HANC’s May general meeting featured three separate presentations—a discussion of Recology’s proposed new rate structure, a discussion of a planned independent living center at 1500 Page Street, and a question and answer session with Park Station Captain Corrales.

Recology

Paul Giusti from Recology presented the proposed new rate structure. With rising costs for labor and fuel (biodiesel), and San Franciscans doing more composting and recycling, Recology will be asking for a change to the current rates. The current rate structure charges customers only for their black bins (landfill). The proposed new rate structure will, for the first time, charge customers a small fee for the green (compost) and blue (recycling) bins. These charges can be offset by using a smaller black bin. So, instead of the current $27.31 flat rate, the proposed new rates would be $5 per month, plus $2 per month for every green or blue bin, plus $25.51 per month for every 32-gallon black bin, for a monthly total of $34.51. But this total can be reduced to $26.94 per month, slightly less than the current rate, by downsizing the black bin from 32 to 20 gallons. Watch for hearings before the SFPUC and the Board of Supervisors on the proposed rate change. During the meeting, there were also questions about and a discussion of what exactly can be put into the recycling and compost bins. 

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By Colleen Rivecca, HANC Board Member

On April 10, 2013, SFPD Chief Greg Suhr announced that he was dropping his proposal to arm certain SFPD officers with Tasers. The SFPD has tried, under four previous police chiefs, to arm part or all of the department with Tasers. The Taser issue was revived by Chief Suhr in the summer of 2012, after police fatally shot a mentally ill chocolate factory worker who was armed with a box cutter. Chief Suhr’s proposal was to arm Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) trained police officers, officers who are specially trained to de-escalate situations involving people with mental illness, with Tasers.

The SFPD held a series of community forums in early 2013, where community members shared their concerns about arming SFPD with Tasers. Community members opposed to Tasers explained that Tasers, while seen by the police as “less than lethal” weapons, have actually been shown to be dangerous weapons and that their use can lead to fatalities, especially when used on vulnerable people, including people with mental illness. Community forum participants also brought up an independent study from researchers at UCSF, which shows that, in the first year after Tasers were introduced in cities across California, sudden deaths in custody increased by 500%.

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By Karen Fishkin, HANC Board Member

One day it was there, and the next gone. The papered windows were a shock. After all, this restaurant had been on Haight Street for more than a quarter of a century. I used to take my now 40’s something children there for a “Cheap Thrill” when they were young and we were broke. It was the restaurant that HANC chose in January for our “Thank You” dinner for the Kezar Gardens employees, after the Recycling Center was evicted and closed. And many memories in between.

Word on the street is that the owner has closed to change directions, but not to remove a restaurant. I was told he will be renovating and then re-opening the space as a sit down Chinese eatery. Hopefully an establishment that will have the same staying power as the old favorite it will be replacing.

HANC’s April meeting featured a lively discussion regarding the Rec & Park Department’s plan for the old 780 Frederick site of our recycling center, community garden and native plant nursery and of the bike rental business at the entrance to Golden Gate Park.

Denis Mosgofian, from the Parks, Recreation Open Space Advisory Committee (PROSAC), started things off with a discussion of recent documents revealed through Sunshine requests, as reported in the April VOICE. This was followed by a presentation from a representative of the Rec & Park Department, Dawn Kamalanathan (Director of Capital and Planning Division).

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The ongoing debate over the necessity for removing any trees from the Mt. Sutro Open Space Reserve has heated up as the public comment period regarding UCSF's plan recently closed.  At the heart of the controversy is whether this forest is a man-made disaster or simply nature doing its thing, intertwined with the "native" vs "non-native" debate.

Removal of trees from Mt. Sutro is not new:  both in 1935 and in 1955 large swaths of the forest were cut down, for the Army's Nike radar site at the summit and on the south side of the mountain, down to the Clarendon Reservoir.  And there have been fires (at least 7).

