OK, Tenderloin business andproperty owners: Chuck thoseCoke cans and bottles, yester-day’s Chronicle, chicken bones,chili leftovers, cauliflower stems.

Uh-uh — NOT in the garbage can.Blue for recyclables. Green for composta-

bles. Black cart for everything else, the “real”garbage.

Citywide, San Francisco now is diverting —environmental parlance for not sending to

landfill — 63% of its throwaways, the highestrate of any comparably dense U.S. city, accord-ing to Gloria Chan, S.F. Dept. of theEnvironment’s public information officer.

The Tenderloin diversion rate is only 15%. For comparison, the Environment depart-

ment says SoMa has a rate of 35% and out inthe Avenues, the rate may be 40% or higherbecause of lawn and garden trimmings.

But, even without any single-family homes,the Tenderloin can get with the program.

EASY RESIDENTIAL RECYCLINGResidential buildings can recycle almost

every kind of paper, glass and plastic bottles,metal cans, even aluminum foil. It’s free, and,for most buildings, all recyclables can go in thesame blue cart.

Jim Thompson has been recycling at thetwo apartment buildings he manages in theTenderloin for about five years. Tenants in the26 units at 165 Turk fill one 32-gallon blue cartweekly, he said. Those at the 55-unit buildingat 249 Eddy do two blue carts every week.

“It’s easy — the blue cans are in the laun-dry room and people just bring their stuffdown,” Thompson said. “I really don’t knowhow many tenants are doing it, but the carts arealways full, mostly with newspaper and otherpaper. I don’t see many cans or bottles.”

The beauty of the San Francisco program isthe commingling of recyclables. Thompsonagrees that with a little more education aboutwhat is and isn’t traditional “garbage” and whatcan be recycled, his tenants could fill morecarts.

Chris Levaggi, recycling manager forGolden Gate Disposal, has one caveat aboutcommingled recyclables: “A few of theTenderloin pickup routes still have what we

NOMPC nixesa ‘hostiletakeover’ try

B Y T O M C A R T E R

➤ C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 4

Not just garbage

S A N F R A N C I S C O

CENTRAL CITYno. 35

PUBLISHED BY THE

SAN FRANCISCO STUDY CENTER

MAY2004

But only 15% of TL throwaways now being diverted

Board shakeup atplanning group’sannual meeting

HISTORICSITE

Extrememakeover

PAGE 2

REAL HOUSING

Checking in,cashing out

PAGE 3

PERSPECTIVEDA sticks to

her gunsPAGE 6

B Y M A R J O R I E B E G G S

BLACK, BLUE , GREEN

P H O T O B Y L E N N Y L I M J O C O

Workers help Recycle Central’s sophisticated equipment by hand sorting recyclables.

Blue recycling cart on Market at Jonesand McAllister.

P H O T O B Y M A R J O R I E B E G G S

THE North of Market PlanningCoalition, once a toweringadvocate for Tenderloin resi-

dents and now enfeebled by debt,lawsuits and dwindling membership,fended off a “hostile takeover” byUrban Solutions at its annual meetingin April. And it pulled off a boardshakeup that surprised even the non-resident TL gallery owner who had noidea she would be nominated, letalone elected, president.

“I have never been president ofanything before,” said Rx Gallery (132Eddy) owner Monika Bernstein, whoattended her first NOMPC meeting lastfall to get the group’s endorsement fora beer and wine license. “People want-ed a fresh change, I guess. Others hadbeen on the board a long time.Otherwise, people don’t know muchabout me.

“Now I’m in an information-gath-ering phase.”

The Urban Solutions proposal tosubsume the neighborhood’s longtimeimprovement group was first present-

ed at a meeting fivedays before theannual meeting.Roger Gordon, ex-ecutive director ofUrban Solutions,which is workingwith the Redevelop-ment Agency onSixth Street im-provements andbusiness loans, andtrying to organize aTL merchants asso-ciation, offered to

take over NOMPC’s indebtedness. Inreturn, according to board members,NOMPC would shed its 501(c)3 statusand become an advisory committee ofUrban Solutions.

But Gordon was rebuffed, saidthen-President Marvis Phillips, and thematter was put over to the annualmeeting where Phillips, expecting tobe re-elected, wanted to address it in aclosed session after the board and offi-cer elections.

Before the annual meeting startedin the police station Community Roomat 301 Eddy, Gordon submitted a two-part resolution for Phillips to sign toseal the deal. Gordon, a three-yearmember, stayed just long enough tovote for the board.

The resolution essentially author-ized Urban Solutions to representNOMPC in seeking legal relief andagreed that the group would workwith Urban Solutions to implementNOMPC’s laudatory aims for theneighborhood.

“What he (Gordon) handed uswas totally different from before,” saidPhillips. “At the meeting before, hewanted to move fast, and we said no.He got mad and left. I think he had ahidden agenda for Urban Solutions,maybe a $70,000 Redevelopment granthe was pushing. He wanted to makethe Tenderloin a Redevelopmentneighborhood. If he had said that, itwould be different. But to do a hostiletakeover, that’s not professional.”

A number of NOMPC board mem-bers told The Extra they are opposedto Redevelopment coming into the

“Peoplewanted a

fresh change, I guess.”

Monika BernsteinNEW NOMPC PRESIDENT

➤ C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 7

FUTURES COLLABORAT IVE

Old Scientology site willmorph into apartments

THE old Church of Scientologybuilding at 83 McAllister isabout to undergo a sea change,

according to Dan Paris, a designerwith Group I, a small real estatedevelopment firm.

Vacant since late last year, thebuilding will get an extrememakeover, Paris told the TenderloinFutures Collaborative in April, andwill re-emerge as a 60-unit apartmentbuilding.

The historic five-story building,erected just after the big fire andearthquake in ’06, was once home tothe Methodist Book Concern, thechurch’s publishing arm that wasfounded in 1789 in Philadelphia. Theletters “M B C” are still visible belowthe building’s cornice.

“We’re going to gut and com-pletely renovate the inside,” Paris said,“but there’ll be no exterior changesbecause the building has landmarkstatus.”

The units all will be market rate,except for the 12% that inclusionaryzoning requires to be affordablypriced. They’ll be modest in size: 22two-bedroom apartments, each about550 square feet, and 38 studios at 275square feet.

The building’s mezzanine andground floor, Paris said, will haveboth apartments and retail or com-mercial space; the basement willinclude a multipurpose room, gym,laundry and possibly more commer-cial space.

Paris said he expects no snags inthe planning process for the $3.5 mil-lion project. “We’re hoping to have anEIR completed by the end of the sum-mer, start construction this fall, andhave the work done a year later.”

There were few questions forParis, who promised to come back toupdate the group on the project’sprogress.

STRIP CLUB Q & ABut there were lots of questions

later in the meeting for Clint Ladine,operations manager for the SanFrancisco Rescue Mission, andTerrance Alan, owner of the strip clubnext door to the Mission.

The media had a little feedingfrenzy there last month after Alanclosed the 220 Club, a gay venue, andreopened it as Chez Paree, which fea-

tures female dancers. Kids from theMission’s on-site school paraded out-side shouting “Shame” to constructionworkers going in and out of the club,while preachers condemned theclub’s goings-on as sinful and calledfor its closure.

When the supervisors said theycouldn’t legally close it, the Mission’sPastor Roger Huang on April 5 set upa chair in the plaza facing City Halland began a hunger strike.

