SF Green Connect Recap

So a couple days ago in my post “Be the Change” I said that I had found an organization in San Francisco called SF Connect that I felt was going to make my volunteering efforts go a little smoother. Well I am afraid that I may have been completely wrong on that front.

The dreamboat and I went out to volunteer this past Saturday morning and were greeted by what to us felt like chaos and complete disorganization. I couldn’t tell where the SF Connect people were so we stood near some people on parole. From a speech made by some big wigs in the city we learned SF Green Connect had teamed up with the SF Department of Public Works, and a local High School to tidy up the area around the school and plant some seedlings. Cool, not too bad, right?

The organizers started breaking people into groups and announced that the people from SF Green Connect would be a part of the painting crew. It was at this point that I was completely saddened and totally regretful that I had even gone out in the first place. Painting, last time I checked, is one thing that is completely the opposite of doing anything green. My list of gripes about the whole situation?

1. I volunteer to create additional positive impact. It’s about going beyond what’s done everyday. The people from SF Works just stood around talking and “supervising” the project (they just watched us paint). We basically just did their jobs for them. Nothing was done that wouldn’t have been done by them anyway.

2. We painted a lot of things that I feel it wasn’t the cities job to paint (mostly private properties) releasing more toxins into the atmosphere than necessary. The dreamboat talked to the landlord of one of the buildings who happened to be outside. He said the tenants get drunk and tag up their own front door on a semi regular basis, yet the city was the one doing the painting. A lot of the graffiti was also obviously done by kids that attend the school we were volunteering at, so they’re just going to end up in this cycle of painting, graffiti, painting, which is ridiculous.

3. When I asked for a trash bag or can so I could pick up the garbage around the area we were working on I was told that yes they had a trashcan, but it wasn’t their job to pick up the trash so I couldn’t have it. The woman watching me paint actually suggested I drop my empty water bottle that kept trying to blow away into this pit near one of the houses we were working on that was already full of trash. Uh, no? It’s already bad enough I drank out a plastic bottle to begin with! I need to get my panniers on my bike so I can take my Sigg bottle next time.

I felt bad after this whole ordeal. I appreciate the DPW efforts to keep our city up and running and beautiful, I just don’t think this is something SF Green Connect should have taken part in. I felt like we completely did the opposite of what Earth Day is about. I know in the grander scheme of things some planting got done with one of the other groups, but still. I got an email from SF Green Connect asking for feedback so I will fill that out and ask my questions. I am curious as to whether this is how it always is. I am going to give it another go next month, and if it is, I will have to look for another organization to volunteer with.

Kevin and John, it was awesome meeting you, thanks so much for volunteering! It was lovely to meet other people who care about the state of their planet enough to get out and do something about it. Maybe I will see you guys next month?!

photograph taken by Bree Bailey and used under creative commons.