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<h1><span class=uistorymessage><b><font size=3 face="Century Gothic"><span
lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic";font-weight:normal'>Check
out the Pollinator Partnership's Gregory Kellet and the city pollinator garden
featured in the S.F. Chronicle article.</span></font></b></span><font size=3
face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'><o:p></o:p></span></font></h1>
<h1><b><font size=5 face=Arial><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h1><b><font size=5 face=Arial><span style='font-size:16.0pt'>Crops dot fallow
S.F. spots until backhoes come<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><br>
Read more: <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/15/DDSQ1DTLOD.DTL#ixzz0qwm4qGvj"><font
color="#003399"><span style='color:#003399'>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/15/DDSQ1DTLOD.DTL#ixzz0qwm4qGvj</span></font></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2010/06/15/DDSQ1DTLOD.DTL&o=0"><span
style='text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=370 height=246
id="_x0000_i1025" src="cid:image001.jpg@01CB0C7C.D8EBC840"
class="thumb clearfix"></span></a><img border=0 width=17 height=10
id="_x0000_i1026" src="cid:image002.gif@01CB0C7C.D8EBC840"
class="arrow clearfix"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>
<hr size=2 width="100%" align=center>
</span></font></div>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>There's a
bumper crop of fava beans this year in <st1:City w:st="on">San Francisco</st1:City>'s
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Hayes</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Valley</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
vegetable's thick stalks fill planter beds on one side of <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address
w:st="on">Octavia Boulevard</st1:address></st1:Street>, and cloak a steep
slope between abandoned freeway ramps on the other. Plenty else is popping up -
tomatoes, squash, peas - but 40 pounds of the soil-replenishing favas already
have been harvested.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>They also
prove there's a way to revive empty city lots - even ones where buildings are
scheduled to rise.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>I first
wrote about the need for such interim landscapes last summer, as the
development boom-turned-bust left several <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">San
Francisco</st1:place></st1:City> neighborhoods with a gap-toothed terrain
where buildings once stood, replaced by chain-link fences that enclose asphalt
or dirt.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Most are
still there, looking tattered as ever, but the scene along <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address
w:st="on">Octavia Boulevard</st1:address></st1:Street> shows blight can be
turned to bounty. All you need is open-minded neighbors, wise owners and
creative people willing to try something different.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In other
words, nothing happens by chance. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
Octavia lots exist because the elevated Central Freeway was replaced by a
tree-lined boulevard, with sites alongside it reserved for neighborhood-scaled
housing. Developers were selected, and then the recession rolled in.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Other
neighborhoods would respond with cynical I-told-you-sos; <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Hayes</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Valley</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
leaders encouraged the city staff to put some of the parcels to short-term use.
And because the city owned the land, it was happy to play the odds.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The large
site where you can still glimpse ramps has been rechristened Hayes Valley Farm.
Three committed urban gardeners oversee it, and the city has OKd its presence
for at least the next two years. Most of the grunt work is done by volunteers
on Thursday and Sunday afternoons.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Across
the way at Growing Home Community Garden, things are more polished, with raised
beds along central paths on two lots that each are just 16 feet wide. Trees
that once buffered the freeway shade a bench, and there's a picnic table.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
instigators include Project Homeless Connect and the Hayes Valley Neighborhood
Association. Theoretically, half the work is done by neighbors and half by
homeless people.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Has
this been worth the effort? Absolutely," says Rich Hillis of the city's
Office of Economic and Workforce Development. "It has helped us maintain
the vacant sites, and it energizes the neighbors." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
efforts are more tentative on Rincon Hill, where empty lots outnumber completed
towers. But there are frail signs of hope.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>One is on
the fenced-off lot at <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">45 Lansing
St.</st1:address></st1:Street>, where, amid thickets of browning weeds,
circular planting beds are flecked by hints of lupine and poppies. The idea is
a "temporary garden and art installation," a year-round way station
for butterflies and birds. It's designed by Rebar and the Pollinator
Partnership, funded by landowner Turnberry Lansing - and put in place, again,
largely by volunteers.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Right now
things are ragged; this is a work in progress where such extras as information
boards will go in over the next few weeks. Some weeds will be cleared. Others
won't.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We're
going to keep a certain number, because that's habitat, too," says Gregory
Kellett of Pollinator Partnership. Nor does he mind that, theoretically, the
garden will be replaced by a 40-story tower when (if?) boom times return:
"Even if it's only temporary, this is a way to show the neighborhood we're
connected to something larger."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Is there
a danger that enthusiasm will wane or, conversely, fans will decide that
cropland is the highest and best use? Of course. But the participants seem
comfortable knowing they're experimenting with a sort of ad hoc urbanity - and
shaping models that, if successful, can be replicated elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Some
of this stuff seems a little far-out, but some of it might catch on," says
Ron Miguel, the president of the city's Planning Commission. "As a San
Franciscan, it's important to me that the city not look as ragtag as it does in
spots. If we encourage efforts like these, they become part of the
culture."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>I wish
more were happening, and happening faster. But when lupines bloom or fava beans
ripen, it's a start.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>For
information on Hayes Valley Farm, go to bit.ly/9QZSCg. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>For other
pieces on interim urbanity, go to sfgate.com/ZIBD.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><br>
Read more: <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/15/DDSQ1DTLOD.DTL#ixzz0qwlv1a5K"><font
color="#003399"><span style='color:#003399'>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/15/DDSQ1DTLOD.DTL#ixzz0qwlv1a5K</span></font></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:38.25pt'><font size=2
face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'>Sunny
Boyd</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'>Pollinator Partnership</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on"><font size=2
face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'>423
Washington St.</span></font></st1:address></st1:Street><font size=2
face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'>,
5th Floor</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><font size=2
face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'>San
Francisco</span></font></st1:City><font size=2 face="Century Gothic"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'>, <st1:State w:st="on">CA</st1:State>
<st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94111</st1:PostalCode></span></font></st1:place><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'>t. 415.362.1137</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'>f. 415.362.3070</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'><a href="mailto:sun@pollinator.org"><font
size=2><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>sun@pollinator.org</span></font></a></span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Century Gothic"><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic"'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>Our future flies on the wings of pollinators.</span></font></i></em> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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