According to the experts, the nuclear plume from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant reached California today. Wheee!

For whatever it’s worth, here’s a suggestion if you’ve got kids: Forget about potassium iodide, and go buy some milk.

By all indications, the plume poses very little risk in California. But there is one possible asterisk: According to the New York Times and Bernalwood sources who have been in contact with public health authorities, parents with children may want to avoid fresh dairy consumption — perhaps for as long as three months.

The New York Times Green blog says:

Experts I’ve interviewed strongly doubt that there will be any significant risk on the West Coast, and say there is no reason to take the potassium iodide unless high levels of radioactive iodine develop. But again, scientists consider high levels unlikely in the United States. In addition, about 98 percent of a person’s dose comes from drinking contaminated milk, and if fallout were to reach here (again, unlikely) most people could protect themselves by not drinking milk or eating dairy products. Children are much more vulnerable than adults.

Blame the bovines: Fallout lands on the grass. Cows eat the grass. Fallout is concentrated in the cows and passed on via their milk.

One of our contacts, a journalist who lives in Bernalwood and who has interviewed California public health authorities, says, “The state said they are doing short and long-term monitoring of the dairy supply. I admit that is one thing I have stocked up on lately because milk these days has a long expiration date.”

Parents with kids might want to do the same. Consider putting a few gallons of milk in the fridge ASAP, and if you’re extra-concerned, you might buy a few boxes of shelf-stable, ultra-pasturized milk to use during the weeks ahead.

Admittedly, this may not be necessary at all, and your assessment will vary based on your own evaluation of potential risks. But as precautionary measures go, stocking up on a little extra milk seems pretty simple.

Image: Graphic by Telstar Logistics

NEWS FLASH: Glamorous Bernalwood resident Barbie has been attacked by a marauding reptile! Reader Jean Pedigo captures the drama:

Barbie’s situation is looking grim. This is the window at the Bernal Neighborhood Center. Ken hasn’t come to save her yet. Maybe this is a job for GI Joe?!?

The ideals of neighborliness, courtesy, and generous reciprocity are big themes here at Bernalwood. So it got our attention when reader Valerie emailed us to announce that she has been menaced by dog poop left behind by her neighbors’ canines. Valerie writes:

Here’s the skinny on the poop problem that I encounter on a daily basis.

While I am not a fan of the NIMBYers that seem to have popped up all over our fair Bernalwood, I have a legitimate NIMBY gripe.  You see, our backyard has literally become a toilet for the neighborhood dogs.  Since we live on the Esmeralda staircase, dogs and their owners stroll by in droves everyday on their way to and from the park at the top of the hill.

Please note, I love dogs — we have one of our own! — and I love that we live so close to a beautiful park that allows dogs to run off leash.  In fact that’s part of the reason we moved to Bernal in the first place.  But I’m rapidly losing patience with the people who do not pick up after their dogs.

We have what would amount to a “yard” on the side of our house, which abuts the staircase.  Not a day goes by that we don’t encounter a dog, off leash, that comes up the stairs sniffing around, getting ready to scout out a place to do their business.  Their human is usually many yards ahead or behind them, oblivious (or blissfully ignorant).  The dog does his thing, catches up to his owner and leaves us with a nice pile of pooh to either clean up or step in.  There are days when I have to pick up four or five piles of pooh (photo attached shows a fresh pile I came across this afternoon.)

It should also be noted that on our staircase, there are not one but TWO bag holders AND a public garbage can. The bag holders are rarely empty.  I’ve seen piles of dog poop NEXT to the overflowing container of bags.  Are you really so lazy that you can’t take two seconds to pick up after your dog??  As I’ve walked towards my house, I have seen people watch their dog poop in our yard and start to walk away. Only when they realize that it’s my house (and I’ve shot them the stink eye), do they fumble around looking in their pockets looking for a bag.  Ummm hello???  It’s not only the right thing to do, it is the law.

It’s things like this that make the city believe that all dogs should be leashed at all times.  I don’t want that for my dog or yours.   I beg of you Bernalites, have some common courtesy for your neighbors and pick up after your dog.  If you let your dog off-leash, watch where he goes and clean up after him!   If you don’t and I catch you, be prepared to find steaming piles of dog pooh on your front steps (I’m kidding… well maybe not…)

Photo: Courtesy of pooh-beseiged Valerie

Rubble of Former SF Transbay Terminal to Become 41′ Human-Shaped Sculpture (SF Chronicle)

The 38 Essential San Francisco Restaurants, March 2011 Edition (Eater SF)

Awesome Photo of SF Schoolkids on a 1927 Field Trip by Streetcar (Telstar Logistics)

Sonoma Teen Jumps from Golden Gate Bridge, Swims to Shore (SF Chronicle)

