Updated April 2011 Edition of the 38 Essential San Francisco Restaurants (Eater SF)

Recreating a Mission Mural Originally Painted by Ohlone Indians in 1791 (7×7)

Who’s Up and Who’s Down on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (SFist)

Parking or a Park at 17th and Folsom in the Mission? (Socketsite)

The View of San Francisco as Seen from the Farallon Islands (Burrito Justice)

Fantastic 1906 Earthquake Photos Released by SFMTA (Uptown Almanac)

A Muni Neck Tattoo?! (Muni Diaries)

PHOTO: Howard Street (today’s South Van Ness) after the earthquake, by SFMTA

There’s serious concern on the Bernalsafe mailing list about the San Francisco Police Department’s recent decision to transfer Sgt. James Miller from the Ingleside
Station (which covers Bernal Heights) to another part of the City. The transfer is ostensibly temporary, but there’s no sign that Sgt. Miller is coming back anytime soon.

By most accounts, Sgt. Miller’s intelligence and intimate familiarity with Bernal Heights have made him an invaluable resource for neighborhood crimestoppers. A letter-writing campaign is now underway to try to reverse the SFPD’s decision.

Here’s one such letter, written by Deb McDonald of the Andersen Street Safe Alliance (and republished here with her permission):

Dear Chief Godown,

I am one of a large group of committed citizens in Bernal Heights who follow the goings on at SFPD closely because we have serious ongoing public safety (crime) concerns here in this part of the city.

So when I heard this morning that Sgt. Jim Miller was being transferred from Ingleside to the Central Station I jumped into action along with hundreds of my neighbors.

Sgt. Miller is the best SFPD resource we have in Ingleside. He knows every inch of this district and he knows many of us personally. He is my first point of contact at SFPD whenever I have a serious concern about crime in my immediate area. He has consistently provided this community with solid support and direction in improving public safety.

We are just getting to know you as temporary Chief of Police. You could go a long way toward gaining our support in the future if you immediately reverse this bad decision and keep Sgt. Miller here in Ingleside where his knowledge of the community and his long standing relationships with us represent one of SFPD’s greatest assets.

We are waiting to hear from you about this. Please do the right thing. KEEP SGT. MILLER AT INGLESIDE!!!

Thank you.

On behalf of Anderson Street Safe Alliance

Deb McDonald

If you’d like to write as well, Chief Godown can be reached at jeffrey.godown@sfgov.org. Remember: Please remain courteous but clear in your correspondence with the Chief.

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics

I took this photo of the 3300 block of Mission Street, right across from our Taoist Safeway, last weekend. Looking at the image after I got home, I saw many divergent elements of the transformation taking place in this part of the neighborhood: The world-class Ichi Sushi, right alongside a nail shop, which sits next to a post-hippie actupuncturist and a check-cashing shop. There’s a backpack-toting hipster on one end of the block, and a person in a wheelchair waiting for the bus at the other. New meets old, and old rubs shoulders with new, and the only thing that we know for sure is that it will all look different and somehow the same a few years from now.

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics

Bernaljournal reports that some new signs went up recently at the north and south gates to Bernal Heights Boulevard. It seems The City plans to use weed killer to combat fennel on the Hill. For what it’s worth, Bernaljournal is anti-pleased:

Trying to stop invasive and non natural plants is futile. They’ve been here for a couple hundred years and poisoning the hill is no remedy.

I’d propose bringing in sheep and goats as an alternative, but I suspect that wouldn’t go over well with the canine crowd.

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics

This time-lapse video compresses a bicycle ride from Bernal Heights to the Western Addition into a very fast-paced three minutes:

I taped a cam to my handle bars and rolled from Bernal Heights to Western Addition. The trip took about 28 minutes, it was super windy. The track is a Deep Cuts classic called Beats for the Beast, a song for my cat.

Okay then!  Yay cat! The video is cool, but you may want to avoid it if you are prone to visually induced  epileptic seizures.