There was so much chatter in theneighborhood about the conflict, theCollaborative invited the two sides toits April meeting.

“I have no personal vendettaagainst Terrance Alan,” began Ladine.“We’re simply concerned with thestate of the Tenderloin, and one of usis willing to lay his life on the line forhis community.”

Chez Paree, is, in fact, “a newventure,” Ladine opined, which, if itwere, would mean it falls under theTL moratorium on new adult enter-tainment venues within 1,000 feet ofexisting ones. “This is a watershedcase. . . an opportunity to transformthe Tenderloin.”

Alan gave a short history of smalltheaters in the Tenderloin, as many as50 in the early days of the last centu-ry. 220 Jones, he said, was one ofthem, and in the 1950s it became thefirst adult theater in the neighbor-hood. The building’s use was “grand-fathered in, and that law is just asvalid as the [moratorium].”

Alan said he bought the buildingfrom the original owner seven yearsago, just about the same time theRescue Mission moved in. “At onepoint they accosted my patrons,” hesaid, “grabbed their ankles, spoke intongues. . . . [but] we’ve had a trucefor a few years, until now.”

“What are your employment prac-tices for the women in the new club?”asked Lynn Valente, associate directorof the Market Street Association.

“They come to work as perform-ers,” Alan responded, “more of a bur-lesque show. They don’t pay a stagefee. There are no private rooms andno prostitution.”

“Why doesn’t Pastor Roger evercome to our community meetings?”wondered resident John Nulty.

“He wears many hats,” Ladinesaid. “We’re understaffed at theMission. But you’re right, we do needto get involved.”

Someone asked if the Mission’sobjections had anything to do withAlan’s “gay orientation.”

“I love gay people,” Ladine said.

“I love Terrance Alan.”Apartment manager Jim

Thompson asked Ladine if his pres-ence at this meeting meant he wasjoining the community. “Or will youjust disappear again?”

“I’ll be here — I’ll be the liaison,”Ladine promised.

WHAT’S THE VISION?Richard Allman, who was chair-

ing the meeting, asked the adversariesto describe their “ideal vision for thestreet.”

“We have hope for the future ofthe Tenderloin,” Ladine said. “Peoplemay come and say negative thingsabout the neighborhood, but we seeexciting new businesses opening. Wedon’t want it to continue as a red-lightdistrict.”

Alan said he sees excitement, too,and has saved the best for last: “I’m innegotiations to demolish 220 Jones in

three to five years and replace it witha 10-story building for musicians —housing, performance, rehearsal andrecording spaces.”

One of his partners, he said, isSoundSpace, a 3-year-old nonprofitthat works to find permanent or long-term-lease arts spaces in SanFrancisco.

In early May, The Extra visitedPastor Roger Huang on his hungerstrike in front of City Hall. “I’m outhere 24 hours a day,” he said. “I sithere during the daytime and sleepover there on the grass at night.” Hiswife has been on the hunger strikewith him since the beginning, butonly sits with him 10 hours a day, heexplained, “so she can take care ofbusiness at the Rescue Mission.”

On day 29 of his hunger strike,Huang said he’d continue until theChez Paree closes or moves. ■

B Y M A R J O R I E B E G G S

CENTRAL CITY EXTRA is published monthly by SanFrancisco Study Center Inc., a private nonprofitserving the community since 1972. The Extra ispublished through grants from the S.F. Hotel TaxFund and the Richard and Rhoda GoldmanFund. The contents are copyrighted by the SanFrancisco Study Center, 1095 Market Street, Suite602, San Francisco, CA 94103.

PHONE: (415) 626-1650FAX : (415) 626-7276 E-MAIL: centralcityextra@studycenter.org

EDITOR AND PUBLISHER: Geoffrey LinkSENIOR WRITER/EDITOR: Marjorie BeggsCOPY EDITOR: Gerry FregosoREPORTERS: Tom Carter, Ed Bowers, Gabriel Hanzel-SelloDESIGN AND LAYOUT: Carl Angel DESIGN CONSULTANT: Don McCartneyEDITORIAL ASSISTANT/CIRCULATION: Rumi EtoPHOTOGRAPHERS: Lenny Limjoco, Mark EllingerADVERTISING/CIRCULATION MANAGER: JosephThomasCONTRIBUTORS: Adrian D. Varnedoe, DiamondDave, William Crain, Mark Hedin, Phil Tracy,John Burks, Eric Robertson, Meg DixitEDITORIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE:David Baker, Michael Nulty, Debbie Larkin,Nicholas Rosenberg, Brad Paul, Tariq Alazraie

Central City Extra is a member of the SAN FRANCISCO NEIGHBORHOOD NEWSPAPER ASSOCIAT ION

CENTRAL CITY

S A N F R A N C I S C O

GOOD NEWSfor... HISTORIC NEON SIGNS Artisanshave stripped bare the original, 1940smetal sign box that used to read “LiquorsGrocery,” hand-lettered “Cool Discount”and added new neon on top of it. Thehistoric sign restoration at 199 Eddy isone of four that will be completed this year through TNDC’s FaçadeImprovement Program. While other FIPupgrades require owners to match thecosts, historic sign restoration is fully

funded — $7,300 per project — througha community development grant fromthe mayor’s office. In line for similarrestorations are the Aldrich Hotel at 439Jones, the Elk Hotel at 670 Eddy and theWestern Hotel at 335 Leavenworth.

KIDS The free, eight-week Cops Readto Kids program started May 6. TL policeofficers read stories to 7- to 12-year-olds,then talk with them about practical con-cerns such as what to do if they find nee-dles on the street or see someone with agun, and how to be safe on buses, cross-ing streets and riding a bicycle. Kids areencouraged to get friendly with police, towave them down if they’re in trouble orjust say hello if they meet. Held from 4:30to 5:30 p.m. at the police communityroom at 601 Eddy, the program was start-ed a year ago by then-Capt. David Shinn.The cops demonstrate all the parapher-nalia on their uniform and give kids atour of the station. In past programs,they’ve brought in the bomb robot,canine division dogs, and bicycle unitofficers; outside the meeting site, the kidsgot to talk to mounted officers andmotorcycle cops. A second session of theprogram will start in July. Enrollment islimited to 30 kids. To sign up or for infor-mation: Jan Rasmussen, NeighborhoodSafety Partnership, 553-1155.

TREES STILL LOOKING FORHOMES North of MarketNeighborhood Improvement Corp. andits Tenderloin Sidewalk ImprovementProgram still have some free trees to giveaway in its “Twenty Trees for theTenderloin” planting project — a thank-you gift to TSIP supporters and othersfrom lawyer and TL business ownerElaine Zamora. Friends of the UrbanForest will coordinate planting day andprovide expertise on tree care and main-tenance. Information: 440-7570 orezamora@sbcglobal.net.

— M A R J O R I E B E G G S

This column needs regular infusions. If youhave some good news (no events, please),send it to marjorie@studycenter.org.

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2 C E N T R A L C I T Y E X T R A / M A Y 2 0 0 4

S.F. Rescue Mission’s PastorRoger Huang faces City Hall.

P H O T O B Y M A R J O R I E B E G G S

COUNSELORS receiving the first wave ofhomeless into their new SRO digs thismonth under Real Housing, Real Care

say they are concentrating on getting theirclients more money, microwaves and freshclothes.

