Neighbor Orlando lives on the north side of the hill, in the upper elevations of Folsom Street. Last week, he left a pair of Red Wing work boots on his front stoop overnight. In the morning, they were gone.
When Neighbor Orlando went back to review his security camera logs, he found footage of the gentleman shown above removing the boots from the front stoop a little before 4 am. Quite understandably, this made Neighbor Orlando angry:
The other day at the early hours of dawn my leather boots got stolen from my front door. I’ve had them for ten years, and they were made of the finest cow hide that Red Wing stocks for their specialized work boots.
Here is a picture of the incident. Has anyone seen this guy? Our neighbors should be aware that he is making late night/early morning rounds. And moral of the story is, don’t leave any strollers, shoes, jackets or anything out at night. It will disappear.
Grrrrr. Totally sucks. Anyone recognize the shoe burglar in the photo?
It’s a turning out to be a busy week for Bernal Heights rock stars.
Neighbor Jeremy Passion Manongdo is a singer-songwriter who was born and raised in Bernal, and he still calls Nevada Street home. He checked in with us this week to share the video for his new song, “Suddenly,” and we’re glad he did because it is fabulous:
My name is Jeremy Passion and I’m a 26 year old Bernal Heights native that has always loved the city. I am a singer/songwriter/producer, and I’ve released a new song entitled “Suddenly” and it takes place in SF! There are many shots of Bernal Heights and the surrounding neighborhoods and would love for you to take a listen. I am very proud of how this video turned out, and I’m excited to share the beauty of our city with the world. Thank you for taking time to listen.
Your Bernalwood editor has had “Suddenly” on heavy rotation for the last 24 hours, and it just keeps getting better and better and better. It made me smile. It will make you smile. Give a listen, and if you like, get yourself a copy from the iTunes or the Google play:
Walking home on Precita Avenue last week, I came upon a group of SFPD officers who were in the process of arresting a gentleman who appeared to be in his mid 20s. The man was handcuffed and sullen, and alongside him I saw a an open bag that contained a motley collection of hand tools — snips, hammers, screwdrivers, etc.
Courtesy of the latest Ingleside Station Newsletter, we now learn that the suspect I saw was caught in the act while trying to steal a neighbor’s scooter, and that he may have also been connected to several other crimes, including car break-ins and home robberies:
Friday, July 12, 2013 8:23pm 200 Blk Precita Stolen Property
Ingleside Officers Kabanuck, Guzman, and several other Ingleside units were dispatched to investigate the attempted theft of a motor scooter. Dispatch further advised responding units, that the suspect was a man in his 20’s with long hair, wearing a green sweatshirt. When the officers arrived at the Precita Street address, they found the suspect standing next to the motor scooter. The officers phoned the witness who confirmed that the man standing next to the vehicle was observed trying to start it and drive it away. The suspect was also standing next to a shopping bag and a black backpack that he acknowledged belonged to him. A computer check revealed the suspect was on felony probation for narcotics from San Mateo County. A probation search of the bag and backpack turned up various tools including a crowbar, hammer, screwdriver and file and other items such as mail, checks, and DMV documents which may have been stolen in recent burglaries. The officers recognized the tools as items often used to commit burglaries of residences and vehicles. The suspect was booked on variety of charges including possession of stolen property and burglary tools as well as possession of narcotics paraphernalia. Report number: 130574133
… which only goes to validate something that the officers at Ingleside often emphasize: At any given time, it only takes a small number of baddies to generate a whole lot of property-related crime on the streets of Bernal Heights.
Kudos to the alert neighbor who noticed this baddie working his trade, and hats off to the SFPD for the prompt response and arrest.
Neighbor Steve Sisler is doing an ad hoc series of video profiles about people in Bernal Heights. The first one is a wonderful profile of longtime Bernal artists Joseph Branchcomb and Toby Klayman. Neighbor Steve tells Bernalwood:
I moved to Bernal in 2010. I love my ‘hood, and I wanted to tell stories about the people that make our community what it is. There are a lot of great stories in Bernal, many of them are really interesting, with more than a few being moments that you want share with friends. This is what I tried to capture. The concept is called Bernal Heights Conversations, and it will be an ongoing series that I fit in between my editorial/commercial projects, which include a documentary for an NGO in India.
I met Joe Branchcomb while recording video at 331 Cortland. Joe suggested that his wife, Toby would be someone I would want to meet. While having coffee in their studio, it became a no-brainer to include them in the project
Toby has been creating art since the 1950’s. Toby and Joe are creative, charming, and entertaining. Their perspective on life, our community’s history, and art is worth chronicling. Their studios are a must-see.
Happily, Steve’s video is also creative, charming, and entertaining, and it too is a must-see. So see it now. Enjoy:
Neighbor Matthew saw this sign yesterday indicating that a small helicopter was recently lost on the northeast side of Bernal Hill along the north face of Bernal Heights Boulevard. The owners would be thrilled to get it back.
Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board has decided not to send a team of investigators to Bernal Heights. Nevertheless, KTVU is working to confirm a report that the pilot’s name was Havyuseen Maheli.
Junior Neighbor Takouhi is a nine year-old from Winfield Street who has mad skillz with a sewing machine. Her dad tells Bernalwood that Junior Neighbor Takouhi is now selling some of her carnivore-themed pieces at Avedano’s on Cortland:
Our daughter Takouhi has been sewing for close to 3 years, and she has some cool news about her latest creations. Takouhi likes to make her own “stuffies” as well as clothes for herself, and now she’s started a little business called Stuffy-A-Fluffy (“Cuteness You Can Squeeze”) to sell her work. Takouhi’s stuffed T-bone steaks are now available for sale at Avedano’s. She’s making two types: A little keychain T-bone and a larger “just a stuffy T-bone.” Her words.
Here’s the merchandise:
Bernalwood has been assured that Takouhi’s work is grass-fed, free-range, and hopefully hormone-free for at least a few more years.
It’s been a while since the Dissident Parrots of Bernal Heights dropped by Bernalwood’s Eastern Bureau, but on Tuesday they were seen holding a meeting near a neighbor’s bird feeder.
Normally gregarious and chatty, the video below reveals that the parrots were unusually quiet and mellow.
Bernalwood has been unable to ascertain whether political tensions may have been weighing on the minds of these dissident parrots, or if perhaps they were just chilling out after a visit to the Bernal Heights Collective on the other side of the hill.
Today is a big day for Matt Nathanson, Bernal’s celebrity rockstar next door.
Around here, he’s Neighbor Matt, a musician from the southeast side of the hill who often draws creative inspiration from walks around the neighborhood. (Just like us!!) Last March, he told Bernalwood:
Oh man, Bernal Heights IS my muse: Walking the hill, writing at Progressive Grounds, eating breakfast at Precita Park Cafe or Moonlight. I am a card carrying Bernal Heights superfan, and most of the lyrics for this record were written here. When I’m not on tour, I am hard-pressed to leave the 94110.
That’s the Neighbor Matt we know here in Bernal. But beyond our hill, he is MATT NATHANSON, a singer-songwriter with a successful career, a nationwide following, and legions of fans who say things like:
Now, you’re probably wondering: What exactly is a Matt Nathanson kind of morning? Is it kind of foggy, with chance of sun by noon? Does it taste like a Sandbox Bakery croissant? Does it involve wearing a nylon track suit and taking a dog for a walk while carrying a little plastic bag to pick up the business?
We have no idea. But this is a small sampling of tweets about Neighbor Matt from just the last 72 hours, so you get a sense of his wow-power.
Anyway, this is a very very big day for Neighbor Matt, because he’s officially releasing his new album today. It’s called The Last of the Great Pretenders, it was recorded in Noe Valley, and it contains a lot of San Francisco allusions, as he told Bernalwood back in March:
On past records, I think I’ve been too self-conscious to write lyrics that were super-specific to my own life. I felt safe in the vague. With this record, I really wanted to dig in to the places I know and the places where I live. It definitely became a VERY San Francisco record.
USA Today just gave The Last of the Great Pretenders three out of four stars, so he’s off to a good start. The 52 Weeks of Music blog writes:
I love that [Last of the Great Pretenders] is a tribute to the love [Matt Nathanson] has for his town, San Francisco. He has found the extraordinary in the ordinary. It reminds me to take a look at what is good in my life and my town and embrace the beauty of it all. To see beyond any pain. To let in the new. To find the good. To embrace change. This album has a depth and a story.
Later today, Neighbor Matt will be at Amoeba Records on Haight to do a free show starting at 5:30. Then, to support the album, he will embark on a nationwide tour so ambitious and far-flung that just looking at the schedule makes me feel homesick.
For now, though, let’s just say congratulations to Neighbor Matt on the new record, and let’s keep a candle burning for him here in Bernal Heights as he roams across the nation from stage to stage, like a Cortlandia version of Steve Perry in that wistful old Journey video.
Speaking of videos… here’s the big single from Neighbor Matt’s new album, chock full o’ local flavor:
And here’s another song from the album. It’s called “Kinks Shirt.” If this article is to be believed, it’s all about a cute waitress at Toast Eatery on 24th Street in Noe Valley:
PHOTO: Top, Matt Nathanson from Neighbor Matt. Below, album montage via 52 Weeks of Music.
Midsummer is upon us, which means the season is nigh for regular visits from San Francisco’s most famous uninvited guest: Karl the Fog.
As Citizens of Bernalwood, we are fortunate that the fog often avoids the skies over Bernal Heights — opting instead to lurk above the less-blessed terrain to our south and west.
