Instant Alert: San Francisco is a wealthy tech haven today — but not long ago it was an apocalyptic madhouse

MANAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS   |   UNSUBSCRIBE   |   VIEW ONLINE   San Francisco is a wealthy tech haven today — but not long ago it was an apocalyptic madhouse by Matt Rosoff on May 30, 2016, 11:02 AM Advertisement When you think about San Francisco, you probably envision tech companies filled with optimistic twenty-somethings and restaurants with fancy food. Maybe Alcatraz or the Golden Gate Bridge. But from the late 1960s through the 1970s, the city by the bay was a very different place.  Drugs. Murder. Corruption. Outcasts. That's what San Francisco looked like in the popular imagination — and that stereotype had a lot of basis in truth. Journalist David Talbot captured the details of this critical time in an amazing 2012 book, "Season of the Witch." While I had a vague sense of some of the city's recent history, many of the details will astound you. Here's what San Francisco was really like a generation ago... SEE ALSO: LinkedIn moved into a new skyscraper in San Francisco, and the offices are unlike anything else we've seen You've probably heard of the 'Summer of Love' in 1967. That's when people flocked to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district from all over the world, drawn by the city's reputation for unbridled freedom. You could say it all started on January 14, 1967, as thousands gathered in Golden Gate Park for the "Be-In," an drug-fueled counterculture party. As Talbot writes, "Young people sprawled on the grass, playing pennywhistles, harmonicas, and flutes. Naked toddlers chased their shadows in the sun. Only two mounted policemen patrolled the grounds; one came trotting through the crowd on his horse, cradling a small child in his arms. 'A lost child has been delivered to the stage and is now being cared for by the Hell's Angels' [a motorcycle gang]. It was a time when that made sense." Timothy Leary, the former Harvard professor and LSD guru, spoke to the crowd, telling them to "Tune In, turn on, and drop out." But not everybody was sure about the forces being unleashed. Beat poet Allen Ginsberg said to his friend Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "What if we're wrong?" See the rest of the story at Business Insider   Share the latest business news with your network: Email sent to:   |   Manage your email preferences   |   Unsubscribe Terms of Service   |   Privacy Policy Business Insider. 150 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011