Why This Haight Legacy Business Is Closing And How You Could Take The Reins
Distractions is a registered legacy business and one of San Francisco’s go-to spots for Burning Man gear. (Google Maps)
San Francisco is losing one of its old reliable shops for Burning Man costumes and smoking paraphernalia. Distractions SF, Jim Siegel’s one stop shop for everything freaky and wacky, is in search of a new owner and has a final day of service if nobody takes over the reins. Since the San Francisco Chronicle reported on the closure, he tells Broke Ass Stuart that loads of commercial brokers have reached out. But those are the least interesting deals in his mind. “I’d rather close it than let some corporate person take over,” Siegel says. “I want someone in the Burner community, or someone who knows how Haight-Ashbury changed the world.”
The “Godfather of Haight” has been slinging arts and crafts in the neighborhood every day since 1976, the district’s longest-running storekeeper. Thanks to dwindling business and weather-related woes, he’s ready to retire. Siegel plans to sell most of his gear during this year’s Burning Man, then sell everything at half-off, then close on Halloween day for good — if no one takes over the lease, that is. He might even go the Digger way by offering everything free the last day. But he’ll roll with whatever happens at that point, the hippie way. “I was a little street kid selling LSD out there,” Siegel says. “That’s how I got to own my own store.”
He ran away from home in the early 1970s, arriving to what he thought was the summer of love, but, according to him, was an already boarded up and moved on scene. A storekeep in the area gifted him the remains of their shop, the Phoenix, which opened in 1966. In addition to the free clinic, it was the only shop hanging on from the hippie movement. “A big group from the summer of love adopted me,” Siegel says of his early days.
Jim Siegel out front of his shop. (Jim Siegel)
After that, Siegel went on an entrepreneurial spree in a very San Francisco way. He opened the White Rabbit at 1409 Haight Street when he was 20 years old in May of 1976. He and his business partners broke up the band, though, and the business dissolved; Siegel says he went on to another commune. Next was head shop Pipe Dreams in 1978 but, after that partnership fell through, he opened Distractions in May 1982. The shop first opened at Haight and Cole Streets, but a big fire broke out from Cole Valley and the original location burned down. It didn’t help that developers were swooping in and knocking down lots left and right, leaving tinderbox shells of buildings behind. “There were flames 100 feet over the panhandle,” Siegel says. “It was a conflagration. It burned so bad it moved us to where I am today.”
Looking at Distractions now, the self-reported anti-tech and old fashioned owner realizes that whoever takes it over will need to rebirth the shop. He’s lived in the Haight 51 years, but he wants to travel and knock off a few of his Bucket List items. Whatever soul Haight has left is thanks in large part to Siegel, who even worked with former supervisor Matt Gonzales to keep chain stores out of the area. “People tell me every day they don’t want Distractions to close,” he says of his beloved shop. For any interested parties — Siegel is looking for a six-figure offer for the shop and all remaining merchandise — just send him an email at: distractions_sf@yahoo.com
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