Neighbor Michelle reports that her home on Highland Ave. has been besieged by a relentless army of invading snails:
Last night I went out to the garage to do my laundry (in true Bernalwood style this means going out the front door to get to the garage), and discovered this S.L.O.W. invasion of my home in progress.
Either that or they’re lined up to watch slug races up and down the street!
Follow that mucus-trail!
PHOTO: Neighbor Michelle
In Bernal Heights, as in all of San Francisco, warm nights are a rare treat. So when they happen, I like to mark the occasion is by trekking up to Bernal Hill with a camera and tripod to take in the balmy nighttime air and shoot pictures of the monumental scenery.
Last Saturday was one such night, and the photos you see above were taken during a late-night stroll on the hill.
Here are a few more:
PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics
Happy Father’s Day and blah blah blah yadda yadda!
It’s a great day for Bernal dads, and we hope everyone will please respect the rules. But most of all, I’ve just been waiting for a good excuse to publish this truly fantastic photo by swedotorp. The joy of Daddydom in Bernalwood has never been more beautifully captured.
The Bernal Stitchbomber has struck again, with a Golden Gate Bridge-themed piece on Bernal Hill:
Another Stitchbomb – this is a large-scale adaptation of my Golden Gate Bridge cross-stitch pattern, done at the top of beautiful Bernal Hill on a windy day. It’s lopsided because the girls decided, all of a sudden, that they are terrified of dogs. Please note: top of Bernal Hill is all dogs. I felt bad for them and mortified simultaneously, and worked frantically to get it done before they completely lost their marbles.
UPDATE: The Bernal Stichbomber celebrates Matt Cain’s perfect game!
PHOTO: Fun of a Stitch
The Rock Candy Snack Shop on Cortland is having an artshow called Chocolate Saloon tomorrow, on Saturday, June 16th, from 5pm-7pm. Whoo hoo!
There’s also an after-party from 7-10 pm at the stylish Lucky Horseshoe, just a few doors west. They’ll have whiskey, wine, and chocolate pairings, to entertain your mouth.
Full details on the glamtastic poster shown above.
They don’t quit! Instagrammer Linds930 snapped this photo today of Bernal’s Wild Old Women as they Occupied the Bank of America branch on Mission Street in the La Lengua Autonomous Zone:
A fun lot of self proclaimed “old women” occupy protesters outside of a BoA in SF
You go, girls!
IMAGE: Linds930
To some, this will certainly represent progress: you can now enjoy a glass of beer or wine with your lunch at venerable Cortland Street cafe Progressive Grounds.
Technically speaking, you could enjoy the same with your morning bagel, starting at 10 a.m., but staffers say that hasn’t been happening. (Phew!) It’s been about a month since the cafe has been offering such brews as Blue Moon, Anchor Steam, and Fat Tire, and the word is that it’s been a slow, gradual ramp-up in terms of actual consumption.
You gotta hand it to Progressive for covering its bases: coffee, food, Mitchell’s ice cream, a killer patio, and now this.
PHOTO: Bronwyn Ximm
The Citizens of Bernalwood are glamorous and rather vain, but we take great pride in our neighborly inclusiveness. That welcoming spirit applies to Bernal Heights residents new and old, as well as alien life forms from far-distant galaxies.
Clifton Reed, the newly appointed Chief of Astronomical Research for BASA — the Bernal Aeronautics and Space Administration — recently conducted a series of deep space observations from his backyard observatory in Bernal Heights. Neighbor Clifton focused his attention on the M13 galaxy, which is summering high above the night skies of Bernal, more than 100 light-years from here.
Of course, there are those who worry about the potential gentrifying effect that M13 may have in Bernal Heights. A few old-timers in Cortlandia have been heard to grumble, “When M13 arrives, Starbucks is never far behind!” But in the spirit of promoting neighborly ties, Neighbor Clifton brings this message from the Bernalwood-M13 Friendship Committee:
Bernal Heights Observatory
Observed M13, The Great Cluster in Hercules, on Saturday, 9 June 2012, 20:35 hrs. PST.
