Green Options

Two hearings are being held this week at San Francisco City Hall so that the public can register their comments on the massive Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) document for the proposed Bayview “redevelopment” project. The first opportunity to voice your comments is today, December 15, at the SF Redevelopment Agency Commission meeting at SF City Hall, Room 416 (the meeting starts at 4:00 PM). We all can also make an EIR public comment this Thursday, December 17, at the Planning Commission meeting, also at City Hall (this meeting starts at 1:30 PM).

The Draft EIR is a behemoth document, at well over 4000 pages. Scores of groups and citizens are demanding a ninety day extension to the public comment period, in order for all of us to be able to actually be able to read the massive volumes. You can download the entire EIR document here on the SF Planning Department’s website. The plan is entitled: Candlestick Point-Hunters Point Shipyard Phase II Development Project (formerly known as the “Bayview Waterfront Project”) Draft EIR.

We spent a few hours today at Arc Ecology, slowly trying to comprehend 4000 pages of the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that was recently released for our Bayview neighborhood’s “redevelopment”. If you are inspired to read it yourself, you can download the entire EIR document here on the SF Planning Department’s website. The plan is entitled: Candlestick Point-Hunters Point Shipyard Phase II Development Project (formerly known as the “Bayview Waterfront Project”) Draft EIR.

Peter searching through the Draft EIR at Arc Ecology’s library in Bayview.

If you start reading today, you will only have to read about 170 pages each day if you want to finish it by the time the public comment period is over. The allotted time in which we are allowed to give our input ends on the third day of Kwanzaa, in just twenty-six days. Many neighborhood residents and activists are demanding a 90 day extension on the public comment period, which hopefully will be granted. Two hearings are scheduled on December 15 and 17 at SF City Hall for public comment.

Filmmaker Ken Burns’ most recent PBS documentary, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, is a stunning and utterly engrossing tribute not only to our country’s many awe-inspiring natural landscapes, but also to our nation’s fundamental democratic principles. Burns interviews scores of ordinary people, from park rangers and activists to journalists and historians, as they trace the origins of our greatest collectively-owned resources, and share their unique personal experiences in the vast beauty of our national parks.

“When we look at the parks and we look at the United States and we examine the whole idea of democracy, I think that the park experience is an exploration of the idea of freedom.”

-Shelton Johnson, Park Ranger

So how much does a foreclosed home in Detroit cost? Two weeks ago, you could buy a home for $1 in the city. Today the lowest price I could find was $40. The city’s morale has dipped so low that only 14 percent of voters turned out for the big mayoral election in February, and two-thirds of children drop out of high school. What could we do to boost moral in Detroit? We could buy up [...]

A few weeks ago I wrote an article alerting you to an international activity that took place on September 21 called Park(ing) Day. As predicted, the event, in its third year, was an overall hit. From a little over a dozen parks last year, this year’s international event tallied up 180 parks in 47 cities worldwide. San Francisco, Park(ing) Day’s hometown, accomplished 53 parks and 5 sidewalk

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More than 70% of outdoor space in the city of San Francisco is dedicated to vehicle parking. That leaves little space for public activity, public play, and public human parking. This very idea sparked an inspiration in a few young men in San Francisco who decided to intervene by paying the meter to create temporary public parks. Rebar group is what they call themselves and the event is called PARK(ing).

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