As part of the Community Clean team event this Saturday, the DPW, in partnership with Clean City and Recology, is also providing a free drop off center for large household items.

From 8am until 12noon, bring your items by 48th Avenue between Anza Street and Geary. Eligible items for drop-off include:

• Green Waste and Other Compostables
• Free Shredding & Document Destruction, Truck on site (max of two banker’s boxes)
• Curbside recyclable material (cans, glass bottles, plastic bottles, cardboard, and all paper).
• Appliances (water heaters, stoves, washers, dryers, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers).
• Scrap Metal (any item that contains metal, such as a kitchen chair, lamp, pipes, bird cage, bed frame, etc.).
• Mattresses and Box Springs (including futon mattresses).
• Electronics (including stereo equipment, VCR’s, old telephones and microwaves).
• Goodwill Industries will be on hand to recycle and reuse computer equipment (limit 5 computers per household).
• Non Recyclable/Non-Compostable Waste such as plastic bags, Styrofoam, ceramics, light bulbs, painted or treated wood, etc.
• Used motor oil/oil filters. Place used filters in a plastic bag. Do not mix motor oil with anything!
• All household batteries (non-automotive)
• Fluorescent bulbs and tubes (Broken tubes will not be accepted)

This drop-off is open to residents of the Richmond District only and proof of residency (driver’s license, utility bill) is required. To avoid a lengthy wait, appointments are encouraged – call Recology at 330-1300.

For complete details, visit the Gigantic 3 Recycling Program website.

Sarah B.

Photo by Max Spring

Happy Wednesday to all! Here’s some local links to make Friday get here even sooner…

• 7×7 is already warming up for Outside Lands 2012 with a Rdio playlist featuring songs from the festival’s bands “to get you psyched!” Tune in here
• The new Cajun House restaurant on 5th Avenue near Clement we told you about earlier this week will open up tomorrow, May 3.
• This Saturday is the 45th Annual Plant Sale at the Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park from 10am until 2pm. “Choose from over 4,000 different kinds of plants that thrive in the Bay Area’s frost-free fog belt – many plants not found at other regional plant sales or commercial nurseries.” Special to the sale this time around: unique, hard-to-find edible plants.
• Do meatballs make your heart sing? 7×7 loves the Lion’s Head meatballs at Shanghai House (3641 Balboa), calling them “impossibly moist” when they arrive in their hot clay pot with bamboo and mushrooms.
• This one’s for you, tree-huggers: On June 3, Naomi LeBeau of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy will lead a walking tour of the trees of Lands End and Sutro Heights Park. RSVP to Sarah Campbell at sarah@fuf.net.
• Speaking of Sutro Heights Park… Check out the Architecture Spotlight: Sutro Heights Park over at UntappedSF. Creator Adolph Sutro tried to “recreate a European garden, dotted with statues, planters, and fountains.” Cool photos too.
• SFStation paid a visit to the new Foggy Notion boutique and gallery on 6th Avenue, where owner and artist Alissa Anderson offers handmade, organic and environmentally conscious products made by her, as well as other designers and artists. “Alissa is gracious and charming, and a visit to her store is essentially a warm welcome into a working artist’s studio. It’s worth a visit to this little nook of creativity.”
• Next time you’re near the Blue Danube Cafe on Clement, pop in to see a new photo exhibit by Spanish photographer Jose Ángel González. His New Life for Old Frames exhibition is his first in SF, and features his photos encased on old frames that he recovered from thrift stores and garage sales. “I can’t imagine a higher honor for a photograph than to be able to reside in a space destined to preserve treasured memories.”

Sarah B.

City Burning, from Alamo Square, Hayes Street & Pierce Street, April 18, 1906. Courtesy SFMTA

Happy Friday to everyone! Here are some local links to kick off your weekend…

• It was the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake on Wednesday. The SFMTA posted some new historic photos that have surfaced from the aftermath. Amazing stuff.
• This Saturday, Enjoy Vegetarian will be opening their third restaurant at 5344 Geary between 17th & 18th Avenues. Their press release boasts, “Enjoy has vegan food that not only looks but tastes like real meat. Lots of gluten-free options and a fair selection of Americanized-Chinese food, such as sweet-and-sour chicken. No MSG, garlic or onion in any dishes.” CNN even rated them the 7th best Chinese restaurant in California.
• Patricia Unterman may no longer be a food critic for the Examiner, but she has her own website for fans to catch her latest reviews. She recently reviewed Golden Gate Dim Sum (1829 Clement), and in her usual adventurous style said “most of the dishes I wanted to try were posted on the wall in Chinese.” Unterman concludes the review by saying that Golden Gate “has now joined my top comfort food list.”
• Untapped Cities has a nice feature on the architecture and murals at Beach Chalet. “The City of San Francisco built the Beach Chalet in 1925, at a cost of $60,000, to provide facilities for beach goers. The ground floor consisted of a lounge and changing rooms, while the upstairs held a 200-seat bar and municipal restaurant.”
• CurbedSF is running features on local parks, and spotlighted our own Muriel Leff Mini-Park on 7th Avenue. Did you know it was the first mini-park built in the city? I wonder if it’s jealous of the new parklet craze… Curbed also has a nifty post on pics of the Cliff House, Then & Now with a fancy sliding bar that lets you compare photos easily.
• The Anza Branch Library, which re-opened last June after a nice remodel, was recently certified LEED Gold by the U.S. Green Building Council. What does it mean? That the library was “designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO? emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.” If you’d like a LEED tour of the library, stop by on June 16 from 2-4pm (it’s also their one year anniversary since re-opening).

