I drove by Bernal’s historic and controversial Coke mural last week to see how it was doing. I was happy to see that a) it hasn’t been temporarily covered up, and b) the unsightly violation notice from the City Planning Department had disappeared too. Later, I asked homeowner Richard Modolo for an update on the sign, and the legislative effort by Supervisor David Campos to save it.  Here’s what Richard had to say:

To bring you up to date, the permit to temporarily cover the Coke sign is on hold with the Planning Department, and I’m told that this is a good thing. Supervisor Campos “CC’d” me on a very nice letter he sent to the Zoning Department, requesting they hold off on any penalties or fines while this works its way through the legislative process. That process is currently with the City Attorney’s office. They are going to come up with the correct wording to preserve the sign and see that it is attached to the recorded property information/deed.

As for the violation notice from the Planning Department, it was either torn off of or the rain got to it, so for now only the tape marks remain. My plan it to restore the sign once we have the “OK” to preserve it. The wheels grind slowly, but I hear they are moving a little every day.

PHOTO: Bernal Coke sign in situ, on April 1, 2011 by Telstar Logistics

Major fire and lots of sirens tonight on Mission Street at Valencia in the West Bernal/La Lengua Liminal Zone.  One of the buildings between Blue Plate and Royal Cuckoo caught fire and spread to the adjacent structure. Will update as we learn more.

Here’s a video:

UPDATE: April 7, 2011, 10:18 AM

The real journalists at MissionLoc@l bring more detail:

Fire Department officials believe the blaze started at 3212 Mission, a white Victorian building with blue trim.

But smoke was pouring from the space between that building and the one next door, which houses the Vietnamese restaurant Lotus Garden. At around 9:30 p.m. it appeared that firefighters were tearing down walls between the two buildings.

Restaurant owner Kathy Tang said great amounts of smoke and fire filled her kitchen in the back before she left with her kids. She saw firefighters breaking walls and ripping them down, and she’s fearful about what will be left of her restaurant.

California Beat adds that one firefighter was injured while battling the blaze:

One firefighter suffered minor injuries and was transported to San Francisco General Hospital for treatment, according to San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White.

Finally, in the comments to this post, reader Rusty adds his own perspective:

I walked over there, I’m impressed with the large SFFD response. 4 Aerial Trucks (ladders), at least 4 or 5 engines, support vehicles, etc. The Red Cross was on scene as well, they had provide blankets (to act as jackets) to the people who were displaced form the building. I saw at least 10 people who were displaced, feel terrible for them 

The fire seemed to affect mostly the rear of the buildings in question, the fronts of them looked fine, but I’m sure there is a lot of water damage. The buildings go deep so who knows how much damage was done to the rears.

Considering the high winds when the fire broke out, SFFD knocked most of the fire out really quickly.

Burrito Justice has a sad photo of the day after; it all looks surprisingly normal from street level, as the worst of the fire struck the back of the building(s). Let the rebuilding begin:

Special thanks to our neighbors at MissionMission for their great coverage.

Photos: From top, Bob Horowitz, Jeffrey Rueppel, MissionMission, Faye Harris, Burrito Justice.

Blogger Eleven Twenty-Nine lives on the west side of Bernal Heights, and she recently experienced one of those flushes of Bernal-love that transcends the physical charm of our village on a hill — because it’s rooted in a deep appreciation for the people who make the neighborhood feel so much like home. She writes:

Besides the obvious beauty of our neighborhood — we are lucky to overlook the whole city from the top of the hill — we are so lucky to have a great community. Whether it’s right next door or half a mile away, there are people we trust, who care about us and our home, and who we’ll go out of our way for when they need it.

We’ve often thought about how much we value this aspect of our neighborhood and whether, if we’d known about it, we would have paid a premium to live here. When looking for a new place to live there are so many things to factor in: walk scores, school zones, proximity to shops and restaurants, parks, etc. But what about having friendly neighbors and a sense of belonging and safety?

In a city like San Francisco, where everyone seems to be too busy to really connect with other people, the surprise of building a community with our neighbors has been invaluable.

PHOTO: Benadamx

Here is one of the fringe benefits of living in Bernal Heights: Because our glamorous ‘hood is kind of gorgeous and kind of a secret, outsiders often experience a sense of heightened awareness when they discover Bernal and all its myriad charms. And because everyone these days is wired up like a mobile multimedia production studio, we regularly get to see Bernal Heights through the eyes of those who are seeing it for the first time.

Leah Giberson showed us one such perspective earlier in the week, and now comes this amazing photo submitted via the Bernalwood Flickr group by giggie larue. In her caption to this photo, giggie writes:

My ex now lives in a part of sf called bernal heights. less than a mile from where we lived together. for some reason we had never happened upon this neighborhood before.

visiting him these past weeks, i’ve discovered one of the most amazing hidden jewels in this gem of a city. narrow streets that curve up and down and round and round, often interrupted by stairways where the road can’t follow through without razing a hillside, even the thought of which mortifies.

the houses range from tiny, quaint, gorgeous late 1800’s to crazy tacky 50’s kitsch, 60’s mod, 80’s spaceage, and contemporary japanese-inspired; mostly compact abodes, with various styles of fencing and courtyards, and masses of foliage and flowers, including in community gardens. everyone has dogs, and there are tiny little dog parks tucked in the most surprising of places. the views are stunning, more than 180 degree points of view. tres old-world euro village.

as is my wont, i’ve been wandering to see what i can see. turned one corner and up this increasingly steep hill were these 2 people. having nothing to do with one another, but sitting and reading the same. no, no bus stops here. just what people do in san francisco, without feeling conspicuous, or “weird” as a pittsburgh friend once told me i looked while doing yoga stretches outside, at his mailbox as we talked.