“The first thing we will try to do is try toimprove their entitlements,” says SethKatzman, director of supportive services forConard House, the nonprofit that managesand provides services at the McAllisterHotel, one of two that came online May 3.“They (clients) will be getting $120 in foodstamps and $59 in cash, and it is really vitalfor a big push to get some more money intheir pockets. Some are unaware of whatthey are entitled to.”

The April 30 appellate court ruling thatrestored Care Not Cash doesn’t take effectfor 30 days, until May 30. Meanwhile, home-less receiving General Assistance can get thesame housing and services under authorityof Supervisor Chris Daly’s Real Housingordinance that filled the void in Care NotCash left by a Superior Court decision lastyear.

The local court ruled that then-Supervisor Gavin Newsom’s Care Not Cashplan, which he took to the voters, and theypassed as Proposition N, could not be fullyimplemented. The court said that terms forthree of the four city welfare programs – col-lectively known as CAAP, County AdultAssistance Program – could be set by voters,but the fourth, General Assistance, couldonly be set by the Board of Supervisors.

CARE NOT CASH KICKS IN LATERThus, Supervisor Chris Daly’s Real

Housing, Real Care ordinance focused onlyon GA recipients.

“The (appellate) ruling does not affectthe implementation of Real Housing,” saidDariush Kayhan, director of Housing andHomeless programs in the Department ofHuman Services, which oversees welfare. “Itstates that it will be 30 days before (Care NotCash) is implemented and we intend tomove forward. People are enrolling now.

“I heard there would be an appeal but Ihaven’t seen any papers. With (restoring)Care Not Cash, it just means that furtherdown the line there will be a little moremoney for housing and services.”

Under Real Housing, a GA recipient willsee his or her monthly check pared from asmuch as $410 to $59 if provided permanentSRO housing. Under Care Not Cash, thecheck slashing will happen even if the per-son has a shelter bed, shelters being transi-tions to hotel rooms.

No doubt clients who have been adrift inthe city’s grit and grime for years will gloryin a clean room of their own. But the trade-

off payout is too paltry, even “cruel,” criticssay. A $2-a-day budget won’t buy cigarettesand it’s hardly a deterrent to panhandling.

The $59 was intended to be incentive forclients “to get some other kind of income,”Katzman points out.

“We offer money management services,too,” Katzman adds. “They (clients) can gethelp drawing up a plan to spread theirmoney out. But we don’t have any controlon how they spend it, or on what. All wecan do is advise.”

FOOD STAMPS ADD TO THE TAKEFood stamps pose another challenge.

The stamps aren’t good in restaurants, justfor groceries, and neither the McAllister northe Graystone, the other SRO hotel thatcame online in early May, have kitchens.Hot plates in rooms are illegal. Selling foodstamps, also illegal, happens, Katzman con-cedes, but he doesn‘t know the extent.

“We want to set up a common room formicrowave cooking,” says Kerry Abbott,deputy director of Tenderloin HousingClinic, which manages the Graystone at 66Geary. “And we would like to getmicrowaves in all the rooms, but they wouldhave to be donated; refrigerators, too. In afew months there will be a pilot program todeliver meals to SROs that need them. But,honestly, a lot of people go to St. Anthony’sand Glide for meals.”

HALF MAY GET ON SSISome clients at the McAllister may be eli-

gible for veterans disability benefits, andKatzman figures half of the 54 new residentswill be eligible for SSI (Supplement SecurityIncome) federal money.

Conard House for 20 years has workedwith the mentally and physicallydisabled. The nonprofit runs fourTenderloin hotels and three oth-ers in District 6 for theDepartment of Public HealthMaster Lease program. However,this is Conard House’s first mas-ter lease hotel with theDepartment of Human Services,the city agency assigned in thenew law to find SRO housing forCAAP recipients.

It can take more than a yearto get on SSI. Recipients get from$720 to $750 plus $80 inCalifornia Restaurant vouchers.This would supplant the countycash and food stamps, and theclient would then have to pay$463 rent, the common cost cov-ering both room and services.

Of the 2,500 CAAP recipients,one-third are women. They get tokeep their entire GA checks if norooms are available. The 80 unitsat the McAllister are the first of

940 SRO Master Lease hotel units DHSintends to add this year.

The intake process involves the clientmeeting with the SRO property manager tosign a release allowing for a check on crim-inal activity, evictions, violence of any kindand drug dealing (not possession). If clearedafter three days, the client signs a lease thatis good indefinitely – there are no durationalroom leases – and picks a time to move inwithin 24 hours.

The client meets again with the proper-ty manager to learn the rules (such as no vis-itors after 9 p.m.) and to sign a voucher thatallows the client to cash checks (issued byConard House) free of charge at three sites.The client also confers with the servicesoffice to discuss which programs to pursue.

CASE MANAGERS CAN DO A LOT“Case managers make referrals and bro-

ker services,” Katz says. “This is one-on-onecontact, not formal sessions.

“They help make appointments withdoctors and at psychiatric clinics. They maygo to court with them, if needed, or go withthem to shop for clothes (through DHS).They help with family reunification. Andthey encourage them to attend communitymeetings in the building.”

There will be social activities in the hotelsuch as talk groups, video and poetry nightsand art workshops. Ideally, clients will feelthey have neighbors now and community.Art shows at THC’s Seneca on Sixth Street,the first SRO master lease hotel in 1998,have proved very popular, according toAbbott.

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Hunt’s on for microwaves, pocket moneyReal Housing welcomes first wave of homeless

B Y T O M C A R T E R

➤ C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 5

C O V E R S T O R Y

CENTRAL CITY

S A N F R A N C I S C O

A Recycle Centralworker watches themixed paper belt forplastic and othermaterials unsuitablefor recycling. On thetipping floor, below,collectors dump mountains of cans,paper and metal sixdays a week.

call ‘source separation’ — that means glass, metal and plastic containers stillhave to be separated from paper instead of being ‘single stream,’ all in one.”

It has to do with older trucks servicing some routes. “But it’s still reallyeasy to recycle, even with two blue carts,” Levaggi said. “Just check with yourcollector.”

TNDC has been doing full-scale recycling and composting at its CivicCenter Residence for the last six months. The 202-unit SRO at 44 McAllister isthe largest of TNDC’s 22 buildings, said Hilmon Sorey, TNDC director ofproperty management,

“It’s sort of a trial balloon,” he said. “We chose the Civic Center becauseof its size and because it has more maintenance staff. Also, it didn’t have exist-ing trash chutes so we didn’t have to change any infrastructure for the carts.”

Twice a week, the building residents generateenough material to fill three compost carts, tworecycling carts for glass, metal and plastic bottles,and one large dumpster of paper and cardboard.

“We’ve gone from 12 cans of garbage twiceweekly to seven,” Sorey said. “It’s probably fair tosay we’ve reduced costs by 30%.”

At TNDC’s other buildings, only two have mod-est recycling: the 88-unit Ritz Hotel at 216 Eddy,which has cardboard and compost pickups, and the105-unit Franciscan Towers, which recycles paperand cardboard only.

“There’s no question that we’ll get more of ourproperties into the program soon,” Sorey said.

Unfortunately, compost pickups at SROs andapartment buildings are extremely rare throughoutthe city, Chan said. “With so many people contribut-ing [to the green cart], the potential for contamina-tion is high.” Too many no-no’s in the green cartresults in impure compost.

