Feral Blue Bags of Doggy Poop Invade North Bernal

/ Todd_Lappin / 16 Comments

It’s not as much fun as a Bigfoot sighting — but it may be even more smelly. Neighbor Carlina is unhappy to report that blue bags filled with doggy poop have taken root on the streets of Precitaville:

The rumors are true… there are stray Blue Bags of Poo (BB-OPs) on the loose.  Somehow, bags of dog poop keep mysteriously leaving the hands of their owners and depositing themselves on Shotwell Street.  This happens once or twice a week while they are presumably on the way back home from Precita Park.  While waiting to see what path they take next, I have discovered that these BB-OPs like to find their way to the gutter.  They tend to shy away from what might normally be considered their home (the garbage can three feet away) and instead place themselves in harm’s way, where a car tire usually finds them.

I see several possible scenarios:

1) BB-OP gets alarmingly and spontaneously hot forcing it’s owner to spontaneously drop it before it is able to reach it’s proper resting place,

2) BB-OP was out taking a walk, independent of a dog or owner and lost it’s way,

3) Someone(s) is/are not so clear on the Blue Bag’s true destiny and the reason it came to this world, instructions for which are as follows:

  • Pick up pooh with Blue Bag thereby protecting your hands and the feet of future walkers
  • Deposit said blue bag in the closest garbage can or keep walking until you find a garbage can (in the case of these photos – three feet)
  • Ultimately this will lead the Blue Bag to it’s True Destiny and it will no longer be forced to take the desperate measure of throwing itself beneath the tires of parking cars

Consider it a movement, a social imperative, a calling, or at minimum, a courtesy to your neighbors in Bernalwood…

PHOTOS: Feral bags of Dog Poop, by Neighbor Carlina

FINALLY!! BIGFOOT SIGHTING ON BERNAL HILL!!

/ Todd_Lappin / 11 Comments

Friends and neighbors, that is a headline I’ve wanted to write for almost two years.

But, really, it’s true! Bigfoot WAS spotted today on Bernal Hill, and Neighbor Frank was there with a camera to capture an image of the wild beast. Let’s zoom and enhance for a closer look:

Neighbor Frank writes:

My wife and I were walking around the top of the hill just before noon today and spotted Bigfoot, or something like that, running up the hill near the top of Rosenkranz Street.

We thought that maybe Bernalwood was Bigfoot’s new habitat, but in the heat, Bigfoot removed his head and looked more like a person in a costume, surrounded by two photographers.

Phone pictures are all I have as evidence.  No footprints or DNA samples.

PHOTOS: Neighbor Frank

Controversial Bernal Library Mural Cloaked in New Controversy

/ Todd_Lappin / 77 Comments

Bernal Heights Branch Library

Bernal Heights Library

Just like Lindsay Lohan, the proposal to create a new mural for the Bernal Heights Library has a talent for attracting controversy.

Right now, the library is covered in scaffolding and repainting was supposed to have started this week. Instead, the project is on hold because the estate of Arch Williams, the artist who co-created the 1980s-era mural that will be replaced, wants to preserve the old mural — more or less forever.

Here’s the press release from the Williams estate:

Letter to Library from Bernal Muralist’s Heir Ensures Paint Out Stoppage for 90 Days

San Francisco, July 8, 2012 – The Victor Jara mural on Bernal Heights Branch Library got a surer reprieve from destruction this weekend, when Nancy York, sister of muralist Arch Williams, sent a letter to San Francisco Public Library’s head enclosing proof that she is the executor of his estate.

Peter Warfield, Executive Director of Library Users Association, said the action ensures that “the library will have no excuse whatever to remove the mural any time before expiration of the 90-day notice period, and we certainly hope that the mural’s survival can be permanently assured prior to October 1.”

City Librarian Luis Herrera requested that Ms. York send “documentation of your current role as executor or representative of the artist’s estate on or before July 10, 2012.” It continued, “if you are unable to remove or pay for the removal of the mural before October 1, 2012, the City will proceed with its Bernal Heights Branch Library renovation project as planned, including the removal of Mr. Williams’s mural.”

