Its leading citizens fulminated against its Wild West unruliness from the start;

Young people and freedom seekers of all ages were streaming there from every corner of the country, seeking a permissive social space in which to explore their authenticity. The city capitalized on this hegira by selling bus tours through our Haight-­Ashbury neighborhood.

The ineffable numen of a place can somehow define our essence.

Had you asked me then why I chose this place over other metropolises, other places that might ensorcell a restless, bored, and keenly adventurous teenager

a palimpsest in which a certain dream of ease and affluence was painting itself over a complicated tableau of working-­class struggle, certain groups’ stories held up as emblematic