And that, in turn, creates many photo opportunities for our local paparazzi. Here’s a great example from last weekend: A dramatic view of Nature’s Own Fog Lamp, taken from Bernal Hill by Nick McKay.
Oh, if you need even more fog imagery in your life, you’ll be glad to know that Karl the Fog also likes to post selfies over on Instagram.
Sometimes you just have make a Safeway run at 4:30 p.m. on a Saturday. And when you do, you generally expect to be able to shop with the help of, you know, a shopping cart.
But this past Saturday, despite there being plenty of empty parking spaces, there were no carts to be seen anywhere outside the building. (Unless you count a couple of locked off-brand ones sitting by the 29th Street cut-through.) Lucky for me, someone had abandoned a cart inside, near a cash register.
I asked courtesy clerk Derek what the story was. He said (very courteously), “They’re probably all in use. We don’t have much. Sorry about that.”
Hmm, is this some sort of Taoist simplicity thing?
Speaking of Bernal celebrities… Neighbor Joseph Blum is a professional photographer who lives on the north side of Folsom Street. He was a boilermaker and welder for 25 years before he took up the camera, but his roots shine through in his photos, which capture the technical craftsmanship required to build large-scale, industrial infrastructure.
Fortuitously, then, Neighbor Joe has worked with Caltrans for more than a decade to document the construction of the new Eastern Span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. His photographs of the project are stunning, yet they are also intimate and iconic in a way that will be treasured by historians and infrastructure geeks for many decades to come.
That’s why we beamed with neighborly pride when Neighbor Joe sent us a note to invite all Citizens of Bernalwood to come see his Bay Bridge photos:
I have two exhibits now which honor and document the workers who have built the new East Span of the Bay Bridge.
I have lived on Bernal since 1975 and I have been photographing the construction of the new bridge since 1998. I have spent a lot of time out on the bridge, and it is always great to look out from top of the new tower at our beautiful Bernal Hill, where I often walk to renew and relax and view the rising of the moon.
(SIDE NOTE: Bernal does look rather glamorous from that angle, doesn’t it?)
Anyhow, you can see some of Neighbor Joe’s Bay Bridge work online, and here the details on the exhibits where you can see his mind-blowing photos in person.
He has a show up right now in City Hall (!!!), with an artist reception happening tomorrow, July 11:
San Francisco City Hall, ground floor
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102
Free and open to the public.
Then, in August, his second show will open:
A View from the Bridge: Documenting the Construction of the Skyway and Foundations of the New East Span of the Bay Bridge 1998–2005
Black and White Photographs by Joseph A. Blum
August 3 – October 3, 2013
Opening Reception, Harvey Milk Photo Center
Saturday, August 3, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Harvey Milk Photo Center
50 Scott St San Francisco, CA 94117 • (415) 554–9522
Tuesday – Thursday: 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. Saturday: 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
*Please call ahead for viewing. Gallery is closed on Sunday, Monday & Friday.
As longtime readers know, the Bernalwood editorial team works hard to deliver the news you can use. That’s why we are so completely and totally obsessed with glamour, celebrity, cutting-edge fashion, and languorous living.
We take our vacuousness very seriously, which is why Bernalwood was horrified (horrified!!) to find a recent article on the Blank Stare, Blink blog that was so fashion-obsessed that it actually made this blog look… substantive.
Oh my!
The backstory: Fashion blogger Paula Mangin has decided that she’s ready to move from the Nob Hill apartment where she’s lived for the last 16 years. She’s looking for a full makeover, so she’s considering options in the San Francisco “suburbs.” You know… places like Bernal Heights:
Each neighborhood is like a different fashion brand, with it’s own feel, image, price-tag, following. Cow Hollow is Tory Burch, Pacific Heights, Prada. Once you love a brand or neighborhood, you tend to love most of their pieces or homes. But sometimes you can fall in love with a piece, or home, from a brand or neighborhood you may not love — at least not yet.
With this in mind, I ride a hot, crowded 49 bus past the Civic Center, along the edge of the Tenderloin, through the Mission and out to Bernal Heights to see a small victorian. Bernal Heights is sort of the Rachel Comey of neighborhoods: cute, sturdy, indie, cool. A neighborhood, and brand, I want to like but have never felt quite comfortable in. But I’m trying to keep an open mind and decide to “try it on” and see how I feel.
So as I try on Bernal Heights, here is some prime Rachel Comey real estate that just may suit me. It just goes to show that you never know. Which is really the beauty of the hunt.
When I drifted in to the Lucky Horseshoe on Cortland to have a drink with a friend last Sunday, we were greeted by a live bluegrass performance that was totally unexpected and actually rather lovely. Here’s a lo-fi snippet of the sound:
Bernalwood 