Confusion reigns following a February community rally seeking to have Prince Recycling Center, adjoining Stump\u2019s Family Marketplace in Point Loma, moved to a more suitable site in nearby Midway District.
\nTwo days after the rally, Prince was reportedly served with an eviction notice by the marketplace\u2019s property owners. Meanwhile, Midway planners turned thumbs down to the proposal to relocate Prince Recycling Center to their neighborhood.
\nA week later, some Peninsulans alleging the recycling center is a homeless haunt, a community blight and a crime catalyst, pled their case for removing the Point Loma “convenience” recycler to\u00a0 Assemblyman Todd Gloria at a Feb. 17 community town hall.
\nAdd to all that frustration on the part of marketplace owner Dirk Stump, who was compelled by state law four years ago to allow a “convenience” recycling center onsite next to his market at 3770 Voltaire St. \u2013 or face daily fines.
\nStump feels increasingly pressured \u2013 and trapped in the middle \u2013 by this most recent turn of events with Prince Recycling.
\n“There\u2019s very little [else] I can do about it, and I\u2019ve been working on [removing] it for 1 1\/2 years,” said Stump. “My full-time job is running a supermarket. I\u2019m not a legislator or a lawyer.”
\nStump is seeking a land-use attorney to help guide him through the legal morass that has developed over the recycling center adjoining his market.
\n“Prince doesn\u2019t have a lease,” said Stump, who added, Prince Recycling is bad for his business. “It\u2019s doing nothing for me,” Stump said. “I\u2019ve got to contend with the bad clients that come in.”
\nStump believes the Feb. 10 public rally against the recycler did more harm than good.\u00a0
\n“It would have been easier if things were under the radar,” he said. “But if the spotlight is on you, you can\u2019t get anything done, other than people\u2019s feelings getting whipped up.”\u00a0
\n“I can\u2019t fight the state,” Stump said. “This is my livelihood.”\u00a0
\nSacramento-based Aaron Moreno, senior director of government relations for the California Grocers Association, believes state laws governing recycling need to be amended to reflect changing times.
\n“The state law requiring recycling centers to be tethered to supermarket parking lots was written back in 1986,” Morena said, noting about 300 recyclers statewide were forced to close a couple of years ago due largely to increased labor costs and declining market prices for recyclables.\u00a0
\n“Now, you have these situations with recycling centers where you\u2019re getting pressure both from local government and community groups,” Moreno said. “Curbside recycling is now much more commonplace. We need to rethink the size of convenience zones, enlarging them from a half-mile radius.”\u00a0
\nPointing out grocers typically operate on slim 1- to 2-percent profit margins, Moreno said that puts grocers “between a rock and a hard place.”
\nJon Linney, one of several community advocates organizing for Prince\u2019s relocation, said, the goal “is to help the community find a better site for a recycling center, one that best serves the needs of all parties, and that is not adjacent to a residential area. “We are not seeking to cause financial harm to Jamie Prince of Prince Recycling, nor are we a party to any eviction proceeding. Our understanding, after speaking to the various parties, is that Mr. Prince has not paid rent, may never have received written permission from the landlord, and could be evicted at any moment.”
\nAnother co-organizer of the February anti-recycling rally, Margaret Virissimo, weighed in on the matter.
\n“At this point, it is up to the owner of Stumps to get the recycle center moved into a civil court matter and request an official document to be served to the owner of Prince Recycling,” Virissimo said. “The community members are the ones that need to stand up now and voice their concerns. “It is the clientele and crime that a recycling center brings near homes and schools that is the problem,” she said. “We have many reasons why we would help relocate the recycle center to a safer, larger space that can service three gigantic communities Point Loma, Ocean Beach and Midway.”
\nAfter repeated attempts, James Prince of Prince Recycling did not return calls by the Peninsula Beacon for further comment.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Confusion reigns following a February community rally seeking to have Prince Recycling Center, adjoining Stump\u2019s Family Marketplace in Point Loma, moved to a more suitable site in nearby Midway District. Two days after the rally, Prince was reportedly served with an eviction notice by the marketplace\u2019s property owners. Meanwhile, Midway planners turned thumbs down to […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":269485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Controversy and confusion with recycling center on Voltaire St.","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}