SF Voters Very Very Confused Over Ranked-Choice Voting (The Snitch SF)

Saigon Sandwich, Maker of Best Sandwich in the Universe, Closes Temporarily (Tenderblog)

Cover to Cover Bookstore Closing in Noe Valley (Noe Valley SF)

Happy First Birthday to the Lower Haight’s Bestest Blog (Haigheration)

Ghost Sign on Geary Reveals History of a Former Auto Row (The Richmond Blog)

Photo: Market Street Railway via Telstar Logistics

A few weeks back, when our neighbors in Noe Valley and Potrero were all atwitter over the weird floodlights that were installed atop Bernalwood, I took a drive up the hill to see what all the fuss was about. But the hill was pitch black when I arrived, so my investigation was thwarted.

Instead, I decided to create a little weird light of my own, using a police-style spotlight mounted to the windshield pillar of my 1999 Jeep.

This nighttime photographic technique is called light painting, and it’s usually done with flashlights and tiny penlights in small spaces. But since I had a big light, I opted to try a big light painting — by illuminating the summit of our favorite hill with a fuel-injected flash bulb.

Beam me up!

Photo: Telstar Logistics

Children’s book author and illustrator Ashley Wolff has volunteered to serve as a Bernalwood flowerspotter, and she brings us this up-to-the-moment report on what’s blooming right now:

March is wildflower month on the Hill.

Walk the goat path on the north slope and look for Star Lilies nestled in the springing grass. Star Lily is right at home here because it prefers rocky outcrops and grassy slopes. It is fleshy and delicate, barely white with a greenish tint and has no scent that I could detect.

The Star Lily’s Latin name is Toxicoscordion fremontii.

Of the Latin name, Scott Earle of Larkspur Books says: “Scordion is a Greek word for garlic, thus ‘poisonous garlic’ from the rather remote resemblance of the death camases to Allium sativum (typical garlic).”

The fremontii part harks back to that gadabout John Charles Fremont (1813-1890). An army officer and presidential candidate, Fremont was all over this part of California — as immortalized by a San Francisco street and that suburban town in the East Bay. Nicknamed “the Pathfinder,” Fremont also collected plants on four hazardous journeys exploring the western United States.

Photo: Oakley Bobcat

Hey Daddy-Os and Hip Cats: Want to tune in to some homegrown jazz? Saxophonist Michael Gold passes along a tip about a free concert by the Bernal Jazz Quartet tomorrow evening, March 9, at the Bernalwood public library. Dig it:

Sad Fact: Crime happens, even in Bernalwood. Fortunately, several civic groups in Our Faire Neighborhood pay close attention to crime statistics and patterns, and they work closely with the SFPD to make sure we get the most effective law enforcement our tax dollars can buy.

Toward that end, several of these groups have put out a call for neighborhood representation at a meeting of the Board of Supervisors Public Safety Committee andthe Police Commission that will take place tomorrow, on Wednesday, March 9th at 6:00 at City Hall, in the Board of Supervisors Chambers.

Veteran community organizer Buck Bagot explains:

OK, neighbors, it’s time for us to make our voices heard at City Hall in regard to reducing violence in our community, and the role of SFPD in helping us to do so – through community policing and beat cops. Our Supervisor David Campos has set up a crucial hearing on these issues, of both the Board of Supervisors Public Safety Committee, and the Police Commission on WED, March 9th at 6:00 at City Hall, in the Board of Supervisors Chambers.

Any Bernal resident that cares about these issues must attend – and speak. All you need to say is: “My name is __ ____. I live at _____ in Bernal Heights. I want more effective cooperation between my community and the Police because _______.”

Come and listen, but better come and testify – which is just a fancy word for speak. We can win this thing – a safer neighborhood through community policing.

Photo: Police telephone box, Folsom at Precita, by Telstar Logistics

It’s Friday. You need less words. You need more pictures. We know people who take pictures. So let’s oogle a few of the awesome photos lurking in the Bernalwood Flickr group.

Wake Up, City by Cyril_at_sf

Models and Bottles by Charlie Dillingham

Bonview Street by Guillaume Lebleu

Bernal_Hill3 by Dyche

Do you take pictures? Of Bernalwood? Join us!

From her observation post in Bernal Heights, peephole spotted this rogue water plume inundating our neighbors to the south.

Viewed from our Bernal Window. It’s over at Bowdoin and Burrows in the Portola District. It’s been going a while now.

(I noticed it about 15 minutes ago, still going around 10:30am. Exciting update. At 10:44, it was gone.)

This may have been another gift from our friends at DPW, but based on the color, at least it doesn’t look like the icky Sewage Fountain they installed recently on Bocana.

Photo: Peephole