i would really like you to consider the fact that our existing community gardens all over the city of san francisco are in desperate need of funding and money. we also have a number of plots available in the southern part of the city. i know the commissioner said you saw the entrances to the park. we know there's need there. we have money available. if it's there, i think we need to think seriously about taking care of what we already have. thank you. >> my name is carol glossinger. i'm a longtime resident of the haight-ashbury, 36 years. i live near the recycling center. 20 years ago i was president of the coal val yim provement association and at that time we were concerned that the recycling centers, the large trucks coming in and it was becoming industrial site and we

were talking with members of the park and rec department and here i have in my old files a letter from park planner debra learner to mary burns, the current general manager regarding the recycling plan. and i will just read, if i can. the goal is to move progressively away from recycles generated by the residential sector, away from recyclables generated by the residential sector to trails generated by the commercial and institutional sector. institutional and commercial users will be the growing source of material for the recycling center. as a sender works to increase demand his income large volumes of material will be brought to the site. the park is not appropriate for commercial recycling. this type of quasi industrial land use is fundamentally incompatible with the land use policies for golden gate park. this has been going on 20 years.

this is dated december 1990. >> thank you. >> next speaker please. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is brian hornbeck. i'm the president of the san francisco skateboarding association. we would like to support the plan to remove hanc from the recycling area. we know from from having quite a few events from waller street that there are a quite a few homeless people that circle around between lake albert and going into the recycling center, going up to the liquor store and coming back and buying drugs and coming in and out and going through that anybodyhood. we don't feel that it's appropriate to have that kind of use there and to bring kind of activity around where we want to have a skatepark. we want to bring more children to that area. we support the rec and park department in removing the hanc recycling center.

thank you. >> good evening. my name is luke. i grew up in the sunset and first i want to thank hanc for establishing a recycling center 30 years ago with the future with my generation in mind. but there comes a point when my but there comes a point when my generation needs to think about paying it forward for the next. an outdated, archaic and intimidating site is not the best thing for the future. i support the proposal because it would provide the community with a beautiful and productive site for future and that's what we need to think about. thank you. >> next speaker please. >> hi, this is susan. and although i'm an vad kit for community gardens i respectfully request you vote no on this measure. my husband and native wildlife and garden and i support the

recycling center and native plant nursery. a shady spot say perfect place as a nursery for small, native plants and any small plant. as they get bigger for food plants, you need sun for most food plants. a shady spot will be inadequate for a community garden. and inappropriate. so our garden started four years ago with the variety need of plants and local birds and bees and insects turned up their noses at the nonlocal san francisco -- the nonsan francisco plant. so we went to hanc and replanted and we got beautiful plants. beautiful plants from hanc and native plants are gorgeous and they support our wildlife. so, please, please, permit it to stay where it is. >> thank you. >> next speaker, please.

>> i'm duncan,. i'm a san francisco native. i think one of the things that makes san francisco so great is its immense capacity for change without losing its sidety. i think that in the last 30 years, the hanc recycling center has become outdated. we have recycling bins in every driveway. and what i'm asking the city for and the community is not to abandon the past but to embrace new options for the future. and i think the hanc recycling center is a great place to begin. i'm a big fan of community gardens and i hope we can consider that option. thank you. >> few more names. rossia moss, chris sandler, susan, wayne wily, jerry burpire, arthur boone. >> good afternoon. my name is linda, and i live in a very large couldn't minimum complex and we do not have curb ps side recycling. a lot of people do not know that. there are a lot of us in san francisco that do not have it.

large complexes such as these as well as large rental complexes are not required to recycle and many don't recycle. this is a major loophole in the recycling laws in san francisco. i am forced to bring recycling to hanc recycling center at least once a week so i can take part in recycling. i'm extremely grateful for the scavengers that collect the recycling from the dumpsters where i live and all over san francisco. they are the environment's garden angels. if you remove the recycling center, i will lose the possibility of recycling. this will harm the environment. over the years i observed the park does no recycling of bottles, gas, cans, plastic and metal. it's all thrown in the garbage. the carve enjers removed the recyclables from the dumpsters throughout the park in order to redeem them, thus saving the environment. some at the park are so critical, maybe they can pay the scavengers for splitting recyclables and split the redemption with them. it's just a thought. community gardens are great but not here. san francisco is number one in recycling in the u.s. and hanc

