The Planning Commission passed on to the Board of Supervisors the largest hospital development proposal in recent City history. The project would expand and centralize the Sutter/CPMC health center by building a new 555 bed hospital at Geary and Van Ness, building a new 80 bed facility at St. Lukes at Mission and Cesar Chavez, expand the Ralph K. Davies hospital at Duboce and Noe and close down the old Children’s Hospital in Laurel Heights. The biggest problems and impacts would occur at the Geary and Van Ness site where Sutter proposes a new hospital and two new office towers.

A coalition of over 60 community, neighborhood, labor and environmental organizations- San Franciscans for Healthcare, Housing, Jobs and Justice (SFHHJJ)- urged the Planning Commission to reject the Development Agreement (DA) for the deal negotiated by the Mayor as failing to meet minimal concerns around the financial impacts of the project. Two of the six voting Planning Commissioners agreed and voted no on the DA. The DA as well as the EIR on the project will now go to the Board of Supervisors where a majority vote is required to pass both. It seems clear that the EIR will be litigated as it used outdated data in assessing traffic impacts at the key Geary and Van Ness intersection and failed to address the impacts of allowing a hospital (with no housing) to be built in an area specially zoned for “transit oriented development” of joint residential/commercial uses.

The community coalition raised key questions about the housing, traffic, healthcare and employment impacts of the project. Basically the argument claimed that Sutter/CPMC. the most profitable health provider in the City was shifting substantial costs to San Francisco residents and taxpayers.

In housing, although the EIR showed that a demand would be created for some 1,500 new two bedroom homes, Sutter/CPMC agreed to only provide funds to build about 90 such homes. Such a massive shortfall will boost housing prices all other San Franciscans will pay. The healthcare implications of the deal are profound. The expansion will give Sutter/CPMC “market dominance” in health insurance, allowing them to set prices. The City sought a “cap” on how much Sutter/CPMC would shift costs to other users of the same insurance companies, such as the City. No such agreement was reached and the deep concern is that there will be a major spike in costs passed on to the City. Moreover, CPMC currently provides the least amount of free care for medically indigent San Franciscans. The DA will actually allow them to pay less than they do now, shifting that cost to San Francisco taxpayers.

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     The Sutter / CPMC plan to consolidate its current operation by building a new 555 bed hospital at Geary and Van Ness, building a new 80 bed facility at St. Luke's at Mission and Cesar Chavez, expanding the Ralph K. Davies hospital at Duboce and Noe, and closing down the old Children's Hospital in Laurel Heights is now before the Board of Supervisors and will be the subject of the June 14th HANC general meeting.  Recent changes in the district boundaries have placed the Geary-Van Ness site into our District 5.

     A coalition of over 60 community, neighborhood, labor and environmental organizations--San Franciscans for Healthcare, Housing, Jobs and Justice (SFHHJJ)--has urged the City to amend its current draft Development Agreement to secure employment opportunities for San Francisco residents, require Sutter/CPMC to fully mitigate the affordable housing demand of its projected new workforce, reduce its traffic impacts and bolster its commitment to public transit, and more fully address the large and long lasting impacts on the City's health care system this very large combined project will have.

     HANC's June meeting will be devoted to a discussion of the health care impacts of the proposed project.  Two experienced and knowledgeable panel members have agreed to "unwind" the complex "ball" of access, economic and health policy issues which rests at the heart of this project.  Bob Prentice, a former Health Department senior assistant director and a current health policy consultant, and Paul Kumar, former Director Government Affairs for SEIU West, and current consultant to the National Union of Health Care Workers (NUHW), have agreed to discuss with us this complex mix of issues.  Both served on the 2008 Health Department "Blue Ribbon Panel on the Future of St. Luke's" and both are current members of the SFHHJJ.

     At the request of SFHHJJ, the Board of Supervisors is slated to hold a series of hearings on this project in June and July.  On June 12th a hearing has been set on the SFHHJJ appeal of the project's Environmental Impact Report (EIR).  It is expected that the hearing will be moved to July, after the Board deals with the budget.

