Neighbor @luna_c snapped this shot today on the corner of Stoneman and Folsom, where a curb reconstruction project is underway. The bike was locked, but it was also spared… in the name of Progress and Improvement. Nicely done!

Did you loan a lovely wooden sideboard to Red Hill Books many many moons ago? If so, they would like to return it to you:

We are in the thick of renovations here at Red Hill and have run into an issue. There is a beautiful sideboard that sat behind the counter here for the better part of ten years. Our owner remembers a neighbor generously lending it to us, but cannot recall which of our wonderful community members. Would you mind posting the attached photograph with a plea for the owner to come by the store?  Because space is limited, we can really only manage to keep the fixture for a week, at which point it is up for grabs!

Following up on the idea of sending a thank you gift to the SFPD officer who tracked down a group of Bernal Heights muggers, Neighbor Regina has set up a fund where Bernalese can donate:

A high-tech theft in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood was thwarted by a Bayview officer who used a personal iPad to track a neighbor’s stollen iPhone. Police were able to locate the suspects’ car, chase down the suspects and get the stollen goods back. As a thanks to Officer Guzman of Bayview for his quick response and thinking we want to buy him a 32GB iPad mini. Any funds we raise beyond the price of Guzman’s iPad will go towards iPads for the two rookie cops that were involved.

I just kicked in $40. Please donate if you are so inclined.

Just before the holidays, the wonderful Neighbor Sarah attended the SFPD’s Ingleside Station Chief’s Meeting, and she shared these invaluable summary notes about the latest Bernal Heights crime trends. Neighbor Sarah’s reports are always insightful, and in this issue she brings some extra bonus tips on how to avoid becoming a crime victim. Ye Citizens of Bernalwood are strongly advised to read the whole thing:

Ingleside Community Meeting, 12/18/12
Captain Falvey presided <timothy.falvey@sfgov.org>

INTRODUCTION
Captain Falvey brought up the recent series of armed robberies on Athens Street in the Excelsior, one of which also included a carjacking. He said that carjackings are relatively rare in San Francisco. In 2009, there were 11 in the Ingleside District, five of which occurred in the Sunnydale. In 2010, there were nine (mostly Sunnydale). In 2011, six. In 2012, four YTD. They made an arrest at Excelsior and Mission recently – the person/people had robbed three people in the area (but not the same as the Athens suspects). The captain has been using the CompStat maps to direct resources to areas where there’s lots of activity, which is how the arrests were made at Excelsior and Mission.

An aside: one way to find out where your stolen car is parked is to call DPT and find out if any tickets have been issued.

Balboa Park BART remains an area of concern for robberies – DO NOT STARE DOWN AT YOUR PHONE. Keep it in your pocket.

CRIME STATS
Robberies are down 10% YTD. Violent crime is up 1% (driven by domestic violence). Aggravated assaults (which include domestic violence) are up 12% YTD.

Huge increase in car thefts in 2012, mostly 1990-98 Acuras and Hondas. Before Thanksgiving, Ingleside did a large joint operation with the Mission Station, the Sheriff, Parole, Probation, and Juvenile Detention to visit people on parole or probation who had had auto thefts or burglaries in their past records. One was found with three shaved keys and was arrested. This seems to have resulted in a huge dropoff in car thefts. They were at 109 in the mid-Sept to mid-Oct period; 108 in mid-Oct to mid-Nov; and then all the way down to 40 in mid-Nov to mid-Dec.

Personal thefts are down 12% YTD. The captain has run some robbery abatement operations, where a plainclothes officer walks with an iPhone, distracted, but no one has attempted to rob her yet.

They also served a bunch of search warrants lately. If you see a block buzzing with cops and/or SWAT teams, it’s probably because a search warrant is being served.

I asked about the incident raised this week where a Bernal neighbor witnessed what appeared to be a domestic-violence situation and called the police, then suffered apparent retaliation for this. The captain said his advice is always to call the police if you’re ever unsure of a situation (for example, if something seems weird but you’re not sure the person actually needs help) and let them figure it out – and don’t put yourself in danger. He also reminds us regularly that people themselves are not inherently suspicious, but their behavior can be, so call if you are unsure.

