SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – San Francisco’s Recreation and Park Commission approved a controversial plan to close a recycling center on the edge of Golden Gate Park.
The center would then be replaced by a community garden.
KCBS’ Chris Filippi Reports:
The commission voted unanimously to order the center to vacate its current location, next to Kezar Stadium.
Critics of the Haight-Ashbury Neighborhood Council Recycling Center described it as outdated in an era of curbside recycling. They called it a magnet for the homeless.
“In our view recycling provides an economic means to continue illegal camping throughout the year in the park,” said Rec and Park operations director Denny Kern.
“What HANC causes is a caravan of homeless people, some of them very dangerous, to cross paths everyday with our city’s children,” argued another.
Supporters disagreed, maintaining that the center was being targeted because the Haight-Ashbury Council opposed San Francisco’s controversial new sit-lie ordinance.
“We’re talking about an irreplaceable public resource that is utilized by thousands of San Franciscans every month,” one supporter declared.
Others suggested that shuttering the center placed an unfair burden on the homeless who recycled cans and bottles for food money.
“What this really is about is an attack on poor people,” said one man.
“And these homeless people are working very hard, 10 hours a day, to make $15 or $20, most of them to eat.”
The center was given 90 days to vacate. Lawyers suggested they would explore the possibility of securing an injunction to delay or stop that order.
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