Ms. York asserted her rights to 90-day notice of removal — and the right to remove the mural or have it removed — under the California Art Preservation Act (CAPA), which she faxed in a letter on June 8, 2012.

Under CAPA, the artist of a work of fine art that is to be destroyed must be notified so that he or she may remove the work, or have it removed. The right passes to the heir or personal representative in case of the artist’s death, and continues for 50 years. Arch Williams died in 1996, so the rights would be valid until 2046, 34 years from the present.
Ms. York’s letter encloses a copy of her brother’s “hand written will in which he names me (Ms. York) as his executor of his estate.”

Ms. York continues, “I must say that it concerns me that you are only now complying with the California Art Preservation Act, Civil Code 987 especially as the Bernal Mural was already altered in 2008-09.” She continued, “It was only through the efforts of Peter Warfield, Executive Director of Library Users Association, that I became aware of the pending June 11 destruction of the mural, resulting in my fax June 8th asserting my rights.”

The Library had planned scaffold erection for June 8th, which went ahead, and paint out of the mural starting June 11th . That work was suspended and continues to be suspended to date.

###
The existing mural was painted by muralists Arch Williams and Carlos Alcala in 1980-1982, with participation by many adults and children. Approved by the Arts Commission and Library Commission at the time, it covers three sides of the building. The front includes the important Chilean musician Victor Jara playing his guitar, with his name, and words in Spanish and English from one of his songs. Jara was tortured and killed by the Chilean military when they seized power in 1973; the stadium in Chile’s capital where arrestees were brought after the coup is now named after Jara. The front panel also includes singer Holly Near’s name and words in Spanish and English, and the image of an African American singer modeled on Roberta Flack. The mural also honors working women, and Native Americans. The proposed mural omits Jara, Near, working women, a local history, children, the UN symbol and more.

Citizens of Bernalwood, please discuss.

PHOTOS: Bernal Library mural by Arch Williams and Carlos Alcala, by Telstar Logitics, January 2012

Alemany Beehives Destroyed in Pointless Vandalism Attack

/ Todd_Lappin / 5 Comments

From the Annals of Stupid Behavior comes this sad report: Some dimwits recently decided to trash the beehives kept on the Alemany Farm overlooking I-280. The Chron brings the bad news:

Two weeks ago, vandals, armed with large chunks of concrete and tree limbs, knocked over and smashed wooden beehive boxes at Alemany Farm, a volunteer-run community farm and hands-on educational program on Alemany Boulevard, tucked between the south slope of Bernal Heights and Interstate 280.

“Every now and then someone knocks over a hive,” said veteran beekeeper Karen Peteros, co-founder of nonprofit group San Francisco Bee-Cause. “But this went beyond that; it was mayhem violence.”

Hundreds, if not thousands of bees, were killed, said Cameo Wood, who serves on the board of San Francisco Bee-Cause. The surviving bees temporarily became more aggressive – a sign of trauma – and the beekeepers lost hundreds of dollars in equipment.

PHOTO: Alemany Farm bee hives. 2010 photograph by Rob Williamson

Photos of the July 4th Fireworks as Seen from Bernal Hill

/ Todd_Lappin / 1 Comment

Ah, the rituals of summer in San Francisco: BBQ, fog, more fog, and then some fog, punctuated by the annual Fourth of July fireworks show, which is rather fabulous from atop Bernal Hill. Even in the fog.

The fashionistas at 7×7 magazine published a glamorous online gallery of the 2012 Fourth of July fireworks displays (both officially sanctioned and not), as seen from our always-fashionable vista atop Bernal Hill. Note also: Fog.

H/T: Neighbor Rebecca
PHOTOS Joseph Schell

Bernal Dads Embark on 24 Hours of Hot, Sweaty Racing

/ Todd_Lappin / 1 Comment

As you read this now, the Bernalwood editorial team is embedded with Bernal Dads Racing, somewhere along I-5 between Fresno and Los Angeles.

I’m in a truck that’s towing a race car, and we are en route to Buttonwillow, a hot, dusty race track just outside Bakersfield. At Buttonwillow, we will participate in the 2012 Arse-Sweat-Apalooza, an endurance race that’s part of the prestigious 24 Hours of LeMons series.

