SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- One arm of city government plans emergency hearings on the lack of recycling in SF, another arm evicts the oldest recycling center in the urban area.  The hypocrisy of SF is not only brimming with cruel irony but will also have a hugely negative impact on recycling mandates, small businesses, and communities who garden.

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On Dec 6 from 2-4pm at City Hall, there will be an urgent discussion with the Small Business Commission on the lack of recycling available in SF.  Agenda item 6 covers the convenience zone areas and will deal with this issue.  On Dec 10, there will be a full board meeting on this as well.

The Recreation and Park Department refuses to work with any other city agency on this issue and are quite comfortable costing hundreds of business owners-big and small-and thousands of San Franciscan citizens-huge sums of money so they can build a tax-payer funded garden for forty people who pre-reserved their spots.  The Rec and Park garden has no final budget and no published time line; there has not been any advancement of work on the plan that is now over two years old.

When our native plant nursery founder and a number of community gardeners expressed their concerns to Sarah Ballard, they were only met with the uncharitable and inequitable answer that Rec Park plans to tear up the asphalt and the current gardens, they also do not plan to offer any spaces to people who have been growing veggies there for a year now.

Between the lack of recycling and the lack of gardens in this city, there is no rhetorical way to justify removing a nonprofit that provides both.  But the Rec and Park Department does not care to justify their work on behalf of the city and its citizens, they also do not care what the needs of the city are, they operate with autonomy and they like it that way.  

As of today, the Sheriff has not come to shut us down, as Rec and Park would have wanted.  We don't know how much longer we have but its up to our leaders to speak up about this issue NOW.

Eric Mar-hear our call and make a bold statement about a place that serves the community you represent!  Protect the unheard voices of Chinese people and other Asians that help sustain them through recycling at our center.  Speak for them!

And PEOPLE, demand Sarah Ballard, Marvin Yee and Phil Ginsburg uphold the process they agreed to when this garden plan was initiated.  There is to be an advisory council made up of the public that advises Rec and Park how to proceed with their plan.  Why is the Advisory Council not in session?  Demand they reinstate this policy advising body immediately!  The advisory council should be making recommendations on the current gardeners status and future in the space not an autonomous Rec and Park Department.

Media Contact: Ed Dunn, Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council, +1-415-760-1066, hancrecycling@gmail.com

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SOURCE Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council