Kickstarter Drive Underway for New Parklet at 903 Cortland

May 13, 2013May 13, 2013 / Todd_Lappin / 61 Comments

Miss Mutsumi from 903 (and Sandbox Bakery) has launched a Kickstarter campaign to install a cute little parklet in front of 903 Cortland, just east of Gates:

There are currently no parklets in Bernal Heights. We at 903 are taking steps to be the first to provide this amenity, and with the help of the residents and friends of the neighborhood we can make it happen. Not only would 903’s parklet be the first in Bernal, it would continue to inspire and facilitate the on-going revitalization of the community happening along Cortland while providing a convenient and central gathering place for friends and family. Imagine meeting up at 903 to enjoy a delicious outdoor lunch on the sunniest street in San Francisco!

The parklet will replace two parking spots on Cortland Avenue directly in front of 903, a restaurant and offshoot of Sandbox Bakery that has quickly become a go-to lunch spot for many residents of Bernal Heights. At 40 feet long, the parklet will boast seating for up to 25 people, a canopy for shade, greenery consisting of native plants, and it will, of course, be wheelchair accessible. The structure itself will be constructed out of reclaimed wood and steel scraps.

The City of San Francisco has approved our permit and all the fees have already been paid. Now, we are trying to raise funds in order to begin building this much-anticipated addition to Cortland Avenue. Our current goal is to start construction as early as June. After that, the parklet will be completed in only a few weeks!

If the number of emails I’ve received and tweets I’ve seen about the project are any indication, the Citizens of Bernalwood are very enthusiastic about the idea. You can contribute to toward the parklet’s $12,505 goal here.

Here’s the video:

Thursday: A Community Meeting to Discuss Bernal Infrastructure Projects

April 23, 2013April 18, 2013 / Todd_Lappin / 6 Comments

A meeting will happen Thursday, April 25 at Leonard Flynn School at 6 pm to share information about several major infrastructure projects happening in Bernal Heights — including the Cesar Chavez greenification effort (now that the sewer replacement project is complete):

The San Francisco Department of Public Works (DPW) and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) would like to invite you to attend an upcoming community meeting to discuss the ongoing Cesar Chavez Sewer & Streetscape Improvement Project as well as other projects under construction in the Mission and Bernal Heights neighborhoods. We plan to also provide details about additional DPW/PUC led projects that will be “coming soon” to Bernal Heights and the Mission.

You’ll find lots more detail about the Cesar Chavez project here.

Also, remember: Infrastructure Is Sexy.

PHOTO: Top, artist rendering of proposed Cesar Chavez landscaping

City and CPMC Reach Agreement to Save and Expand St. Luke’s Hospital

March 7, 2013March 7, 2013 / Todd_Lappin / 9 Comments

Very good news! Mission Local reports that a new agreement between The City and California Pacific Medical Center will bring new investment and a more secure future for St. Luke’s Hospital in the La Lengua Autonomous Zone:

After many months of strained conversations between California Pacific Medical Center, city officials and neighborhood interest groups, Mayor Ed Lee announced that the parties have reached agreement on a deal to rebuild St. Luke’s Hospital at Cesar Chavez and Valencia streets.

The new, seismically safe hospital will be larger than originally planned and will account for about a quarter of CPMC’s beds in the city.

“St. Luke’s Hospital will now be an integral part of the CPMC system,” said Boudin Bakery co-owner and civic leader Lou Giraudo, who led mediations for the agreement.

The new St. Luke’s will hold 120 beds instead of the 80 first planned, and a second new hospital, on Cathedral Hill at Geary Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue, will support 274 beds with the potential to build an additional 30, rather than the 555 originally planned. The deal, Lee said, is part of a long-term vision for health care in San Francisco.

PHOTO: Rendering of proposed new St. Luke’s hospital facility on Cesar Chavez

Persistent Neighbor Declares Victory in Bus Shelter Quest

January 24, 2013January 24, 2013 / Todd_Lappin / 12 Comments

There’s a sexxxy new bus shelter on Mission Street at 30th, and you have Neighbor Robert to thank for it:

I forwarded a note to you many months ago, as I was looking for community support ahead of a city permit hearing for a new shelter at Mission & 30th/Inbound.

Well, just wanted to let you know that last Friday morning I turned the corner onto Mission, and there it was, finally! The new bus shelter! Over two years in the belly of the bureaucratic beast, but now it’s a reality! Wavy rain cover, uncomfortable seats, Next-MUNI display; it’s got all the bells and whistles.

