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Gavin Newsom Goes Pol Pot: Orders Gardenification of San Francisco! All Residents With Eyeglasses and Presumed Bourgeois Tendencies Please Report to The Nearest Street Median to Begin Growing Food!
Chris Reed of the San Diego Union-Tribune sends word of a truly giant step forward in nanny-statism, courtesy of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom:
All city departments have six months to conduct an audit of unused land—including empty lots, rooftops, windowsills and median strips—that could be turned into community gardens or farms that could benefit residents, either by working at them or purchasing the fresh produce. Food vendors that contract with the city must offer healthy and sustainable food. All vending machines on city property must also offer healthy options, and farmers' markets must begin accepting food stamps, although some already do....
And effective immediately, no more runs to the doughnut shop before meetings and conferences held by city workers. Instead, city employees must use guidelines created by the Health Department when ordering food for meetings.
Examples include cutting bagels into halves or quarters so people can take smaller portions and serving vegetables instead of potato chips....
Many of the details have yet to be worked out, including how much it will cost. Newsom bristled when asked how it would be funded because there's no money to implement the food policy in the budget agreed to by the mayor and the board's budget committee just last week.
"We have plenty of resources," he said. "This is not a budget buster."
BlueBook|7.9.09 @ 3:49PM|#
The gardening thing, he could get away with. Getting between the cops and their donuts, though... you better believe that's a taserin'!
Tim Cavanaugh|7.9.09 @ 3:49PM|#
As a neutral in the San Francisco/Los Angeles rivalry, I have to say that Newsom could order all city residents to participate in North Korean-style human-wave demonstrations every day and he'd still be the better of the state's two big-city mayors. Not just because he's fine, but because his polity (where he is, amazingly, on the more conservative end of the continuum) continues to function at some level. Villaretardo's L.A., by comparison, is dying faster than a palm tree with fungal disease.
|7.9.09 @ 3:50PM|#
So follow me on this one...
Main article states on the 2ksqft farm they produced 2000lbs of
food. Granted it is not the most ideal crop, but if compared to
average yield per US Farm for corn, it is about 75% less than what
should be coming out.
151 bushels per acre
70 lbs per corn
10570 lbs per acre
43560 sq ft per acre
4.121097446 pounds per SqFt
alan|7.9.09 @ 3:50PM|#
News Conference:
The mayor has just finished explaining his new policy --
Newsom: I will now take your questions. You, in the first row with
the incredible Oxfords.
Reporter: When these ideas occur to you does it ever make you
consider the possibility you have an undiagnosed condition like a
tumor growing in your brain?
Newsom: Uhm, no. Next question, you with the brown suede
pocketbook.
Reporter#2: Is there a history of mental illness in your
family?
Newsom: Aside from a brief stay in a facility by my Aunt Lacey in
'66 there is scant history of mental illness in my family . . .
Abdul|7.9.09 @ 3:51PM|#
It's my understanding that every San Franciscan with a grow light and a closet is already engaging in some form of agricultural endeavor.
Jeff P|7.9.09 @ 3:51PM|#
So the South Park episode about San Franciscans enjoing the
smell of their own farts was completely lost on these
people...
Also, SF has some of the best roaming food trucks in the
country.
|7.9.09 @ 3:55PM|#
Now you can go where people are one
Now you can go where they get things done
What you need, my son.
Is a holiday in cambodia
Where people dress in black
A holiday in cambodia
Where youll kiss ass or crack
Pol pot, pol pot, pol pot, pol pot, etc.
And its a holiday in cambodia
Where you'll do what you're told
A holiday in cambodia
Where the slums got so much soul
|7.9.09 @ 3:59PM|#
The mayors of the most "progressive" cities are simply amping up their race to be the first to implement new policies. New York with the nutritional labeling, this, etc. It's going to get worse, not better, because it's the scumbag mayors' egos on the line.
|7.9.09 @ 4:00PM|#
Well, I guess Reason is going hard to the conservative well on this one. God forbid someone step in and say, "Let's use empty taxpayer-owned space for something productive" and "We're no longer going to feed your Fat McAss using tax payer dollars." Dat'd be da gubmint messin wit mah rahts.