is part of the reason for this. keep hanc where it is. fix the loopholes and recycling so everybody is encouraged to repsych. -- recycle. thank you. >> christopher cane, lori leaderman, flip sorrow, john berry, alex constanoff, doug hall and david tam. >> my name is arthur boone. i'm the president of the northern california recycling association. we have 180 members. we represent 180 members who started recycling in california 20 years ago. we are still operating a lot of different programs. we support hanc. i ran same lar program in oakland from 1983 to 1989 and i know that it's a difficult way to make lambing but they want to

do it and i think they should be -- it's great to have public land on which to do it. it's a great asset to the community. but they are small ones, i believe. thank you very much. >> good afternoon. i'm john berry. my wife started the richmond recycling action center with five of her friends in 1970. she suckered me into helping her three years later. six months after that ed dunn sr. came along and said this looks like fun and we can do it in two. and we got together and a few months later hanc opened up. so i'm partial, as you might tell. i also love gardening and i think gardening is really important. i think if you have $250,000, spend it in a place that is less costly to install gardens. but the main thing is, you don't close the firehouse to put in an

opera house because you need opera houses. have you to have firehouses. it is the series of a firehouse. you don't close it. breaking federal law, state law and local law. and we're on a lease through june. have a look at that. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> my name is martha ross. i don't live in the neighborhood but this is big are than the neighborhood issue. this recycling center is a model and historical monument. there is a plaque in front of it and we should bring our guests there and show them where things began, that are now everywhere in the city except in the parks because the parks do not have a recycling program. the parks should hire hanc to recycle instead of attacking them for -- for a -- collecting the trash that is left behind at

events. and i would like to also -- everything that's been said here and if reason and democracy has any place here, i think you will see that you should not go ahead with this very misguided plan to close hanc. hanc is the issue here. not a garden. everybody pointed out here how unsuitable this place is that was formally an industrial use and now is a d industrial use but it has a parking lot and a rail yard, toxic. apparently, no tests have been made yet. the garden beds will be raised above the toxics. is that really good? so i just hope that you look at the contradictions while you fire recreation directors and close various recreation centers because there is no money, spending $250,000 basically to evict a useful community benefit, self-ue sporting service is immoral.

>> next speaker, please. >> hello. i'm a haight-ashbury resident for many years. hanc is an organization that has helped the community, still helps the community. the recycle center extend that. the recycle center has -- makes revenue, but revenue creates grants. the grants help the community. the recycle center taught us 30 years ago how to recycle. we take recycling for granted now but much of the recycling that we do now we learned over the 30 years and hanc has introduced that to us. look, i -- i think we can have a garden somewhere else. let's keep the recycling center

exactly where it is. thank you. >> david tam. i'm from berkeley, co-founder of the northern california recycling association and there were nonprofit called sustainability, parks, recycling and wildlife legal defense fund. the fact is that every city no matter how beautiful has about 1% of its gross domestic product involved in waste and recycling. the city and county of san francisco is unique in not having a landfill anywhere within its confines. you are required by state law, assembly bill 939 passed in 1989 to have 15 years assured and landfill capacity for that you do not recycle. while san francisco's rate of 7% is "the expendables" particularry and much cred -- exemplarry and must is claimed by some people, it is not perfect. basically the other law which you probably are not going to be

in compliance with is aan arm of san francisco government if you go ahead with the action today is ab-32, to eliminate as quickly as possible the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions. thank you very much. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is susan and spike to you as a board member of the haight-ashbury of upper haight. hanc once offered a unique service to the community. with the avid of citywide recycling methods, it rendered the hanc center unnecessary. it simply outlived its usefulness. the idea is a wonderful one alan go far to not only beautify that entrance to the park but engage a wider part of the community in that edge of the park. it's time to return this prime piece of golden gate park back to servicing all of the public. you totally have my support with your proposal.

thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. i'm joey and i live near hanc for 27 years. the perfect place for the community garden is near mclaren lodge. that's been established.communin lodge. that's been established. what this really is about is an attack on poor people. people who have no compassion who are out of touch with the spirit of san francisco, respect and love for every human being. the people who come to the recycling center, there are hundreds, even thousands of people who benefit from it and are relatively small minority are homeless. and these homeless people are working very hard, ten hours a day, to make 15 or $20, most of them to eat. some of them may use drugs, but

some of us use drugs too. i mean in the general -- in the general population. the point is the homeless are not going to get away. the homeless are not going to go away if you get rid of the recycling center. keep it open. thank you. >> i don't think my humor will top that one. good afternoon. i'm a native san franciscoan, homeowner from the richmond district. have i been visiting the hanc recycling center more than three decades. my neighborhood is served by curbside recycling but i take my recycling to the hanc center. the first point to make is the hanc center is the only genuine recycling center. the rest of buybacks that only accept california redemption materials. these are so-called recyclings

