we understand the concern about the recycling center in golden gate park. we are very sympathetic to the need for proper community dialogue. that is a strong theme of today. i think that is your main message. with that, above all, please save the nursery and keep that at full operation. thank you. >> my name is wanda and i am here to ask you to please -- it has been in operation for 36 years. that is not something to be discarded lightly. that is an impressive record. people need options. if you need more than one option for recycling, they're probably

coming up with ideas that other recycling centers could use if they know about them. the native plant nursery that gregg has started is extremely important. we have other nurseries, but this is one focusing on the san francisco gene pool. we cannot lose that. it is important that people know that these plants are still there, and how they can create habitat for insects, for birds, and everything. i live on a cable car line. i don't think getting rid of the recycling center will cut down on the noise. as somebody pointed out, it is a commercial corridor. there will be a lot of traffic. please keep the recycling center and the nursery. thank you. president buell: thank you. >> [reading names]

>> commissioners, good afternoon. i am richard from the steering committee of the buena vista association. we have 400 paying members. we serve a 4500 households. we are part of a coalition of six or seven, almost all the neighborhood organizations in the area. we respectfully urge you to support your staff's proposal for the community garden. it is an on-target use of prime property. it conforms with the master plan. it will provide additional guard in spaces. there's plenty of room for the native plant nursery. the recycling was once an extremely innovative and great neighborhood service. that is obsolete, thanks to

citywide recycling. now it is an industrial activity. it does not belong in the residential neighborhood, certainly not in the crown jewel of golden gate park. it to be relocated to an industrial location where the recycling can continue, the jobs can continue, but it is in an appropriate location. thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners, for providing this opportunity to speak. my name is andrea and i am co- presidents of inner sunset park neighbors. we have approximately 1300 households. our members have been advocating for a refusal hanc recycling site. they have been advocating for more park use. people think that because golden gate park is on lincoln boulevard that it fulfills all of the president' -- residents'

wishes. what people want is a community gathering place and a community garden would fulfill that. i am a community gardener. in richmond, there is one community garden. in sunset, there are two gardens. south of market, there are over 30 community gardens. we are not over-served in the sunset or the richmond community gardens. one last thing. i would urge you to do community outreach if this concept is adopted, not to finalize the garden plan, but to be in on the front with the people who are gathered here today. thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is dale. i'm a resident of the north panhandle area and have worked with neighbors to help organize

stewardship activities. i am saying my own opinions about this issue. one thing i have learned from neighbors is their interest and their need for community gardens. we don't have any sort of a nearby community gardens. the location would be convenient for people in the panhandle. also, i found the remarks extremely blunt this afternoon. they did show us something about the difficulty and persistent work the gardners and the staff have to do to keep our parks clean. i am proud to stand with them because of the work they do. it makes it possible for a neighbor in their -- neighbors to enjoy the park. thank you.

>> good evening. i am the president of the north panhandle member association. i appreciate the opportunity to voice our support for the garden. it is simple. parks are for people to enjoy. they should not be used for industrial use. i would stress that if planned to move forward for this project that every consideration be given to the employees affected by the repurchasing of the site. -- the repurposing of the site. >> hello. i am president of an association. i come here as a long-term resident. i come mostly to support the community garden concept. it is time to do the right thing and take this land back into the park.

however, all of these talks about how nothing is going to grow there, the native plants seem to be doing fine. that is a red herring. 10 years ago, we went through this same thing. this is not an immediate thing. they have had many years of being on a 30-day notice situation. if you have a business on a month-to-month lease, you should be looking for a new location. let's do the right thing and get this industrial use out of the park. put the land back to the people. president buell: thank you. >> hello. i would like to say "go, giants." first of all, i have lived in the haight ashbury for 22 years. i have recycled and i have worked at the recycling center. i have worked with the native plants.

i have gotten tickets for parking that i have had to work off through the recycling center. i really appreciate the people that work hard in the park. you are not going to get rid of the homeless people by getting rid of the recycling center. i believe that we still need the cops on horses, the walking -- and the walking police in our neighborhoods. the homeless thing and the recycling thing are two different things. i am sorry that people are not happy with the way that people recycle, but it is important. it is something we have been striving for for many years. hanc has already been doing that. thank you. president buell: thank you. >> a few more names. [reading names]

>> my name is robert. i am representing a community garden. i am a membership coordinator. i look forward to this transition. it could be a tremendous benefit for all of the community gardens out there. the one thing we have a difficulty with as having a location where we can have resources for community gardens, to enable them to do their function very well. there is nothing more empowering in this economy than for people to be able to grow their own food, their own health become organic food. the second thing is that berkeley has a tremendous program of tool-lending. in addition to helping community gardens function by having resources locally, having access to tools for gardens and private individuals is something that should not be overlooked. it is a very valuable resource.