BUSINESSES CAN SAVE MONEYThere are financial incentives for businesses to

recycle or compost. A restaurant or market that usesthe green compost cart for leftover or unusable foodcan get 25% off the cost of that cart. Golden Gate’soutreach literature says it will provide staff with free,multilingual training in proper sorting. TheEnvironment Department says that 1,700 businessescitywide have signed up for compostable collection.

Levaggi rattled off a list of Tenderloin business-es already composting. The star is the CulinaryInstitute on Turk and Polk, which puts out 45 to 50green carts six days a week. Project Open Hand at730 Polk comes in second. Tenderloin CommunitySchool at 637 Turk has a food waste program that’spart of its curriculum.

Smaller operations that compost includeBambuddha Lounge in the Phoenix Hotel at 601 Eddy, Sai Jai Thai at 771O’Farrell, Wild Awakenings coffee shop at 142 McAllister, and Them-Kyrestaurant at 717 Ellis.

Recycling, too, can save businesses money. If an office or bar can sepa-rate out enough recyclables, which are picked up for free, it may be able toreduce the amount of garbage that needs hauling and, thus, its collectioncharges.

Faithful Fools Copy Shop has been recycling for years, one blue cart aweek, “which is always jammed full,” said manager Richard Nichols.

Elaine Zamora opened her law offices at 118 Jones three years ago, butdespite generating reams of paper, she’d never recycled because she wasuncertain if the business was eligible for curbside pickup.

“I would just take paper home with me and recycle it there,” she told TheExtra. When we suggested she contact Golden Gate Disposal, she had heroffice manager, Reyna Valencia, put in a call.

“They took our information on a Tuesday and said they’d deliver a cartthat Friday,” Valencia said, “and they did. There’s a label on top that tells uswhat can go in the cart and what can’t, and it has a lock on it with two keys.It seems pretty easy, and we started using it immediately.”

Many compost and recycling carts in the TL that are put out for curbsidepickup have locks, Levaggi said, because of contamination concerns and“midnight marauders” — people who riffle cans for saleable garbage andleave a mess in their wake.

Kelly Wells operates the Y Café on the mezzanine of the Shih Yu-LangCentral YMCA at 220 Golden Gate. The café used

to haul its leftover greens up to the Y’s roofgarden, he said, and add them to thesmall composting heap maintained

by the gardener. But the gardener is no longer there and roof composting hasended.

“I like the idea of composting,” Wells said. “It’s socially responsible, some-thing we really should be doing. I called Golden Gate Disposal to see if wecould get a composting cart, but their computer was down.”

Tariq Alazraie, who just moved his Café.com to 120 Mason, also likes theidea of curbside compost pickup. “Now that we do fresh juices,” he said, “weuse about 100 pounds worth of carrots and oranges daily — that makes a lotof food scraps.”

Alazraie had looked into composting with Golden Gate Disposal whenstill at the old location, 970 Market, but never pursued it. He’s will now.

HOW IT ALL BEGANIn 1989, California passed AB 939, which mandated that cities and coun-

ties divert 50% of their waste from landfills by 2000. San Francisco began res-idential curbside recycling that year. After planning and testing ideas for 10years, the Department of Environment and Norcal Waste Systems beganrolling out their “Fantastic Three” curbside recycling and composting programto about 10,000 households in selected S.F. neighborhoods.

Residents got the three carts plus flyers and brochures encouraging themto shift their thinking: Food and yard scraps, bottles, paper and metal areresources, not garbage. “One cart full of paper is equivalent to one tree!” pro-claims a Golden Gate Disposal handout.

The program’s success tells in the numbers: In 1999, the citywide diver-sion rate — for residential, commercial, public and private offices, manufac-turing and other industries — was 42%. It rose slightly, to 46%, in 2000, andclimbed to 52% in 2001.

And in 2002, the last year for which figures are available, the city hit 63%.That year, 702,012 tons went to landfill — the city’s lowest tonnage since 1995— and 1.18 million tons were diverted.

The city’s diversion rate far outstrips the state’s, which was 48% in 2002,according to the California Integrated Waste Management Board. More than100,000 households now use the three colored carts. San Francisco has set agoal of 75% diversion by 2010 and should have little trouble reaching it, bothChan and Reed say.

Environment is a bureaucratic youngster in city government. TheCommission on San Francisco’s Environment, formed in 1993 through then-Supervisor Kevin Shelley’s efforts, morphed into a full-fledged department in1996. Its staff increased from five in 2000 to 70 today, and it has a $9.4 mil-lion budget.

In addition to outreach to neighborhoods, the department makes presen-tations in schools and helps low-income neighborhoods such as the Bayviewthat are disproportionately affected by environmental contamination. It trainsother city departments in how to increase recycling and composting, andoperates a variety of environmental programs for the public.

Norcal is the engine of the city’s diversion program. Besides Golden GateDisposal and Sunset Scavenger, Norcal’s other local subsidiaries includeRecycle Central, the $38 million, 196,000-square-foot facility at Pier 96 thatopened in March 2003; and Jepson Prairie Organics outside of Vacavillewhere food and yard scraps are turned into compost. Last year, San Franciscocollected 70,000 tons of compostable materials, up 10,000 tons from the yearbefore.

HOW THE PROCESS WORKSDespite the Department of Environment’s brochure proclaiming it’s as

easy as 1, 2, 3 to divvy up your throwaways, it can be a little confusing toremember what goes into which carts.

All plastic bags are garbage (black), but plastic bottles are recyclable(blue). Butcher wrapping paper is compostable (green), but junk mail papergoes to recycling (blue). Brown grocery bags can be used to hold throw-aways in any of the three carts. Paper plates, likely to have food on them, canbe composted but not recycled. The fibers in paper napkins and towels areso small that they’d be washed away in the paper recycling pulpers, but theycan be composted. Except for a very few routes in the city, all recycling goeschockablock into the blue cart: metal cans, plastic bottles, newspapers, card-board, white and colored paper.

Bones, verboten in most composting systems, get tossed into the greencart. At Jepson Prairie Organics, food scraps are ground and mixed with yarddetritus, then pushed into bags 200 feet long and 12 feet in diameter. Heldfor up to 90 days, the closed bags’ internal temperature reaches 140 degrees.After the bags are opened, the immature compost cures for another 30 days.

It takes one ton of scraps to make one cubic yard of the nitrogen-rich,“finished” compost, which Norcal then sells to commercial nurseries, winer-ies, farms and orchards, mostly in Northern California.

In San Francisco, curbside garbage and recycling pickup is an eclectic mixof old and new. Garbage collectors hoist the plastic carts onto their ultra-mod-ern two-compartment trucks. At Recycle Central, workers separate whiteledger paper from the less valuable newsprint and glossy-papered advertising, but high on a podium, an operatingsupervisor uses a touch screen to instruct which

sorting lines to run. Things get old-fashionedagain when the baled materials are truckedout, some to ships waiting in the harbor.

Recycling itself has an antique heritage.According to Norcal’s Web site, its sub-sidiaries’ expertise goes back a century towhen “garbage collectors, called ‘scavengers,’went from house to house, threw burlapsacks of garbage onto horse-drawn carriages,and salvaged metals, rags, and bottles.”

