Transportation

How to Bike on Alabama Without Biking Up Alabama (Hint: Follow the Bernal Chicken)

/ Molly Samuel / 14 Comments

Alabama Uphill
I bike down Alabama in the morning to get to work, which, with the combination of awful pavement, loose gravel, and the 67 bus (which seems to only come when I am biking) feels like tempting death. On the way home, there’s no way I can make it back up that hill.

Or, there WAS no way! Another cyclist let me in on a little secret:

This route has steep parts, but there’s some flat in there, the roads are in better shape than Alabama, and there’s less traffic. It’s so pleasant, in fact, that I’ve been biking down the hill this way, too.

The Lower Haight has The Wiggle. Maybe it’s the season, but I think this looks kind of like the outline of a peep. Is Bernal too laid back and private to name a bike route? (NO! — Ed.) I’m not suggesting we get signs or bikes painted on the road, but based on the shape of the route, let’s call this shortcut the Bernal Chicken, just among friends?

PHOTO:Looking up Alabama Street, by Telstar Logistics

How a Driver of the Muni 67 Bernal Bus Found the Light

/ Todd_Lappin / 6 Comments

67 UphillOur friends at the ever-excellent Muni Diaries today bring a lovely little tale about the driver of a 67 Muni bus who explained how he came to embrace God and Life in the Slow Lane:

“So back when I was a teen, I used to always drive really fast. I’m talkin’ stupid fast, OK? I had a sports car, and I would take that thing up to maybe 120 sometimes on the freeway,” [says the 67 Muni bus driver].

The passengers sitting near me begin shifting their eyes in the driver’s direction, with concerned looks on their faces.

“So this one night at like 2 in the morning I’m speeding down the freeway and I hear a voice in my head.”

Slow down. Stop.

“I say to myself, that’s ridiculous, why should I stop? This is an empty freeway, it’s 2 in the morning. Ain’t no one out here. And then I hear the voice again.”

Slow down. Stop. There’s a car up ahead.

“So I hit my brakes and stop. And sure enough right in front of me there’s a car that’s been in an accident. Its headlights are shut off, and it’s sideways across the freeway. I came so close to driving straight into it!”

“Wow,” the woman says.

“So I’m stopped there on the freeway and I’m in shock, and I’m asking, how can this be? How can this be? And I started crying right there. God saved me! God saved my life that day. And so then I decided I would stop driving so stupid fast, and I would become a bus driver to take people places and keep them safe.”

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics

What the Bayshore Freeway Took from Bernalwood: Faith, Joy, Adam and Eve

/ Todd_Lappin / 13 Comments

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!!!)

Faith is Just a Dead End Street

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…

A Roadmap for the Skies Above Bernal Heights

/ Todd_Lappin / 3 Comments

Bernal Heights is prime territory for those who enjoy scanning the skies to watch for avian life. It also happens to be a great location for aviation enthusiasts, if you prefer your birds with aluminum wings. Just as bird watchers are keenly attuned to the patterns and territories of local wildlife, planespotters in the neighborhood can tell at a glance where a plane is going, or where it has come from.

Indeed, the local flight patterns are pretty easy to follow, once you familiarize yourself with this map, which reveals the invisible thoroughfares commercial aircraft use when coming and going from SFO and OAK.

Let’s take a closer look at the airspace above Bernal Heights:

As you can see, Bernal sits at the intersection of several different flight paths, which provides an interesting mix of traffic. From ground level, here’s what all this looks like:

Low-Flying Aircraft on the North Side of Bernal, Headed Toward Sutro Tower Departures from Oakland Airport, eventually headed south. Usually twinjets; often Southwest Airlines.

Low-Flying Aircraft Turning in a Southward Arc Above Bernal Hill Departures from SFO, headed south. Usually midsize twinjets that departed from SFO runways 1L or 1R.

High-Flying Aircraft Heading South Above West Bernal or La Lengua Aircraft inbound from the Pacific or Northwest, on approach for landing at SFO. (Often larger jets, including 747s. Many contrails.)

Powered by Gasoline and Bacon, Bernal Dads Racing Brings Home Honor and Glory During 24 Hours of LeMons

/ Todd_Lappin / 3 Comments

24 Hours of LeMons

24 Hours of LeMons

24 Hours of LeMons

It drove! It raced! And kind of well, even. Last weekend at Sears Point Raceway, our neighborhood’s own Bernal Dads Racing team tore up the track during the 24 Hours of LeMons in The Molvo (No. 243), a mutant crossbreeding of a Mazda Miata and a Volvo 240 wagon. They also brought their older car, The Whale (No. 245) a Volvo wagon emblazoned with stickers that make it look like a junkyard Who’s Who of Cortland Avenue.

24 Hours of LeMons

24 Hours of LeMonsI wandered up to Sears Point on Saturday with my 3.5 year-old daughter, and together we watched the Bernal Dads on the race course and in the paddock, where the team’s cars returned from time to time for maintenance, driver changes, camaraderie, and… bacon!

