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Haight-Ashbury Neighbors Fight SF-Approved Homeless Encampment

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Fifty-something years ago, San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury banded together to feed homeless youth drawn to the neighborhood's psychedelic tunes and freewheeling lifestyle.

Flash forward to today: The co-owner of Amoeba Music, which boasts a location on Haight Street, is leading a neighborhood fight against a San Francisco-sanctioned homeless tent village meant to stop the spread of COVID-19.

San Francisco's Hoodline news site reported the story on Tuesday.

The proposed Haight tent encampment at 730 Stanyan St. — near an entrance to Golden Gate Park and directly adjacent to Amoeba Music — is one of five homeless "safe sleeping sites" planned by the city, as first revealed by KQED. In addition to socially distant tent spaces, they will host city services like food and showers.

Joe Goldmark, co-owner of Amoeba Music, is spearheading the "Concerned Citizens of the Haight" to fight the Haight tent village — one of several neighborhood groups that have formed in opposition. He told Hoodline that local merchants fear the encampment won't be taken down after the pandemic is over.

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"We haven't had much luck with the city keeping promises around here," Goldmark said.

But Supervisor Dean Preston, who represents the Haight, told KQED "there is strong neighborhood support" for the site."

"I have every indication that the site will open as planned," Preston said.

— Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez (@FitztheReporter)

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