Fluffy|7.9.09 @ 4:01PM|#
Here's the entry page for signing up to accept food
stamps:
This page is for retailers - owners and employees of retail food stores. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is administered by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service through its nationwide network of FNS field offices. Local FNS field offices are responsible for the licensing and monitoring of retail food stores participating in SNAP.
Any retailer that would like to accept SNAP benefits (EBT) must be licensed to participate in SNAP. This section provides information for retailers who want to apply for a SNAP permit. Today, the only form of SNAP benefit issuance is the EBT-Electronic Benefits Transfer card. EBT allows you, the retailer, to accept SNAP payment for food using the EBT card--a kind of debit card.
FNS has numerous materials designed to help you follow SNAP rules and regulations. Protect your business. Learn the proper way to handle SNAP transactions. The Retailer Training Guide will help you learn the Program rules and answer common questions about the Program. You can also find out what food items can be sold for SNAP benefits - and what things cannot be sold. We want you to be successful. Know and follow the laws and regulations, train your employees carefully, and monitor their performance -these are all ways in which you can help to ensure your success in SNAP.
The staff of your local FNS field office is available to answer your questions and advise you on Program rules and procedures. If a situation arises that you are not sure how to handle, you should always contact the FNS field office that services your area for assistance.
Remember, it is against the rules and regulations of SNAP for you to accept or redeem any SNAP benefits until you are authorized by USDA, FNS. Each store location under your ownership must have a separate SNAP permit; you must submit a separate application for each store that you own. If your store changes ownership, if you move, or if you close your store, your SNAP permit is void. You cannot transfer your permit to someone else.
http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/retailers/default.htm
The most truly offensive and pernicious aspect of the modern
regulatory state is the way it criminalizes benign behavior.
So if I grow some tomatoes in my garden, and I want to sell some of
them to somebody for $5, I am to Newsom a criminal if I don't sign
up for a license to be a SNAP vendor, and make arrangements to
receive electronic payments via EBT card. If I sell my tomatoes
from home today and from a farmstand tomorrow without changing my
license, I am also a criminal.
Doesn't anyone see the absolute absurdity of this? What aspect of
handing someone a bag of tomatoes and taking $5 for it [without
doing all of this SNAP nonsense beforehand] is the criminal
activity that requires punishment?
|7.9.09 @ 4:04PM|#
Episiarch,
Just so--look at that dickhead Nickels in my own fair city, where
today's top stories on his homepage include:
New Record for Recycling!
Farmers Markets Changes
and of course,
Nickels Leads Mayors !!
Zeb|7.9.09 @ 4:07PM|#
a.j.
I tend to doubt that they are growing commercial corn in their
gardens. Corn is definitely not typical in terms of yields per
area. Assuming that they are growing a variety of vegetables, 2000
lbs of food from a garden 40'x50' sounds like a pretty decent yield
to me.
Don't get me wrong this is pretty fucked up as a government
mandate. But if it were a voluntary private effort, I would say it
is a great idea.
MS|7.9.09 @ 4:07PM|#
I actually like the point about lesaing out unused space...that it has to be for food and all these other restricitions may be a little much, but it is better than them taking land to grow crops.
Fluffy|7.9.09 @ 4:07PM|#
Well, I guess Reason is going hard to the conservative well
on this one. God forbid someone step in and say, "Let's use empty
taxpayer-owned space for something productive" and "We're no longer
going to feed your Fat McAss using tax payer dollars." Dat'd be da
gubmint messin wit mah rahts.
Rob, this proposal will require a bureaucrat be appointed to
determine how many pieces bagels should be cut into at
meetings and presumably to write and distribute memos, hold
training meetings on the guidelines, etc.
Micromanagement of "food policy" in response to liberal fashions
regarding "sustainability" and the like is just a humorous example
of the way the state grows. It grows because someone in government
says, "Let's hire someone to count how many blades of grass are
between the sidewalk and the road on every street in the city" and
no one says, "That's stupid."
|7.9.09 @ 4:08PM|#
I can't wait to see the gardens in median strips...any bets on how long until someone gets run over while farming a median strip?
|7.9.09 @ 4:10PM|#
Rob--I'm going to need your TPS reports by the end of the
day.
