Corbett Heights Neighbors

Relative to the news of a Corbett Slope cleanup:

Using the 341 Corbett space as a community garden would be wonderful!  Little anecdote - when I first moved to 311 Corbett, in 1978, the neighborhood was heavily populated with little old ladies, some of whom used that space as a community garden. I once asked one of the women if I could have some space, and she looked at me suspiciously and said, "I don't know, sonny, you don't look like the type that would keep it up!"  And she was probably right.  She may have been the same lady that came up to me and my son and a friend of his in 1979, when we were playing frisbee at Corbett and Mars, and told us,  "We don't play frisbee on Corbett!"  I was so taken aback that I actually stopped.

 from the desk of
Marv Lehrman

Without going into the whole history of the site (almost 18,000 square feet, it extends from Corbett down to Market, and is between 341 Corbett and 315 Corbett), it has been fenced off for over 20 years, collecting trash and growing beautiful crops of weeds. I managed to get DPW to clean it out a few years ago. It's now in the jurisdiction of MOH (Mayor's Office of Housing). Another long story.
With the renewed interest at City Hall in preserving green spaces, and with growing food locally, organizations like KitchenGardenSF have formed. I've been discussing the possibility of collaborating with them and with members of the SF Permaculture Guild on a project at the Corbett Slope. They work with students who design and implement a plan for a particular green space. Neighbors are, at all times, included in the planning, and possibly the implementation as well. The first step would be to clear out the site - hooray! So you will probably see some students scoping out the site and working to eliminate the weeds and other undesirables.
I've already spoken with one of the chiefs at the Mayor's Office of Housing. She was very optimistic that, after a proposal is submitted, we will get permission to proceed. If you're interested in being involved, please let me know. I'm meeting with them this afternoon at 3:30.
More details to follow!
Gary