Reader Josh emailed the Bernalwood listener call-in line with a tasty announcement about a benefit breakfast taking place at Leonard Flynn Elementary School (at the corner of Harrison and Precita) on Saturday morning:

There is going to be a pancake breakfast next Saturday, April 16, at Leonard Flynn Elementary in the cafeteria from 8-11AM.  It’s $5 per person for pancakes, coffee, bacon, etc… What a great way to support the kids/families in the neighborhood that go to Flynn!

While we were taking pictures of rainbows over La Lengua this morning, La Lengua spokesrebel Burrito Justice was busy taking epic pictures of the dramatic clouds over Bernal Hill. Woa!

PHOTO: Burrito Justice

After coming through with a fascinating set of photos about kestrel eating habits in Bernal Heights, Dyche comes through again with an even more fascinating photo of avian mating behavior:

Today, after the male brought a morning mouse for his lady friend to snack on, the two of them got down to the business of filling their nest.

My casual bird watching has crossed the line into voyeurism.

Oh my.

Also, dating tip for the fellas: Ladies do love fine dining.

PHOTO: Dyche

Big change is coming the corner of Alabama and Precita, and it should make the eastern half of Precita Park much more glam. According to the Precita Valley Neighbors group:

Park Merchants Update: 500 Precita has permits so contractor can finish the build up for much awaited Precita Park Café!   Across the street from 500 Precita, T & J Market will soon be a children’s gym and art gallery!

Booya! The building shown above — the former Riteway Market — will soon be home to the Precita Park Cafe. What will that be like? The precise details are unknown, but the new restaurant will serve food and light drink. It’s a project of Rachel Herbert, who also operates the Dolores Park Cafe and the Duboce Park Cafe, so it’s safe to assume the Precita Park Cafe will be a classy joint. There’s been talk that Precita Park Cafe may have a kid-friendly emphasis, which would be swell, because the cafe is just across the street from the uber-chic Precita Park playground.

Meanwhile, on the opposite corner, the former T&J Market corner store — a location which, we recall, has been a corner store since at least 1928 — will soon become that children’s gym and art gallery.

Let’s now take inventory: Soon we’ll have a kid gym, a kid-friendly frou-frou cafe, and a kick-ass playground for kids, all at the end of Precita Park. Can a Babies “R” Us with ample parking be far behind? KIDDING! KIDDING!

Photos: Telstar Logistics

Joy Caves took this cellphone photo yesterday. WOW!

This is such a good thing to see: A fundraiser has been organized to benefit the 12 now-homeless victims of the three-alarm fire that tore through two buildings on Mission Street last night. The benefit will take place at El Rio tomorrow, on Friday, April 8 from 8pm-2am, or you can donate via PayPal to mission3212@gmail.com.

Here’s the fundraiser announcement:

Many of you saw or heard about the devastating fire that happened on Mission and Valencia last night. The house that took the brunt of the damage was actually a house full of amazing friends who many of you may know and love. It looks as though the fire destroyed most or all of their possessions and made the house uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.

Currently the residents are without homes, clothes, and other basic necessities and could really use assistance getting back on their feet. The four people who lost their home are all amazing people who have been active vibrant parts of our queer community in San Francisco and have always shown their strongest support for the needs of others. Now its our turn to show our support and bring together the generosity and might of our community to support them in this time of need.

El Rio has generously allowed us to take over their front room on Friday night for an emergency benefit to raise funds for these four amazing folks to purchase the basics they need to stay afloat. Please please please spread the word about this event on facebook and elsewhere and come out, dig deep and share your $$ with folks who really need it right now. At the door there will be someone collecting cash to be distributed directly to the victims of the fire, so just make sure that person gets your donation, come in, have some drinks hangout on the patio and dance a bit if you like.

Also, El Rio will also be donating 100% of their bar proceeds from 8-9pm directly to the four folks affected so come early, donate and drink.

Brown Amy & I are going to be DJ’ing & anyone else who would like to be involved by DJ’ing, speaking, whatever please contact me and let me know. ttemprano@gmail.com

*** If you are unable to attend you can make your donations via Paypal to mission3212@gmail.com ***

PHOTO: The day after, by Burrito Justice