Oh, and I'll need you to come in on Saturday this weekend. Those
bagels aren't going to cut themselves, you know.
SpongePaul|7.9.09 @ 4:13PM|#
wtf farmers HAVe to accept fucking food stamp cards. a private farmer selling ot a private person should be able to accept whatever payment the want cash check or charge. and btw how much is the companie providing the cards charging per transaction 3-5% like most companies, so not only have they banned a farmer from making a living freely, they have now imposed a 5% tax off the top for the privlage of him accepting debit cards. SOUNDS FUCKED and UNLAWFUL to me!
The Libertarian Guy|7.9.09 @ 4:15PM|#
Gavin Newsom for Food Czar!
Now, if you'll excuse me, this box of corn flakes isn't going to
count itself, and they have to be sorted by size and color...
|7.9.09 @ 4:17PM|#
How long will it be before city workers sue the city for their eating disorders? The city made them so portion conscious they became anorexic.
|7.9.09 @ 4:22PM|#
Episiarch,
Just so--look at that dickhead Nickels in my own fair city, where
today's top stories on his homepage include:
Matthew, I am in the same fair city, so I know about Nickels, that
beady-eyed fat piece of shit. I can't wait for him to get
challenged by...carbon copies on the city council.
|7.9.09 @ 4:23PM|#
I know people get all uptight when we talk about secession, but what about rejection? Can we throw out locales or states that the rest of us don't like?
|7.9.09 @ 4:25PM|#
I don't have any problem with trying to use unused city land, but who wants to eat something grown on a highway median strip? I can't imagine it's the best soil quality, and all the car exhaust won't help.
Xeones|7.9.09 @ 4:31PM|#
Papaya, you'll eat disgusting shriveled median vegetables and
like it.
I can't wait until some (most?) of the workers hired to tend these
city gardens turn out to be illegal.
|7.9.09 @ 4:32PM|#
Wait... none of the land is private? So what's the big
deal?
I kind of like the idea of a city at least allowing citizens to use
the land it's taken.
|7.9.09 @ 4:34PM|#
The Peoples Republic of California are imposing their collective will on everyone, that tear's it from here on out i'm referring to San Francisco as New Moscow.
|7.9.09 @ 4:39PM|#
The Dear Leader has announce a program of Juche for the People's
Democratic Republic of San Francisco.
Strange.
Is this the result of living on a peninsula?
|7.9.09 @ 4:43PM|#
It's just the theory that utopia can be achieved via domination
of the masses.
Fact of the matter is that it can only be attained by sweet talkin
the folks into submission. When they submit, they feel it's
voluntary.
Russ 2000|7.9.09 @ 4:44PM|#
What if I want a third of a bagel? One quarter isn't enough, one half is too much. Are public employees too unskilled to use a knife?
alan|7.9.09 @ 4:45PM|#
Schizophrenia: A psychiatric diagnosis denoting a persistent,
often chronic tendency to lapse into lame parody (i.e. 'Dat'd be da
gubmint messin wit mah rahts'), mental illness variously affecting
behavior, thinking denoted by tendencies to prefix 'Mc' (i.e. 'feed
your Fat McAss using tax payer dollars') to every normative
activity the schizophrenic finds objectionable, and emotion
typified by a mix of almost pained sincerity and a limped sarcasm;
any condition in which disparate or mutually exclusive activities
coexist ('We're no longer going to feed your Fat McAss using tax
payer dollars' where the subject is indeed about how we micromanage
feeding your fat ass).
Note, Libertarians aren't 'going hard to the conservative well' on
this or any issue. The actual problem is every fucking thing coming
out of the mouths of liberals is bat shit crazy.
alan|7.9.09 @ 4:49PM|#
PapayaSF | July 9, 2009, 4:25pm | #
I don't have any problem with trying to use unused city land, but
who wants to eat something grown on a highway median strip? I can't
imagine it's the best soil quality, and all the car exhaust won't
help.
I bet when they dreamed it up, they didn't consider that don't you?
What percentage of the land in their calculation fits that
description, probably a great deal.
Xeones|7.9.09 @ 4:55PM|#
I bet when they dreamed it up, they didn't consider that
don't you?
