April at HANC will be devoted to a report on the transformation of the HANC Recycling Center into the “Kezar Gardens Ecology Center” and what steps we need to take to make it real and permanent. It is one hell of a story of how a neighborhood organization, using resources from recycling, has added an entire new garden center at no cost to the public, creating a new model of both sustainable urban agriculture and recycling. Come to Park Branch library Thursday, April 12th at 7 PM and hear for yourself the story of this remarkable undertaking.

On March 8, 2011 the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution, drafted by then Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, calling upon the City to work with HANC to “establish a comprehensive Parks recycling program utilizing the expertise, volunteer base and facilities of the HANC Recycling Center in Golden Gate Park, … to establish an Independent Recycling Center Master Plan” and to implement the Golden Gate Park Master Plan by integrating recycling and education programs into the park. The Resolution also called upon Mayor Lee to urge Recreation and Parks to negotiate in good faith to allow HANC to continue to serve Golden Gate Park (click here for full text of the Resolution).

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For more information about these workshops, or to become a GFE member, go to www.gardenfortheenvironment.org

INTRO TO ORGANIC GARDENING
PART II, GARDEN CARE
Date: Saturday, April 14th, 2012
Time: 10AM - 12:30PM
Location: Garden for the Environment, San Francisco
Cost: Free

Planning ahead for low-maintenance design and sustainable products is a key element to a successful organic garden. Join us to learn about natural maintenance practices that will keep your garden beautiful and your labor to a minimum. More info here.

INTRO TO ORGANIC GARDENING
PART III, GARDEN WATERING
Date: Saturday, April 21th, 2012
Time: 10AM - 12:30PM
Location: Garden for the Environment, San Francisco
Cost: Free

Water is vital to garden health. But, when is enough, enough? Join us to learn earth-friendly ways to water the garden and the most efficient practices for the Bay Area’s Mediterranean climate. More info here.

CITY CHICKENS! And Ducks Too!
Date: Saturday, April 28th, 2012
Time: 10am - 12:30pm
Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco
Instructor: Paul Glowaski, Co-Founder of Urban Eggs & Farmer at Dinner Bell Farm
Cost: $25 or $15 for GFE Members

Begin your morning by harvesting fresh eggs from your own urban back yard! You can keep chickens and ducks in San Francisco! Join Paul Glowaski, Co-Founder of Urban Eggs & Farmer at Dinner Bell Farm, for an exciting workshop on organic “eggriculture”. Whether you dream of just a few chickens, or dozens, you will learn all you need to know to keep even your chickens (or ducks) healthy and happy in San Francisco. This class will walk you through the entire process, including: ordering chicks, organic feed for chickens and ducks, sanitation & human health considerations.  Register Here

URBAN BEEKEEPING!
Part I - How to Set Up a Beehive
Date: Saturday, May 12th, 2011
Time: 1pm - 3pm
Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco
Instructor: Paul Koski, San Francisco Beekeepers Association
Cost: $25 or $15 for GFE Members

Join GFE and local beekeeping instructor Paul Koski of the San Francisco Beekeeper Association for Part I in our Urban Beekeeping Series and learn how to manage an Urban Honey Beehive in San Francisco. In this introductory class participants will learn about beekeeping supplies and equipment, where to get bees, and how to install them into a hive. The class will also cover basic hive management principles: how to open and inspect a hive and what the beekeeper should expect to see and do for the first few months. You will leave this workshop with the keys to success for keeping honeybees in an urban area. If weather permits, we will look into GFE's already active hives.  Register Here

* 2012 URBAN BEEKEEPING SERIES *
May 12th - How to Set Up and Manage a Beehive
June 16th - Hive Management
August 18th - Honey Extraction

Mendel's opened on Haight Street in 1952, by its founder and namesake, Mendel Herscowitz.  It has operated continuously and family-owned since then.  The original store (called U-Save Paints) was at the corner of Haight and Masonic.  It moved to its present location between Clayton and Ashbury in 1968.  Bette bought the business from Mendel in 1978.

Running stores is kind of in the family blood.  Mendel had a "five-and-dime" store on Haight Street in the early 1950s (called B&L Five-and-Dime--named for his daughters Bette and Louise).  Niece Naomi now helps Bette run the store.  When Bette is ready to retire (which means work only when she wants), Naomi will be in charge.

The store is in a constant state of change.  When Mendel first opened the store, he sold house paint and linoleum.  Times changed, and so did the merchandise.  Today, Bette and Naomi like to think that they are "the complete store for the creative individual."  The defining factor is that they sell products for you to do stuff with.  Why sell a tie-dye shirt when they can provide you the dyes to make your very own original design?  Why sell a necklace made of clay when you can make your own necklace design from supplies available in the store?  Creativity is good and healthy and the goal is to encourage you to find your own personal outlet, a goal established by Bette's mother, Sarah Herscowitz.

Bette and Naomi have a ton of fun running the store--laughter ought to be a good part of the creative experience.  They are dedicated to an "old school" way of running a store, with fun and personal interaction with customers enhancing a creative and supportive work environment--and it works.  In these days of chain stores, Mendel's remains an independent retailer and we want to encourage you to visit and support your local independents.

Bette has a wealth of wonderful hisotry of life on Haight Street and when asked, as she frequently is, how things have changed, she agrees that "the more things change, the more they stay the same."  Business has been good through good times and bad int he wider economy--they must be doing something right!

Visit Mendel's website and Facebook page.