      On June 15th and again on June 25th, the Land Use Committee is expected to hold hearings on the Development Agreement and healthcare issues related to the development.  Additional Board hearings are slated for later in July as well.

     Combined with the Obama Affordable Health Care law perhaps being modified or outright repealed by the expected June ruling of the Supreme Court, the Board of Supervisors hearing on the Sutter / CPMC project will make June a banner month in health care, and understanding the role played by the proposed development will be of importance to all San Franciscans.

     Plan to attend HANC's June 14th meeting (7 PM, Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street) as you will not have a better chance to hear an informed discussion on the real world and local impact of the largest hospital expansion plan in the City's history that will directly affect your health care costs and the availability of health care to tens of thousands of your San Francisco neighbors for decades to come.

Here's HANC's Ballot Argument in support of Proposition B (Coit Tower Policy):

Coit Tower and its murals have been loved by San Franciscans and visitors for almost 80 years.  We support maintaining and preserving Coit Tower and limiting commercial activities and private events.

The Recreation and Parks Commission and Department have been at war with the public.  The Commission ignores public comment and rubber-stamps the Department’s whims.  Commission decisions cannot be appealed to the Board of Supervisors.  Consider:

---Arboretum Fees

---Artificial Turf Soccer Fields

---Laying off Recreation Directors

---Leasing Recreation Centers instead of providing service

---Stow Lake Boathouse Lease

---Development with no plans for staffing or maintenance

RPD still plans to evict Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council’s (HANC’s) recycling center, community garden and native plant nursery and plans to replace them with a community garden, even though HANC has already saved the City $250,000 by developing the community garden at the site.  HANC, through its center, has been a fiscal sponsor for the Garden for the Environment, the 2008 Victory Garden at Civic Center Plaza, and the Hayes Valley Farm.  HANC’s native plant nursery has provided plants to parks and open spaces maintained by RPD.  Evicting HANC's center would also mean loss of ten green jobs, and loss of a place to get back the fees you pay for cans and bottles.  Your vote will not save HANC's Center, but it will show RPD and RPC that you are unhappy with the way they conduct the public’s business.

ACT NOW!  

1. Vote Yes on Proposition B to protect Coit Tower!

2. Ask Mayor Lee and the Board of Supervisors to keep HANC’s Recycling Center

In one of the briefest ballots in living memory, the June 5th Primary election will only have two local propositions: A and B. Both were placed on the ballot by citizen initiatives.

San Francisco is unique among major urban areas in having a totally privatized garbage collection and waste disposal system. A law passed in 1932 allows the Board of Supervisors to award a contact for garbage collection and the processing of that garbage to any permit holder. Only Recology has such a permit and so there is no real competitive bidding process for this contract.

Proposition A would require a competitive bid, or more correctly five competitive bids for :

• residential garbage collection
• commercial garbage collection
• recovery, processing, and transfer of recyclable materials
• transportation of processed garbage to conversion or disposal sites outside the City; and
• conversion or disposal of processed garbage

This is a great issue for urban and political wonks. HANC has invited both sides to the debate. Come and hear more about garbage than you ever thought you would know and become knowledgeable about a truly “only in San Francisco” issue.

The second item on the ballot is Proposition B, a policy statement governing the operation of Coit Tower. Proposition B would strictly limit commercial activity and private events at Coit Tower and require that all revenue generated by such events permitted at the 1933 landmark would go to its maintenance and to the surrounding Pioneer Park, not to the Recreation and Parks Department or the general fund.

The real concern behind the measure is not limited to Coit Tower--the more widespread concerns are the policies of commercialization and neo-privatization followed by the current Recreation and Parks Department and experienced by HANC, first hand, in the battle over the recycling center in Golden Gate Park. Just as Rec and Park (sometimes referred to as “Wreck the Park”) has added new commercial facilities to Golden Gate Park and sought the removal of non-chi-chi uses such as gritty recycling, so has it pushed for larger and larger commercial users at Coit Tower. The Tower's neighbors are now pushing back and the push back is important to us all.

