Reader Jennifer spotted this extremely permanent typo that’s been baked into a Bernalwood sidewalk:
Saw this sign in the pavement for “Misson Street” on Mission at Fair/Valencia. Maybe there wasn’t enough budget to buy another vowel?
Yeah, things are tough all over…
UPDATE:
Reader Throgers has amassed an impressive collection of “Sidewalk Typos” in a cringe-inducing Flickr photoset. Oof.
Did you know that Cortland Avenue once had a streetcar line? OMG! So true! Vicky Walker, Bernalwood’s Minister of History, brings this announcement about a very cool presentation that will happen at the Bernal Heights branch library on Wednesday night, June 15, at 7 pm:
Bernal History Project is proud to present a free slideshow and talk by S.F. transit and movie theatre historian Jack Tillmany (author of Theatres of San Francisco).
Bernal residents got their first taste of public transportation more than a century ago when streetcar tracks were laid down the middle of Cortland Avenue, and United Railroads trolley line #24 (Cortland/Divisadero/Richmond) linked three San Francisco neighborhoods. Soon after, line #23 (Richland/Valencia/Fillmore) completed the picture.
Jack will explore the roots of today’s #24 & #23 lines during the first forty years, when trolleys ran on tracks and the #9 line caused no end of confusion by running on Cortland and Richland at the same time. He will also bring “freebie souvenirs for those who show up.” He promises they are “most appropriate, authentic, and not to be found anywhere else.” Here’s a great interview with him courtesy of our friends at the Western Neighborhoods Project.
An important note: This presentation covers only the Cortland and Richland streetcar lines. Jack will present a separate show soon that covers the 30 (Army from Third St. to Bryant), the 25 (Bryant to Bayshore and then to San Bruno), and Muni’s H line, which terminated at Potrero and Army streets but was later extended down Bayshore to replace the 25. Sorry, NoCo residents — your turn will come!
The slideshow will be held in the meeting room of the Bernal branch library, 500 Cortland (at Andover); turn left at the bottom of the stairs. It starts promptly at 7 p.m.; note that the meeting room is small, so get there early to guarantee a seat!
This presentation is dedicated to the memory of San Francisco transit historian Phil Hoffman, who hosted one of BHP’s first slideshows and was always happy to help with our research.
PHOTOS: Top: Streetcars on Cortland, 1938 (via San Francisco Public Library); Bottom, a streetcar after it jumped the tracks on Cortland at Folsom, 1935 (via Bernal History Project).
Contrary to the way it may appear, that spiffy area of freshly landscaped land on the northeast corner of Bernal Hill (on Bernal Heights Boulevard between Carver and Bradford) is NOT part of the new house that sits right behind it.
Rather, it’s a new public park on public land created by a group of volunteers called Friends of Bernal Gardens. The project is called Vista Pointe Gardens, and after months of unpaid hard work, the build-out is complete.
Readers who are not native to Bernalwood might be forgiven for saying, “Yeah. Cute. Nice lanscaping. Whatever.”
That would be a mistake, however, because the locals all know the tip: Our new Vista Pointe offers a multi-billion dollar view of downtown San Francisco, in a comfy parquito that will provide a nice alternative to the unmanicured wilds of Bernal Hill. Put another way, this is a superb new location for simple picnics, sunset Happy Hours, or hipster weddings.
So Vista Pointe is pretty fabulous. Savor it, enjoy the view, protect it, and THANK YOU to everyone who helped make this happen.
PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics
Hat Tip: @MrCleanSF
Our Bernalwood brothas and sistas over on Bocana had to suffer through the process back in February, and now it’s Precita Avenue’s turn…
Hooray for new infrastructure! The residents of Precita west of Folsom will soon get a sporty new sewer pipe running right down the center of the street AND all-new asphalt to cover it all up. (Trivia Fun Fact: The current sewer pipe is over 100 years old.)
But first, Precitans must endure lots of noise, dirt, limited access and — if they’re really, really, really lucky — maybe even the occasional poopy-water plume.
Construction on Precita began yesterday, and will likely take a month to complete. Until then, residents are advised to remain calm and perhaps wear earplugs, while visitors may want to avoid transiting through that part of Precita this month to prevent construction-related delays. Keep Calm, Carry On, and all that.
Besides, the way-more massive entrenchment of Cesar Chavez Boulevard is slated to start soon, and that will make this business on Precita look like a sandbox play date.
PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics
Along time ago, in the office of a city planner far, far away, a plan was hatched to solve San Francisco’s traffic problem.
The year was 1928, and the San Francisco Traffic Survey Committee had mapped out a vision for the future that involved widening selected city streets to adapt them for use as major arterial throughfares.
Bryant Street in the Mission was to become one such proposed artery; it would carry much of the traffic traveling between South of Market and the Peninsula via Bayshore and San Bruno Avenues. But how would all those vehicles get from Bryant to Bayshore (and vice-versa)?
