Neighbor Alicia is spreading the word about a community meeting that will happen tomorrow, Wesdnesday December 11 at 7 pm at the Precita Neighborhood Center, to review a proposal to build two single-family homes on a patch of undeveloped land on Folsom near Chapman, on the south side of the hill just below Bernal Heights Blvd.
Here’s the meeting announcement:
It’s time for the Annual Winter Celebration at the Bernal Heights Branch Library! It’s happening tomorrow, Wednesday, December 11 starting at 6:30 pm, and Miss Valerie, the children’s librarian, tells us:
Please join us for our annual celebration. The evening features the awesome Bernal Jazz Quartet playing seasonal selections, holiday craft making in the children’s room AND this year, our first COOKIE CONTEST & RECIPE SWAP! Celebrity judges are our own Stacie Pierce (Little Bee Baking) and Mutsumi Takehara (Sandbox Bakery.) Bring your favorite cookies with recipe, and maybe YOU will get a blue ribbon!
PHOTO: Telstar Logistics, 2012
Many many many moons ago, in the time of our Bernal ancestors, a joyous tribe of elves lived in the Dominion of Bernalwood. Each year, during the run-up to the winter equinox, these proto-Bernalese would gather on the street we now call Cortland to celebrate the arrival of the rains and the season of lights.
Today, many tens of thousands of years later, the Bernal Business Association has revived this ancient ritual, in the form of the Cortland Holiday Stroll. The 2013 Stroll happens this Thursday, December 5, from 6 to 9 pm, and in addition to the neo-traditional sidewalk merriment, there’s also a new Holiday Marketplace happening inside the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center.
Neighbor Michael Minson tells us all about it:
Our annual Winter Stroll is on Thursday, December 5th this year. Thousands of our neighbors (both in Bernal and beyond) will come to Cortland to kick off the holiday shopping season, Bernal-style!
This year, in addition to all the excitement on Cortland, the Bernal Business Alliance (BBA) is hosting a Holiday Marketplace in the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center.
Shoppers and their children will be entertained with music and food in the Neighborhood Center (BHNC) and along Cortland, while they check out what local merchants and artists have to offer.
The Bernal Heights Holiday Marketplace is open from 6p to 9p on Thursday, 5-Dec. It’s free to attend.
PHOTOS: Images of Holiday Strolls from years past, by Telstar Logistics
Neighbor Rachel is a Bernal resident who works for SF Village, a nonprofit membership organization that’s hosting a an open house for older Bernalese at the Bernal Library tomorrow, on Saturday, November 16. She writes:
San Francisco Village, a citywide network empowering older San Franciscans, is coming to Bernal on November 16! This membership organization focuses on active aging for SF residents over 60, providing expert guidance, support, and community. Nearby Noe Valley and Glen Park already have neighborhood circles, and now it’s Bernal’s turn to organize a local Village chapter.
“San Francisco Village has become a trusted advocate in helping hundreds of older San Franciscans navigate the transitions of getting older,” says Kate Hoepke, San Francisco Village’s executive director. “We’re excited to begin organizing in the Bernal Heights neighborhood and look forward to cultivating new relationships as we work to enrich and enhance the experience of aging in San Francisco.”
While the Village actively serves San Franciscans 60 and older, there are also many volunteer opportunities available for residents younger than 60. The open house will feature an overview of the organization and the “Village Model,” benefits of membership, as well as testimonials from current San Francisco Village members and volunteers.
The free informational open house will be held at the Bernal Heights Library on Saturday November 16, from 1:30 – 3:30. For more information: http://www.sfvillage.org or contact SFV at info@sfvillage.org or 415-387-1375.
Tomorrow evening, Thursday Nov. 14, the Bernal Business Alliance will hold a B2B networking event at Neighbor Eden’s fabulous Secession Art & Design Gallery. This will be an excellent opportunity for Bernal business locavores to get to know one another:
Come network with your fellow Bernal business people while enjoying delicious eye candy and treats at Secession Art & Design Gallery. We’ll have light d’oeuvres and beer/wine. All BBA members and guests are encouraged to attend and get to know their fellow hillians.
This mixer is serious business, served Bernal casual-style. Come have a drink and a snack, connect with colleagues and make some new friends. If you’ve never been to owner/curator Eden Stein’s store/gallery/cultural feast, Secession, you’re in for a treat!