Today, at Recycle Central, 110 employeesin two shifts process 800 tons of recyclablematerials daily. The work begins on the tip-ping floor, a cavernous space where thetrucks pull in and the garbage collectorsdump the cans, paper and metal from therecyclables compartment. The collectors thendrive to a transfer station at 501 Tunnel andoffload the garbage from the other compart-ment. The garbage is compacted, hoistedonto 18-wheelers and trucked to AltamontLandfill east of Livermore.

Back on the tipping floor, front-end load-ers scoop up the recyclables and deliver themto the huge, noisy sorting belts, which workon gravity — bottles and cans fall down andpaper is carried up. Standing behind flat con-veyor belts, workers separate metals and bot-tles of different colored glass into open bins.

In the back room at Recycle Central, 20-foot-high mountains of baled newsprint andwhite paper, most from commercial and gov-ernment offices and much of it shredded, wait to be loaded onto 40-foot-longcontainer trucks. Every day, 25 trucks leave the loading dock.

Reed gave a sample rundown of where it all goes: “Aluminum is truckedto Alcon in Tennessee,” he said. “Tin cans go to steel mills and canning facil-ities around the country, but also out of the country. White ledger paper goesto mills all over the Pacific Rim, as does newsprint. Glass — 25 tons a day —is recycled locally, in Hayward.”

Recycling is a big and growing business, but it’s not always lucrative,Reed said. “The recycling market is extremely volatile — it can go from highdemand at the mills to very low demand, all in a short time.”

STATISTICS SLIPPERYRecycling is a vast topic. Try typing in “Recycling

in San Francisco” and get ready to check out thequarter of a million citations on Google; for theUnited States, it’s 960,000 citations. Up-to-date statis-tics are hard to come by. The Green Nature Web sitesays “paper comprises about 38% of our garbage”and goes on to bemoan the fact that the UnitedStates was only recycling 44% of its paper in 1996,while Europe averaged 50%. The EPA’s site has areport from 2002 citing statistics from 1997-99.

And recycling statistics are slippery — it’s a busi-ness, after all, and locales will use stats to theiradvantage. According to Californians Against Waste,in 1996, Los Angeles was collecting yard waste andcounting it as recycling, then sending it to covergarbage in its landfill.

But none of this should stop people from doingwhat they can to recycle and, if possible, compost.And don’t worry about it being something that onlyold hippies and tree-huggers do. It’s a bipartisanventure that crosses all economic, social and ethnicdivisions.

It may even become mandatory: City attorneysworking with the Deptatment of the Environmentare investigating the feasibility of drafting legisla-tion that will require all residents and businesses torecycle.

When you’re done reading this issue of CentralCity Extra and are ready to toss it out, remember:blue cart. Don’t have a blue cart? In the Tenderloin,call Golden Gate Disposal, 626-4000. ■

➤ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

RECYCLE: most kinds of paper, allcans (even aerosols, if they didn’tcontain toxic substances), plastic

bottles, aluminum foil. Paper clips andstables are OK, too.

• Not accepted in the blue cart: plas-tic bags, Styrofoam, mirrors, windowglass or light bulbs, ceramic dishes, plas-tics other than bottles, juice boxes, papernapkins and paper towels, disposablediapers, computer disks and CDs.

Compost: all food leftovers, includ-ing meat and bones, food-soiled paper,milk cartons, yard trimmings, plants,flowers.

• Not accepted in the green cart:plastic bags, Styrofoam, plastic flowerpots, diapers, kitty litter or animal feces,rocks, stones, dirt.

Garbage: everything not accepted inblue or green carts. ■

Do’s and don’ts of diversion

immediately into a freezer for 48 hours, to killbedbugs. “We’ll get them a change of clothes,”says Katzman. “Bedbugs have been a hugeproblem in SROs.”

The homeless, some malnourished andeven disoriented, will face a host of details thatmost people take for granted, such as how toget new clothing, linens, and toiletries, theprocess of paying rent, keeping appointmentsand adjusting to that severe reduction in cash.

The McAllister’s rooms will be filled bymid-June, Katzman estimates. The 74-roomGraystone, a handsome structure just east ofUnion Square, may take longer.

A REAL CLASSY SRO“It might take two to three months,” says

Abbott. “We moved 10 people in the firstweekend and could do three to five a day if thereferrals came that fast. So we could do it in amonth. But it is just so exciting to be offeringthis level of quality. The bathrooms have mar-ble and the skylights are beautiful.”

The Graystone, owned by Alex Patel, hasbeen kept in such good condition over theyears, Abbott says, that minimal renovationwas needed. The sprinkler system was updat-ed and the front desk area, where 24-hourservice is necessary now, was redesigned andsealed off.

The six-story hotel will have a generalmanager and assistant, desk clerks, janitor,maintenance person and one case manager.Citywide Case Management, a roving UCSFsocial work team, will provide more extensivesupport services, Abbott says.

“Since 1994, an SRO (rent) has been out ofrange for anyone on GA,” Abbott says. “Now,here is a nice room for people on GA. Somehave been homeless for years. It has been along time coming.”

By contrast, the McAllister was a flophouse.But, under negotiated requirements of DHS, itre-created itself in partnership with ConardHouse to become a master lease hotel, assur-ing high occupancy. Freshly painted halls androoms, a sprinkler system and new securitymeasures, all totaling $200,000, make it livablelike never before.

“This hotel is by far the best it has everbeen,” says Martin Pagniano, 38, a resident GArecipient who gets $410 a month and has paid$380 a month rent for five years. “I look for-ward now to the cleanliness and sanitation. Ihave seen some pretty bad things here.”

SQUEAKY WHEEL GETS SOME GREASEToilets that backed up for weeks in filthy

bathrooms strewn with needles were common,he says. Shifty nonresidents came and went atall hours, he adds, and some rooms had fourpeople living in them. There was a murder inthe hotel three years ago. It used to charge $10to visit after 9-to-5 working hours. Pagniano,who had a job during those hours, vociferous-ly protested.

“I complained and complained,” he says.“They’d finally fix the toilets and then they’d gobad again for weeks.”

Eventually, Pagniano went to the city attor-ney, the Health Department, the buildinginspectors and the Fire Department.

“They came en masse,” he says. “Thingschanged some after that. It was tolerable.” Andhe settled his differences with owner BillBhatka (official ownership is Bhatka-Riley ofSunnyvale).

It seems unlikely that anyone would refusewhat must be a longtime dream of many.

“It’s not a choice program,“ says ScottWalton, DHS Supportive Housing programmanager. “Housing is the best they (can be)offered and a small amount of cash. It really isa great benefit. But people may have other liv-ing arrangements they haven‘t told the cityabout.

“Some will stop applying (for welfare).Maybe they‘re not living in the county. Whatthey get may not be economical any more. Andthey may not need the services.

“We’ll learn by this.” ■

M A Y 2 0 0 4 / C E N T R A L C I T Y E X T R A 5

Case managers point clients to added perks

Reyna Valencia, office manager at 118Jones, fills the law office’s new blue cart.

P H O T O B Y L E N N Y L I M J O C O

P H O T O B Y L E N N Y L I M J O C O

P H O T O B Y M A R J O R I E B E G G S

Tenderloin near bottom of recycling in city➤ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

EVERY once in a while, an eventoccurs that briefly parts the curtainof civility normally cloaking the

reporting of San Francisco’s public lifeand shows things as they really are.