Impressive! Non-trivial! Successful! Congrats and thanks to Neighbor Robert for his persistence in making this new bus shelter a reality.

ADDENDUM: In light of Neigbor Robert’s obvious talents, perhaps he might consider rallying to facilitate the construction of the much-coveted 30th Street BART infill station? Just a suggestion.

PHOTO: Neighbor Robert

Another Very Lovely Photo of the Unlovely Spaghetti Bowl

October 16, 2012October 16, 2012 / Todd_Lappin / 2 Comments

The 101-280 “Spaghetti Bowl” interchange is not the sort of feature that might be called beautiful… unless you have a taste for Midcentury Infrastructural Brutalism. Nevertheless, our ace local photographers have succeeded in making it look lovely time and time again.

Now, another photographer has accomplished that improbable feat. Neighbor Jillian writes:

My friend Winni Wintermeyer took this shot at night on the corner of Bradford and Jarboe, looking South over the Spaghetti Bowl. Thought it was an interesting P0V which most Bernalites may not recognize. Took me a while to figure out anyway.

Lovely, eh? Thanks for the share Jillian, and kudos to Winni Wintermeyer.

PHOTO: Winni Wintermeyer

Should We Install a Solar-Powered Floodlight to Deter Illegal Dumping on Bernal Hill?

October 3, 2012October 2, 2012 / Todd_Lappin / 28 Comments

So… what was the outcome of that recent meeting about strategies to deter illegal dumping on Bernal Hill? District 9 Supervisor David Campos has a proposal, and he’d like your feedback:

Bernal Heights Residents. At the community meeting I held a couple weeks ago with representatives from the Department of Recreation & Parks, we decided that the best and most cost effective strategy to deter further illegal dumping on Bernal Hill is to install a solar power light at the site of the dumpings. I am attaching a picture of the lamp so you can see what it would look like. Please let us know if you have any issues with this solution by contacting Hillary Ronen in my office at hillary.ronen@sfgov.org. Thanks for participating in the decision making process!

Bernalwood used the photo provided by Supervisor Campos to create the absurdist illustration shown above. It shows what the actual floodlight would look like (if it took steroids and grew to about 10x its actual size). Don’t take the photo too literally. The point being, we’d get a light shaped kind of like that, somewhere kind of around there, to help keep the baddie illegal dumping people away, and possibly prevent actual scenes like this:

Do you like the idea? Should The City go ahead and install a solar-powered light? Feel free to email Supervisor Campos’s staff, or discuss here, in the comments.

PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics

Tech Shuttle Transit Map Reveals Hidden Logic of the Bernal Heights Real Estate Market

September 25, 2012September 25, 2012 / Todd_Lappin / 19 Comments

As Bernalwood has previously noted, there are some hidden dynamics at work in the North Bernal real estate market along the Cesar Chavez corridor, where home-price inflation has been fueled in part by the neighborhood’s proximity to the private shuttle-bus routes that carry tech workers from San Francisco to Silicon Valley:

[Bernalwood has] heard from realtor sources that this corridor is already attracting interest from [tech-employed] buyers, precisely because it offers convenient access to freeways, public transit, and the arterial routes for those Wi-Fi-equipped, private commuter busses operated by the likes of Apple, Google, Yahoo, etc.

Thanks to the data-visualization wizards at San Francisco’s Stamen Design, we now have a way to actually see this, by way of a fascinating subway-style map that indicates the location of common shuttle bus routes, the companies they represent, and the approximate volume of people they carry:

Several Stamen staff live on Google shuttle routes, so we see those shuttles every day. They’re ubiquitous in San Francisco, but the scale and shape of the network is invisible.

We decided to try some dedicated observation. We sat 18th & Dolores one morning, and counted shuttles. We counted a new shuttle every five minutes or so; several different companies, high frequency. We also researched online sources like Foursquare to look for shuttle movements, and a 2011 San Francisco city report helped fill in gaps and establish basic routes. […]

We enlisted people to go to stops, measure traffic and count people getting off and on and we hired bike messengers to see where the buses went. The cyclists used Field Papers to transcribe the various routes and what they found out, which we recompiled back into a database of trips, stops, companies and frequency. At a rough estimate, these shuttles transport about 35% of the amount of passengers Caltrain moves each day. Google alone runs about 150 trips daily, all over the city.