All businesses are welcome; whether you’re a local merchant, Bernal-based service provider, craftsperson, artisan, e-tailer, musician. If you have a business, you’re invited. Feel free to bring a guest!
What: Bernal Heights Business Alliance Networking Mixer
Where: Secession Art & Design Gallery (3361 Mission)
When: Thursday, Nov 14 6-9p
Who: All Bernal-based business people
Why: To make new business connectionsHere’s a bit about our wonderful host Eden’s shop, Secession:
Opened in August 2007, Secession Art & Design (3361 Mission St @ 30th St) is a hub for emerging and established artists, designers and supporters of San Francisco’s independent arts community. Like an ongoing trunk show of the best locally-produced art and design offerings from the Bay Area and beyond, the space houses a rotating collection handpicked by gallery owner and curator Eden Stein alongside the work of in-house artists and designers Colleen Mauer, Heather Robinson, New Skool and Stein’s own Twelve Designs. Promoting a strong local community, the gallery donates a portion of the proceeds from each show to non-profit organizations.
In the realm of “things that are very geeky but also very important,” Miss Eden from Secession Art & Design shared news with us about a City meeting that will take place tomorrow, Wednesday, November 13, from 6 to 8 pm at Fairmount Elementary School (65 Chenery) to discuss proposed plans for the Mission Street corridor in Bernal Heights.
Miss Eden forwarded some email from Jorge Rivas Jr., the Project Manager for the City’s Invest In Neighborhoods program:
Supervisor David Campos and various City Departments, including the Office of Economic and Workforce Development’s (OEWD) Invest in Neighborhoods, SF Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) Mission and Valencia Green Gateway, SF Planning’s Mission Street Public Realm Plan, SF Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Transit Effectiveness Project (TEP)…
Will be present on various initiatives happing in the neighborhood of Mission Street (South of Cesar Chavez to Randall St).
Date: November 13, 2013
Location: Fairmount Elementary
Time: 6 PM to 8 PMOur office will speak about the various efforts undertaken in the previous months and what we have heard from the community regarding economic development. Our office will be seeking more input and guidance from the community on prioritizing actions and next steps.
This is very good, and very important. As a snarky side note, it does seem odd to us that the meeting will seek “input and guidance from the community,” yet Bernalwood only found out about it via the thoughtful Miss Eden from Secession, rather than from, say, direct communication from Mr. Rivas’s or Supervisor Campos’s office. In fact, that’s not just odd; it’s totally effing ridiculous. But let us not quibble too much about that right now…
Thankfully, Miss Eden also shared a rather fascinating Neighborhood Profile study that accompanies the planning process. It contains meaty data about Bernal’s stretch of Mission Street. For example…
And this:
Got that? In 2011, there were 582 businesses along the Bernal Heights stretch of Mission Street, employing more than 5200 workers. Wow. Who knew?
The complete Neighborhood Profile study is available for download , and it’s well worth a read if you’d like to get a more granular sense of what’s going on in our Mission Street corridor. Otherwise, you’ve now been invited to attend the community meeting on Wednesday (tomorrow) evening at Fairmount Elementary.
Happy City Planning!
Last February, Neighbor Max Gunawan made waves in the gadget design world with his Kickstarter campaign to launch Lumio, a brilliant and beautiful articulated lamp that folds like a book. As Bernalwood reported at the time, Neighbor Max had hoped to raise $60,000 to begin production, but in the end his campaign raised an eye-popping $578,000. Wow.
Well, now it’s November, Neighbor Max is ready to begin selling Lumio, and he’s invited all of Bernal Heights to attend the launch party tonight:
The products are finally here!
We are having Lumio launch party on November 7th from 6 to 8 pm at Zinc Details (1905 Fillmore), and I would love it if you could attend. We’re very excited about the event, and I’d like to extend the invite to our Bernal Heights community.
Here’s the link to RSVP.
PHOTO: Neighbor Max
Neighbor Laurie urges one and all to see the Bernal-born play that’s currently on stage at Stagewerx, depicting a day in the life of Bill Gates (before he was BILL GATES):
We went yesterday to see “First” at Stagewerx theater on Valencia Street to see Bernal resident Evelyn Jean Pine’s new play about the young Bill Gates and the dawn of the personal computer revolution.
