It’s always uplifting running into Cori in the neighborhood, with her brilliant blue eyes, easy smile, and sweet Boxer Rocky. Her wisdom is far beyond her 22 years on the planet. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Cori and exploring the realities of being a “home-free” woman in the Haight-Ashbury.
Haight Street Voice: What inspired you to come here?
My brother Carter traveled out here four years ago, and ended up on Haight Street. We were always really close, attached at the hip, best friends. When he was gone, it was like a piece of me was missing. He came back and bought this van and turned it into a house, and convinced me one night to quit my job, hop in the van. I didn’t have any things anymore, I just had a shitty job at a bar that didn’t care about its employees.
HSV: What do you think is the most beautiful thing about your lifestyle now?
CW: I haven’t suffered much. I haven’t gone without.
What would you like to say to the community? What should people be doing to help?
CW: We hang out in front of a couple of the stores and they always take care of us, they always bring us food because they know we take care of them. I think that’s really important for the kids to have that relationship with the business owners and the employees. And I think it would help with the police, too.
HSV: The 50th Anniversary of the Summer of Love …
CW: I’m really excited about it. As a kid, I was always really interested in the Summer of Love. They called Carter and me “The Flower Children” at school because we walked around in bell-bottoms and tie-dye in Iowa. We stood out. We were the weird kids. Carter had long hair and little round glasses. We were always interested in that lifestyle, living off the land, and music has always been very important to me my whole life. It’s been my release.
