Guerrilla gardeners: When push comes to shovel

[Mugu]

Matthew Green, Special to The Chronicle

In January 2007, a group of activist gardeners in San Francisco's Richmond District grew tired of walking past a weed-filled lot. The nearly 1,300-square-foot parcel at the corner of Fulton and Stanyan streets had not been used for years.

So Justin Valone, who lives across the street from the lot, helped spearhead an act of guerrilla gardening. Within weeks, 30 volunteers had transformed the lot, planting potatoes, fava beans and other crops. For a couple of months, all seemed good. But in the early spring, the out-of-town landlord, who also owns the adjoining building, learned of the garden - in part tipped off by an unusually hefty utility bill for the water being used for crop irrigation. She asked Citywide Property Management, the company managing the parcel, to take out the garden.

Valone agreed to stop using the property's water. But he refused to obey the removal order; he said the property owner refused to negotiate. The standoff continued and eventually included a round-the-clock vigil, a 300-signature petition and an effort by Supervisor Jake McGoldrick's office to mediate the conflict. After a prolonged wrangle, the garden was ripped out in April; the lot remains vacant.

"It's sort of baffling to me," Valone said last spring as the conflict raged. "It's a piece of land that no one cared about until we came. And now they're putting so much time and energy into kicking us out. ... In our society, we have a bizarre notion that if you own a piece of land, you can do anything you want, including neglecting it and letting it become an urban blight."


Complete article at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/29/HOPOVBK0B.DTL

[tabasco]

1. A well-tended garden is a beautiful sight.

Certainly much nicer than a patch of grass.

I suppose it was a power trip thing for the owner.

"Damn hippies plantin' a garden!"

But the owner has the rights.

[jwirr]

2. I love this movement. There can be nothing more of a waste than

an empty lot with trash and weeds as its only occupant. I would think a city would give these guys an award for beautification efforts.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. That's pathetic that it was ripped out.

What an un-San Francisco like thing to do. Anchorage has had a couple of community gardens for years and is working on another one. People should be encouraged to grow as much of their own food as they can for so many reasons.

[Edweird]

4. Is it posibble he had to do that to retain ownership of that land?

I'm no lawyer, but I understand that where I live, if my neighbor builds a fence that is actually on my property and I fail to defend my ownership, after a period of years that piece of land becomes my neighbors' property by default. Could something like that be the case here? Anybody know the law about that in SF?