Evy teaches writing at SF State and has been workshopping plays at different theaters for a few years, but this is her first fully-staged production. It’s an excellent production, with professional actors (Jeremy Kahn who plays Bill Gates is especially good) and a interesting lens for looking at the soul of the computer industry.
The run has been extended several times, but it is scheduled to end on November 10, so there’s still time for people to see it. Get your tickets right here.
Anyone interested in events leading up to the PC revolution will likely enjoy reliving the era of leisure suits, punch cards, 27K memory, and software shared via computer tape. “First” is a lively and nostalgic step back in time, though a number of references, to software royalties and video game addiction (in this case the apocryphal title Thrill Hill), feel surprisingly current.
And then there was this item in Leah Garchik’s SF Chronicle column:
Leo Maselli was at a Stage Werx performance of “First,” which is about young Bill Gates, when he heard a man say to his companion, “I just tweeted Gates and told him to buy the screen rights to this play ASAP.”
Again, the play runs until Sunday, November 10, so get your tickets ASAP.
PHOTO: Jeremy Kahn as Bill Gates, via Stagewerx
The current show at the Inclusions Gallery on Cortland is a special treat: A collection of work created by artists who live in Bernal Heights. The show is terrific, but for enhanced celebrity effect, drop by the Artists Reception on Sunday, Nov. 3 from 4-6 pm:
This year marks our 5th annual exhibit dedicated exclusively to art created by Bernal Heights residents. This year’s exhibit features the work of 25 artists. The original works are diverse in subject matter and medium, including: oil, encaustic, acrylic, gouache and mixed media paintings, lithography and metal plate etching prints, platinum and silver gelatin print photography, and collage. The diversity of the work on display and number of pieces make for quite a dynamic show. It’s wonderful opportunity to catch a glimpse of the immense talent and creativity within the Bernal Heights community.
The big yellow bus that has recently been the focus of much parking-related controversy will today be transformed into a mobile haunted house. You can’t miss it: Just look for the bus that’s big and yellow and haunted and parked near Precita Park.
Neighbor Alex explains:
Gillibus will be parked on Precita Park veiled and surrounded in the gory — I mean glory — of Halloween.
Stop by for candy, beer, cider, games (pinatas, cornhole, and for dogs, the 1st annual Grave Pissing Competition), and good neighborly conversation about the Devil.
All are welcome: kids, parents, and those too old or unfit to be either. At 8pm we depart for The Chapel…
If you’d like to join in for a ghoulish ride to The Chapel, RSVP here.
No matter where your monsters plan to trick-or-treat tomorrow evening, plan to make a stop at 25 Bessie Street, just off the western side of Precita Park, for Neighbor Annelise’s spooktastic Haunted Garage:
25 Bessie Street will be scaring neighborhood kids from 5-9pm on Halloween. Come on by-it’s free!
Tonight is the last night to participate in the benefit effort underway at Ichi Sushi to assist the victims of the recent Colorado flooding. Neighbor Erin from Ichi shares the annoucement:
Our hearts go out to the thousands of people in seventeen counties impacted by the recent Colorado flooding. Colorado has been home to much of the ICHI team, including our Sous Chef Erik and Sushi Chef Chris.
Come in, dine and sip and help others by having sushi with Erik and Chris. To support the victims of the flooding, we will be making a donation to the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado. In addition we will also be donating a portion of our sales on Monday, October 28th through Wednesday, October, 30th. Join us to help support the Colorado Community. Please help us help Colorado!
WHEN: Monday, October 28th-Wednesday, October 30th
WHERE:
ICHI Sushi
3369 Mission Street (at Godeus Street)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 525-4750
Miss Karen from The New Wheel newfangled bike shoppe on Cortland invites kids of all ages to their free pumpkin carving event, this afternoon:
The New Wheel is hosting our 2nd Annual Pumpkin Carving!
We welcome all (kids especially!) to join us in carving pumpkins and lighting up our Bernal streets!
Pumpkins and snacks provided. Please bring your own knife.
When: Monday, October 28th 3-6:30PM
Where: The New Wheel, 420 Cortland Avenue, Bernal Heights
PHOTO: The New Wheel
Bernalwood 