Why, through the Bernal Tunnel, of course!!
Look closely, and it’s right there: A short tunnel running under present-day Franconia Street to whisk motorists through layer upon layer of our beloved Bernal Hill chert. One end of the tunnel would open roughly at the intersection of Holladay and Faith, and the other would disgorge traffic at the site of what is now that weird triangle-shaped gas station at the junction of Precita, Bryant, and Cesar Chavez.
Notice the other plans in store too. Like, for example, completing the street grid across the top of Bernal Hill via a much straightened-out Esmerelda Avenue (presumably after much of the hilltop was quarried and flattened). GENIUS! No Bernal Hill Park! No unseemly wildlife! No feral radish! Just a few dozen more homes, and a much more tidy drive around the neighborhood… all in the name of Progress.
PHOTOS: Unedited version of 1928 map via the ever-fabulous Eric Fisher
When you zip south on US 101 alongside Bernal Heights, it’s hard to miss the giant Apple iPad billboard perched alongside the freeway just beyond the Cortland Avenue overpass.
But what you may not have noticed is that there’s also a house hidden behind that big billboard, and considering the odd location, it actually looks rather charming:
UPDATE: Bernalwood contributor David Gallagher pointed us to this superb 1955 photo that clearly shows this same house (at bottom, center) … as well as the fact that it has been hidden behind a billboard for many decades:
Gee whiz, it sure would be swell to reprise that old TWA billboard with the Lockheed Constellation on it, eh? Here’s a close-up detail:
Other fun things to notice in the detail: Peralta Street is still unpaved. That warehouse in the background is now the (quite good) San Francisco Antique and Design Mall, which was originally built as the headquarters for the American Seating Company.
Photos: Telstar Logistics, Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection
While poking through some of my bookshelves last weekend, I stumbled across two old San Francisco street maps from the 1940s. As you might expect, most of the Bernal Heights street grid is much the same today as it was then, with one big exception: The Bayshore Freeway wasn’t built until the 1950s, so the eastern slope of Bernal looked rather different.
The construction of the freeway reshaped some aspects of the neighborhood in ways are still visible today; most ominously by turning Faith into a dead end street. (METAPHOR ALERT!!!)
But let’s take an even closer look… with a Burrito Justice-style overlay of a circa 1940 map and a contemporary Google map:
Look closer, and we see more detail. Impressively, Bernal’s streetscape survived the creation of the Bayshore Freeway with relatively little disruption or dislocation. Only two small streets disappeared entirely: Adam and Eve:
So while the physical damage to the neighborhood was relatively minor, the metaphysical damage was significant, considering that the freeway cut us off from Faith and Joy, while wiping out Adam and Eve so thoroughly that no trace remains. Talk about being cast from Eden…
I’d never noticed it before, but in this rare “twin tower” perspective taken from the southeast, it seems pretty clear that Bernal’s humble microwave tower has something of a “Mini-Me” relationship with the almighty Sutro Tower.
Which in turn makes me wonder… has anyone ever gotten a Bernal Microwave Tower tattoo?
Photo: Telstar Logistics
Reader Teri asks:
Can someone can shed some light on this? How come the 67 never comes?! I waited for it for 40 minutes this morning and it made me entirely late for work. I try to catch it at 24th and Mission to get back up the hill between 5 and 5:30pm, and IT JUST DOESN’T COME.
It’s really kind of hard and inconvenient to get to BART from the top of the hill. Now i have to re-assess my commute because the 67 makes me late every day. I could have walked to BART faster than that! (I’m on the southeast slope so it is not that cool a walk).
Photo: Telstar Logistics
Reader WJ wrote to Bernalwood recently with a gushing customer testimonial about Monkeybrains, a Mission-based high-speed Internet bandwidth provider that offers service in Bernal Heights. Since I continue to muddle along in a loveless marriage with Comcast, I was intrigued. Perhaps you will be too.
WJ says:
After a couple of years struggling with scheming and incompetent Comcast technicians, and then dealing with the total unreliability of my DSL service, a friend of mine from work told me about Monkeybrains, another high speed internet service for the Mission/Bernal Heights area.
It’s not actually too good to be true, I had it installed and the speed is incredible (at least, compared to DSL it’s incredible). There’s a $250 setup fee for all of the hardware but they are running a pilot program now so internet access is free until June (when it will go up to around $35/month).
The guys who run the company are local — the tech who set me up lives on the other side of Bernal hill from me — and when installing my devices today he noticed that my neighbor also had one of their antennas on their roof, so it seems like word is getting around.
I thought you might be interested in posting their website since their pilot program specifically targets Bernal Heights. I’ve been using the service for about three weeks now and it’s been absolutely flawless.
Bernalwood has been assured that no monkeys are actually harmed while providing this Internet service, so no need to feel guilty about that.
