Once upon a time not all that long ago, SFist described this photo as being “Bernal Heights at It’s Most Heightsiest.” Their pick was good, but something about it felt a little too cliche and formulaic to me.
Instead, I’d nominate the photo above, which I snapped last weekend on Cortland… I think it captures something essential about the Bernal Heights condition, circa 2011.
Discuss.
PHOTO: Telstar Logistics
Get ready to spend the next few minutes immersed in blissfully satisfying distraction. There’s a new website called OldSF that combines interactive maps with geolocated historical photographs to create an easy-to-navigate history tour of San Francisco. Co-creator Dan Vanderkam explains:
Several years ago, I searched for my cross-streets on the Library’s San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection […]. The image was mislabeled — the intersection in the foreground is actually Waller and Fillmore, not Waller and Webster. Which meant that this photo from 1945 was taken from my roof!
I put together a now-and-then shot, but it always bothered me that the mislabeling of the image was so crucial to my finding it. This led to the idea of putting the images on a map.
And now, years later, we have that map!
It’s awesome. It’s geeky. It’s deep. And it’s got Bernal Heights covered. Kiss your productivity goodbye.
I have an article in today’s New York Times about iPhone photography as an emerging art form. The article focuses on Mission-dweller Doctor Popular, who has established himself as an innovator in the medium.
ALSO, this is probably a good time to remind all our readers that if you have an iPhone, Android, or Blackberry smartphone, you have all the tools you need to become an ace reporter for Bernalwood. As my article demonstrates, that device in your pocket is a powerful photography insutrment, so please use it whenever you see *anything* fun, interesting, or important in the neighborhood. Capture the moment, then send it to us at the address shown on your screen: bernalwood *at* gmail *dot* com.
Reader Amy did it when she found that spooky pentagram on Bernal Hill. Another Tipster did it when he photographed that loose-screw guy defacing the mural at Emmy’s. And Reader X did it when he snapped that succulent thief making off with the goods.
You can do it too. And if you feel like making your photos a little more artsy-fartsy, my article may help. But if not, that’s fine too. Just send us your photos with a brief description of whatever you see, please!
Our email address again:
PHOTO: Top, iPhone photo by Telstar Logistics (aka Todd Lappin)
I recently started commuting down to Palo Alto. I usually take Caltrain, and at the end of the day, on the way back to San Francisco, I get a sweet little view of our cozy little hill just before the train rolls into the station.
Even when Bernal is shrouded in fog, it always feels great to know I’m back home.
PHOTO: Telstar Logistics
There’s something very haunting and very, uh, PINK about this untitled photo captured recently by Giggie Larue:
This is another Precita Ave. shot, across from the park. (The end of the vanishing point here is the “Harvest Hills” market.) There simply was no one around. I looked up at every doorway, across the street… and I didn’t see a soul.
PHOTO giggie larue
I love this photo, which was taken by Ed Brownson and submitted via (hint! hint! hint!) the Bernalwood Flickr group. The birds are house finches, the place was Bernal Hill, the date was August 11, and the weather was — surprise! — kind of foggy.
Meanwhile, in another one of his shots, Ed snapped a wider angle on the woody shrub where the finches were hanging out. Perhaps you’ll recognize the location; it sits on the eastern slope of Bernal Heights Park, facing downtown to the north. I’ve always wondered about that shrub/tree thingy… it’s so distinctive. Any of Bernalwood’s armchair botanists know more about it? What kind of tree/shrub thingy is it??
UPDATE: For ye plant-sleuths, here’s a more clear perspective on the mystery shrub, showing both its full shape and location.
PHOTOS: Finches, Ed Brownson. Mysterious shrub, Telstar Logistics
Did you know that Bernal Heights has an air force? We do! Happily, it’s not the militarized sort — at least not yet. (Take note, uppity La Lengua separatists!) There are several pilots who live in the ‘Wood, and they take to the skies when the view from atop Bernal Hill just isn’t high enough.