A community member asked about the rate of crime per resident in the Ingleside. The captain said it’s 5.94 violent crimes per 1000 people and 25.25 property crimes per 1000 people, which is usually the second- or third-lowest in SF. Taraval is huge but also very sleepy and usually has the lowest rate of crime. The Ingleside District has well over 100,000 residents and is larger than any city in San Mateo County.

GUEST SPEAKER: FURLISHOUS WYATT, JR. FROM SFSAFE

850 Bryant St., Room 135, SF, CA 94103
415-553-1984, sfsafe.org

Furlishous Wyatt was asked to speak on residential security. Of interest to the Bernal community – he mentioned the blue tape incidents. It is thought that one reason potential burglars use the blue tape is that it is visible from a much greater distance than regular tape. The captain said the incidents have dropped off, but they did send several batches of tape to CSI, but no fingerprints have been recovered yet.

I am going to include everything Mr. Wyatt went over here – it was very helpful, if a bit unsettling. SFSAFE will do free home-safety assessments of your house and give you suggestions on improving the security. More info here.

GENERAL TIPS

Your ADDRESS NUMBERS should be illuminated and/or in a high-contrast color (vs the base paint of your house), and they should be visible from BOTH directions. This is for emergency responders.

Walk around your house and think like a burglar.

Security is always a mixture of things – no one thing will make your house safe.

You should have locks or screens on all doors, vents, and crawl spaces.

You should treat every door and window as if it is on the first floor. People often don’t secure their upper-floor openings as well, and burglars know this. Burglars sometimes do things like bring painting equipment and ladders and get into the second floor of a house that way.

Anything that is 96″ square or shoebox-sized is big enough for a small person or teen to get into – your head is the only thing that does not bend.

A burglar’s worst enemies are TIME, LIGHT, and NOISE, which can help guide you in setting up your home’s security. Burglars will aim for the path of least resistance.

TAKE VIDEO of each room in your house. Describe the contents of each room. This will be a huge help for insurance in the event that your house ever does get robbed, and it’s easier than making a list. Do each quarter of a room separately.

PERSONAL SAFETY

There is NO SAFE WAY to walk alone at night. White earbuds make you a target for thieves. So does looking at your phone.

Attitude and posture are key. Be aware of your surroundings. Have your valuables concealed (also smart to separate your valuables into different pockets). Walk with purpose and be ready for fight or flight. Flight is better – “run fool” vs “kung fu.”

Yell “FIRE” if you need other people to help you – most effective at getting people’s attention.

GARAGE TIPS

If you have a mail slot in your door or garage door, it should have a HOOD on it so that no one can peer in.

Doors in the interior of the garage to the interior of your house should be treated like any exterior door – solid-core and deadbolt.

LANDSCAPING

Raise crowns on street trees to 7′ to have a good view down the block.

Rule of 3’/7′ – no shrubs should be higher than 3′, and tree crowns should be taller than 7′.

Trees – eliminate limbs that would allow access to roof or upper stories.

No shrubs or trees in front of doors or windows.

FENCING

Privacy fences (solid wood) also shield burglars. Better to have wrought-iron/see-through.

LIGHTING

Usually at eaves/corners of house. In back yard, better to have perimeter lights facing in. When you have floodlights facing out, they blind your neighbors to anyone who might be in the yard.

ALARM SYSTEMS

Not a be-all/end-all. If you do have an alarm system, make sure it’s connected to a central service. Neighbors will not call in burglar alarms. Like car alarms, they have become a nuisance because of false positives.

DOORS & LOCKS

Get rid of pet doors! People can and do get in through these.

Exterior doors and interior doors leading in from garage should be solid core (vs the hollow core that many interior home doors are). You can bolster glass doors with polycarbonate or acrylic sheeting/panels.

The safest type of exterior door lock (taking into account both fire safety and safety from intruders) is a SINGLE CYLINDER DEADBOLT, where you put the key into the outside but can unlatch it from the inside. Double-cylinders (where a key is required for both sides) present too much danger in case you need to exit fast from a fire. Surface-mounted locks are less aesthetically appealing but also work well. Key-in-knob deadlatches are useless – they only thing they do is keep the wind from blowing the door open.