Explanation: Discovered by Edmund Halley in 1764, Messier 13 or M13 is a globular cluster in the constellation Hercules. It’s visible from Bernal Heights throughout the summer, although it’s dim (Apparent Magnitude 5.8) and hard to find in our light polluted paradise. BTW, it’s the faintest object that I’ve managed to observe from Bernal Heights so far. You may have a shot at it with a decent pair of binoculars. However, it will only appear as a dim smudge and make you go racing for the nearest Hubble image. Even with a telescope, it still takes the sensitivity of a digital camera to observe any detail in the sky above San Francisco.Globular clusters are ancient star-forming regions and are often found around galactic centers; They are some of the most ancient objects in the cosmos. How many worlds or civilizations maybe orbiting around those stars? M13 is situated 139 million light years from the top of Bernal Hill. It has a diameter of 145 light years and contains hundreds of thousands of stars. Its estimated age is 2.68 X 108 years.
This is your local Bernal Heights amateur astronomer, wishing you clear skies.
For information on organized star parties and astronomy events, please visit the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers (SFAA).
PHOTO: Our neighbor M13, by Clifton Reed
The venerable and much-beloved Precita Park just keeps getting better. But even better things are on the way.
Neighbor Demece, ringleader for the fabulous Precita Valley Neighbors, brings us an update:
The Precita Park improvements have begun!
Here is a general timeline:
New grass seed has already been planted in the middle of the park, so we’ll have a greener and less muddy park when the rain come again.
June 5 – June 15th, the asphalt trail along the west side of Preicta Avenue will be repaired. This will make it possible for everyone to walk along the trail, and the acacia tree roots that have been breaking up the pavement will be protected.
June 15 – July 15th, the Children’s Playground will be closed for improvements. The improvements are: providing new ground cover under the swings and slide area, tire swings, and picnic tables. The ground cover under the swings and slide area will be a blue/black speckled single rubber platform. The will be a granite platform under the picnic tables. The crazy deadly rubber squares under the tire swing will be a green/black speckled single rubber platform. A water fountain will be installed inside the Playground near the Alabama Street gate. A community kiosk will be installed near the picnic tables. The community kiosk will be a source of information put out by local non profits. The Helen Diller Playground in Mission Dolores Park has one, if you would like to see what it looks like. All the playground structures will be repaired; for example, the planks leading to the wiggly bridge will be replaced. All the structures and sand areas will remain the same. We will get new sand, and we will help shovel it out of the trucks. After the structures are repaired, we will help choose paint colors for the structures. We will help paint the structures. The penultimate satellite spinner stays. No one messes with the penultimate satellite spinner. New signage will also identify the rules of the Childrens’ Playground, similar to the Helen Diller Playground. But then, they don’t have the penultimate satellite spinner. And we do.
And we are immensely grateful to the Community Opportunity Fund, the magical Jake Gilchrist, our fantastic Regional Parks Supervisor Eric Andersen, John Miller our hard working Regional Manger, and Brian our fabulously cool park gardener for making this all beauty happen before our very eyes.
Want to find out more? Or, want to thank Demece for making all this happen? (She’d never tell you that.) The next Precita Valley Neighbors meeting happens on Saturday 6/16 at 9:30 am, at Charlie’s Cafe on the west end of Precita Park.
PHOTO: Precita Valley Neighbors
MariNaomi is a San Francisco-based illustrator who recently experienced the moment that savvy Bernalwood locals like to call “The Bernal Awakening.”
The Bernal Awakening is the profound sensation of euphoria and clarity that occurs when a first-time visitor experiences the jaw-dropping, 360-degree panoramic awesomeness that awaits atop Bernal Hill. Paradoxically, the experience of the Bernal Awakening tends to be extra-intense for San Franciscans who have spent years looking at Bernal Hill, but never before bothered to wander up it.
“How had I not known about this park before?” she asks. (CUE: Bernalwood locals smile knowingly.)
Happily, MariNaomi has the drawing skills to capture that experience in the illustration you see above. Wonderful.
IMAGE: MariNaomi
Neighbor Kaitlin tweeted a report about a stray sheet cake she found today during her morning constitutional:
Sheet cake sitting outside a house on Richland this AM. I see some odd things on my walks.
PHOTO: Neighbor Kaitlin
If you visited Cortland Street this weekend, you might have noticed the new scaffolding that surrounds the Bernal Heights Branch Library. The remuraling of the library is now set to get underway:
The waiting is over! Implementation of Phase One will proceed as follows:
JUNE 8-9 set up scaffolding
JUNE 11 City building maintenance crew will start the three-week job of prepping and painting the exterior walls facing Andover, Cortland, and Moultrie.