Naw, they considered it. All will become clear when San Fran
finally gets around to banning internal combustion engines later
this year.
|7.9.09 @ 4:57PM|#
The part of the story that caught my eye was that he's going to require everyone in homeless shelters to eat "healthy" food or go hungry. I'm sure this enforced consumption of arugala will go over well.
Mister DNA|7.9.09 @ 5:01PM|#
When I lived in SF back in '87 - '89, there were some great
locally owned bakeries/doughnut shops in my neighborhood.
I used to look forward to working the night shift so I could make a
doughnut run at 5am.
hmm|7.9.09 @ 5:13PM|#
Instead, city employees must use guidelines created by the Health Department when ordering food for meetings.
Does this exclude beer? Cause a lot gets solved in the parking lot
after work while leaning on a truck bed drinking beer for depts.
like Parks and Rec. or Cent. Garage. Or are those not official
meetings?
They are upset Chicago is ahead of them in putting grass on
buildings. To be honest I like the idea of green shit all over the
place, MO is damn near a jungle, but I don't like it enough to have
some asshole with a badge from the city tell me it has to be
green.
The last city I worked for has one of the strongest all volunteer
(very little city support in the way of money, lots of support in
the way of helping hands here and there like heavy equip) gardening
groups around. They agree to make just about anything perty and if
you leave them alone on an empty lot for more than 10 minutes they
start cleaning and planting things they have had donated. It's a
pretty impressive group of bunnyhuggers.
|7.9.09 @ 5:15PM|#
San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Too bad it's run--and largely populated by--complete kooks.
alan|7.9.09 @ 5:28PM|#
A little diversion, but we are talking about gardening, I'm
hungry, so here it goes:
There are many regional variations on how to properly cook Summer
squash, and for my money, this is the best and most basic
way:
Take four of five medium to large squash, cut them up into thin, no
more than a quarter of an inch thick, chips. Place these chips into
a bowl and evenly spread flour (plain, though it doesn't really
matter, even Bisquick works), salt and pepper, to your taste,
evenly on the chips.
Place the chips evenly in a pan (the kind you would bake a sheet
cake in), slice up a sweet onion, and a few spring onions if you
have them, and spread evenly over the squash chips. Take a stick of
butter, cut it up into eight even portions, place the slices evenly
spaced over the chips and onions.
Bake in an oven at 375 for one hour. Comes out yummy every
time.
creech|7.9.09 @ 5:31PM|#
Are they going to waive environmental impact studies, zoning ordinances, planning commission reviews, public hearings, licensing, blah blah blah? If not, the first zuccini will probably be ready for market by 2020 at the earliest.
|7.9.09 @ 5:33PM|#
" I can't imagine it's the best soil quality, and all the car
exhaust won't help."
And there's also all that bum vomit.
jtuf|7.9.09 @ 5:34PM|#
I eat potato chips partly for environmental reasons. Potato crops produce more calories per acre than any other crop I know by a long shot. That means you can feed the same number of people on fewer acres if they eat potatos. A large bag of potato chips is about 800 calories, so it's the perfect portion controlled meal.
Ben Kenobi|7.9.09 @ 5:35PM|#
At least these idiots are getting what they deserve as their state falls apart around them.
|7.9.09 @ 5:35PM|#
If they start using too much land for growing vegetation, it's going to take an awful lot of CO2 out of the atmosphere. I wouldn't be surprised if we start experiencing a prolonged period of global cooling. And when the climate cools enough, we'll all be eaten by polar bears.
|7.9.09 @ 5:35PM|#
I voted for that schmo on his first campaign, on my way out of San Francisco. The sad thing is, he's probably infinitely preferable to his major competitor in that election, Matt Gonzales, whose progressive supporters plastered the city with flyers of horned Satan-Newsom and cried when their boy lost.
jtuf|7.9.09 @ 5:36PM|#
Good point, creech. My town outlawed comercial farming decades ago. We would need to change the zoning code to allow people to grow food for sale.
Rich|7.9.09 @ 5:37PM|#
"An example would be using manure as a fertilizer rather than
chemicals."
More executive diraectives comin' right up!
|7.9.09 @ 5:37PM|#
"I bet when they dreamed it up, they didn't consider that don't
you? What percentage of the land in their calculation fits that
description, probably a great deal."