More importantly, I was interested to see that Monkeybrains has a five-star rating on Yelp, which is more than a little impressive given that a) Monkeybrains is an ISP, after all and b) Yelp is swarming with crankypants.
Any other user testimonials? Add ’em in the comments!
Photo: A Monkeybrains antenna in Bernal Heights, by WJ
The case of Anonymous NIMBY vs. Vintage Coke Mural has been exasperating for (almost) everyone involved.
It has been exasperating for homeowner Richard Modolo, who has had to deal with the inconvenience and expense of responding to the City’s notice of violation about the old mural. It has been exasperating for the City Planning Department, which has become the object of national scorn and ridicule as a result of its decision to declare the mural illegal. And today Bernalwood learned that it has also been exasperating to Supervisor David Campos.
Indeed, the only one who probably feels empowered by the debacle is our Anonymous NIMBY. One complaint, and — boom! — an all-consuming controversy ensues. Not bad for a lone voice in a city of many tens of thousands.
This evening Supervisor Campos returned a phone call from Bernalwood. The Supervisor did not explain his long silence on this issue, but he reiterated that he has been trying to get a sense of how the neighbors in Bernal Heights feel about the vintage Coke mural.
The results of his fact-finding were clear and directional.
Campos received exactly one (1) email — perhaps from our Anonymous NIMBY? — expressing concern that the presence of the Coca-Cola mural so close to Paul Revere School might encourage childhood obesity. To gauge the depth of this sentiment, Campos says he reached out to a group of parents with children at the school. Were the parents worried the nearby mural might send their little ones careening down a path of sugar-fueled gluttony and lifelong corpulence???
Hardly. “None of the parents had an issue with the sign,” Campos reports.
Campos says he is now “moving in the direction of protecting the sign.” He also said he has been in discussion with the City Attorney’s office, and that he intends to make the details of his plan clear during the Board of Supervisors meeting that will take place tomorrow afternoon, on Tuesday, March 1.
“We need a solution for the city as a whole,” Campos says. “There is value in preserving our history, and that’s true city-wide. Creating a historic preservation district may help in this particular case, but we need a broader mechanism.”
Bernalwood couldn’t agree more. In fact, hasn’t this incident shown that the current law is more than a little ridiculous?
Campos readily agreed. “As a matter of law, I don’t think it makes much sense, given the lack of nuance,” he said. “We want to inject some common sense into this.”
Wouldn’t that be novel! Stay tuned tomorrow, when we will finally learn the details of the Campos Plan to Save Bernal’s Coke Mural.
Photo: via Supervisor Campos
While we’re on the subject of infrastructure — an innately sexy topic, BTW — our friends at the City’s Department of Public Works want you to know that they are hard at work installing a new sewer main on Bocana:
A new sewer main is replacing an aging line on Bocana Street, from Cortland to Wool, in Bernal Heights. Bocana is closed to through traffic during construction hours, though the street is open to local motorists at all times. Once the sewer replacement is completed, crews will repave the road with fresh asphalt within the next few weeks. This is one of several streets to be renovated under the Various Locations Pavement and Sewer Renovation #13.
Hooray for new sewer lines! Hooray for “the Various Locations Pavement and Sewer Renovation #13” (whatever that is)!
Photo: Courtesy of Jean Pedigo
Not a moment too soon, work is set to begin on the Cesar Chavez Street redevelopment plan — a heavy-duty urban infrastructure project that will transform the western leg of the former Army Street from a grim quasi-freeway into a tree-lined boulevard that will be both more attractive and more bike- and pedestrian-friendly.
But the fate of the eastern portion of Cesar Chavez — from Hampshire street in the northeast corner of Bernalwood to Illinois Street on the waterfront — remains unresolved. To improve that part, the City Planning Department will hold a series of workshops to help design a plan for that stretch of the street, including the infamously treacherous tangle of US101 onramps known as “The Hairball.”
The first workshop will take place next Thursday, February 10, 2011, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM in the auditorium at Buena Vista Elementary School (2641 25th Street @ Utah, near the Hairball).
The City says:
Please join us to discuss the future of Cesar Chavez Street from Hampshire Street to Illinois Street, including the 101 and I-280 interchanges. The plan will re-imagine Cesar Chavez Easy as a vital connector of the Mission, Bayview, Potrero, Bernal, and Dogpatch neighborhoods, more safe, pleasant, and convenient for people who live in, work in or travel through the area, and more responsive to ecological and cultural opportunities.
Of course, all that is kumbayaspeak for “let’s figure out a way to make it not suck so much.” But it is a goal I’m sure we can all endorse. I attended some similar meetings that took place to develop the plan for Cesar Chavez west, and they were substantive, well-organized, and generally excellent. I trust this one will be the same.
Photo: Below, therealkarumi
Bernalwood 
