It looks completely great, and Neighbor Amanda captured it.
Author: Todd_Lappin
UPDATED: Epic Pink and Yellow Textured Sunset, as Seen from Bernal
We had some friends over for dinner last night, so I couldn’t sneak up to Bernal Hill to shoot last night’s amazing sunset. But I watched it with a drink in my hand from the back yard — an awe-inspiring explosion of rich pinks and yellows, with rich textures created by a layer of high clouds.
Fortunately, Brian Hollinger was in position to get the shot you see above, while Rachel Balik Instagrammed the one below:
UPDATE: Our friends at @VisualSF shared this bonus photo, with is super-pink and super-textured. Wowzilla:
Sunday: Rebel Cartographer Burrito Justice Celebrates “Bike to Books” Map Project
When he’s not fomenting insurrection, agitating for territorial autonomy, or weaponizing Mexican food, Burrito Justice, Chief Rebel Spokeblogger for the La Lenguans, also likes to dabble in cartography and map-making. He usually deploys these skills to foment heated arguments about micro-hood territorial boundaries, but recently he applied them in the cause of art… and bicycling.
Working with City Lights Bookstore, Burrito Justice created a Bikes to Books map to celebrate the 25th anniversary of City streets renamed after San Francisco authors and artists — and plot a route for cyclists who want to visit them all.
He invites all Oppressors Citizens of Bernalwood to join in the fun on Sunday, October 6 for a bike ride and/or map party at City Lights:
Bikes to Books
October 6, 11 am bike tour, and 2 pm reading/anniversary partyCity Lights books, Nicole Gluckstern, and Burrito Justice announce the publication release party for their collaborative bike map/tour: “Bikes to Books,” Sunday October 6 at City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, celebrating with a bike tour and a reading in Jack Kerouac Alley.
Combining San Francisco history, art, literature, cycling, and urban exploration, “Bikes to Books” began as an homage to the 1988 street-naming project spearheaded by City Lights founder and former San Francisco Poet Laureate, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, in which twelve San Francisco streets were renamed for famous artists and authors who had once made San Francisco their home. Twenty-five years after the street-naming proposal was passed by the then the Board of Supervisors, local author and city cyclist Nicole Gluckstern devised a bike route connecting all twelve streets into a comprehensive bike tour, and enlisted avid amateur historian Burrito Justice for the creation of an interactive, multi-functional map, recently published in an abridged form in The San Francisco Bay Guardian. The two-sided, full color map published in collaboration with City Lights, is appropriate for use as a navigational tool, a history lesson, and a unique work of art in its own right.
Bike Tour details for October 6:
Meet on the North side of Jack London Street at South Park from 10:30 am.
Tour will commence at 11:00 am sharp.
Tour will end at approximately 2 pm outside City Lights Bookstore, at Jack Kerouac Alley in North Beach.
Cost = Free! (bring your own water/snacks)Reading details for October 6:
Meet in Jack Kerouac Alley from 2-4 pm for a celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Street-naming project and a release party for “Bikes to Books” map, sponsored by the City Lights Foundation.
Cost = Free!
IMAGE: Bikes to Books map detail, via Burrito Justice
Saturday: J. Serra Elementary 3rd Annual RockaPalooza Benefit
It’s that junior-rockstar time of year, as the parents from J. Serra Elementary School on Holly Park will hold their annual RockaPalooza benefit again this Saturday, Oct. 5.
Neighbor Karen tells Bernalwood:
This is our third annual fundraiser at Thee Parkside (17th and Wisconsin in Potrero). This year we have Gone to Ground headlining. Gone to Ground is fronted by iconic Mia Simmons of legendary SF all-girl punk band Frightwig.
We also have a band called the Seagulls, fronted by our own Bernal dad, Jon Brooder (otherwise known as Martha Brooder’s husband/ George and Sydney’s dad). Finally, our opening band is Demon Dogs: One James Lick (Gaby) and two Buena Vista 6th graders; Strummer and Mateo, all Bernal kids.
This should be a fun event! This is a “happy hour” show, TOTALLY KID-FRIENDLY We will have arts and crafts on the tables out on the patio, the kitchen will be serving up tater-tots and mac and cheese, burgers, etc. We will have a bake sale to help raise additional money. Good times for all.
4 p.m. to 7 p.m. this Saturday, Oct. 5.
Emotional Vigil in Holly Park Remembers Christy Svanemyr
The vigil for Christy Svanemyr that took place yesterday was sad and powerful.
Held on the very ground in Holly Park where she was killed by a Recreation & Parks pickup truck on the afternoon of Sept. 5, the vigil celebrated Christy Svanemyr’s life, mourned her passing, and reiterated calls for accountability and improved park safety.
There were six or seven TV news trucks there, and several dozen people attending the vigil — a mix of Bernal neighbors, friends of Christy Svanemyr, and city officials.
