there is nothing like hanc on the planet. i have covered environmental issues for many years as a journalist. the meeting of races and classes at hanc is like nothing else in san francisco or anywhere that i know of where people from all levels of society come and participate in something that they love. this is a great, great social benefit that hanc does and i -- and i support the mezzureb. thank you. >> thank you. >> i will read a few more names. marcus major, gary delaineous, karen fishkin, susan carasoft, anna cho, martha offman and matthew leviscay. >> good evening, my name is james. i'm a resident of the haight-ashbury since 1984. i have dedicated my career to parks and rec and actually work next to a community garden currently. i think that many people in this

room have stated things that are quite misguided and i'm in support of hanc recycling program and native plant nursery. being next to a community garden. very few of those gardens are actually native plants. and i think many people have pointed out some good stuff thus far. it's amazing how you stand in front and get really nervous. so i do want to support hanc and i'm against this proposal. i think there are many better places for community gardens in the city as somebody rec creates or used to rec create in the parks as well. i think that park and rec needs to build better community relations and not separate them. so, again, i'm in support of hanc and the recycling center. thanks. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is janet rogers and i'm

a longtime resident, over 20 years. i'm here today to urge you to remove the recycling center and replace it with a community garden. clearly hanc should be commended for its pioneering efforts in recycling movement. however, it has outlived its usefulness now that we have a curbside recycling program. a community garden would be an asset to the neighborhood as it would be a lovely place for residents to gather to meet each other and to do community gardening together. thank you. thank you. >> thank you. >> good evening, i'm elizabeth martin craig. one one of the cocoordinators of the agriculture coalition urban alliance. the san francisco agriculture alliance is firmly in support of garden resource centers and in support of the continued operation of hanc recycling center and native plant nursery.

we do not think hanc should be closed in order toin stall a community garden. the hanc recycling center at that location is already providing an enormous benefit to the gardening and agriculture community by fully funding and operating the nursery dorks nating tons of card bore for mulch and projects like hay valley farms, agriculture workshops and classes and by acting as a garden resource distribute post for compost. they support equal access to production and believes a new garden resource center would best serve san francisco if in a location that did not currently have a garden resource center. in conclusion we strongly support community gardens but not at the expense of hanc. thank you. >> hi. my name is stephanie. i'm just coming forward today. i'm a resident of the haight-ashbury community and i'm coming forward to express my im

coming forward to express my concern i'm coming forward to express my concern regarding the potentialm coming forward to express my concern regarding the potential eviction of hanc. i think that i would be very disappointed to see hanc go. think from the clearance site for the garden would be awesome. i'm totally for community gardens. i don't think this is the appropriate place and i don't really think that rec and park really went about it appropriately. completely ignoring all of the policies and procedures that they put in place. i don't think that there's enough time to make a decision. especially a decision that will affect so many people in the community the way this would affect us with hanc closed. and, yeah, that's pretty much it. i'm in support of hanc and i really hope you can really think about this before you make a decision. and think about what everyone here came to say. so that's all. thank you. >> hi, commissioners. i'm martha hoffman. i'm a homeowner on wall street

near the hanc recycling center and nursery. the center is not the cause of camping in the park and not the cause of crime in the park and it's a very safe place. i have resided by hanc recycling center for years. it's popular, successful environmental center, outstanding operation and it should continue. i recycle there to support neighborhood green jobs, volunteers and because the center gives regular grants to the community, including at one time helping to restore the carousel. rec and park has handled this effort in a really dishonest, disrespectful way and i appeal to you commissioners to put the brakes on this effort and to work towards the process to maintain the center improved at its location. >> next speaker please. >> good evening.

i work with building resources in support of hanc. opposed to your motion. i am all in favor of garden centers. i would like to see gary boulevard ripped end to end and planted with trees but i don't think i will get it. what i would like is honesty. what this policy boils down to is the let's kill the buffalo. that's what we did to the native indians so we could make farms. that's what you guys are doing. we're blaming hanc for the homeless problem and i think it's appalling. thank you. >> thank you. >> good evening, commissioners, the pleasure to be here. name is marcus major. i'm an urban farmer and pride myself as being openly clear urban farmer and part of the rainbow chart alliance, which is a group of farmers and gardners internationally known, mind you. i think it's really important to bring up issues here. rec park, this is a stellar park system. it is world class and i invite

you if you act world classly in opening communication space with the community. as an urban gardener here, we need more community gardens. it's not an issue. i think it's a red herring. i invite all of you to look at this as a multiagency approach. if we lose the ten green jobs, what will happen with the health care? they will not happen. they will not have it. so let's call d.p.h. why is d.p.h. here? we will need them to help take care of some of the loss of health care and not only the ten jobs, but the partial hundreds of jobs that people will lose. i think the important thing is about empowerment. if people feel empowered, they're able to have jobs and they're more likely to make positive health choices and i think we can all make positive health choices in helping support community gardens and recycling centers as well. thank you very much. i oppose the ordinance. >> my name --

>> linda, duncan cavy, carol glausening, linda stark, brian hornbeck, gilbert johnson and kathy belan. >> hi, i'm karen siskin. disclosure, i'm on the hanc board and on the hanc recycling committee. i was going to come in here and talk about integrity but i think we've heard a lot about that. but decided instead i would focus on the issue of smell. this gentleman segued me right into it. i want to talk about red herrings because we've had so many red herrings thrown out here during the course of this meeting. the first one was smell and calvin welsch addressed that. that's never been hanc or the advisory committee. red herring. noise, captain newellen at his request we had professionals come in and test the sound from the recycling center within

limits. red herring. crime, captain newellen again in several other people pointing to the crime directly related to the recycling center and around the recycling center brfment you take that on face value, check out the crime stats we have. what you're facing here is neighborhood politics, agar jakes called it. you're being asked to participate in a really dirty process and i hope you will look into all of this more thoroughly. thank you. >> hello, commissioners. my name is linda stark and i'm speaking today just for myself, not representing any group, but i wanted you to know that i was a volunteer coordinator at hanc way back in the beginning and i completely support their program. i don't want to repeat what anyone else has been saying but hanc has over the last 36 years been "the expendables" particularry what they have done for bringing in jobs.

what i wanted to mention today is the $250,000 that has been talked about as possible money for this new community garden. we weren't aware there was any money available for community gardens. 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. >> mna