The result is the map you see above, which I annotated slightly to help the Citizens of Bernalwood orient the routes to our neighborhood. What the map reveals is that — no surprise — Cesar Chavez Blvd. is a major artery for tech shuttles carrying residents of San Francisco’s southern neighborhoods to and from Silicon Valley.

Another handy-dandy map (again, annotated by Bernalwood) reveals the actual location of the shuttle stops on the perimeters of Bernal Heights:

This is fascinating stuff, because while the shuttle buses themselves are highly conspicuous, their representation and scope has, until now, been largely hidden from view. Meanwhile, the impact of all this on Bernal Heights is also quite tangible.

IMAGES: Base maps from Stamen Design and Dotspotter

What’s The Best Way to Prevent Illegal Dumping on Bernal Hill?

September 21, 2012September 18, 2012 / Todd_Lappin / 7 Comments

Remember that illegal dumping epidemic that plagued Bernal Hill last spring? Bernalwood does, and frankly, it kind of sucked.

In the meantime, D9 Supervisor David Campos has lined up some City money to make the site less dump-friendly, and he’s holding a community meeting tomorrow night at the Bernal Heights library to discuss how best to spend it:

Help Decide How to Solve the Illegal Dumping Problem on Bernal Hill

Please join Supervisor Campos and staff from the Department of Recreation and Parks to decide how to solve the illegal dumping problem on Bernal Hill. Supervisor Campos was able to secure funds in order to make changes to the area where illegal dumping has occurred. Some ideas include installing nighttime lighting in the area or making structural changes to the parking lot area that would make dumping more difficult. Both Supervisor Campos and the Department of Recreation and Parks do not want to make any changes until the Bernal community decides what is best for the neighborhood. We want to hear from all of you!

Date: September 20, 2012
Hour: 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Location: Bernal Height Library Community Room, 500 Cortland Avenue

Questions?: Please contact Hillary Ronen, legislative aide to Supervisor Campos, (415) 554-7729 or hillary.ronen@sfgov.org

PHOTO: Bernal Hill on May 7, 2012

BASA Visits NASA to Say Farewell to Space Shuttle Endeavor

September 19, 2012September 19, 2012 / Todd_Lappin

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Today, as you read this now, a representative from BASA, Bernal’s very own space agency, is visiting a facility operated by NASA, that *other* space agency you may have heard about.

Specifically, your Bernalwood editor is spending a few days at NASA’s Dryden Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California. BASA is here at NASA’s invitation to watch Space Shuttle Endeavor arrive on the back of it’s specially modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft, which is scheduled to happen tomorrow. If the past is any guide, it should look something like this:

But the thing is, this is not only the last time a space shuttle will fly on the back of a 747; It’s the very last time a shuttle will fly at all. Ever. Endeavor is headed to its permanent home at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, and it’s the last of the retired shuttle fleet to require transportation via 747.

But before that happens, there will be adventure. Early Friday morning, NASA’s special 747 will take off from Edwards. From there it will fly north, to the Bay Area, for a scenic low-and-slow flight over Silicon Valley and the City of San Francisco. (PRO TIPS: NASA tells us the shuttle flight should arrive over San Francisco between 9 and 10 am on Friday morning. Bayfront vantage points between the Golden Gate Bridge and downtown will probably be best, but the view may be pretty good from Bernal Hill with binoculars. Please take photos!)

And then that’s it. Forever. Maybe you will live long enough to see another Transit of Venus from Bernal Hill. But you will never, ever see another space shuttle flying over Our Faire City — or anywhere else. Sad but true.

Keep an eye on the @bernalwood Twitter account for updates and announcements on the Shuttle overflight. Viva BASA! Thank you, NASA!

Sinkhole on Ellsworth Opens Portal to Alternate Universe

August 29, 2012August 29, 2012 / Todd_Lappin / 5 Comments

Neighbor Rachel reports there was a water main break on Ellsworth at Jarboe last night. The break created a small sinkhole that provided a rare glimpse at the watery realm that dwells just beneath our feet:

We woke up last night to a loud sound under our house at about 1am. It sounded like it was coming from our basement. After checking it out, and seeing a wet sidewalk across the street, we called 311. Soon after, when police & water dept arrived, water was gushing out of sewer vents down the hill. Jackhammering began at about 6am.