Wish i would’ve known of this neighborhood long ago.

Funny thing is, a lot people who now live in Bernalwood would probably say the exact same thing.

PHOTO: giggie larue

Let’s review some things that have been happening elsewhere in San Francisco (while we weren’t really paying attention):

City Faces $380 Million Budget Deficit, Considers Layoffs for City Workers (SF Chronicle)

PETA Proposes Silly Meatless Name Change for the Tenderloin District (SFist)

A Graphic History of Paper MUNI Fast Passes (Muni Diaries)

Michael Bauer Adds 26 New Restaurants to the Bay Area Top 100 (InsideScoop)

Fun-Hating NIMBY Temporarily Shuts Down Slim’s in SOMA (Uptown Almanac)

Mysterious Cosmonauts Sighted in Lower Haight, Then Vanish (Haighteration)

IMAGE: Muni Diaries

Ah, to be young and single and living in Bernal Heights. Sure, there are challenges — OMG! So many baby strollers! So many restaurants with abstract names! — but overall it’s pretty chill. Or so says Zane Michael on Nabewise, a website that aspires to be the Yelp of urban geography. Mr. Michael — an aspiring literatus, it seems — wrote a description of life in Bernal Heights that provides an illuminating inter-generational perspective on this place we all happen to call home. His commentary is reprinted here in its entirety, because, really, I couldn’t bring myself to cut a single word.

If You’re in Your Twenties

I don’t do Yoga. I don’t have my own edible backyard garden. I don’t have 2.5 kids. I don’t eat at Restaurants with single word descriptors. I don’t really fit in with the Bernal Height locals, who some might facetiously insinuate are the personification of well-known San Francisco stereotypes. But I still feel amazingly comfortable living in Bernal even if the neighborhood sometimes elicits in me a sense of terror stemming from portentous visions of my amortizing, fettered, future.

Incontrovertibly, the biggest draw of this neighborhood is the location. Its location makes it the perfect fit for the East Bay or South Bay commuter; the 101 and 280 are both relatively close and accessible. If you depart in the morning prior to 7 A.M., you will generally be unlikely to encounter heavy traffic driving southward. And if you are coming north by auto in the evening, you egress prior to the real heavy freeway traffic that normally begins immediately after the Cesar Chavez exit. At the 22nd St. Station in the nearby Potrero Hill neighborhood you can catch the natty Caltrain south and travel as far as San Jose.

For the person that works in downtown SF, the North Bay, or East Bay, the 24th St. Mission BART Station lies less than a mile away and you can easily get anywhere in the entire city relatively quickly by bike or bus. Another attractive feature is the abundance of free parking especially in comparison with other SF neighborhoods where a parking space may cost two hundred dollars a month or more. In the picturesque area surrounding Precita Park where I reside on the North side of Bernal Heights Hill parking can be obtained almost any time excluding Sunday evening. I have not frequently ventured over to the quaint Cortland Avenue mini-village area and hence cannot comfortably impart any information pertaining to parking or dining in that sub-locale.

Verdant and halcyon, Precita Park itself is a lovely urban reprieve and usually brimming with canines of all shapes and sizes expending their pent up energy. On summer days, locals gather to blithely doze in the sunshine and consume organic picnic feasts gathered from nearby Cancilla Market. A short vertical hike up Folsom St. will take you to the top of Bernal Heights Hill, home to one of the largest off leash dog parks in the city and boasting a terrific panoramic view that would make any snapshot obsessed tourist jump for joy. Weather-wise, the neighborhood experiences slightly warmer temperatures being located in one of the several hot spots scattered throughout the city.

Being adjacent to the callow and infamous Mission district, where even the weather is hip, makes for a bevy of nightlife options for both young and old living in Bernal Heights. For the penurious late-night diner, there exists a plethora of relatively inexpensive ethnic restaurant options in the Mission district. It’s easy to mosey over to an exciting attraction on Mission St. or Valencia St. and return home to repose in lenitive tranquility: giving you the best of both worlds. This also works out well when my Mom comes to visit and lauds me for living in such a “cute” area with charming Victorian homes. I reward her by telling her inquiring suburban housewife friends that I live off of Cesar Chavez St. in SF—eliciting a look of fear in response. All jokes aside, I have never felt unsafe in Bernal Heights even when walking or jogging solo late at night. The only time I have felt genuine fear was when I accidently threw away a pizza box in a peevish ponytailed neighbor’s recycle bin. That’s not recyclable dude!

Of course slightly cheaper rent or home prices can be found elsewhere in SF. Few other SF nabes though can brag about having a little something for everyone: commuter, outdoor enthusiast, or dog lover. Nor can anyone deny the pleasure of having an idyllic small-town experience in a big city.

If visiting, be sure to check out Mitchell’s ice cream for tropical flavors like coconut or purple yam; the treasure trove of LPs at dilapidated Thrillhouse Records; Alemany’s Farmers Market for fresh produce; pupusas and futbol at Balompie Café 3; The Knockout for sweet tunes and cheap booze; and the adorable Bike Basket Pies.

Photo by Thomas Hawk

I don’t know whether to laugh, sing, or declare martial law, but regardless…

Our uppity neighbors to the west, aka the vassals of La Lengua, have received some noteworthy recognition of their autonomous status — in the form of a unique neighborhood label on Google Maps. Check out the screen capture above, or look for yourself.

The Overlords of Bernalwood send congratulations to the Denizens of La Lengua. Si se pueda, juevos rancheros, and all that…