TFF CSA Pickup Site Now On Idora!

31 July 2009 - 10:23, Stan Kaufman said:
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Terra Firma Farms is a Yolo County organic farm with a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscription program here in San Francisco. We have been extremely satisfied customers of their exceptional organic fruits and vegetables for several years now.

TFF is reorganizing its distribution sites, and we’ve agreed to become one — starting next Thursday 8/6, at 144 Idora, between 12noon and 8pm. If you previously considered TFF but were reluctant because the other pickup sites were too far away, now is your chance to join and enjoy both convenience and the best produce available.

If you’re unclear what a CSA is, read about TFF’s history and TFF’s policy page. Basically, the idea is that you pay on a monthly or quarterly basis and get a box delivered each week — straight from the farm to your kitchen. What you get in each box is whatever is freshest and ripest that week.

Joining is easy. You can pay by check, but by far the easiest way to pay is through a PayPal subscription or an online bill payment through your bank. TFF is also in the process of creating a new web site that will make all this easier.

At various times, TFF has been fully subscribed and unable to take new customers, but right now they are able to add new enrollments. It’s a great opportunity that you should consider!

By the way, Valerie — the customer service person at TFF — makes and markets handcrafted soaps. Have a look at her line at Wildflower Naturals.

For the record: we have no relationship with TFF other than being very satisfied customers.

BOS Unanimously Approves Sharp Park Legislation

06 May 2009 - 10:11, Stan Kaufman said:
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Yesterday, the full Board of Supervisors wisely and unanimously approved the Sharp Park legislation that directs the Rec&Parks Department to investigate alternative uses for the Sharp Park golf course. Please take a moment to thank the supervisors and in particular to thank our own Supervisor Elsbernd for this decision.

An amendment was attached to the legislation to investigate the option of transferring Sharp Park to Pacifica/San Mateo county — in addition to the option of transferring it to the GGNRA. From the standpoint of San Francisco taxpayers, either destination would provide equivalent relief from the hemorrhage of our tax dollars out of our city limits — presuming that a transfer to Pacifica didn’t include some going-away present of Open Space Fund or General Fund monies to help Pacifica start to run the place on its own.

It’s hard to imagine that anyone in San Francisco government would permit much less support such a gift. But you can be sure that Pacifica is going to be requesting (or demanding, as has been their wont) it if they are to take over — since they have no resources actually to cover these expenses. And it’s even harder to imagine that any Big Golf developer will swoop in to Pacifica’s rescue since Pacifica doesn’t have a huge Open Space Fund for the developer to plunder — in contrast to what happened here at Harding Park.

So my bet is that if Sharp Park doesn’t go to the GGNRA on the first bounce via this legislation, it will end up there soon enough once Pacifica finally realizes how much it has benefited from its sugar daddy up north — or when it finds itself in court looking at astronomical penalties for illegal “take” of its resident endangered species. Leaving this distressed property to GGNRA’s care will start to look as good to Pacifica as it does to San Francisco — sooner or later.

BOS to vote on Sharp Park legislation Tues 5/5

04 May 2009 - 09:24, Stan Kaufman said:
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On April 30, the BOS Government Audit and Oversight Committee unanimously recommended Supervisor Mirkarimi’s Sharp Park legislation to the full BOS, which will review and act on it tomorrow. Public input at this hearing was overwhelmingly in favor of the legislation, and the committee did exactly the right thing.

Please email the supervisors to urge them to support this legislation, which calls for studies into alternate uses for Sharp Park that are consistent with the environmental problems there. The bigger reason to support this legislation, however, is simply one of the dollars that we San Francisco taxpayers are paying for an amenity that primarily benefits San Mateo county residents.

Here is a suggested message to the Supes:

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Supervisors:

The Government Audit and Oversight Committee did exactly the right thing April 30 when it unanimously recommended Supervisor Mirkarimi’s Sharp Park legislation to the full Board of Supervisors. Please support this legislation and pass it when you consider it tomorrow.

The Sharp Park golf course benefits primarily San Mateo county residents, who consume 75% of all played rounds there. Nevertheless, San Francisco taxpayers pick up the tab:

- the $18K in annual property taxes paid to San Mateo county
- the $30-300K in annual transfusions from the SF General Fund to make up for short-falls in green-fees revenues
- all the other “emergency” costs such as the recent $280K for repairs to the sea wall/pump paid out of the SF Open Space Fund
- the $450K costs of the EIR of the golf course’s impact on the resident endangered populations of snake and frog
- the $8M that SFPUC ratepayers are on the hook for to pay for the recycled irrigation project that is irrelevant without the golf course
- whatever costs will arise from criminal and civil penalties for “illegal take” of endangered species during golf course operations

At a time when San Francisco’s budget deficit of $576M (to be much larger next year) is closing recreation facilities and laying off RPD staff right here, we can no longer afford to prop up this money-losing golf course down in San Mateo county.

Pacifica residents are loudly demanding that we continue to run the golf course as it’s been run, but there are no offers of money from them to make this happen. The mayor of Pacifica was conspicuously evasive when pressed by Supervisor Mirkarimi April 30 as to what she was prepared to bring to the table. They are offering nothing. One can easily imagine the howls of outrage that would echo through San Mateo county if San Franciscans packed a Pacifica city council meeting to demand that they continue to fund an amenity up here within San Francisco’s city limits.

The reality is that the Sharp Park golf course has become a toxic asset on anyone’s books. The course lies at or below sea level at the end of a big watershed and is irremediably subject to flooding, sedimentation, and erosion that will only increase with rising sea levels. It is home to endangered species that must be protected — or else suffer major penalties from both the Feds and the state of California. And the demand for golf has been falling throughout the peninsula — 30-40% over the past decade, according to the recent Harvey Rose audit of the golf program — because of demographic changes in what people want to do for fun.

San Francisco needs to find a new plan for the Sharp Park golf course, and that is exactly what Supervisor Mirkarimi’s legislation will accomplish. I personally believe that sending the property to the GGNRA for them to deal with is by far the best idea. But if Pacifica wants to have the golf course run as it is, let them levy some bonds to buy it from us and run it on their own dime — and face the vast logistical costs and legal/financial liabilities themselves.

Either way, San Francisco cannot afford to keep doing this. Please support this legislation. It is the fiscally-responsible thing to do.

Thank you.

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Let the Supervisors know that you care about how they’re spending our tax dollars during this budget crisis!