The key to a deadbolt’s success is the strike plate, which needs to be reinforced by 3″ SCREWS that will make it through the doorframe and into the 2×4 stud that is next to the doorframe. If you just have 1″ screws, the door and frame can be kicked in relatively easily.

Do NOT buy the $9 deadbolt. You want one in the $38-50 range. You do not need to get the $140 one.

If you have double doors or sliding doors, they typically contain one active leaf and one inactive leaf. You want to reinforce the inactive leaf and make it as strong as the wall. You can do this by bolting it into the jamb. He mentioned cane bolts and Mortise bolts.

Sliding glass doors can be strengthened by a dowel in the track of the inactive leaf and screws inserted in the top track.

If you have a PEEPHOLE, make sure it’s CONVEX/wide angle, which lets you see 180 degrees.

GATES

If you have the kind where you can buzz people in, make sure the metal covers the opening entirely. Sometimes people have the front of their stoop blocked, but the iron gate/fence don’t go all the way to the top of the porch. Burglars will climb over it.

WINDOWS

Double-hung windows are easiest to secure. You can put pins in at a slight downward angle where the panes meet.

If you have window bars in your house, you MUST have an interior emergency release on at least one in every room where people sleep or might sleep – this is in case of a fire.

Louvered windows are not secure – change them.

Casement windows – two cane bolts or flush bolts on top or bottom will help secure them.

Transom windows – if opening outward, add two bolts per opening.

Skylights can be somewhat secured with mesh, polycarbonate.

SAFE ROOMS

He suggested creating a reinforced room (not the full panic room you might be thinking of) that you could get to and use a phone in during a hot prowl or home invasion.

Master bedroom is one choice – change out hollow-core door for a solid-core door with a deadbolt. The room should have a landline phone, too. Cell phones run out of batteries or have poor reception.

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics

PHOTO: Highland Avenue on December 23, 2012, by Telstar Logistics

Hanukkah is over. Luckily for everyone else, I stumbled upon lots excellent, inexpensive gifts offered by several of our Bernal Heights merchants while finishing up the last of my holiday shopping last week. So never mind that my shopping is done; yours may be just beginning! Here are some last-minute gift ideas I found around the neighborhood:

Drinking Cups and/or Succulent Planters
Where: Succulence on Cortland
Price: Beginning at $27
It’s for humans! No, it’s for plants! It’s a drinking cup for tea! No, it’s a small planter for your countertop! Actually, according to the staff at Succulence, it’s both! These lovely pieces from Jennifer Fisher look great no matter how you use them.

 

Wooden Toy Sports Cars
Where: Chloe’s Closet on Cortland
Price: $7
Matchbox or Hot Wheels are always popular among the under-10 set, but these wooden toy cars jack-up the style quotient. The bodies are made from sustainable bamboo and the vehicles themselves are powered by clean, abundant, and eco-friendly momentum. Sound good? There’s one catch: Prolonged exposure to these toys may turn your child into a future recruit for the Bernal Dads Racing Team.

 

Totally Frikkin’ Amazing Pickles
Where: Paulie’s Pickling on Cortland
Price: $8 per jar
Our family had our annual “vodka and latke” party last week — a seasonal ritual that embraces the Eastern European tradition of downing ice-cold vodka shots with a sliced pickle chaser. (Try it! Yum!) My job was to buy the pickles, so I loaded up at Paulie’s. Even if you’re not celebrating in St. Petersburg style, pickles from Paulie’s will bring a smile to any foodie’s face.

 

Old Skool Bicycle Bells
Where: The New Wheel on Cortland
Price: $11 to $27
If they ride a bike in the city, they definitely need a bell. These Crane bicycle bells from Japan all offer classic styling, and they’re available in a variety of metal finishes. Ring-a-ding-ding!

 

Artsy, Awesome Bernal Heights Photographs
Where: Inclusions Gallery on Cortland
Price: $25 each
I found these hiding in the back room of the Inclusions Gallery. They’re wonderful. This series of photos by Erin Malone shows a variety of images around Bernal Heights and Bernal Hill. They’re small format, but each comes mounted in a generous mat for that über-artsy look. There’s a nice selection to choose from too, so it’s easy to find a perspective that captures Bernal as you love it most.