do not accept mixed paper, cardboard, plastic bottle oz glass. they are accepted for dropoff at hanc. these centers attract more homeless than hanc because they deal exclusively from the high value recyclables taken from the blue bins. the second point i would like to make is the hanc center is also a reuse center. there's an area called a free table. here's items of value can be left for others to take for free. these are not items which would be diverted from the landfill by goodwill or other organizations. as an example i collect and repair bikes for the cast worker house. in the past two, three years i found eight, ten bicycles at hanc center. they were in extreme disrepair and could not have been sold or converted by good will. finally, i would like to address the notion that curbside recycling sent eliminated the need for centers like hanc. by that logic, isn't salinas

valley unnecessary. are the stores in san francisco not abundantly supplied with fruits and vegetables of all varieties? i don't grow anything in a community vegetable and find fruits and vegetables 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. why do we need another community garden so badly to displace a resigh ling center that served san francisco for more than three decades? we're talking about an irreplaceable public resource utilized by thousands of san franciscoans every month. in my opinion we need a recycling center far more than another community garden. put the garden, where it should be, near mclaren lodge. >> good evening, commissioners. i support keeping hanc and as terry said, there's a lot of other facilities that they do. like all kinds of recyclables,

as much as buyback and things of that nature. i actually found a shaver last week that i needed. and it -- it works fine. so i think we should keep it. i support community gardens but not in this place. thank you. >> my name is douglas hall. i have lived in co valley since 1980 and a member of the improvement association. years ago the plan was hammered out. i don't know what believeous and expert staff has spoken. i don't know what previous commissions could not understand about noncompliant use and i hope you can understand this and do your duty and get rid of this thing in the park. thank you. >> and tag ert cummings, michelle meyers, patrick ryan. >> good evening. my name is chris and i'm an employee at the hanc facility

and i oppose the closure of the hanc facility. i do feel that the closure, while they're trying to address many problems in the neighborhood, i do not see that the closure, how that addresses any problem specifically. i mean taking away the recycling center will not stop the homeless problem in the neighborhood and will push the people that recycle into other neighborhoods that do have recycling centers. once again, i do oppose the closure of the hanc recycling center. thank you. >> thank you. >> two more names, jude koskie, katherine howard. carmen raterra and mark brennan. >> my name is lori. i'm a 21-year resident of the inner sun set. i'm also a deuce paying member of the inner sunset park neighbors but ways never asked what my opinion is on the hanc

recycling center. i am completely in favor of keeping the recycling center in its current location. clearly it's not obsolete based on so much of the continual you have heard here tonight. it's being used by homeowners. it's being used by poor people, elderly, homeless. it's being used by gardners. it's being used by a whole myriad of people in our community. so there's nothing obsolete about it. i also want to just add that i have heard that the rec and park commission is considering the installation of a water treatment plant in golden gate park, which sounds like an industrial use to me. maybe i'm confused by that. but there seems to be somewhat of a contradiction here. and finally, i just want to say that poverty is growing in our community and in fact when there are places and times when poor people gather, it's actually easier to outreach to them to help provide services. and hanc is a place where the san francisco homeless outreach team has outreached to the homeless community to help place them in appropriate service.

thank you. >> thank you. >> my name is wayne wily. i'm a hanc employee and i would like to oppose closing hanc for the reason that homelessness is not hanc's problem, it's like san francisco problem and not only san francisco but the world. and most of the people who come there are in fact intelligent and can hold a great conversation. all of them are willing to help each other and not only each other but anybody who comes there. have i never seen any violence there. have i worked at other recycling centers where it's been crazy and a wreck. that place is like harmonious. it's like the heaven of recycling. other than that, everybody is there who i work with is very nice. have i never seen anybody who opposes the place not even ever show up. some of stuff just comes like

out of left field because i would like to invite everybody who opposes the place to come there and just see how it runs as a function and see how beautifully everything goes before you even think about closing it. thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> good evening. my name is chris keen and i live in coal valley. i use golden gate park to ride my bike through. i try every day but i'm not always there. but what struck me is that i moved here recently from the midwest a few years back is that there's an industrial site in a park. while i'm sure it's good and jat who just spoke said is really honorable, it's the park and rec department, not park, rec and recycling. and i think the homelessness issue, which needs to be addressed by the city and recycling issue, i thought it was terrible the woman who said she couldn't recycle from her apartment the board of