it would be nice to have it here. thank you for your time. >> next speaker, please. >> good evening, commissioners. i am in inner sunset resident. i am here in support of the proposal for a community garden. this is not for an industrial use. any other business could move a business to another space. the garden space can still be utilized with the native plants and as a community gathering space. i am not much of a public speaker. it could be better utilized for the inner sunset residents and neighboring residents as a community garden, rather than an industrial use. thank you very much. >> [reading names]

if your name has been called, could you come forward, please? >> good evening, commissioners. i want to say i am impressed that so many people have come forward to defend the national grocery chains. it is not our job to redeem, to make sure they fulfil their equipment -- fulfill their obligation. that is their problem. they're very capable of doing it. hanc has been on a 30-day lease. that is an order of the eviction. kevin was looking for alternative places 10 years ago,

and was reporting to us regularly. they knew they were being evicted. they kept going on and on. i am delighted about the community garden. so many social services have been dumped in the haight in the last 20 years. this is the first time the city has really given us something, assuming that we get it. now we can be for something. >> hello, commissioners. i am related to that woman. i am a longtime resident of the haight-ashbury neighborhood. i am a member in good standing of hanc and the improvement association. i am not talking about -- as a representative of those groups. i am a member of the graffiti

advisory board. i enthusiastically support the establishment of the community garden and the relocation of the recycling center, and the hopeful extension of the nursery. thank you. president buell: thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> my name is denise. i want to ask you to please reconsider the proposal that is going to, you know, harm hanc. i want to support the recycling center and the native plant nursery. listening to the arguments, i want to add a suggestion. if the concern is that the homeless are attracted and the park workers are in danger, why don't we ask hanc to accept the

recyclables only from people with a driver's license or some idea that shows they are not homeless? right? also, i think the audience really needs to hear from you that, yes, you are aware of the sunshine ordinance. thank you. >> the sun shine ordinance. >> my name is sue. i am in instructor of history at the city college of san francisco. i was here to speak recently. i have been recruited to the hanc cause. in this morning's paper, commissioner buell, you said we are talking about change. there will always be? -- be people who like it. change just is.

it is the way of the universe. you guys are smack up against that right now. however, it is how a change occurs that is crucial when it comes to these changes and the policies that directly affect us. the changes you propose to do directly affect me. i do oppose the community garden and the negation of the recycling center. finally, we leave tribute to our pioneers. hanc is a pioneer of recycling. honor it by maintaining its 40- year space at the edge of the park. thank you. president buell: thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> my name is john. i will offer a perspective of somebody who has lived across the street from this recycling

centers since its inception. we won't get into the thousands of dollars caused by damage from pigeons. we will not talk about the break-in's related to the client. in terms of the neighborhood recycling center, i would like to address the trucking. hanc as trucks that go in and out constantly. there is a caravan of cars and trucks bringing in obviously stolen materials. large commercial ventures come in and drop off their materials. in addition to that, hanc has another commercial business. they store their trucks on the property. they come in and out. you hear a thebeep of the critics -- you hear the beep of the trucks. i support to the recycling

center when it was started 30- some years ago. it is now not a neighborhood recycling center, but a large- scale commercial transfer station. thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> i am christine, a longtime hanc member. as much as i hate to contradict my old adversary, john, i think this is veryvery importantly a neighborhood organization that many of us have deep roots in and take great pride in. have i been recycling at hanc all of these years specifically because of the grants that it funnels back into the community and which gives me a sense that i am directly able to affect the welfare of many people in my

community whom i don't even know. so ripping hanc out of our midst, especially on short notice, i think would be an extreme trauma and shock to this community, and on that -- in that regard, i would also like to object very strainously to the lack of any dialogue, any notice despite your highly touted new outreach policy. i wonder why that doesn't apply to the haight-ashbury? and i hope you will answer, does that only apply to certain neighborhoods and certain people? >> next speaker. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is greg gar. i ran the recycling center in the mid-80's and started the native plant nursery about seven

years ago. this whole process has been very divisive in the neighborhood. there was not enough public process. paffs a big -- that was a big mistake. it's a unique facility because it propagates only san francisco native plants. these are adaptive to san francisco's environmental conditions that are habitat for our local wildlife. the nursery staff and volunteers have planted over an acre of gnative plant gardens adjacent to the stadium. the garden supplied seed for propagation of more native plants. all of the potting soil is made on site. we supply plants to the natural areas, programs, green hair street quarter, green school yards program, mount sutro stewards. the nursery should remain as a valuable and appropriate use of golden gate park. thank you.

>> about afternoon, commissioners. my name is tess wellborn, a long time resident of the ashbury. i recycle at the haight-ashbury recycling center and buy native plants there. i would like to address location, first of all, of community gardens. you have already approved a site at the top of this picture. secondly, there is a triangle at fred wick that is much, much larger size, probably an acre and a half. that gets full sun and would be an excellent garden site if you need a second one. as far as the industrial, if you look at what it says in the golden gate master plan, it says stopping an industrial use at this center would mean stopping pickup around the city. the fact is that we only pick up

in the immediate neighborhood and most of our donations and buybacks are from people who live in the immediate neighborhood. we get 3,000 people a month at that recycling center. most of them come in cars or on foot and obviously, our address showing they live in the vicinity. so don't be fooled by what they say about industrial. we have the -- the center has complied with what it says in the golden gate master plan. >> a few more names. antonio ramon, elizabeth martin craig philip, steph any, pat green, nicholas bellny. bruno waltner. quentin mechanicy. mark marden and janet rogers. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is suze yes and i'm the program director for garden for