Make Your Own Gummies Kit
Where: Rock Candy Snack Shop on Cortland
Price: $15
I would have bought one of these for Bernalwood’s Cub Reporter, except we’re still digging our way out from under a pile of surplus sour worms left over from Halloween. Too bad, because this DIY gummy candy kit looked like a ton of fun, and it’s a whole lot more wholesome than our unholy Halloween leftovers. The kit uses natural seaweed as a gummy-agent, and it comes with an extended geek-out on the story of carrageenan, as well as everything you need to make some sweet treats.

 

T-Shirts From the World’s Second-Most Glamorous Zip Code
Where: Secession Art and Design on Mission
Price: $28 and up
We’re cool, here in Bernal Heights. We don’t brag. We don’t boast. Our style is understated jet-set chic, and that extends to the clothes we wear as we wander the world. These sporty t-shirts tell everyone that you’re representing the 94110, and if some people don’t know where that is — well, then those are people you probably didn’t really want to know anyway. The shirts available in sizes for infants to adults, and I’m sad to report that Bernalwood’s Cub Reporter just outgrew the one I gave her a few years ago. Bonus: The names of our world-famous local streets are embedded in the numerals, for extra graphic-design pizzaz.

 

Versatile Throw Pillows That Also Happen to Look Like Logs
Where: Heartfelt on Cortland
Price: $17
True Story: I bought one of these pillows a few months ago. I got it because I thought it would look fun on our living room sofa — and it does. But turns out these compact pillows (which are sold in a variety of woodgrains) are also good for so much more. For example, while packing for a car-camping trip last summer, I grabbed the pillow off the sofa and stuffed it in my bag to use as a head rest inside my tent. It was ridiculously comfortable, and I got a great nights’ sleep. Then I came home from camping, unloaded my gear, and flopped the pillow back on our living room sofa — where it continues to look good as new. Indeed, I’m sitting on the sofa as I write this now, with my log-pillow perched behind me to provide lower-back support. Quirky, comfy, fun, and so much more.

PHOTOS: All photos by Telstar Logistics, except for the 94110 shirts, which came courtesy of Secession Art and Design

Are these your keys? Karen from Stray Bar found them on Cortland outside the bar recently. To reclaim them, just stop by and tell her what night you lost them.

Also: Paris!  Ooh-la-la!

It’s been slightly less than a year since the Precita Park Cafe opened on the eastern end of Precita Park. Yet in that short time the cafe has dramatically altered the geo-social dynamics of North Bernal —so much so that Newt Gingrich might even call it “transformational.”

The Precita Park Cafe has become Precitaville’s front porch; a place to grab coffee or a tasty bite to eat, and bump in to a few neighbors along the way. In the evening, it morphs into a low-key place to have dinner. Now the foodies at Tablehopper bring news that there’s a new chef behind the counter:

Rachel Herbert at Precita Park Cafe has hired chef Tu David Phu to launch a new dinner menu. Phu has spent the past two years at Saul’s Deli in Berkeley, and he’ll be bringing a similar “make it by hand” ethos to Precita Park Cafe, turning out housemade burrata, mozzarella, pasta, and more. Look for dishes like thin-crust pizzas, fresh ricotta gnocchi, and entrées like sausage-stuffed chicken with braised fennel and romesco sauce ($14), and short ribs with polenta fries, braised greens, and crème fraîche ($15), with sweet potato pie ($3.50) for dessert.

Chef Tu Davi Phu comes to glamorous Bernalwood via the frontierlands of Berkeley, where he was recently seen slinging matzo balls at Saul’s Delicatessen — a pairing that in 2010 prompted the Berkeleyside blog to ask, “What’s a nice, young, tattooed Vietnamese boy from West Oakland doing as the top chef in a Jewish deli in North Berkeley?”

So now that same nice, young, tattooed Vietnamese chef from West Oakland is serving fresh ricotta gnocchi at a transformational neighborhood cafe in North Bernal.

PHOTO: Top, Telstar Logistics. Below, Tu David Phu at Saul’s in Berkeley. Stephen Loewinsohn photo via Berkeleyside