I went flying with one Bernal aviator last weekend; a gentleman whom I met via this blog. Wing Commander Fiid lives in South Bernal, and after driving down to Palo Alto Airport, we took off in a cozy Cessna 172, bound for the Central Valley town of Willows, about 170 miles north.
Here’s Wing Commander Fiid, confirming our flight path with BERSAC (Bernalwood Strategic Air Command):
Alas, we had to bypass Bernal Heights itself, as our lovely neighborhood was covered in a thick and unphotogenic blanket of fog. So instead, our flightpath took us to the east, along I-680, where we looked eye-to-eye with Mt. Diablo:
Then we circled a few times over the mothball fleet at Suisun Bay, capturing some great angles on the battleship USS Iowa:
Luckily, other Bernal aeronauts have swooped over the neighborhood on days when the skies were more cooperative. Here are some photos taken by aerial photographer and Bernal resident Jon Hope that capture the scene above our eastern frontier, looking north from Cortland:
Here’s an intimate portrait of the giant bald spot atop the Lowe’s store on Bayshore. “Rogaine on Aisle Six!!”
PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics and John Hope
The weather for the last few days has been an overcast soup. That can be a downer at times, which is all the more reason why it’s important to appreciate those moments of grandeur that occur when fog meets sun and a crazy cosmic swirling dance ensues. Jeff Rueppel captured one such moment on Bernal Hill last week:
Eleven years ago, give or take a day I moved to San Francisco. A couple of years in Colorado and travels else where, it’s been my home since then. One of the most amazing things most about this place is the fog. Other places have clouds, or weather if you want, but I haven’t been anywhere else with fog like San Francisco. In the summer when it comes in from the Pacific and crawls over Twin peaks it’s something different. Almost alive, it pushes it’s way into the city through valleys and over the Golden Gate. I’ve always wanted to catch a photo of it doing it’s thing over the city just when the sun gets behind it and brings it to life. Cassi’s dog and I hiked up here tonight with a pack of cameras and fought though the cold wind for 15 minutes to try and make photos. We got at least one I like.
Fantastic photo. Do yourself a favor and view it large!
PHOTO: Jeff Rueppel
I spied these two instrument-headed mutants strolling down the street in South Bernal last weekend. Let’s call them Mr. Keyboard and Mr. Peavey. They seemed harmless enough, but it’s just fortunate they weren’t plugged in. I half-expected to see someone with a Stratocaster or hi-hat head walking right behind them.
And for all you videogame-addicted kiddies out there, let this serve as a warning: Step away from Rock Band and Guitar Hero, or you could end up just like these people.
PHOTO: Telstar Logistics
If someone built a model train set that was an exact re-creation of Bernal Heights, it would probably look a lot like these tilt-shift photos of the neighborhood taken by Isaac Hepworth. They’re so… cuuuute!
When we geek-out on then-and-now photos here in Bernalwood, we usually end up marveling at how dramatically the neighborhood has changed in such a relatively short span of time. But here’s one view that’s hardly changed at all: Peralta just off Powahattan, looking south across Cortland.
The image at the top is from 1982, and it was shared via the Bernalwood Flickr group courtesy of photographer Dave Glass and his deeeeeep archives. I went out to recreate the shot last weekend, and amazingly, it almost looks the same. Someone has updated the collection of 30 year-old cars parked there, and the billboard facing 101 now promotes Apple’s iPad, but this part of the ‘Wood (so far) seems impervious to the passage of time:
PHOTOS: Top, Dave Glass. Bottom, Telstar Logistics
Reader Julie took this wonderful sunrise photo from atop the hill last Friday.
It looks just like a sunset, but — check it out! — it’s happening over the Bay Bridge, instead of Sutro Tower. How weird! Indeed, if you are a sleep enthusiast like me, you may be shocked (shocked!) to learn that when a sunrise happens, it happens to the east. Who knew??
Since I have no intention to reproduce this experiment by waking up early myself, Julie’s fab photo provides all the evidence I need that a) the sun really does rise to the east and b) sunrise can be spectacular.
PHOTO: Reader Julie
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