Ed Dunn stands up for HANC recycling

HANC rallys support at Inner Sunset Farmers Market from Laccolith Films on Vimeo.

Recycling and Native Plant Center EVICTED?
For many months as HANC recycling and native plant center have been trying to meet with community leaders about the fate of its operation at 780 Frederick Street, those leaders have been making plans without them. In April 2010, a clandestine design was drawn by city officials to re-purpose the almost acre of land that has been occupied by the recycling and native plant center for 35 years. HANC leadership was not privy to these plans until November 2010 when they also learned an attack had been launched against them by their next door neighbors.

Green versus Green
The historic HANC recycling center, also propagator of thousands of San Francisco native plants, now faces eviction for a similar sounding garden resource center (just without the recycling).

GGP has no recycling plan
It is important to note that Golden Gate Park has no official recycling program thus far. There are some embarrassing looking dumpsters tucked into a few corners; you can find one next to the kid's carousel near Kezar Drive where I often walk. The park, itself, was built over the unique and natural landscape of sand dunes and native lakes, it is a mostly planted area comprised of man-made pools and knolls. Doesn't a native nursery and recycling facility seem like a much needed part of our Golden Gate Park?

CRV is your money
Some neighbors who support HANC's eviction believe the action will curb the problem of people going through their curbside blue bins and deter those types of people from frequenting their neighborhood. Some would rather give their deposit money to the garbage company instead of a poor person. However, the bottle bill has a statewide mandate that gives people the right to reclaim deposits on beverage containers. Curbside recycling is not the same system and cannot be a substitute for bottle buyback unless the bottle bill is revoked.

Call for Open Discussion
Before we let this happen, let's learn more. Let's have some open discussion around the real issues plaguing our community and find ways to solve them together. Let's bring in experts and do studies that help us understand how to best use our public land in a climate crisis and how to combat poverty without simply removing it from view. Let's do what Ed Dunn, director of HANC and son of its founder, does everyday and stand up for people who cannot stand up for themselves.

Support Community Recycling
Come out and be heard on Nov 30 at an Emergency Community Forum. Stand Up: December 2 at City Hall when the HANC recycling center comes up on the agenda. Write a letter and fill out the online postcard in support of community recycling in Golden Gate Park. Read Up: green vs. "green" in SF Bay Guardian. Listen Up: on the news at ABC 7.

Do Something. :)