On September 14, an activist group came to our site at 780 Frederick and transformed it into a space of peaceful protest and community gathering.  The event had music from the Classical Revolution, the Interstellar Transmissions and many other bands and performance artists.  There was yoga.  There was meditation.  There was a seed library and teach-in workshops on ecology, self reliance and the fate of urban agriculture in our city today.  Even the police and the park rangers swung by a few times, to feast their eyes on the goings-on in the garden.

At nightfall, the music died down to  un-amplified drumbeats and a makeshift screen drew everyone’s attention with videos and dialogue about community togetherness.

Thanks for sticking up for us--Space TranSFormers--come back anytime.  Hopefully, we will still be here to welcome you.

Space TranSFormers will have Workday Wednesday every Wednesday beginning at 3:00 pm at our site.  More information is available at their website.  For the latest on Kezar Gardens, go to kezargardens.com

An ad hoc committee organized to come up with ideas for making the Alvord Lake entrance to Golden Gate Park more inviting, had its second meeting last week.

Attendees included three Park Station Police Officers, three Rec & Parks employees (and one retired Rec & Park employee), two art students from the Academy of Art, one representative of Supervisor Olague’s office, and eight neighborhood residents.

The art students presented their class projects which had the site at Alvord Lake as a “challenge project” for them. Both projects, while interesting, were focused on architectural enhancements that seemed to go beyond what the group is seeking.

The officer representing Captain Corrales outlined to the group the complexity of the social scene now existing at the site, and reminded us that not everyone there is selling drugs. One officer reported on the problem created by the garden between the pillars, which serves as a hiding place for drugs and seating. He suggested that the garden be removed and an information kiosk/booth be installed.

Most of the resident comments and ideas dealt with landscaping alternatives for the area, and the idea of an information kiosk/booth met with positive interest.

The next meeting of the group (as yet unnamed) will be at the site on Saturday, October 27 at noon. This is the normal work day of a group of volunteers who regularly work with Rec & Park gardeners from 9-12. Bring your work gloves and ideas!

Kezar Gardens Artist-in Residence Soumyaa Kapil Behrens has created a website with words and pictures (and videos) that give a flavor of what it's like at Kezar Gardens, and some of the issues about our recycling center.  We encourage you to visit Kezar Gardens at 780 Frederick Street, and also to visit the website, at kezargardens.com.  Here are some samples from the website:

Human Be-In Then and Now

Sit down with Diamond Dave and Soumyaa Kapil Behrens as they discuss the history of the Hippie Revolution and the first Human Be-In at Golden Gate Park in 1967 on Mutiny Radio.  (Watch the video here).  Diamond Dave was there, at the start of the movement, and will be streaming his show on Mutiny Radio live from the event this weekend.

The conversation goes on all weekend.  Kick off the dialogue with the local band Classical Revolution 3pm Friday September 14th at ground zero: 780 Frederick Street.  Make some love, make some community, make some gardens, and make some history while you are at it.

For more information including schedules: http://humanbein.org/?page_id=360

The Human Be-In kicked off as a “gathering of the tribes” in January of 1967.  This weekend, it will be re-created by a group called the Space TranSFormers.  They hope to raise awareness about the outrageous eviction of Kezar Gardens, the redevelopment plan for Hayes Valley Farm and the removal of the Free Farm in San Francisco. They will openly protest the leadership of the Recreation and Parks Department, namely Phil Ginsburg who has been heavily criticized for pandering to private interests regarding park land governance.

Read more ...

By Colleen Rivecca, HANC Board

In May, a group of recent college graduates participating in the City Hall Fellows program, a fellowship program that connects recent college graduates with city government to study social problems, released a report on the implementation of San Francisco’s sit/lie law. On August 15, the Fellows presented their report to the Haight community. The report showed that Park Station is citing more people for sit/lie than any other police station in the City, that the people who receive citations are not receiving useful referrals to services and that the City is not tracking whether sit/lie-related interactions with SFPD is actually directing people to services, and that SFPD and the City are not accurately tracking the number of sit/lie citations issued by SFPD.

As the Policy and Advocacy Coordinator at Homeless Youth Alliance (HYA), I have some opinions on sit/lie that I’d like to share with the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council.

Some Suggestions

So, what are some constructive ideas for reducing homelessness in our community? I’d like to offer some suggestions that, unlike sit/lie, are targeted towards providing the services that homeless people need rather than criminalizing the behavior that is a side-effect of homelessness and poverty.

• San Francisco needs more housing affordable to low-income people (
• Homeless San Franciscans need 24-hour access to shelter as well as access to basic necessities like food, toilets, showers, clothing, and hygiene items.
• Recognize the unique service needs of the homeless youth in the Haight and strengthen programs that help hard-to-serve populations who fall through the cracks and don’t fit in to traditional service programs.  