As visitors to this gem of an open space can see, the forest of primarily blue gum eucalyptus trees blocks the sun from the understory of the forest (dominated by Cape ivy, English ivy, Himalayan blackberry) creating a dense tangle of green that is at once beautiful yet deadly for plant species better suited to the natural ecology of the mountain.

The Mt. Sutro Stewards, led by Craig Dawson, have been working in the forest for years, restoring historic trails and making the place accessible to the public.  There are immediate neighbors and others who have fought this work and who now fight the "deforestation" of their backyards.  It is the understanding of the Stewards that by designating some limited demonstration areas and reforesting those sites with trees better suited to the location, a process of regeneration essential for the future health of the forest can begin.  We are not going to the "clearcutting" on the scale of that done in 1935; the use of that word conjures horrible images of what has been done to our California forests.

There is a wealth of misinformation being generated, so slogging through the details is hard.  A great way to get a grip on the issue is to walk the trails and listen to folks who have been bringing the mountain into our Bay Area open space community.  Volunteer on the first Saturday of the month with Craig and the Stewards, and you can see and learn first-hand how good forest management in an urban area can be.

Garden for the Environment will offer the following workshops in May and June, 2013. All classes will be offered at Garden for the Environment, San Francisco’s organic demonstration garden at 7th and Lawton Street. Since its founding in 1990, the garden has operated as a demonstration site for small-scale urban ecological food production, organic gardening, compost education and low water-use landscaping.  For more information, call (415) 731-5627, or go to www.gardenfortheenvironment.org.

CALL TO ACTION:

Call or write London Breed, Scott Wiener, and David Chiu, asking them to hold Wiener's proposed CEQA legislation until both Jane Kim's and Wiener's can be heard at the same time before the Land Use Committee and the Board of Supervisors.  Wiener's legislation is scheduled to be heard before Land Use on Monday, April 8. 

Here's why:

Two pieces of legistlation regarding local implementation of the California Environmental Quality Act are now making their way through the legislative process at San Francisco City Hall.  Representatives of the Community CEQA Improvement Team are supporting the legilsation sponsored by Supervisor Jane Kim and hope that the legislation serves as the basis for improving local application of CEQA.

It is important to remember that CEQA was first passed four decades ago, in 1970, to:

• mandate environmental analysis of projects that may have environmental impacts;
• require alternatives to and/or mitigation of those projects that do have environmental impacts;
• mandate public disclosure of the environmental findings;
• allow the public ample time to appeal those findings.

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District 5 Supervisor London Breed was featured at the March HANC General Membership meeting. For many of the 70 people who attended it was their first chance to meet the Supervisor and ask her questions about important neighborhood and City wide concerns and issues. She was joined by former Supervisor Beven Dufty, who is now Director of the SF program HOPE (Housing Opportunity, Partnerships and Engagement) which addresses solutions to homelessness in San Francisco.

The Supervisor began by sharing some of her background including the fact that she grew up in public housing in the Western Addition and emphasized that fixing the public housing problems in SF is a major issue on her agenda as Supervisor. So is working to connect young people with job and other opportunities to help them build successful lives. She believes the solutions to crime must include economic and social solutions along with a police component.

The questioning started off with queries as to her position on the Weiner/Farrel TIC condo conversion give away legislation that many in the audience and HANC oppose, seeing it as a major threat to the maintenance of affordable rental stock in the City. She refused to state her position one way or the other, maintaining that both sides of the debate were providing questionable "facts" and she was doing more research via the City's departments and reports to get the real information before making up her mind. When queried as to what her research had turned up she was unable to state any of the facts she had found so far.

The next major topic to be addressed was homelessness both in the Haight and as a larger social issue in San Francisco. She stated that the non-profits and agencies which the City funds to deal with the problem need to do a better job of getting services to the people who need it. She felt that people who break the law should be prosecuted but that a police solution alone was not the answer to homelessness and that sometimes the police can escalate a situation.

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