— By Zach Perkins |
No seriously, where the fuck is Haybro? (spotted in my hood near Broderick & Golden Gate)
UPDATE: It was Hayes and Broderick, ie: 'HayBro'. Fuck you, I was drunk.
The boundaries of 'Western Addition' can be a touchy subject. To some, West Addy is a small rectangular microhood from Divis to Gough (ie: a Real Estate map/NOPA home owners). But anyone who's familiar with the smallest scrap of SF history and the ability to type 'www.wikipedia.org' knows that this is a bullshit ploy to carve out the most desirable neighborhoods of the area and distance them from the negative connotation of the Western Addition name.
Western Addition map via WikiTravel
To others West Addy refers to a much larger area; from Arguello to Franklin and Oak all the way north to California, encompassing the microhoods of Alamo Square, the Fillmore, NOPA, Japantown, USF, Anza Vista, Lower Pac Heights, Laurel Heights and Hayes Valley. This definition, or some close variant, is widely accepted by THOSE OF US WHO ACTUALLY LIVE THERE (sans card-carrying NOPNA members, and by card-carrying I mean the NIMBY pricks who put 'Welcome to the North Panhandle' signs in the windows of the Grove St house they bought 3 to 9 months ago). So, in conclusion:
- What and where is 'Haybro'?
- Are you with #team_westAddy or #team_NOPAyall?
- Who is #team_Haybro and do they kick with the NOPAs or the West Addys? Dodgers or Giants?? Espresso Martinis or Popeye's Chicken???
A friendly reminder (pic via Toph Kerpan Evans, via SFist)
Comments (7)
I think you spotted the HayBro sign at Hayes and Broderick. Just a thought.
More Like YESBRO!!!
I used to live on Hayes x Central and I always claimed the Western Addition. It sounds a lot grimier than “NOPA.” Also I used to hang out and smoke with the thugs that would always be by the BBQ place on Divis near the 99 cent store down the street from Popeye’s and they called it the Western Addition so I figured I could too. I would never ever ever ever EVER EVER EVER say “HayBro.” Ever.
HAYBRO! I LOVE IT! JUST ROLLS OF THE TOUNG BRO!
Not sure I love the potential Hayward confusion. Could get fugly.
In any case, Mayor Van Ness would have been very amused by this, you know, if he was reading real estate blogs 150ish years ago when he busted out the ordinance eliminating Divis as the western border of The City and creating the West Addy.
While the area has historically been known as the Western Addition, I think we can all agree that the area historically covered by that name is much too large to have a neighborhood sensibility. It makes sense to break it up into smaller areas with different names.
NOPA is obviously a bullshit name reserved for the rich white home-owners who want to do things like destroy Bay to Breakers (and they just might succeed if we don’t get our shit together). As a resident of the area (Fulton and Lyon), I always refer to my neighborhood as the Panhandle. This is largely because my community isn’t defined by a 12 block section directly around my house. I have friends all over this area, not just directly “North of the Panhandle.” However, even the Panhandle is a little exclusive, as I feel my community includes the Lower Haight as well (parltly because I lived on Haight and Fillmore for 3 years). So I’m interested in calling this whole stretch the “Wiggle District.” I think it could function somewhat like Western Addition in that we could all recognize being in the Wiggle District while still identifying with our more focused areas like the Lower Haight and the Panhandle.
If we’re going HayBro style and doing micro-hoods. I live in the Ful-On (Fulton and Lyon) district of the Panhandle. Run and tell THAT.
we call it “WePo” for West of Popeyes”.