24 Hours of LeMons

24 Hours of LeMons

24 Hours of LeMons

BDR team member Ben brings the final race results…

The Whale:
At the end of Day One, the car had to go under the welder to fix a broken exhaust pipe located under the middle of the car.  It was also in 3rd place in Category C so there was a concerted effort to make the pits stop as efficient and speedy as possible.

This worked well and in the mid-afternoon the Whale was first in class.  This was short-lived, however as about two hours from the end of the race, the bottom-end of the engine suffered a catastrophic failure. The car was pulled into the pit and it was quickly determined it was “Game Over” for the Whale.

The Molvo:
Also in Category C, the Molvo was just behind the Whale in the standings.  During the afternoon it made a similar climb through the group as the Whale.  Shortly after the Whale was retired from the race, The Molvo’s exhaust system suffered from a major leak which the race officials wanted rectified before it could return to the track.  The rear section of coffee cans were dismantled and the Molvo returned to the track.  If continued to finish the race but could not make any ground to unseat the winner of Category C (#8, a Yellow Opal Manta)

Going to the awards ceremony at the end of the Race, BDR took home the Judges Choice award for the Movlo.  The innovation and execution of the concept was embraced by the organizer Jay Lamm as well as the other LeMons Judges.

Congrats to BDR for a race well raced, and a prize well earned!

24 Hours of LeMons

I took lots of photos during Saturday’s race; you can view them all here.

Photos: Team with trophy, by Alex Zepeda. All other photos by Telstar Logistics

Commuting on the Muni 67 Bus Is Like Waiting for Godot

/ Todd_Lappin / 23 Comments

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

A Design Workshop to Untangle the Cesar Chavez “Hairball”

/ Todd_Lappin / 4 Comments

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.”

US 101 at Cesar Chavez and Potrero, San Francisco

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

Pedal On: There’s a New Bike Repair Shop in Bernal Heights

/ Todd_Lappin / 4 Comments

Great news for local fans of human-powered vehicles: There’s a new bicycle repair shop and frame-builder at 1637 Florida Street (between Precita and Peralta) on Bernalwood’s North Slope.

Actually, it’s two businesses in one: Bernal Bike for basic bicycle service, and Kroyer Cycles for frame repair and frame-building. Both are overseen by Sam Kroyer, a skilled bike mechanic who spent 12 years working at the venerable Valencia Cyclery in the Mission.

But don’t look for a regular storefront facade; Bernal Bike operates from the garage of Sam’s house, and we’ve received assurances that the business is fully licensed and blessed by the landlord. Business manager Erin McLachlan wrote Bernalwood to say:

Know us by the bike rack and the welcome sign.  Kroyer Cycles is owned by Sam Kroyer, a bicycle mechanic for over 25 years and a Bernal resident for 16 years.  The shop performs full-service repair and maintenance, custom builds, frame repair and warranty service.  We carry inventory of replacement parts and necessities.

Photos: Kroyer Cycles

Space-Time Rupture Reveals San Jose Boulevard In 1929

/ Todd_Lappin / 6 Comments

Bernal Cut Bridges

Bernal Cut Dig
Through the miracle of Photoshop, Bernal resident Craig Butz has created a series of images that superimpose historic photographs over contemporary shots.

These depict the Bernal Cut — a major infrastructure project completed back in the days when we still attempted major infrastructure projects. The Bernal Cut lowered the grade of the southwest corner of Bernal Hill to make way for the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad — effectively opening up the Peninsula to routine transit. The cut was first carved out in the 1860s, but in 1929 it was widened to make room for an automotive roadbed — and today’s San Jose Speedway Boulevard.

The 1929 project is what Craig shows us here, via his spooky time portal that combines then-and-now photos in a single view. In an email to me, Craig explained how he does it:

Creating the montages requires finding the exact spot the original photo was taken, observing how tiny details line up in the scene, and ideally getting the camera within a few feet of where the old camera was situated. Then it’s photoshop layers and masking. The biggest thing I’ve noticed in taking these shots is how many more trees there are today. Several photos I wanted to recreate were impossible because the current view is just a lot of branches and leaves.

Images: Craigiest

The New Pavement on Bernal Heights Boulevard Makes It Feel Like Mulholland Drive (In a Good Way)

/ Todd_Lappin / 2 Comments

Bernal Heights Blvd.

Our City recently repaved Bernal Heights Boulevard.

Yay City! Yay Infrastructure!

The new road is so very smooth, which makes for happier motoring. (Or biking, or skateboarding, or go-carting, or whatever.)  The new road is also so very black, with a brand-new yellow stripe, which makes it so very cinematic, and especially at night.

After dark, it now evokes Mulholland Drive. Not in the woo-woo Los Angeles sense, but in the creepy David Lynch Mulholland Drive sense, which is so pleasingly atmospheric.

Image: Telstar Logistics