supervisors should change that and require that. we shouldn't require parks and rec to fix the recycling program and fix the homeless problem. thank you very much. >> good evening. happy holidays. patrick ryan, immediate past present, former board member. who are the most important visitor tots park? it's the children. it's our city's children. and that's who i'm speaking on behalf of tonight. yes, hanc does not cause homelessness. what hanc causes is a caravan of homeless people, some of them very dangerous, to cross paths every day with our city's children. i know firsthand because i bring my children to the biggest playground in the city and i have seen the fear in my children's eyes when they have run across belligerent, drunk clients of hanc with unleashed

pit bulls. so i don't bring them to the largest playground in the city anymore. i take them across to the playground even though we have to ride our bikes a lot further because my children are afraid to 0 go to that playground. you have a duty to protect the most important and vulnerable visitors to the park, and you're doing your duty and i applaud you for your courage and to do what you must do, which is protect those children. have i seen firsthand what hanc's clients can do. and it causes our children to be put in jeopardy. that, ladies and gentlemen, is a nuisance. thank you. thank you for your bravery. >> thank you. >> next speaker please. and then we also have carrie duncan, evan campbell, rick seinfeld, kathy carvinger. >> good evening, commissioners. i'm jude koskie, founding board member and dmissioners. i'm jude koskie, founding board member and director of s.f. grow, san francisco garden resource organization. we're fiscally sponsored by san francisco parks trust.

since our inception in 2002, our volunteer-led group has provided information and resource referral, education, advocacy and technical assistance to the city's community garden coordinators and gardeners. we were founded on core values centered on equitable access to gardening for all san franciscoans and strongly value the unique opportunity community gardens offer to residents, organizations, businesses and local government to promote shared vision and enhancing the experience and connectiveness to community. we understand the perplexity of the proposal and in the event it proves the proposal to create a community park guarden, s.f. grow would support its development, if the proposal were approved, s.f. grow would straighten the process to involve the the community ordinance together to best meet the needs of the community.

>> i have three more cards, paul green, mark juarez and bruce woof. >> good evening, commissioners. golden gate park preservation appliance. i'm delighted to hear rec and park staff refer to the department as the department's most important planning document f you're going to apply the master plan to the industrial recycling center, then you must apply it throughout golden gate park. you must therefore immediately deny the request to build an industrial water treatment factory and golden gate park. you must also stop the proposed beach chalet, turf soccer fields and sports lighting. the master plan doesn't make that part of the park as a natural wildlife section. it's not an urban sports stadium. you need to be consistent in how you apply the master plan. if you do not do this, people may assume that you are using the master plan, manipulatively to fit the department's own agenda for golden gate park.

thank you. >> good evening. my name is mark brennan, longtime resident of the haight-ashbury. i live three blocks away from this site. any divisiveness that has been created or started up over this issue has been created by hanc and the recycling center. the greatest impediment to improvement and quality of life issues in my neighborhood is hanc. it is a destination center. it is a dinosaur. it is totally tone deaf for ids neighbors, surrounding areas. it has no lease. has not had a lease since 2001 continue pays participant rents, essentially one penny square foot. it makes no sense for rec and park to subsidize a nonprofit organization who uses the proceeds to find its particularly strange brand of

ideological politics to the great detriment of particularly strange brand of ideological politics to the great detriment of my neighborhood. a community garden would be the ideal solution. something that everyone can enjoy and take pride in. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> good evening. my name ted and i'm president of the hate ash -- haight-ashbury improvement association. and i want to make point this is not homelessness and goodness of recycling. this is a business issue at heart. hanc has a contract with the rec and park department, the city of san francisco to rent this land for a purpose. that purpose at one point was a leading edge. it has over the 34 years that the site has been there has really fallen behind the times as recycling has taken on a totally different dimension in the city. so what hanc is before you today

is looking for a bailout. her heavily subsidized by state and local funds, as you heard the preenchous speaker stalk about the price they pay for square foot. they should be paying $10,000 a month for that space, not $500. so there before you to try to get a bailout to stay in business in what is is a failed business model at this point, they never bothered to update or revise. i urge you to support the community garden as a better alternative use of the land. thank you. >> thank you. >> good evening. my name is rich. i have lived in the inner sunset for about 15 years. no one here is against recycling. but this facility is obsolete. it's not necessary anymore.