The killing of police Officer IsaacEspinoza and the decision by DA KamalaHarris not to seek the death penalty forsuspect David Hill is one such occur-rence. It demonstrates the almostimplacable opposition between the votersof San Francisco and their police.

On the surface, it would appear to bea slam-dunk decision. Harris was electeddistrict attorney in December, in partbecause of her public pledge to not askfor the death penalty. Bill Fazio lost toTerence Hallinan twice, in part by casting

himself as a staunch advocate of thedeath penalty, which Hallinan had alwaysopposed. (For last year’s election, Fazioswitched sides on the issue but it did himno good; he came in third.)

Ironically, among the special inter-ests supporting Harris’ runoff againstincumbent Hallinan. They did so less fortheir love of Harris than for their hatredof Hallinan. But they did so knowing thatHarris also was opposed to the state put-ting people to death. She never once saidshe would make an exception for copkillers. So her decision in this case hard-ly qualified as a bolt out of the blue.

Yet the San Francisco Police Depar-tment acted as if the most heinous crimein the Espinoza case was committed byHarris. First they backed down POAPresident Gary Delanges, who initiallycharacterized Harris’ decision as “as

much as we can expect in thistown,” and was seen as a liber-al for his troubles. Then theycirculated a petition againsthim as well as Harris, directingan assault against the DA’scharacter. One of the petitiondrafters, Marquita Booth, a 12-year police veteran and formernun, told the Chronicle, “Apolice officer gets injured ordied, and she is telling peopleit’s OK.”

At a public meeting of thePOA, the now-con-trite Delanges insist-ed that if Harris hada problem with thedeath penalty sheshould step asideand let the stateattorney general trythe case. When thatidea went nowhere,the cops dragged outthe Espinoza family,who claimed thatcriminals are de-terred by potentialpenalties – a proposi-tion undermined bydozens of criminaljustice studies, andthe murder of 10B a y v i e w - H u n t e r sPoint youth over thelast seven months.

In the latestsalvo, the FBI wassaid to be investigat-ing Hill, hoping tobuild a case for thedeath penalty byapplying racketeer-

ing and narcotics laws. This despite thefact that Hill has no record of drug deal-ing, or for that matter, no record at all. Anow-bloodthirsty Delanges responded,“Our first choice is to see this guy get thedeath penalty, and whoever does it, we’rebehind.”

U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein andBarbara Boxer have entered the fray,demanding the killer’s head.

For her part, Harris has displayed atactic unusual in American politics: name-ly, honoring a political pledge after theelection. Writing in a Chronicle op-edpiece, Harris stated that the death penal-ty is deeply flawed, unevenly applied,not a deterrent and costs the state mil-lions in appeal costs. “I gave my word tothe people of San Francisco that Iopposed the death penalty,” Harris wrote.“There can be no exception to principle.”

Like our new mayor, Harris hasdonned “principled” stripes, fooling manya hardened political observer in theprocess. She is also beating the stuffingout of the cops. To a great degree, this isbecause the electorate supports her.

San Franciscans are more than some-what distrustful of their police – for goodreason: periodic reports of police perjury,incidents of cops beating seemingly right-eous citizens, and brutal behavior atpolitical demonstrations. The cops havegiven citizens ample reason to questiontheir role in the fairness of the judicialprocess.

Recently, it was reported that SanFrancisco juries have voted against thedeath penalty by a ratio of 70% to 30%.Since 1978, when the death penalty wasreinstituted, the *three felons who wereawarded the death penalty here represent0.5% of the statewide total. The last timea cop killer in San Francisco was chargedwith the death penalty, in 1978, he wasconvicted of manslaughter and wound upspending 2 1/2 years in Atascadero statemental hospital, before he was let out.

One could go on with the statisticsjust as the police will go on with theirfutile campaign. In addition to its otherreputations, the POA has an almostunswerving instinct for hopeless politicalagendas.

I recall how the POA once demandedthat Mayor George Moscone reinstateDan White to his supervisor’s job, after hehad rashly resigned in a snit. I can recallthinking how stupid of the POA to makesuch a ridiculous demand becauseMoscone would rather die than reappointWhite.

If the death penalty was a deterrent,Officer Espinoza would be alive anddeath row would be empty. ■

6 C E N T R A L C I T Y E X T R A / M A Y 2 0 0 4

S.F. cops and the death penalty – irresistible force vs. immovable public

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PERSPECT IVE

B Y P H I L T R A C Y

neighborhood. Phillips said that a NOMPC sur-vey in the early 1990s at such hotels as theArlington and Antonia had unsettling results.

“Everybody in those hotels had been ‘rede-veloped’ out of their old neighborhoods andinto the Tenderloin and they didn’t want to be‘redeveloped’ out again,” Phillips said.“Redevelopment does things to people’s lives.We’d lose people’s homes.”

NOMPC’S RICH HISTORYFormed in 1976 as a coalition of agencies,

NOMPC early on established itself as an activistwatchdog for TL residents. It wrote the neigh-borhood’s first improvement plan, TenderloinTomorrow, and played a role in reviving the St.Boniface School, creating the Northeast FederalCredit Union and establishing the neighbor-hood’s eight-story height limit. But its legendaryrole has been in standing up to developmentsthat would rob the TL of low-income housing.

“NOMPC preserved the Tenderloin as a res-idential neighborhood,” said former neighbor-hood organizer Brad Paul, who was then partof a driven squad of activists who raisedenough money to have a four-member staff.Their protests in the 1980s stopped 2,300Hilton, Holiday Inn and Ramada hotel roomsfrom being built and displacing low-incomeresidents.

Moreover, it got $50,000 in annual contribu-tions from the hotels for four years. With allies,it convinced the Planning Commission to createa new North of Market Special Use ResidentialDistrict and it stopped the proposed UnionSquare West expansion.

In 1994, NOMPC looked robust with $1 mil-lion in the bank and a paid staff.

But two years later, the money was goneand the staff laid off.

“How the board could get bank statementsand not know the account was going down,and not do anything, is beyond me,” Phillipssays. “And we had no program to offer to getfunding.

“(North of Market Development Corp.)says we owe them $40,000,” Phillips says. “Wemade a payment a long time ago – I can’tremember how much – and we haven’t heardfrom them since.”

Paying the lawsuit off is perhaps a mootpoint because NOMPC is broke. It has no staffor office. Phillips keeps records in his EddyStreet room; he declines to state how much isin the treasury.

Vice President Dennis Isner estimates mem-bership is “between 50 and 65,” down from200. Resident dues are $5 a year. Nonprofitspay $25 and small businesses pay $50. Thereare “10-to-15” active members, says Isner, whohas been a NOMPC member about four years.

The Extra asked him about NOMPC’s focus. “For the last 18 months it has been trying to

restructure, survive, regroup and build upmembership,” Isner said. “We’re concerned. Wedo protest a lot of liquor licenses.”

Gordon sees Urban Solutions as able tostep in and unshackle NOMPC from its debtand restore its stature as neighborhood activist.

“I don’t have any other agenda,” Gordonsaid in an interview. “The (court) judgment hasgotten in the way of the organization and itsefforts to get back into the neighborhood.

“Everyone who has been working onTenderloin improvement is aware of the lack ofvitality at NOMPC. It has a really rich historyand the people involved have a lot of knowl-edge. But active planning is beyond theirmeans. They should be empowered. No oneenvisions NOMPC going away.”