A couple of local businesses are getting into the Earth Day spirit this weekend:

• The recently opened Ingenious Salon (389 Arguello) is hosting a grand opening party on Saturday night from 7 to 10pm. Stop by to enjoy “hors d’oeuvres and refreshments, modeling of cutting-edge hair styles and fresh spring make up by makeup artist Ananda Grant, goodie bags, music, and raffle for free and discounted service.”
• Foggy Notion (275 6th Avenue), a new boutique that specializes in recycled and vintage items, is hosting an Earth Day Vintage Sale on Sunday from 12noon until 6pm. Little Eagle Vintage will create a pop-up store on site, vintage vinyl records will be on sale, and all mittenmaker handmade jewelry will be 50-75% off. Plus complimentary Mimosas and other champagne cocktails.

Keep it green!

Sarah B.

This Saturday from 10:30am until 3pm, Frank McCoppin Elementary school will host an e-waste recycling drop-off. This is a great chance to get rid of those old electronics that have been cluttering up your office, garage or living room.

For every pound of e-waste they collect, the school earns $.05 which will go towards buying new computer equipment for the students.

Stop by McCoppin Elementary on Saturday, located at 651 6th Avenue near Cabrillo, to drop off your old computers, televisions, printers and small appliances this Saturday.

And in case you missed the news, McCoppin was one of the Distinguished School Award winners for 2012.

Sarah B.

On Saturday, April 14, Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF) will be in the neighborhood planting new sidewalk trees in the Outer Richmond.

They’ve also announced two more planting events in the neighborhood. Next up is the Central Richmond on May 19. After that, the inner Richmond will have a planting event in June (date TBD).

If you’ve been thinking about planting a sidewalk tree outside your home, this is a great opportunity to get help from FUF and its volunteers.

A “Tree Package” includes a tree, permit processing, site preparation including concrete removal, and two post-planting tree care visits. Most of the costs are covered by grants, government funding and donations. As the tree recipient, you pay a fee of $105 per Tree Package, plus $30 for a FUF membership.

If you’re interested in planting a sidewalk tree at your residence during the upcoming events, you have until April 19 to sign up for the Central Richmond, and until mid-May for the inner Richmond event (note: the deadline for the outer Richmond planting on April 14 has passed).

To get started, contact Doug Lybeck at dougly@fuf.net or 415-268-0773.

Sarah B.

Why did the chicken cross the road? To get back to its Richmond District backyard! Sorry, bad joke.

This Sunday from 10am until 1:30pm, the Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park is hosting a class called URBAN EGGS: Raising Chickens and Ducks in the City. This is your chance to learn what it takes to keep chickens and ducks in your own backyard.

The class will be led by Paul Glowaski of Dinner Bell Farm in Grass Valley.

Paul will cover all facets of chicken and duck farming, including raising your own chicks, shelter and coop design, feed and water requirements, disease, pest and predator information.

The cost for the class is $25 for Botanical Garden members, $35 for non-members. To register, download the form from the SFBG website. Then visit this page for details on how to turn it in.

Sarah B.

The Friends of the Urban Forest, a non-profit organization that helps individuals and neighborhood groups plant and care for street trees and sidewalk gardens throughout San Francisco, is coming to the Richmond District for a planting event on Saturday, April 14.

If you’ve been thinking about planting a sidewalk tree outside your home, this is a great opportunity to get help from FUF and its volunteers.

A “Tree Package” includes a tree, permit processing, site preparation including concrete removal, and two post-planting tree care visits. Most of the costs are covered by grants, government funding and donations. As the tree recipient, you pay a fee of $105 per Tree Package, plus $30 for a FUF membership.

During the April 14 planting, FUF will add trees at over 25 properties in the Outer Richmond.

“Tree planting brings neighbors together,” said FUF Community Outreach Manager Doug Lybeck. “We love to help neighborhood residents transform and improve their blocks.”

If you’re interested in planting a sidewalk tree at your residence during the April 14 event, you have until March 14 to sign up. Contact Doug Lybeck at dougly@fuf.net or 415-268-0773.

Fun fact: Since 1981, FUF has planted over 46,000 trees, totaling 42% of San Francisco’s street tree canopy.

Sarah B.

Ironically it wasn’t the Hamburglar that struck Belly Burgers recently but rather a cooking oil thief.

Belly Burgers (5740 Geary) is known for its fresh cooked Kobe beff burgers and fries, and that yields a lot of cooking grease. After they finish with the oil, they take it out back and store it in containers so it can be recycled.

The recycling is taken on by third party companies like Got Grease, who will come pick up the grease from participating restaurants, paying the owner in the process.

But Belly’s effort to be green is attracting thieves, who are making off with the grease and selling it on the black market. The restaurant shares a wall with a small, metered parking lot, making it easier for thieves to access their back area.

“There is a black market for yellow grease now as it’s sometimes called,” said Andrew Pannell of Dogpatch Biofuels of San Francisco. “Independent people will steal it here and there and use it for their own vehicles, diesels converted to burn vegetable oil.” [CBS SF]

Used cooking oil prices have increased from 6 cents to 50 cents a gallon, making it attractive to thieves. Which means when the recyclers come to collect, there’s no grease for them to pick up.

Got Grease collects the cooking oil, which is then turned locally into biodiesel. They partner with San Francisco’s Dogpatch Biofuels to offer Bay Area residents a station to fill their biodiesel-fueled cars with the locally collected alternative fuel.

David Levinson of Got Grease says the thefts are cutting into his bottom line, and that it makes it challenging to sign up new restaurants who are already apprehensive about the extra effort required to recycle their grease.

“It’s tough to expand your business and get new restaurants when you’re going to the restaurant and there’s no cooking oil for you to collect,” Levinson said.

Thanks to RichmondSFBlog reader Gideon for the tip.

Sarah B.

[via CBS SF]