Dave Glass (aka Dizzy Atmosphere on Flickr) is a San Francisco photographer who has been at the game since the 1960s. His work is excellent, and he probably has more great photos tucked away in his film archives than many of us will ever amass on our hard drives.
Dave spent some time wandering around Bernal Heights over the years, and he recently contributed a few of his older photos to our Flickr Bernalwood group. (HINT! HINT!)
The image above was taken in 1982, and it shows the intersection of Peralta and Rutledge on Bernal’s east slope. It says a lot about how Bernal has evolved over the years from a rougher-at-the-edges working class neighborhood to the quirky-at-the-edges middle class ‘hood we know today.
There’s no better way to demonstrate this than to revisit the scene of Dave’s 1982 photo, to show how it looks today. So allow me to present the corner of Peralta at Rutledge, as it looked on the afternoon of December 24, 2010.
What a difference one Honda can make.
Photos: 1982, Dave Glass. 2010, Telstar Logistics
Bernalwood 
Love these old pix. Hope he posts some more. I have some old pix on http://community.webshots.com/user/galomorro — the oldest from 1972 — the album titles “Bernal Heights East THEN/NOW” and “Bernal Heights THEN/NOW” in case someone might like to check these out too. Got some old photos scanned several years ago so I could post them to the photosharing site.
I love that the crack in the pavement, behind and to the right of the car, is still the same
The house seen at the right, was the home of a Mr. Saba, who was walking every day to relieve his Arthritis in 1980 when we built our house 3/4 of the way down Rutledge St to the left. Mr Saba’s son, who had lived in the house, was in prison having been the manager of Sly Stone and having taking Sly’s heroin rap for him. Mr Saba died several years later, and his young grandson, who lived in the house became a very vigilent member of a group of us that were tracking car break ins throughout the northeast slope sometime in the mid 80’s.
The early histories of Carlos Santana and Big Brother and the Holding company are tied to houses on the right side of Rutledge and the west side of Peralta (steps) as you go downhill from this corner.
Great anecdotes.
Subtle summation of the changes in Bernal Heights! Love it. Would be great to see some then-and-now pics of Cortland — like the corner by the library c.1985, or the spot that is now a fitness center for you and your dog.
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Bayshore Buicks is the place where that awesome 1953 buick is from .
Hey Chow. I geuss you knew “The Bayshore Boy’s”
This was my Family home.
outlawinasia
Steven keith
Hi Glen Lym, You must be referring to my cousin Kenny or Anthony G. (Probably) Kenny. I am sure you were his friend. They were twins.
This is My Grandfather and Grandmother’s (she was known as Noni) home. The address being 342 Peralta. I still remember the phone number Atwater 2-6746.
I guess you remember my Grandfather Ben. The family name was Leyba. My car was one also that was broken too. Remember the tennis shoes hung from the telephone lines? Some kind of gang thing. It was our, mine uncle who your talking about.. He died last year. He was Charlie G.
Carlos Santana,was our neighbor fron the time he was about 15 or 16. They practiced almost every night in a garage the street below us parallel to Rutledge. This was pre Woodstock. Janis Joplin lived in the neighborhood too for a while…
Grandpa used to walk up the steep Rutledge Street well into his 80s. He had problems in his legs. maybe deep vein thrombosis? I know because I am 56 and I have the same problem.
Well into his 80s the story goes from my mother in her 80s now was Grandpa was carring shopping bags of cash with him. What he did with the loot no one knows. many though he buried $$$ in the garage which is behind the home. I used to grow some great grass there in 1986. Except my mother was “ooooh” afraid of the police and used to yank them up.
Sly Stone, Billy preston, Janis Joplin, Big Brother, The Escovedo’s Coke & Pete. Pete being (Sheila E’s Father) all hung out there. I could go on and on with all the up coming San Francisco legends that hung out with grandpa. My mother, My Aunt jeanette, and the rest of the family just tolerated them. To this day they don’t know who most of them were. My cousin Karen Del prete also grew up there. Anyone remember The Condor on Broadway??? Gino Del prete was her Father. Gino had the first legal topless joint in America, and then Bottomless. They started it all. I could go on with our family history in san Francisco…Then there was Clint eastwood who used to fly up from carmel in his own airplane…I’ll go into that story later. They were just kind of known as those people Grandpa knew. Carlos Santana used to hang out with Grandpa sometimes, So did all the other members of Santana. Grandpa used to loan money to them all. And was ALWAYS paid back. He carried a gun and went to Reno to gamble regularly…. He was the FIRST (Outlaw)
I ever knew!
Please post this. It is accurate.
Steven B. Keith a.k.a. The outlawinasia
Bangkok, Thailand
January 20, 2012
This house of My Grandparents looks small. It was not. It was built into the side of the hill and was 3 stories. It had 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. In the 60s there were poker games there every Friday night that corresponded with Fridays Boxing night on TV. All nationalities were welcome there. In the 60s it was a Hispanic, Black, and Irish neighborhood. Everyone got along.
When I say hung out there, mostly I mean they came by to pay their respects to Ben, have a drink on the front porch or shoot the shite from the cement stairway leading down the hill. As a young kid I did not really know who all these people were as none were famous yet.
Say hay– Steven–My name is Sara I was raised in the house on Montcalm and when I looked out my bedroom window I could see Kenny and anthonys house –who by the way were good freinds of my daughter Dawn Salazar and she is going to get a big kick out of this when I tell her about “”this””. We lived on Massasoit st which is that short street to the right of their house— This was a real suprise and was fun and by the way Santana practiced 1 block down From Moncalm st on Mullen St.
Oops – I saw a previous comment of mine at the top and it mentioned the photosharing site Webshots. I no longer have any pix at this site. However, I do have a bunch of Then and Nows of Bernalwood and other ‘hoods in my Facebook and Photobucket albums. Always ongoing. Always interesting these old pix. Only wish I’d taken lots more way back then.