Come to a Redistricting Task Force Meeting

We are asking you to attend a Redistricting Task Force meeting:

Wednesday, April 4, beginning at 6 pm, at City Hall, Room 406.

For more detail about this meeting, click here.

Through the advocacy of hundreds of community members, the Redistricting Task Force Map (as of 3-22-2012) has progressed a great deal from where it started and now looks close to our Community Unity Map (pictured above and described below).  We need to keep the pressure, reminding the Task Force of the good work they are doing, and pushing back on new cynical maneuvers from real estate interests.  The April 4 Task Force meetings will literally shape San Francisco's future beyond the next decade.  Please join us at this meeting and tell others!

Why Should You Care?

Why do we want you at this meeting, and why should you care?  The short answer is that revised District boundaries could ultimately mean the loss of District elections and the loss of rent control.  Downtown interests (such as the Realtors Association and the Chamber of Commerce) want to make Districts 5 (Haight/Western Addtiion), 6 (South of Market / Tenderloin)  and 9 (Mission / Bernal) the only progressive districts.  This could result in a permanent 8-3 fix for downtown and business interests.  Those who remember the days when Tom Ammiano and Sue Bierman were the only progressive votes on a citywide elected Board of Supervisors know how serious this could be.  A couple of blatant examples of this kind of gerrymandering include a proposal to move Seacliff (a conservative voting bloc) out of District Two (which it shares with the Marina) and into District One (Richmond), or moving the western boundary of D8 to include Twin Peaks.

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A very interesting project was initiated in our neighborhood last year.  There was a request from neighbors for the SF Metropolitan Transportation Authority to address traffic issues of speeding, pedestrian visibility problems and crosswalk issues.  The project area is Clayton, Downey, and Ashbury Streets between 17th Street and Waller Street, as well as Frederick and Waller Streets from Clayton to Ashbury Street.

There were two community meetings and two small committee meetings.  Most of the people who attended were long time residents with a variety of concerns.  A number of suggestions came out of these meetings, including speed humps and cushions, corner bulb-outs, painted and mountable areas at some intersections, red visibility curbs near intersections with stop signs.  There were two alternatives for the dangerous Clayton and Ashbury intersection.  People interested in this project can visit the website here.

Bound Together Bookstore is an Anarchist collective-run bookstore featuring radical literature and events.  History, politics, feminism, LGBT, fiction, and Noam Chomsky are major subject categories and available new or used.

Bound Together Bookstore was founded in 1976 to provide hard-to-find books on urban do-it-yourself subjects, such as bicycle repair.  The collective gradually realized they shared a common belief in anarchy and added this focus in 1983.

What is anarchy?  There are many flavors of anarchy, but the general understanding about anarchy is that there is no leader [an=without, archy=leader]. 

 The collective has about 15 members, operates by consensus, and is open to new members.  They volunteer their time to operate the bookstore.  Joey Cain is both a member of the collective and a HANC Board member.  The collective hosts discussion groups and speaker events, including the Anarchist Book Fair with numerous speakers (this year, Saturday, March 31, 10-6 pm and Sunday, April 1, 11-5 pm, at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park, near 9th Avenue and Lincoln).

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February was a bit of a banner month on Haight Street as businesses closed fast and others started to slowly come back.

Three businesses closed their doors--El Balazo (1654), Martin Macks (1566) and Pure Beauty (1560)--with only one reopening--Martin Macks, under new management and a boycott by the old management.

Two other businesses, closed in an August fire--True (1417) and People's Cafe (1419)--showed some small signs of life as workers cleared out the remains of the ashes, slowly making their way to rehabilitation.

While the drama centered on the intra-owner fight at Martin Macks--with one owner filing legal action against another and then taking possession and replacing the staff while the original owner announced a boycott, the real mystery centers on the abrupt closing of El Balazo, the popular Mexican restaurant.  None of its business neighbors has a clue as to why it closed, literally overnight.  Work was underway on an ADA compliant elevator to its mezzanine.  Some customers had thought that perhaps that expense pushed the business over the edge.  Others speculated on ICE busts which had happened before but not recently.  No one knows why the popular eatery closed.  It's simply gone.

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Effective January 14, Capatain Denis O'Leary left as Commanding Officer of Park Station, replaced by Captain John Feeney.  Captain O'Leary has assumed command of the Department's Traffic Company, based at 850 Bryant.

A 25-year career officer in the S.F. Police Department, Captain Feeney is familiar with the Haight Ashbury Community, having served as a Lieutenant for 17 months at Park Station during a 1991-92 assignment.  He was promoted to Captain one-and-a-half years ago and worked directly with two Chief of Police administrations.

Captain Feeney met with HANC at our February meeting.  The following day, this language appeared in the emailed Park Police District Newsletter, "Last night I met with HANC, and enjoyed meeting everyone who attended the meeting.  The issue of traffic safety throughout the Park Police District was discussed at length.  I made the following statement:  'We at Park Station are not waging war against bicyclists, motorists, skateboarders, or pedestrians; we are, however declaring war on behalf of traffic safety.'. . ."

Since then there have been two traffic sting operations.  Motorists were cited for not stopping for pedestrians in the crosswalk at Beulah and Stanyan, and cyclists were cited for running stop signs and not watching for pedestrians along the Wiggle.

The website for the Park Police Station is here.  To subscribe to the Park Station's email newsletter, you can follow a link from the Park Station's website, or simply send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject line "Subscribe me to Park Station."