the environment, a fiscally sponsored product of the haight-ashbury council. i also served as a stakeholder representing the urban agriculture specter. i'm a community garden advocate but i oppose the plan for the garden at 780 frederick street. while i applaud rec and park for allocating a quarter of a million dollars to create a community garden and resource center, considering the deep budget cuts for the department, a contradiction lies in the displacement of hanc to create a community garden. over the year hanc has supported the san francisco urban agriculture community by providing grant funding for community gardens for compost bins, material and divorces for new garden as well as serving as the fiscal sponsor for garden for the environment for last seven years. last year per the request of the mayor and san francisco food policy council, all city departments and agencies were asked to conduct an audit of the land suitable for urban agriculture purposes. not only did 780 frederick street not appear on the

citywind land audit, another location did. commissioners, i urge you to take a step back and initiate a public process that is transparent, participatory and inclusive. a comprehensive process that addresses the current associated concerns with hanc as well as the community garden and urban farming communities in san francisco. thank you. >> thank you, commissioners. my name is kevin hart. i'm a resident of the neighborhood and have been for 18 years. and i support the community garden proposal before you. it seems to be an excellent use as far as i know enjoys a great deal of support of the immediate neighborhood. i would also like to commend the process. we've been there for 18 years. this is discussion has been being had for ten of those years among neighbors, i believe in this room and thanks also to the press.

i would also like to commend hanc. for its obvious and exemplary early leadership in building the recycling center and i would like to ask them to recognize that, that function is now obsolete, especially when it's located as it is an industrial use on public land, public park land, which is a value to all of us in the city. thank you. >> thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is paul green. i'm a member of the board of the neighborhood association. i have also been a resident of the area for 25 years. hanc has been a great resource in the early days in recycling. that resource is now superfluous with curbside recycling for the fast majority of people. i have visited many of the world's great parks and i know no other park in the world that

has a recycling center in it. it was classified golden gate park say great park. having a recycling center in there is inconsistent with its use as place of recreation and i hope that hanc can continue its function in a more appropriate location. thank you. >> thank you. >> name is antonio romano, and i'm a lifetime native san franciscoan and urban farmer and co-founder of the san francisco agriculture alliance, which opposes this measure. the main reason why i oppose this measure is because it just doesn't make sense. the site is not appropriate. someone tried to equate growing native plants with growing food plants and that's just ignorant. there's a big difference in the amount of food food plants need to native plants. that is a factor. there's plenty of available sites that have been explained and i would say yes, we want community gardens in that space.

i live in the mission. i don't live in the neighborhood but i can imagine there's a lack of community gardens and i support making community gardens but that's not the right part. to me it seems like a railroad process, very undemocratic and made in the sense to demonize the poor yet again. for rec and park to participate in the process of demonizing the poor and trying to with hanc. some people don't like homeless people and that's inappropriate. if you don't like homeless people, you should do something else about it besides evict hanc. >> good evening, commissioners. i just want to say i'm supportive of the community garden because we're taking a space that's being used now for profit and turning it into an open space area and that's something we need to look at here too, that we're always talking about the department being greedy and taking money left and right from everybody and this is a situation where we're actually taking something where we are getting money and

going. let us -- let's give it back to the community. this is something that might be -- this is a very good point, and i think everybody needs to pay attention to that as well. also, one quick other point issy live in the lower richmond district as most of you know. i basically kind of scared the hell out of the people taking our recyclables this week and i talked to them a little bit. everybody i asked that was taking recyclables basically said we're going to golden gate park. so that's something to look at in the outlying districts that they basically are getting them that way. so there you guys go. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is quentin mechanicy. i believe our office in addition to senator mark leno's office have submitted letters to this commission. and i should be clear about the intent of both of those letters in conversation with senator lengio's office, it's not to

oppose community gardens. it's to oppose the decision and process by which you have now chosen to evict hanc. we are in favor of community gardens as i'm sure if you took a hand raising exercise here in this room right now, you would find the majority of people raising their hand in favor of community gardens. in october of 2009, this commission approved funding for a community garden in front of mclaren lodge and yet there's been no response as to the status of that. that was over a year ago. unfortunately, the administration and the department has made a very clear choice to take what was a controversial and historical issue within this neighborhood and made it a family decisive issue that has separated every neighborhood around the recycling center. it's unfortunate and quite frankly didn't actually have to happen like this. not only was your outreach policy not followed, it was generally ignored. there have been no community meetings that we have been taken a part of or invited to attend. in closing we ask you to reject this proposal and keep hanc where its site is.

>> good evening. i'm on the board of directors of san francisco community recyclers. i want to thank the commission for working with hanc for so long. would i suggest you consider renewing the lease for five years. that might be in order. thank you. good evening, commissioners. my name is mark martin. i have worked in the area for years, and my great friend, late friend david brouwer might remind you that the environmental movement is not about ue taupen ideas but the future of the environmental movement is environmental justice, which involves dealing with people of all classes and all races. and i happen to have worked for hanc for