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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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.