I no longer walk around with blinders on, singularly intent upon reaching my next destination.  Now, as I move about your streets, I soak up the views:  interesting details on Victorian houses, strange and new plants sprouting in window boxes, people relaxing on their front stairs, wild poppies growing in sidewalk cracks.

Every morning when I step onto the bus, you serve up a feast for my senses.  I see the sun rising over the bay and fog moving across the hills, shrouding Sutro Tower.  I see rows and columns of Bernal Heights houses marching up the hillside, being sunlit one by one.  I see the streets filling up with parents walking their colorfully-dressed children to school and people hurrying to fill Financial District skyscrapers.  I am happy to be one of the people living within your boundaries.

Read more about why Kelly is so glad to live here, at I Live Here SF.

Photo: Julie Michelle

7×7’s Jessica Battilana has showered love upon Bernal’s own Ichi Sushi. Located in the Mission Street storefront previously occupied by Yo’s Sushi Club, Ichi is the brainchild of gaijin sushi sensei Tim Archuleta, who formerly ran the Lucky Cat Japanese deli on Cortland. Archuleta gave Ichi’s interior a major upgrade, and the foodies have taken notice:

Archuleta is clearly comfortable in these environs, where he turns out the usual—sashimi, nigiri, and specialty rolls—with skill. Flank your raw fish with some of the other offerings, such as a Japanese cucumber salad dressed with miso or the cold soba with shiso pesto. There’s sake and Sapporo, naturally, but I glimpsed a couple of cases of Pabst Blue Ribbon tallboys in the back room. It’s not on the menu, but if you ask—and offer to buy one for the chef—I have a feeling he’d oblige.

Photo: Aubrie Pick/7×7

In the course of (woa!) translating the entire text of our Proclamation for the Vassals of La Lengua into Spanish for the benefit of our Latino neighbors, Bernalwood reader Concerned Guajolote (Bienvenido!) has also done us the great service of providing a proper translation of this blog’s moniker:

Bosques de Bernal is exactly what you would call this neighborhood nowadays, everything in Mexico is now Bosques de Something or other, and the meaning is the same as Bernalwood.

So there you go.

In the beginning, during the days of the Ohlone and the Bernal Rancho, Bernalwood’s northern boundary was a sporadic waterway called Precita Creek. In 1888, the creek was covered over, to become Army Street. To  accommodate the automobile and pump traffic into US 101,  Army Street was widened during the 1950s, to become a six-lane artery. And so it has remained, largely unchanged, but for the 1995 name-change to Cesar Chavez Boulevard.

Today, Cesar Chavez Speedway Boulevard is not pretty. Frankly, it looks like ass. Even worse, it’s dangerous too. But help is on the way: As a multi-year planning process that began in 2006 enters its final stages, Cesar Chavez should soon get a full makeover that will make it more pretty, more sexy, and safer for bikers and pedestrians. Streetsblog brings an update:

If the plan continues to sail through approvals, Cesar Chavez from Hampshire Street to Guerrero will soon slim down from three vehicle traffic lanes in each direction to two, with the freed-up space going to bike lanes, strategic turn pockets, and a wide landscaped median. Extensive corner bulbouts, additional greening, and stormwater capture enhancements round out the design elements. Work should begin next summer, following sewer replacement construction. Crews are scheduled to start ripping up the street at Hampshire in February, then move west. The streetscape improvements will shadow the sewer work, with workers zipping the street back together as the sewer dig moves on to the next segment.

Inevitably, projects such as this act as magnets for NIMBYs, whiners, and other Reactionary Enemies of Progress. But the news here is encouraging as well:

According to Andres Power of the Planning Department, who has been riding herd on the Cesar Chavez plan along with representatives from the SFMTA, Public Utilities Commission, and Department of Public Works, the proposed left turn ban, bulbouts, and median are intended to prevent danger, not invite it. Still, e-mail messages circulating days before the hearing predicted dire consequences should the left turn ban be implemented as proposed. Power and the SFMTA’s Mike Sallaberry agreed to meet with the concerned parents and attempt some reconciliation. Evidently, the hearing officer agreed that a dust up over one intersection shouldn’t derail the entire project.

A few other speakers objected to the plan, with varying degrees of heat. One critic denounced the whole idea, saying it would cause congestion and thus create pollution. Sallaberry agreed that congestion would increase at the peak rush hour but showed a graph demonstrating how underutilized the street now is the other 23 hours every day. Another speaker who has lived on Cesar Chavez for many years expressed concern about loss of parking, though she mistakenly attributed this to the bike lanes rather than the pedestrian bulbouts. The total number of spaces lost should be around 30, sprinkled over the length of the street from Hampshire to Guerrero.

Bring it on!

IMAGES: Photo, top, adapted from Mark Pritchard. Renderings from the SF Planning Dept.

As seen looking south from atop our beloved Bernal Hill.

WHEREAS, our good friends and neighbors at Burrito Justice have sought emancipation from their longstanding (if nebulous) association with Bernal Heights, and the renaming of their territory as “La Lengua.”

WHEREAS, Burrito Justice asserts:

La Lengua is the flat, southern-most section of the Mission and is often miscategorized as Bernal “Heights” or Noe “Valley”.

It extends between 24th and 30th Streets, between Mission and Guerrero. It is named for its tongue-like appearance and preponderance of Latin American and Mexican eating establishments.

UPON CONSIDERATION of this, and in recognition of their unique (ie. flat, off-hill, and frankly less-glamorous) geography, we are inclined to look favorably upon La Lengua’s petition.

MOREOVER, we heartily approve of their choice of name, for reasons best expressed by Burrito Justice and their allies:

Some provocateurs have suggested the name should be SoCha. We disagree. Mission Mission reader Lou puts our disdain of FiSyNeCo (First Syllable Neighborhood Contraction) best:

La Lengua? Love it. That’s a great name for a neighborhood sub section. Better yet, it says “No, we’re not trying to be like NYC because this is San Franfuckingcisco and we don’t need to try to do anything, asshole” (in Spanish, of course).

We look favorably upon this logic as well.

WHEREAS, we must also acknowledge La Lengua’s imperialist tendencies and objectives:

The La Lengua Revolutionary Army (LaLeRa) recently expanded La Lengua’s northern border to 24th St, encompassing Pi Bar and Anthony’s Cookies.  We are considering pushing along San Jose onward to 23rd or even 22nd for angularity’s sake (and since no one else seems to be using it).

We shrug indifferently at this, particularly because La Lengua’s logic is sound and has no practical bearing upon the Hill People of Bernalwood, nor our Sovereign Dominion.

HOWEVER, at some point we will have to discuss certain Issues of Visitation and Potential Tourist Revenue stemming from the historic presence of the original José Cornelio Bernal homesite in what is now the La Lengua Autonomous Zone.

And so…

RESOLVED: We, the overlords of Bernalwood, do cede La Lengua to the denizens of same, and that funny name too. However, La Lenguans should be advised that as the overlords of Bernalwood, and being far more vain and glamorous, we shall in perpetuity claim La Lengua within our own Greater Sphere of Co-Prosperity and Influence, and that we shall retain certain Rights and Privileges regarding various Establishments contained within La Lengua, particularly as they pertain to eateries and gun shops along Mission Street, and the Liminal Area thereabouts.

Tremble and obey!

IMAGES: Map appropriated from Burrito Justice; Aerial photo by Telstar Logistics GeoSpatial Systems

Taking in the view of South Van Ness Avenue from atop Bernal Hill is an activity that never gets old.

Images: Telstar Logisitics

Is this thing on? Check, one-two. ONE-TWO. Check, check….