By Ed Dunn, Director, Kezar Gardens Recycling Center

The August edition of the Sunset Beacon/Richmond Review has an in depth story on the Kezar Gardens eviction. Written by Tom Pendergast, the story quotes from Recreation and Parks Department staff testimony at the December 2nd 2010 RPD Commission hearing on a concept design for a "garden resource center" and combines it with excerpts from a lengthy interview Pendergast had with Kezar Gardens director Ed Dunn.

The article outlines the RPD's dastardly, scorched earth campaign to keep the bottom one percent from getting money for recyclables. The reader will be floored by the amazing cynicism of RPD's efforts to replace a garden with a garden, destroying ten green jobs while abusing City funds.

The article is available online here.

Mark your calendar for September 13^th at 7 PM at Park Branch Library (1833 Page Street) for it will be your first major opportunity to learn and discuss local ballot measures for this November's election.

While we all know more than we ever wanted about Mitt, his dog and his pony we are far less well informed about local ballot measures that will, arguable, have more direct impact our daily lives. From profound ( Props C, E and F) to simply symbolic (G), from important (A and B) to not so important (D) all local ballot measures will be discussed.

Taken as a whole the seven local measures, while fewer than usual, will have real impacts. The City College parcel tax ( A) and Park Bond (B) measures are not simply funding measures but also are imbedded with real policy issues. HANC opposes B and lays out its reasons in a separate article in this issue of the Voice.

Propositions C, the Housing Trust Fund, E, the new gross receipt business tax and F, a policy statement on the future of the Hetch Hetchy water and power system, have long lasting importance and involve billions of public dollars. These three are not trivial issues and you need to understand them. HANC will lay out its support for Proposition C ( see article in this issue) and has invited speakers on E and F.

It wont be until late September before the Comical addresses these issues ( if then) and the various local political blogs are all caught up in the personality slug fest of the Supervisors race, so HANC is the best place to begin an understanding of the issues on the ballot.

Plan to be there and bring a friend.

       Kezar Gardens, our combined community garden, recycling center, and native plant nursery, at 780 Frederick Street, remains open despite the misguided efforts of the City’s Recreation and Parks Department (RPD) to evict HANC from the site. Eviction proceedings began on December 2, 2010, after a meeting of the Recreation and Parks Commission (RPC). The agenda item at that meeting was to approve the design for a community garden, with no mention of HANC’s recycling center. Yet, despite overwhelming public support for our recycling center, RPC voted to approve the plan, and also indicated that inherent in the approval was the eviction of our recycling center.   RPD served us with a 90-day eviction notice within a few days, which led to an eviction lawsuit filed on March 8, 2011.

       On that same day, the Board of Supervisors passed a “Resolution requesting the Recreation and Parks Department and the Department of the Environment collaborate to establish a comprehensive Parks recycling program using the expertise, volunteer base, and facilities of the HANC Recycling Center in Golden Gate Park, for the Department of the Environment to establish and Independent Recycling Center Master Plan, and requesting the Recreation and Parks Department to rescind the eviction of the HANC Recycling Center from Golden Gate Park.” Click here for the full text of the resolution.

       Despite this resolution and despite a letter from HANC’s attorney to RPD explaining that the eviction notice was served on the wrong day to effect an eviction, RPD proceeded with its eviction lawsuit. RPD must have eventually realized its error, because on May 26, 2011, (through its attorney, the City Attorney’s Office), it dismissed the eviction. But that’s far from the end of the story.

Read more ...

Local Urban Agriculture and Land Use Report

At the general membership meeting on Thursday July 12th HANC hosted a discussion in the round with guest presenters Rob Joyce, from Hayes Valley Farm, Please Touch Community Garden, and a developing network of urban agriculture sites on the Blue Greenway; Pancho Ramos Stierle from the Free Farm, and the Occupy the Farm initiative at the Gill Tract; and, Ed Dunn, from the Kezar Garden and Ecology Center.

Rob shared his perspective on the conditions that have become a pattern of success for initiating and maintaining a successful urban agriculture site. He suggests having a track record of success, a "champion" or connection with a public official, and support from a local organization from the immediate area around the site are crucial to success.

He also recommends having people in public positions or those with strong opinions about urban agriculture to visit the site where they can see and reframe their expectations.

Pancho shared the story of the Gill Tract and the astonishing and passionate community support for maintaining food production for people on that site and not in favor of developing the site with housing and grocery store. He maintains that love and supportive compassion for all parties involved will be critical for having urban agriculture reaching its potential of creating community and connection.

Ed Dunn shared the latest update on the status of the Kezar Gardens and Ecology Center and took questions from those gathered as to what they can do to support the site and prevent it from being evicted by San Francisco's Recreation and Parks Department.