Good times.

PHOTO: Neighbor Rachel

Crescent Neighbors Say New 23 Muni Bus Stop Really Sucks

August 27, 2012August 27, 2012 / Todd_Lappin / 17 Comments

A Muni bus stop was relocated recently on Crescent Avenue at Ellsworth, and the natives are not happy. Bernalwood has received multiple complaints about the location of the new bus stop, and here is Neighbor Michael’s summary of the situation:

There’s an MTA War going on on Crescent Avenue at Ellsworth! Not long ago, a homeowner on the street complained about having a bus stop in front of his house. Granted, it’s been there for years; he knew about it when he bought the house, but hey, it’s his right to complain. The MTA decided to move the bus stop from the corner to the middle of the next block, to appease this neighbor.

What this has done is create a safety hazard. The bus stops in the middle of the block (two houses after stopping at a sign), so cars get stuck in the intersection, and pass on the opposite side of the road (accidents to ensue). Passengers now get off in the middle of the block rather than a corner, so they will most likely jaywalk rather than cross legally. Also, my driveway has become the de facto handicap ramp for wheelchair users. (Does that open me up to liability?)

This video (displayed above) shows folks queueing up at the old stop. They clearly don’t like the new stop, and the bus (23 Muni) didn’t go to the new stop. Confusion for all.

Numerous calls and emails to the MTA have revealed they want to do a 6 month study to consider if they should move the stop AGAIN.

If they can move the bus stop without a study, why can’t they just move it back without one too? This all doesn’t seem fair to the passengers, drivers, or us, the neighbors.

On top of all that, Neighbor Beth writes:

Is anyone being affected by the fact that they have cut back the 23 bus EVEN MORE?

When we first moved here it. Came very frequently in the morning (like every 7-10 minutes). Then they cut it back. Now they just cut it again. Now we might have to wait 30-40 minutes to catch a bus to/from the Glen Park Bart, which makes the bus useless (especially since its only a 15 min walk).

Bernal Hill Makes Cameo Appearance Amid Muni Bus Mayhem

August 9, 2012August 8, 2012 / Todd_Lappin / 3 Comments

Our transit agency encountered a teensy-weensy glitch yesterday, when a Muni bus took out a fire hydrant on Valencia near Cesar Chavez. Ooopsie! As you can see, Sutrito Tower witnessed the whole thing.

Meanwhile, in the category of “Finding Beauty in Chaos,” cyril_at_sf captured these lovely photos from the accident scene:

PHOTOS: Top, The Fog Bender (via MissionMission). Below, Cyril_at_sf

The Fight Is On to Secure the Future of St. Luke’s Hospital

July 19, 2012 / Todd_Lappin / 4 Comments

Uncertainty about the future of St. Luke’s hospital in the La Lengua Autonomous Zone is holding up approval of the California Pacific Medical Center’s $2.5 billion hospital development plan.

Supervisor David Campos and Mayor Ed Lee want guarantees that St. Luke’s will remain open for another 20 years, but CPMC seeks to retain flexibility in the matter. The SF Examiner reports:

“We have not been very optimistic based on the way in which CPMC and Sutter [Health] have approached this project,” said Supervisor David Campos, whose district includes St. Luke’s, which he and other city officials want to ensure remains open. But Campos said Wednesday supervisors heard enough from hospital officials Tuesday to merit “giving this another chance.”

In March, CPMC and the Mayor’s Office both thought that, after years of planning and negotiations, they finally had a deal, which included significant contributions by the Sutter Health-owned hospital group to community clinics, affordable housing and health care for the poor.

But Campos said concerns remain about the amount of charitable giving, affordable housing, traffic issues and a possible rise in health care costs. The main issue, he noted, is preserving St. Luke’s.

Last month, the Mayor’s Office said it had new information about CPMC finances that would put the hospital group closer to an escape clause in the deal, allowing it to abandon St. Luke’s. Hospital officials insisted they still would not reach the trigger, but Lee is now calling for a guarantee that St. Luke’s will remain open for at least 20 years.

Approval of the project’s developmental agreement, which includes the St. Luke’s trigger, is meanwhile being held up in committee.

“I think that that pause is probably very appropriate right now,” Lee said Wednesday, “to make sure that we’re making the right decision.”

PHOTO: St. Luke’s Hospital, as seen from Coleridge near Esmerelda, by sftrajan