FIRST WEEK OF JULY Artist Rueben Rude will commence work on the Moultrie Street mural.
END OF AUGUST Moultrie Street mural will be completed.
JULY AND AUGUST Precita Eyes will install the tile and bronze artwork on the Cortland Street (front) wall. The logistics of creating tiles and bronze foundry work make it impossible to be absolutely precise about the timeline of this installation, but Precita Eyes is doing everything possible to finish by the end of August.
HELPING The Task Force is working with the artists to identify opportunities for the community to participate. If you’re interested in helping out, let us know by email. And we will also be back in touch when we have more information from the artists.
Meanwhile, Neighbor Brandon tells us that the Bernal Library Art Project has issued an invitation for artists to submit proposals for the southern, playground-facing side of the library building:
Seeking proposals for exterior artwork on the playground side of the Bernal Heights Branch Library in San Francisco (500 Cortland Avenue).
The library was constructed in 1939 and is a significant landmark in the community. Interior renovation of the library was completed last year, and all the facilities are new and enlarged. During the last year, new artwork has been designed for the front façade and Moultrie side of the library and will be installed this summer.
The final exterior artwork for the playground wall of the library should be visually compelling and dynamic, preserve the aesthetics of the building, express the values of the community, and enhance the experience of the programs and resources offered by the library.The new artwork will incorporate themes of social justice, inclusion, Bernal history, represent the whole community and be reflective of the artist’s particular interpretation. The new art will be designed to create a balance between the artwork and the facade—freestanding, mural, or some other combination. It will use media that requires little or no maintenance, such as painted tile, mosaic, or metal work. It will also need to create a dialogue with the artwork on the front and Moultrie side of the library.
For an application email bernallibraryartproject@gmail.com
PHOTO: Telstar Logistics
Let the record show that summer arrived in Bernal Heights last weekend, sometime during Saturday night. Sunday, June 10, 2012 turned out to be a gloriously sunny day, with no wind, no clouds, no chill, and really nothing to complain about.
Of course, by the time you read this, summer may already be over. Yet for 24 hours on Sunday, the Citizens of Bernalwood celebrated the arrival of the warm sun by taking to the streets for food, festivals, and fun. Let’s review.
At St. Anthony’s Church in Precitaville, they held a typically lovely gala in the church’s parking lot/playground area. It was a great scene, especially when the band began to channel Carlos Santana (who of course used to live just a few blocks away).
Give it a listen:
A few hundred yards west on Precita, the Bernal Heights Junior Capitalist League spotted an opportunity in the heat, which they decided to exploit by selling a very delicious sparkling citrus drink. It was two for a dollar, so Bernalwood’s Cub Reporter and I each had one. Refreshing!
On Cortland, things were jumping at Heartfelt, as Bernal neighbor Jane Wattenberg was on hand with a few of her animals for an event to celebrate her hilariously awesome Mrs. Mustard’s Beastly Babies book. When the Cub Reporter and I showed up at the door, we were greeted by a hungry goat:
Inside, Neighbor Jane (that’s her at far right) introduced visitors to her books, her ducks, and her chickens. All her animals are certified Residents of Bernalwood.
While we were there, one of her chickens laid an egg. They don’t get any fresher than that, really. Jane kindly gave the egg to the Cub Reporter to adorn her breakfast plate during the week ahead. (UPDATE Monday, June 11, 09:20 am: The Cub Reporter ate the egg this morning. Yum!)
Meanwhile, there was a block party on Mullen Ave., where cute little animals were also the focus of attention — but in a very different role. On Mullen, the animals were the main course:
Perhaps inadvertently, Mullen appears to have become a Apocalypse Now-style celebration of the senses, as the featured events included not only a spit-roasted pig, but also a glamorous sidewalk hot tub:
Neighbor Mason made a Zapruder-quality video that captures the vibe of the Mullen Melee. (PRO TIP: Mason! Could you turn the camera horizontal when you make movies? Thankssomuch. xoxoxo.)
Mercifully, Sunday remained warm, even as the sun started to set. Team Bernalwood celebrated this rare fact in true fashion by dining al fresco in the back yard.
It was wonderful, but much like the recent Transit of Venus, a night this warm may not happen again in San Francisco for another 104 years. We savored it.
PHOTOS: Top, Richfles. Mullen photos from Neighbor Amanda. All other pics by Telstar Logistics.
Bernalwood 