A woman who had been a good friend of Christy spoke of the appreciation Christy brought to each moment in life. D9 Supervisor David Campos spoke movingly about the impossible difficulty of loss. Neighbor Lucy expressed quiet outrage, calling for the City to do the right thing.
Christy’s husband, Vegar Svanemyr, also spoke.
Vegar said hadn’t planned to come to the vigil; He said it seemed “overwhelming.”
Yet in the end he decided to come, because he felt called to speak about his own grief, and the depth of the love he shared with Cristy. Originally from Norway, Vegar said Christy had helped teach him how to open up his heart, and that she would have wanted him to attend the vigil, and embrace the spirit of what it represented. So he did.
His speech was halting, simple, deep, and honest.
It was heartbreaking.
Supervisor Campos tells Bernalwood he will hold a hearing on Rec & Park safety practices next Thursday, October 10 10:00 am, before the Neighnorhood Services & Safety Committee, in the Board of Supervisors Chamber.
In the meantime, you can read this piece from ABC-7 for an update on how the legal case against Rec & Park employee Thomas Burnoski is developing.
PHOTOS: Vigil, by Telstar Logistics
UPDATED: Weeks After Tragedy, Rec and Park Vehicles Still Drive in Holly Park; No Charges Filed Against Deadly Driver
As you know, there’s a vigil tonight at 5 pm for Christy Svanemyr, the victim in the Holly Park hit-and-run tragedy.
Please attend if you can — not just because it’s a fitting way to remember Christy, but also because the violations of Rec and Park policy that triggered the accident apparently continue in Holly Park to this day.
Neighbor Rebecca sent this to Bernalwood earlier this week:
Perhaps I’m simply being hypersensitive.
I was there when tragedy struck earlier this month. Ever since, as solo dog walker, I’ve noticed the amount of vehicles that inhabit local SF parks. When I can I try to take photos and report inappropriate actions.
On Sept 29 at around 2:30p I witnessed a SF Rec and Park vehicle drive, yes slowly, towards the restroom in Holly Park to carry a single box from the truck to the restrooms.
Is it really necessary to drive through a park so small? Regardless of weather, he remained on park roads. There was no spotter, and all equipment he carried to or from the truck did not appear to be extraordinarily heavy. Also, the distance he parked from the restrooms seemed almost equidistant to parking on the actual street and carrying needed supplies.
I’m just a concerned Bernalite, who witnessed a tragedy and questioning all I see in regards to it.
That’s exactly what we all should do.
Tonight’s vigil will be an excellent opportunity to share those questions and concerns — to ensure that nothing like this ever happens ever again.
UPDATE: Also today, our friends at SFist report that no charges have yet been filed against Thomas Burnoski, the Rec & Park employee who was driving the vehicle that killed Christy Svanemyr:
A month after 35-year-old Christine Svanemyr was struck and killed by a Rec and Parks Department truck as she lay on the grass in Holly Park with her infant daughter and family dog, and the District Attorney’s office has yet to file charges in the case. The driver of truck, 57-year-old gardener Thomas Burnoski, has said he was unaware that he struck the woman after he turned off an asphalt path in the park.
Burnoski was released on $25,000 bail after the incident on September 5th and prosecutors original claimed they would decide whether to press charges by the end of September. According to the District Attorney’s office, they actually have up to three years to file charges
PHOTOS: Neighbor Rebecca
Bernal Heights Once Had Its Very Own Doggie Diner, and It Looked Fabulous
Doggie Diner was a chain of fast food restaurants scattered around the Bay Area. The franchise enjoyed its heyday during a mid-1960s expansion, during which it installed rotating doggie-head mascots above each of its 30 or so restaurants. The doggie-heads became iconic in San Francisco, even after the Doggie Diner chain shut down for good in 1986.
The restaurants are gone, but a few of the giant fiberglass doggie mascots remain. There’s a lonely, restored one on a pole in the Sunset near the zoo, and there are three happy doggy diner heads mounted on a trailer that are often seen parked outside strange subculture spectacles around town:
But did you know that Bernal Heights once had its very own Doggie Diner? With its very own fiberglass doggie diner head? With its very own polkadot bow tie and chef’s hat?
We did. Our Doggie Diner stood at 3100 Mission, at the southwest corner of Army (Cesar Chavez). Here’s a zoom and enhance of the image from 1975 shown up above:
Here’s a closeup of Bernal’s Doggie as it looked in 1981:
Frankly, that just looks ridiculously awesome.
In fact, it’s so great that Bernal native and t-shirt design celebrity Amos Goldbaum gave the Bernal Doggie a cameo in his sexy new Bernal Hill shirt graphic:
Even better, Neighbor Amos also immortalized Bernal’s Lost Doggie Head in a special tribute illustration, which we are very pleased to debut for all Citizen of Bernalwood here:
PHOTOS: Top, Doggie Diner 1975 via Amos Goldblum. Middle: Doggies on trailer by Tony Huerta. Doggie Diner 1981 via Jim Hair
Thursday: Celebrate the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center’s 35th Birthday
Here’s something worth celebrating: The invaluable Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center is having a 35th birthday party on Thursday night, October 3, from 6-8 pm:
Since 1978, BHNC has worked to preserve and enhance ethnic, cultural, and economic diversity. And with your help, we will be a part of the community for years to come.