The Tenderloin 2000 Survey and Plan,drawn up in 1992 as an extensive blueprint forwide-ranging improvement, is what UrbanSolutions would pursue with NOMPC and otherTL organizations as well, Gordon said. Thatplan has not been halfway implemented, hepointed out.

GORDON TELLS HIS SIDE “They (NOMPC) were upfront about us not

being community organizers and we aren’t,”Gordon said. “But there are various groups andorganizations going for their special projects inthe Tenderloin, rather than for the good of theneighborhood. Folks shouldn’t be doing an endrun around good community planning. We canwork with those organizations not organized bythird parties. And it’s vitally important thatNOMPC maintains its independence. Theyneed relief from the judgment.”

As for the charge he wanted to reduceNOMPC’s role to an Urban Solutions “advisorycommittee,” Gordonsaid that was just oneidea in the brainstorm-ing session he had withNOMPC leaders, andone he didn’t particular-ly like.

The resident activistteam, Michael and JohnNulty, were invited toattend the meeting withGordon. Ph i l l ipsappointed the Nultys tothe NOMPC board thenand asked them to usetheir considerableexpertise and contactlist to prepare a nomina-tion list that would near-ly triple the size of theboard. Michael Nultycame up with 16 poten-

tial nominees. At the annual meeting, Phillips said the

nominees would join four others who were inon staggered terms. Eleven resident reps wereto be elected, two each from nonprofits andbusinesses and one from the public sector.Write-ins were acceptable.

THE BOARD SHAKEUPPhillips announced that a special matter

would be taken up in closed session afterward. The candidates introduced themselves. For

wide-ranging commitment, John Nulty’s pres-entation was most impressive. He read aloud all26 of his community affiliations. Then brotherMichael, who heads Alliance for a Better District6, said he had those, plus four others.

In the Civic rep category, Terrance Alan, TLclub owner and chair of the city’s EntertainmentCommittee, immediately qualified his availability.

“I need to first examine the financial statusof NOMPC,” he said. “And I’ll proceed onadvice of my lawyer. I can’t afford to be heldliable as a board member for a judgment I hadnothing to do with.”

The prospect of the board being liable forNOMPC’s indebtedness sent confusion and fearthrough the room. Some nominees new toNOMPC, like Bernstein, had not heard of thepredicament until that evening. Phillips saidlater in an interview that NOMPC has no boardinsurance, though at one time it had “all kindsof it.” He said he once checked on the cost tocover a 21-member board and it was $2,400 ayear.

Twenty-seven people cast votes. The elec-tion of former NOMPC President GarrettJenkins, who was present but not included onthe short Residents’ nomination list, was a sur-

Your used motor oil can be cleaned and re-refined into new motor oil. Don’t pour it down the drain or throw it in the trash. Recycle it!

Richmond & Laurel HeightsJiffy Lube: 6099 Geary, 750-0233Kragen: 6101 Geary, 387-1783T&R76-2: 301 25th Ave., 668-4343Firestone: 2800 Geary, 567-3311Kragen: 3855 Geary, 668-5241T&R76-1: 3501 Geary, 752-3968

Pacific Heights & Western AdditionChevron: 2500 California, 567-1136

South of MarketFirestone: 1501 Mission St., 621-4650Jiffy Lube: 300 7th St., 255-0900Kragen: 2300 16th St., 431-3386Mark Morris Tires: 1401 Mission, 863-3939Quality Tune-Up: 490 S. Van Ness, 431-6550SF Honda: 10 S. Van Ness, 441-2000

Potrero Hill & Mission BayR + W 76: 800 Folsom, 982-2836S&C Ford: 211 Industrial, 553-4400

Marina & Cow HollowKragen: 2246 Lombard, 563-4200

Portola & Visitacion ValleyKragen: 2500 San Bruno, 656-0696Portola Auto: 2780 San Bruno, 468-5175Sanitary Fill Company: 501 Tunnel, 330-1400

Sunset & ParksideKragen: 2150 Taraval, 682-9177Chevron: 1890 19th Ave., 731-2733Mark’s Unocal 76: 1700 Noriega, 566-0440

North Beach & Telegraph HillPort of SF: China Basin @ Pier 52/54, 274-0565Port of SF: Hyde St. Harbor @ Jefferson, 274-0565

Russian Hill, Nob Hill & TenderloinChevron: 2465 Van Ness, 441-2240Jiffy Lube: 2030 Van Ness, 922-7258Mark Morris Tires: 1200 Larkin, 673-3441

Civic CenterQuality Tune-Up: 1175 Fell, 626-6446

Downtown & South of MarketUnion 76: 390 1st St., 957-1754

Mission & Bernal HeightsOil Changer: 198 Valencia, 487-1740Unocal 76: 401 Potrero, 863-6043

Bayview & Hunters PointABC Auto: 1650 Davidson Ave., 826-8676

Excelsior & Crocker AmazonKragen: 1150 Ocean, 585-9800Quality Tune-Up: 4650 Mission, 334-4993

West Portal & MiralomaClaremont Chevron: 301 Claremont, 753-9552

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Gallery owner new head of NOMPC➤ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

The 2004 NOMPCBoard of Directors

Terrance Alan

Tariq Alazraie

Monika Bernstein, president

Delphine Brody

Susan Bryan

James Leo Dunn

Ed Evans

Art HolcombDennis Isner, vice president

Garrett JenkinsSarosh Kumana

Clint Ladine, recording secretary/treasurer

Robin Moede

John Nulty

Michael Nulty

Marvis Phillips, correspon-dence secretary

Diego Sanchez

Bruce Windrem

(Three vacancies are to be filled by board appointments)

➤ C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 8

M A Y 2 0 0 4 / C E N T R A L C I T Y E X T R A 7

8 C E N T R A L C I T Y E X T R A / M A Y 2 0 0 4

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COMMUNITY CALENDAR

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SPECIAL EVENTSTenderloin-SoMa Town Hall Meeting, Wed., May 12, 6 p.m.,Gene Friend Recreation Center, 270 Sixth St. A venue for resi-dents, community activists, neighborhood groups, businessesand merchants to share interests and concerns about TL-SoMa.Info and rsvp: David Villa-lobos, 921-4192, or david_villalo-bos@sbcglobal.net.

Bike to Work Day, Thur., May 20. To help riders, S.F. BicycleCoalition is sponsoring 11 “energizer stations” around town, withfree treats and goodies for bicyclists. Info: 431-2453 ext. 23.

Hospitality House Art Auction, Wed., May 26, 6 – 9 p.m.,Andrea Schwartz Gallery, 525 Second St. Auction of more than120 works by nationally recognized artist such as Barry McGeeand Manuel Neri to benefit the Community Arts Program atHospitality House. Tickets $30 and $40. Info: Meg Loomis, 749-2184.

COMMUNITY MEETINGS: REGULAR HOUSINGConsumer Housing Group, 1st Thursday of the month, 6-7:30p.m., Mental Health Association, 1095 Market St., Suite 408.Contact: 241-2926.

Tenant Associations Coalition of San Francisco, 1stWednesday of the month, noon, 201 Turk Community Room.Contact Michael Nulty, 339-8327. Resident unity, leadershiptraining, facilitate communication.

