San Francisco spending thousands to protect city vegetable farm

[Auggie]

San Francisco Chronicle, 10-22-08:

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is paying thousands of dollars a week in city money for private security guards to play scarecrow over the "Victory Garden" growing in Civic Center Plaza. Only in this case, it's not birds that are being shooed away, but the homeless people and the drunks who drift into the plaza once the sun goes down.

The garden is a collection of veggies and herbs planted over the summer as part of the privately sponsored "Slow Food Nation" festival. At first, it was protected at night by volunteers.

Once the food fest ended in late August, however, the mayor decided to keep the garden going. His office contracted with Jeff Gutierrez Security, a local outfit, to keep an eye on the pea patch from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 a.m.

"If they don't have security, it will become a toilet," said one city gardener who was planting a fresh bed of marigolds in the plaza the other day.

LINK: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/22/BATG13LUCJ.DTL&tsp=1

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I'm at a loss to understand the reasoning here...

[Taverner]

1. SF Homeless are some of the most aggressive I've seen

And yes, they will trash the victory garden. And yes, it will become a toilet.

I think a wiser choice would be to erect a fence around the garden, and lock it at night.

[Auggie]

2. Yeah, but Civic Center is already a toilet. The whole area needs a fence.

Why they didn't harvest the plants, donate the veggies to food banks, and return the space to the way it was before is beyond me.

[Taverner]

3. Perhaps

Civic Center looks nice from the window though

[EFerrari]

5. Maybe actually addressing homelessness would be more prudent

than a fence?

[Auggie]

6. No argument here

[EFerrari]

4. Seriously? It's Gavin trying to look green with a minimum of effort.

That's all.

:shrug:

He could probably have gotten volunteers to figure out how to secure the veggies but why bother when you can write a check.