. It later became a Victorian resort area, and then deterirated to a slum by the 1940's. The Haight's large Victorian houses, perfect for communal living, and the district's proximity to the University of CA in SF drew a massive hippie population in the mid and late 1960's.
The neighborhood came to be called The Haight Ashbury because its center was the intersection of Haight St. and Ashbury St. But it became the center of Hippiedom because just about anything was tolerated there.
This was the headquarters of the 1967 Summer of Love when upwards of 200,000 young people from across the country converged on the Golden Gate Park panhandle for celebrated "be-ins." (see example below) They lived in cheap rent subdivided Victorian crash pads, in the park and on the streets, identified by their long hair decorated by flowers, tie-dyed T-shirts, peace signs, beads and flowing skirts and velvet dresses. There were also underground newspapers and radio stations, black-lights and psychedelia, incense, Indian influenced ideas and objects, acid, hashish, waterpipes, marijuana, and, especially LSD. It was legal until 1965, but by the time it was made illegal, it had already become widespread. Volkswagen vans were the cars of choice to caravan back and forth to anti-Vietnam-War rallies or Bill Graham concerts where the Grateful Dead would play, often for free.
It was all fairly innocent at first, but by the end of 1967 tourists, the national media, serious drug pushers and pimps began to arrive. Many hippies left and Haight-Ashbury became increasingly violent and dangerous, especially for young runaways. Nowadays, the hippie runaways have been replaced by punk runaways who are considerably more violent than their predecessors. Although the area is now a major tourist attraction it is still considered hip, a magnet for ex-hippies, New Age gurus, post-'80's punks, entrepreneurial yuppies and vegetarians.
Timothy Leary first pronounced his famous "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out" statement at "A Gathering of the Tribes for a Human Be-In" on January 14, 1967. This Be-In was characterized as a necessary meeting-of-the-minds, those opposed factions on the late '60's, the Berkeley radicals who were becoming increasingly violent in response to their opposition of the Vietnam War and the Haight-Ashbury hippies who urged peaceful protest and joyful celebration.