Our objectives:

  1. Get the race car to Bakersfield today.
  2. Race it for 24 continuous hours on Saturday, through the night, and into Sunday.
  3. Survive.
  4. Drive home on Sunday.
  5. Sleep at last.

Our vehicle is the venerable Whale, a combat-weary Volvo 240 wagon that is much nicer to drive than it is to look at.

24 Hours of LeMons at Infinion

Can it be done? What misadventures lie between here and the team’s glorious return to Bernal Heights on Sunday? WE HAVE NO IDEA!

Stay tuned, and we will post regular updates throughout the weekend over on the Bernalwood that’s over on the Twitter.

PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics

How To Get Free Family Admission to City Museums

/ Bronwyn Ximm

Though they look glamorous, this is not another Bernalwood fashion shoot. Instead, here we see Laura (8), Hanna (11), Max (1), and mother Lene waiting for the Bernal Heights Branch Library to open, so they can check out a Family Pass and get complimentary admission (for the whole kit and caboodle!) to the California Academy of Sciences.

Any San Francisco resident who has a library card and kids in their family can do this, at any branch library. Individual branches have passes for a rotating selection of 15 “Participating Attractions,” which include SFMOMA and the zoo, at different times. A single pass is good for one or two adults accompanied by up to four children under 18.

Check out SFKids.org or the S.F. Public Library’s website for more information.

A Neighborly Response to an Anonymous and (Arguably) Passive-Aggressive Note

/ Todd_Lappin / 24 Comments

There’s been a development in the diplomatic kerfuffle on Colridge.

Sources tell Bernalwood that a response has now been posted to counter the anonymous and (debatably) passive-aggressive note that targeted a Bernal resident whose garbage cans are not hidden from the street.

The recipient, owner of said garbage cans, has responded with the note shown above. And @jack415 approves:

@Bernalwood, I so would like to hug her. Way to go, neighbors!

PHOTO: @jack415

A Rare Diesel Machinery Sighting on Bernal Hill

/ Todd_Lappin

As you know, Bernalwood routinely carries news about strange creatures spotted on Bernal Hill. Today neighbor Ken found two large and unusual specimens in the wild:

Another day in paradise. This big baby got through the Bernal gate for a retaining wall project on the street below.

Judging from the white coloration and bold display of plumage, this would appear to be a male Levo Telescopicus. A female Vehiculum Gravis was observed not far behind, bearing a load of ferrous material:

PHOTOS: Neighbor Ken

Paul Revere Principal Accepts Plea to Avoid Jail in DUI Incident

/ Todd_Lappin / 2 Comments

A sentence has been handed down in the DUI hit-and-run case of Sheila Milosky, the principal at Paul Revere School. The San Francisco Examiner reports:

The controversial principal of Paul Revere Elementary School in Bernal Heights was sentenced Tuesday to community service hours instead of jail time in connection with a DUI arrest last month in which she allegedly sideswiped two vehicles just south of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Sheila Milosky pleaded no contest to two DUI counts Tuesday as part of a deal with prosecutors that will allow her to remain in school rather than behind bars. As part of the deal, prosecutors dismissed the hit-and-run charge.

Milosky was actually sentenced to 30 days in jail, but that time will be served wearing an orange vest while cleaning up around The City as part of the Sheriff’s Department’s alternative work program. She also will spend nine months in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program.

PHOTO: San Francisco Examiner

Cyclist Hit by Car at Cortland and Bayshore

/ Todd_Lappin / 3 Comments

Hollywood's SFFD

From the SF Weekly:

A cyclist was taken to the hospital this morning after being hit by a car at the corner of Cortland Avenue and Bayshore Boulevard.

Officer Gordon Shyy had very little information at this time, but said the cyclist, whose condition is unknown, was at the intersection at about 8:37 a.m. when the accident occurred

The Weekly adds that Vicky Walker, Bernalwood’s own Minister of History, saw the injured cyclist receiving medical care.

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics file photo