Activists occupying the former site of Hayes Valley Farm in San Francisco said they locked out workers sent to cut trees down this morning and that they plan a live music event and neighborhood barbecue this weekend.
The “Liberate the Land” protestors entered the site at Fell and Laguna streets on Saturday, a day after proprietors of the farm vacated the land.
The protesters dubbed the space “Gezi Gardens” after a park in Istanbul that has been the subject of recent protests.
The group said that it has built six tree-sitting platforms on the site, planted gardens, served meals, organized workshops and activities and built a village “to demonstrate ecological living in the city.”
Workers sent to cut down trees on the site were locked out around 8 a.m. today, the protestors said. Protestors said Thursday that they had been served with a notice to vacate the land by San Francisco police. A San Francisco police spokesman denied that officers had served any notices to the site and said police were not on the scene as of this morning.
Hayes Valley Farm had operated under a temporary interim use agreement, in which the city granted fiscal support and use of the land formerly occupied by a freeway on-ramp that was torn down. It began in January 2010.
But the land, which the city sold to developers Avalon Bay and Build Inc., was always slated for development.
A 182-unit housing project is slated to start construction later this year. The occupation does not involve Hayes Valley Farm organizers, who have said that the farm’s resources were distributed to a number of legacy projects throughout San Francisco, including The Bee Farm, Bloom Justice, 49 Farms, BRANCH/Youth Education, Please Touch Community Garden, The Potrero Hill Learning Garden, Beecology and Urban Commons SF.
According to the Hayes Valley Farm website, as many as 20,000 volunteers worked on the 2.2-acre farm during its time in San Francisco and community events large and small were common at the location, including yoga and holiday celebrations.
Activists said they planned a barbecue with live music, workshops and a neighborhood meeting Saturday, with music starting as early as 10 a.m. and the barbecue around noon.
A neighborhood meeting at 3 p.m. Saturday will “open a dialogue about preserving this open green space and potentially turning it into a commons for the people of San Francisco,” and include a “teach-in” about the Gezi Park protests in Turkey, the activists said in a statement.
In NBC Bay Area
And today:
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco police have arrested seven people during a raid on tree-sitting Occupy protesters.
The raid in the city’s Hayes Valley neighborhood occurred around 1:30 a.m. Thursday as officers ordered about 55 people to leave the city-owned property.
Sgt. Dennis Toomer says all but five left the premises. Two were arrested without incident and three others were removed from the trees.
Toomer says one person jumped from a tree and suffered minor injuries.
The land was formerly the site of an urban farm. But it is slated for new a housing development, and city officials planned to remove some trees.
The protesters had been at the space since the beginning of June and called it “Gezi Gardens” after a park in Istanbul that has been the subject of recent protests.