HANC supported the petition and has submitted a Yes argument for the Voters Handbook. Come and learn how to help in this important campaign.

At the April HANC membership meeting on Thursday April 12th, HANC Vice President Joey Cain and Kezar Gardens and Ecology Center Community Gardening Coordinator, Matthew Downs, presented an update on the evolution of HANC's Recycling Center and Community Garden. 

Joey Cain recapitulated the context surrounding Recreation and Parks Department's (RPD's) intent to evict the Recycling Center and implement a community garden at an estimated phase I cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.  He shared that, to date, no action has been taken pursuant to the March 8, 2011, Board of Supervisors resolution calling upon the City to work with HANC to “establish a comprehensive Parks recycling program utilizing the expertise, volunteer base and facilities of theHANC 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.

Matthew Downs followed Joey's presentation to update the status of Kezar Gardens and Ecology Center showing photo slides which included images of over 50 raised beds constructed and filled with compost from Recology, thriving vegetation, happy gardeners, happy recyclers, unique vertical garden beds, new native plant tables and abundant crowds attending events produced by and funded by the Recycling Center. Eight of the more than 100 community gardeners working/playing at the Kezer Gardens and Ecology Center alsos hared their personal stories of gardening at the site, often connecting with other gardeners, expressing joy at having this opportunity and sharing their concern about RPD's intent to evict the Center. A group discussion emerged about what we can do as HANC membership to influence RPD's General Manager and/or Mayor Lee to drop the action to evict and, instead, work with HANC to help meet the needs of the neighborhood.

On January 15, 2012, an eager group of nearly 40 volunteers participated in a lottery to assign community garden plots at Kezar Gardens Ecology Center. (You can follow the Kezar Gardens blog at kezargardens.com)  With teamwork and loads of green bin compost from Recology, over 50 raised beds were filled and planted by community members including: first time gardeners, families, neighbors, professional landscapers, Permaculture designers, artists, Park and Rec employees, garden clubs, and more.

Since then, the gardens have flourished, yielding greens, herbs, beauty, learning opportunities and strengthened neighborhood resiliency.   Unleashing their creative power on the 8’ by 4’ plots, over 100 gardeners have built a mini greenhouse, urban native habitat, square-foot gardens, trellises, vegetable beds and art evoking interest and smiles from neighbors and passers-by. These dedicated volunteers have demonstrated the harmony of an evolving ecology center as the day-to-day recycling operations and native plant nursery that funded the garden have continued serving the community.

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District Five Supervisor Christina Olague was the featured guest at HANC’s March general meeting. She gave a brief introductory speech, and mostly answered questions from those attending the meeting. Here are some highlights:

•      The Haight Ashbury Free Clinic merged with Walden House last summer.  Its continued viability depends on what happens with State and City budgets, and on Healthy SF.  
•       HANC’s Recycling Center has been scapegoated as the cause of everything wrong in the Haight Ashbury. Supervisor Olague supports the recycling center, although she has heard opposition from other neighborhood groups. The same issues would be here without the recycling center—homelessness, the Haight-Ashbury’s attraction for the youth culture, etc. HANC has encouraged Supervisor Olague to visit Kezar Gardens with Mayor Lee, so they can both see firsthand what we do.
•      Redistricting – Japantown wants to be included in District 5. One of the goals of the Community Unity Map is to retain a progressive supervisor in District 1, and not limit progressive Supervisors to the traditional progressive districts (5, 9, and 6). The Booker T. Washington Community Center and Westside Courts want to be in District 5. They could be in District 1 (they do not want to be in District 2). (Since our meeting, these issues seem to have been resolved in the latest draft Redistricting Task Force map).

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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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