Chuck Nevius continues his tour of the slowly gentrifying corners of the city this week, now focusing on the Haight. He devoted his Saturday column to acting shocked that there were any decent, "high-end," foodie-type establishments in the Tenderloin, and sounding uncharacteristically optimistic about the trend. Now he turns his attention to the Upper Haight, where miracle of miracles, the Sit/Lie law appears to be doing some good, by God!

Clearly Nevius would be a natural champion of the controversial ordinance, being the Chron's resident, semi-conservative curmudgeon. And he says of the continued presence of "gutter punks" that "The cops keep an eye on them and as long as they aren't shaking anybody down for spare change, I'm good with that." How liberal you're sounding, Chuck! But the trouble with this not-so-tourist friendly tourist destination is that landlords keep retail rents at levels equivalent to Fisherman's Wharf, which has a way of putting a lot of people out of business. He cites Villain's Vault, the clothing store, as an example, because they're vacating the large Hibernia Bank space and downsizing. He concludes, "The chronic drunks and the vacant storefronts need to go, but it's not a quick fix."