Come join us at LEGACY: 35 YEARS OF BUILDING COMMUNITY, Thursday, October 3rd, 6-8 pm, @ BHNC’s 515 Cortland Ave. building. This will be an evening of good friends, good food, music, and stories from people who have been key to BHNC’s success SINCE 1978!
Even if you can’t attend the party, you can still donate to help BHNC continue it’s mission.
PHOTO: The original BHNC crew from 1978, via BHNC.
Bernal Neighbor Tim Redmond Will Launch New Progressive News Site
Though he rarely brags about it, progressive journalist Tim Redmond and Bay Area media celebrity lives in Bernal Heights. For 31 years, Neighbor Tim edited the stalwart San Francisco Bay Guardian — until last June, when he parted ways with the Guardian’s new owners under rather unpleasant circumstances.
Since leaving the Guardian, Neighbor Tim has been conspiring to launch a new media project, which he finally revealed last week.
It’s called 48 Hills, and it has a mission statement:
Bernal. Potrero. San Miguel. Telegraph. There are 47 named hills in San Francisco – and as those of us who have spent their lives fighting for social and economic justice know, there’s always one more hill to climb.
That’s the genesis of 48hills, a new online publication that will report on, expose, and explore the ups and downs of a great city – the stories that don’t make the MSM, the adventures you’ve never heard of, the secrets of making this your home.
48hills will be a new kind of newspaper – the progressive daily that San Francisco has always needed. Not a blog, not a content aggregator, but a place where you can read original work by reporters and critics who know the city. Breaking news, analysis, investigative reporting, cutting-edge arts and culture … that’s 48hills.
We are a nonprofit venture, under the auspices of the San Francisco Progressive Media Center, with a community-based board and a mission to serve a city battered by evictions, displacement, and economic inequality. We are unafraid of controversy, proud of our politics, owned by no investors, driven not by profit but by a passion for journalism that matters.
According to the countdown timer on the site, 48 Hills plans to launch sometime around the end of October.
ILLUSTRATION: Tim Redmond Is Watching Downtown, via Bernalwood
Thursday: Vigil for Christy Svanemyr, Victim in Holly Park Death
A group of Bernal neighbors have organized to hold a vigil for Christy Svanemyr, the wife, mother, and Zen monk who died on on Sept. 5 after she was was run over by a Recreation and Park vehicle in Holly Park.
The vigil will happen on Thursday, October 3rd at 5 pm, in Holly Park near Highland Ave. Here are the complete details, from the announcement:
PHOTO: Top, flowers placed at the site where Christy Svanemyr was killed, photographed on Saturday, Sept 7 by Telstar Logistics.
Beautiful Bhangra Photos from the Elsie Street Block Party
At this point, I think we can all agree that the organizers of the amazing Elsie Street Block Party are fit to lead the Greater Bernalwood Social Committee.
Courtney Quirin from MissionLocal attended the famously fabulous Elsie block party last weekend, in time to snap some glamorous photos of the Duniya Dance and Drum Company working their Bhangra groove thang on the streets of Bernal Heights.
Check out all her pics.
PHOTO: MissionLocal
Stunning “Lava Fog” Spotted from Bernal Heights
Wow. Check out this photo Brian Hollinger took yesterday:
Sun setting creates very cool volcano effect with a fog lava flow from Bernal Heights.
Yes!! Super hyper cool.
UPDATE: Brian kindly shared a high-res version of his photo with us, so we can zoom and enhance to bring you this close-up of the Lava Zone:
PHOTO: @brianhollinger
Awesomeness: Todd Berman’s Bernal Hill Paintings Now Showing at Mission Pie
Neighbor Todd Berman is a moved to Bernal Heights not too long ago, and to this day he maintains good relations with his former neighbors in the Mission flatlands north of Cesar Chavez. As proof of this, Neighbor Todd has a show of his paintings on display at Mission Pie, on the corner of Mission and 25th Streeet.
Many of Neighbor Todd’s paintings depict Bernal Heights. Plus, his website contains this awesomely awesome artist statement:
Through painting and collaborative art, Todd Berman has pursued an inquiry into the awesomeness of San Francisco. The result is a series of paintings now on the wall at Mission Pie. Come to view the paintings and to share your ideas about what best represents the awesomeness of our city.
Awesome! But hurry up to check it out: Neighbor Todd’s show at Mission Pie will only be up until October 5. Also: PIE!! Enough said.
BONUS! Over on the Twitter, Neighbor Todd also shared this ridiculously awesome portrait of the Precita Park satellite spinner, to commemorate its return to service:
ALL IMAGES: Todd Berman