Drudge linked to a story today about the lead contaminated soil in
Michelle Obama's Whitehouse vegetable garden, the produce of which
she has served to children and visiting heads of state.
Meteor Shit|7.9.09 @ 5:40PM|#
" To be honest I like the idea of green shit all over the
place"
Then you'll love the film "Creep Show"
Steven Hall|7.9.09 @ 5:44PM|#
"At least these idiots are getting what they deserve as their
state falls apart around them."
This makes total sense. In the European depression that followed
WWII, people in Austria and Germany planted gardens out of
necessity.
|7.9.09 @ 5:49PM|#
Before deciding to grow corn, please watch the documentary "King Corn," which highlights the empty nutrition of corn. Large yields do not, by any means translate into improved health...In fact, if the cows who are fed this corn were not slaughtered, they would eventually die from malnutrition!
|7.9.09 @ 6:04PM|#
rufrank2,
Well, it probably won't be long until we kill people when they turn
thirty. Socialized healthcare will work better with a younger
population, and killing off everyone over thirty will help stop
global warming.
MattXIV|7.9.09 @ 6:07PM|#
Since some people apparently need to have why trying to grow
food in urban settings is retardedly inefficient spelled out for
them:
-You can't use a plow on most of the spaces specified, so planting
will be very time consuming and labor intensive. The same will be
true of harvesting. Irrigation will either be very labor intensive
or require substantial capital expenditures.
-Rooftops and windowsills require planters, which are a substantial
capital cost that you don't get with plain old land and if the city
has an empty lot they have no current use for, it should sell it so
someone can put something useful there.
-Choice and quantity of fertilizer/pesticides/herbicides are
severely restricted. You get more runoff into adjacent bodies of
water when you have storm drains all over the place, so most of
what gets put on the plants will end up in the bay. Also, using
manure, compost, or fish meal will probably be non-viable for odor
reasons.
-Most urban animals are considered pests and this gives them an
easily accessible food source. Besides raptors, the predators of
said pests (wolves, bobcats, foxes, weasels, etc) do not take well
to the city, and even though raptors can live in the city, they
don't do as well as in rural areas.
kilroy|7.9.09 @ 6:17PM|#
They should just grow weed, sell it and balance the fucking state budget. And when they have the next wildfire no one will even mind.
|7.9.09 @ 7:07PM|#
What happens when SF's imperative to be ubergreen runs into its equally important to mission to let the homeless sleep in and befoul any spot in the city?
I<3NPR|7.9.09 @ 8:01PM|#
What happens when SF's imperative to be ubergreen runs into
its equally important to mission to let the homeless sleep in and
befoul any spot in the city?
Homelessness is a condition created by Republican policies. With
Obama in office, that problem no longer exist, so I'm afraid you
are making a false argument.
|7.9.09 @ 8:01PM|#
I thank god that my father had the sense to leave California and move to the more free state of Pennsylvania. A state were we are free to garden if we want and eat a whole bagel with full fat cream cheese. I'm just waiting for the big one to hit so this country gets an enema.
|7.9.09 @ 8:38PM|#
Seig Health!
Kalifornia upgefucht ist, und outstrraighten needs to Bekomm! Zo,
der approved foods only you will eat, und der gut tasten stoff
verboten ist. Alzo, wasser von der plastikbottle.
Fatbuggers und oldthinkers heraus- for you der train into ze nacht
und nebel....
|7.9.09 @ 9:07PM|#
Who's money is being used to buy snacks for SF government
meetings?
If it's the taxpayer's, this practice should be banned.
Bill Quick|7.9.09 @ 11:49PM|#
Also, SF has some of the best roaming food trucks in the country.
Yes, indeedy. And the best tacos in the known universe are served out of the truck parked at the Best Buy on 13th.
Are public employees too unskilled to use a knife?
Public employees are not allowed to carry knives.
|7.10.09 @ 2:20AM|#
Perhaps this is insulting to ask, but if you want greenery and
agriculture why the heck do you live in a central city, full of
highrises and asphalt?
I find the urban liberal obsession with greenery unfathomable.
|7.10.09 @ 8:42PM|#
California edges out in front of Florida again in the race for state with the most idiot politicians.
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