Supportive Housing Network, 3rd Thursday of the month, 3-5p.m., 111 Jones. Contact: Belinda Lyons, 241-2929.

HEALTH AND MENTAL HEALTHMental Health Board, 2nd Wednesday of the month, 6:30-8:30p.m., CMHS, 1380 Howard, Rm. 537. CMHS advisory commit-tee, open to the public. Contact: 255-3474.

Hoarders and Clutterers Support Group, 2nd Monday and 4thWednesday of each month, 6-7 p.m. 1095 Market, Rm. 609.Contact: 241-2926.

CMHS Consumer Council, 3rd Monday of the month, 5:30-7:30,CMHS, 1380 Howard, Rm. 537. Contact: 255-3428. Advisorygroup of consumers from self-help organizations and other men-tal health consumer advocates. Open to the public.

National Alliance for the Mentally Ill-S.F., 3rd Wednesday ofthe month, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Family Service Agency, 1010 Gough,5th Fl. Contact 905-6264. Family member group, open to con-sumers and the public.

SAFETYSoMa Police-Community Relations Forum, 4th Monday of themonth, 6 p.m. Location changes monthly. May meeting is at TheArc, 1500 Howard at 11th Street. Contact: Lisa Block, 538-8100ext. 202, or Jan Rasmussen, 553-1155.

Tenderloin Police Station Community Meeting, last Wednesdayof the month, 6 p.m., police station Community Room, 301Eddy. Contact Susan Black, 345-7300. Neighborhood safety.

North of Market NERT, bimonthly meeting. Contact Tim Agar,674-6142, or Lt. Juanita Hodge, S.F. Fire Department, 558-3456.Disaster preparedness training by the Fire Department.

NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENTAlliance for a Better District 6, 2nd Tuesday of the month, 6p.m., 301 Eddy. Contact Michael Nulty, 820-1560 or sf_dis-trict6@yahoo.com. Districtwide association, civic education.

Mid-Market Project Area Committee, 2nd Wednesday of themonth, 5:30 p.m., Ramada Hotel, 1231 Market. Contact CarolynDiamond, 362-2500. Market Street redevelopment on Fifth toEighth street.

Tenderloin Futures Collaborative, 2nd Wednesday of themonth, 10 a.m., Tenderloin Police community room, 301 Eddy.

Contact Jerry Jai at 358-3956 for information. Network of resi-dents, nonprofits and businesses sharing information and takingon neighborhood development issues.

Friends of Boeddeker Park, 2nd Thursday of the month, 5-6:30p.m.,

Boeddeker Rec Center, 240 Eddy. Plan park events, activitiesand improvements. Contact: Betty Traynor, Neighborhood ParksCouncil, 621-3260 ext. 101.

South of Market Project Area Committee, 3rd Monday of themonth, 6 p.m., 1035 Folsom, between 6th & 7th. Contact: SOM-PAC office, 487-2166.

North of Market Planning Coalition, 3rd Wednesday of themonth, 6 p.m., 301 Eddy. Contact 474-2164. TL 2000, jobs,neighborhood planning.

Tenderloin Merchants Association, contact Jamie Cutlip, 553-4433 ext. 22 or jamie@urbansolutionssf.org.

Boeddeker Park cleanup, 3rd Saturday of the month, 9-noon,organized by the Friends of Boeddeker Park. To RSVP to work orfor information, contact Betty Traynor at the Neighborhood ParksCouncil, 621-3260.

SENIORS AND DISABLEDMayor’s Disability Council, 3rd Friday of the month, 1-3 p.m.,City Hall, Rm. 400. Contact: 554-6789. Open to the public.

Tenderloin Police Station Seniors and Disabled Meeting, lastThursday of the month, 10 a.m., police station CommunityRoom, 301 Eddy. Contact Susan Black, 345-7300. Concerns spe-cific to seniors and the disabled.

Senior Action Network, general meeting, second Thursday, 10a.m.-noon, St. Mary’s Cathedral. Monthly committee meetings,975 Mission #700. Fundraising, first Thursday, 2 p.m.;Pedestrian Safety, second Friday, 10 a.m.; Sr. Housing Action,third Wednesday, 1:30; Health, last Thursday, 1:30. Information:546-1333.

Association

CENTRAL CITY CLASSIFIEDS

help wanted

TARC seeks RN's

The Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center, 187Golden Gate Ave seeks registered nurses for Per Diem work. TARC's health servicesprogram operates daily, RNs work as partof the team in conducting onsite clienttreatment along with street and SRObased healthcare outreach. Resumes toLawrence Li at resumes2@tarcsf .orgor fax to 413-751- 9641 More info atwww.tarcsf. org"

prise. He got elected on a single write-in vote. New members were added in all four categories. “We had a dead board,” Michael Nulty said later. “People were

letting things go, not paying attention. Just making it function –that’s necessary – but structural things went by the wayside.”

Moving on to the election of officers, Phillips was nominatedpresident and very quickly board member Ed Evans moved toclose the nominations and elect Phillips by acclamation. “Whoa,”said Michael Nulty. “Let’s just wait a minute.” After a small amountof discussion, Evans tried a second time and was thwarted again.Then Bernstein’s and Michael Nulty’s names were added. WhenBernstein was elected by a comfortable margin, it momentarilystunned the room, especially Phillips who had been president fortwo years and vice president the year before that.

“I‘m just glad I got 20 votes to stay on the board,” he said later.

BERNSTEIN’S BACKGROUNDBernstein formerly managed the Phoenix Hotel at Eddy and

Leavenworth before opening Rx Gallery with her business partner,William Linn, in June 2003. They added beer and wine in February.Bernstein, who lives in Bayview, had regularly attended TL FuturesCollaborative meetings but few NOMPC meetings since her firstone last fall. She could have immediately presided but ask Phillipsto finish out the evening.

The meeting became an open one after all. Earlier, Jenkins,who is the unpaid chair of the city’s Sunshine Ordinance TaskForce, had objected to the board going into closed session. Thegroup then voted to stay open to deal with Urban Solutions’ offer.

With Gordon gone, the discussion ranged widely and gave riseto speculations. Of concern first was whether the board presidentcould sign a binding resolution on his own. Most agreed it was abad idea. The group’s bylaws state such an action needs boardapproval, it was pointed out finally.

The Urban Solutions dilemma was not as easily solved. Theboard didn’t want NOMPC dissolved in any event. That could onlybe made by a community decision, said Michael Nulty. Nor did theboard want any grants NOMPC might receive snapped up by itsdebtors. So Urban Solutions had a major bargaining chip there. But,at a table with many activists, Gordon’s group suffered an imageproblem, too.

“They are known for a kind of puffery. It (the proposal) does-n’t feel right,” said board member Susan Bryan.

“I’m still puzzled by what they’re offering with the debt andeverything,” Michael Nulty said later. “The Tenderloin needsaccountability, community planning and development. But I don’twant to see the neighborhood revitalized to the place where peo-ple can’t live here. We have over 100 restaurants down here. I wantto see them affordable.”

The matter was put over until the next board meeting, at 6 p.m.May 19 in the Community Room. ■

➤ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

Still in a pickle

WOMEN’S DAY AT OASIS

Every Friday it’s women-only at the Officeof Self Help’s Oasis Community Center.Socialize, talk about women’s issues, andenjoy a free lunch followed by some groupactivity. 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. at 1095Market St., Rm. 202.

SERVICES