The Fight at Haight and Ashbury Is Really About Six Very Small Rooms

The banners went up before the 47th Haight-Ashbury Street Fair. All six merchants on the ground floor of the old building at the northwest corner of Haight and Ashbury hung the same message over their doors: SF Heritage should "preserve community, not displace it." Robert Emmons, who owns the gift shop Welcome Haight & Ashbury, made matching T-shirts for the other store owners. According to The San Francisco Standard, the banners flew above booths that KEXP and Blue Bear had set up at the fair to celebrate the project.

The dispute turns on floor plans. Each of these storefronts is about 500 square feet. The building was physically raised more than a century ago to create them. The proposed music and cultural center would combine all six into one cafe and community room. Both sides say they care about the corner's history. They disagree about what that history is: the small shops, or the music.

A House Lifted Off Its Foundation to Make Room for Shops

The Doolan-Larson House at 557 Ashbury Street went up in 1903 in the Colonial Revival style. After the 1906 earthquake and fire, it was raised to fit six commercial storefronts along Haight Street. The whole building comes to roughly 7,500 square feet.

The history page for the project lists who has filled those spaces since 1907: a saloon, a jewelry store, an optometrist, a cigar store, a shoeshine shop, a dry cleaner, a plumber, a hatter, a magazine shop, and more. One address has never changed its trade. 1508 Haight was a barbershop in 1907 and is still a barbershop today. In 1965, Peggy Caserta opened Mnasidika at 1510 Haight. It was the first hippie shop on the street and home of the original bell-bottoms.

The upper floors were Richard P. Doolan's home until he died in 1947. In 1918 the building was divided into the Evelyn Apartments, and the name "Evelyn" is still on the transom window over the entrance door on the east side. Norman Larson, a fourth-generation San Franciscan, bought the building in 1980 and spent years restoring it. Larson left the building to SF Heritage, the nonprofit that also runs the Haas-Lilienthal House as a museum.

In its July to September 2024 newsletter, SF Heritage asked visitors to support the building's retail tenants and listed them by address:

The Standard's September reporting describes the current six as a jewelry store, a gift shop, a barbershop, a toy store, a vintage boutique, and a seller of Nepalese art and jewelry. Welcome Haight & Ashbury at 1500 Haight works with SF Heritage as a visitor center and museum shop for the corner. When it opened in 2021, Hoodline reported that it carried work from more than 100 local artists and makers.

Why 500 Square Feet Is Hard to Replace on This Street

Most retail spaces are much bigger than these, and on Haight Street the gap matters more now than it did a few years ago. In September, the Haight Ashbury Merchants Association told the Standard that retail vacancies in the neighborhood had fallen from a pandemic peak of 32 to fewer than 10. With so few empty storefronts in the neighborhood, a merchant who moves out has few small spaces to move into.

Arkady Pletman, who opened Haight Jewelry in the building 32 years ago, told the Standard he doubts he could afford a bigger space anywhere else. Emmons put it in terms of the whole street: "We're a successful retail corridor, and we depend on all of us to make it that way. Taking out all these spaces hurts the whole neighborhood." He suggested that KEXP and Blue Bear use the upper floors and leave the ground-floor shops as they are.

The merchants association is backing the six retailers. Naomi Silverman, the third-generation owner of Mendel's down the street and a member of the association, told the Standard: "It certainly seems like everyone's intentions are good. But the reality is that this is people's livelihoods, people who have had businesses here for decades, and it's upsetting."

What the Plan Would Put in That Space

SF Heritage's September 17 announcement describes a year-round public "third space," a rooftop venue for live music and community events, radio broadcast facilities, and a full floor of individual and group music lessons. Three teams submitted proposals in June 2026, and the SF Heritage board chose KEXP's in August. KEXP is a Seattle radio station that began broadcasting in the Bay Area in 2024.

KEXP's project page fills in the ground floor. The combined street-level space could serve coffee during the day and beer and wine in the evening, with retail and casual seating, plus performances, DJ nights, listening parties, and open mics. The indoor-outdoor rooftop would hold about 100 people. The project's FAQ says any ground-floor commercial space will favor local, neighborhood-serving operators where feasible, and that SF Heritage will keep ownership of the building while KEXP operates it under a long-term lease that is still being negotiated.

SF Heritage CEO Woody LaBounty pictures a ground floor that could be "open for the community both day and night." Speaking to the Standard, he explained why the corner warrants it:

"Haight and Ashbury is the most famous intersection in the world. We owe it to history to make something amazing happen there."

He also told the paper that when SF Heritage started looking for partners last year, it made clear it needed one with deep pockets to pay for expensive upgrades to a historic building. KEXP CEO Ethan Raup called the merchants' reaction "perfectly understandable" and promised a "thoughtful transition plan that prioritizes keeping these businesses in the Haight."

The Steps Between a Letter of Intent and a Rooftop Show

KEXP describes its agreement with SF Heritage as a letter of intent covering further planning, community input, construction feasibility, and financing. Both organizations' boards still have to decide whether to go ahead. Here is what has to happen before the storefronts change, based on what the partners and the Standard have published:

1. Board decisions. SF Heritage and KEXP each decide whether to move the project forward.
2. Lease and plan. The partners finalize the adaptive reuse plan, which the announcement said would happen "over the coming months," and complete the long-term lease now in negotiation.
3. City approval. SF Planning has to approve the project.
4. Fundraising. KEXP needs to raise more than $16 million for construction, through a philanthropic campaign it would lead.
5. Design and permitting. SF Heritage's FAQ expects the whole preconstruction period, from lease negotiations through permits, to take more than a year.
6. Construction. Even in the most optimistic case, LaBounty told the Standard, construction will not start for several years, and he estimates the full project could take five years.

For the six shops, that schedule is what counts right now. The merchants are on month-to-month leases. LaBounty said they can stay for the entire stretch before construction. The FAQ says tenants are expected to stay until close to the start of construction and that any transition plans will go to them directly, as early as possible. In the worst case, Emmons wants SF Heritage to help the shops find new locations and pay for their buildouts.

KEXP's project page says it hopes to share an update by early 2027.

If you own property near Haight Street and want to talk through how a long civic project like this one plays out over the years before construction, The Golden Gate Group is glad to share what we've seen across San Francisco and Marin. Schedule a 15-minute consultation.