Help Plant Green Things on Bernal Hill, Saturday

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Bernal in Winter 2 (March 09)

If you’re green thumb is itching, wander up to Bernal Hill on Saturday morning to participate in a volunteer planting organized by the City’s Recreation and Park Department. Rachel Kesel, your Bernal neighbor and the Rec and Park gardener assigned to Bernal Hill, says:

The Recreation and Parks Department’s December work party on Bernal Hill is all about planting grasses and wildflowers. We will bring gloves, tools, and light refreshments. Volunteers should dress in layers and because the hill is pretty steep so closed-toed, sturdy shoes are recommended. The event will take place rain or shine.

Saturday, December 17th
10AM to Noon
Meet at the south gate off of Bernal Heights Blvd, on the uphill side, near the only water fountain on the hill. Anderson Street is the closest thru street to this entrance.

For more information, contact Joe Grey at Joe.Grey@sfgov.org or 415-831-6328

PHOTO: Ed Brownson

Bernal Artist Transforms Traffic Lights Into Tableware

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Neighbor Lauren Becker has been busy of late, creating industrial-chic tableware from recycled glass. This weekend she’s having an open studio at Recycled Glassworks on Bonview to release some of her new work:

Ever wondered why Bernal Heights doesn’t have any traffic lights once you leave the “flatlands” of Mission/Cesar Chavez/Bayview?

I have them. Sort of.

I just got a good load of traffic lights lenses in — thrown out by surrounding neighborhoods. When they leave my art studio, they have been turned into eye-catching plates. In my Bernal studio, I have been upcycling plate glass into functional tableware for many years. Usually I create artful bowls and dishes from windows, which were discarded by contractors or homeowners nearby.

Occasionally, traffic light lenses come my way. The traffic light dishes are a rare sighting because most glass lenses have already been replaced by more efficient LED lights. If you hate red lights, here is your revenge: eat from them!

This weekend, for the first time, I will open the doors for a Holiday Open Studio where the neighbors can see the entire collection:

Saturday/Sunday (Dec 17/18), noon to 5pm at 238 Bonview St (half a block from Cortland Ave, around the corner from Avedanos).

PHOTOS: Recycled Glassworks

New Bernal Heights Art Print Celebrates Our Spirit Animal

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A few months ago, the graphic designers at TheGRQP released a series of wildlife-themed prints about San Francisco neighborhoods. Pacific Heights is a fox. The Castro is a peacock. Japantown is a goldfish. And so on.

The prints were lovely, but one neighborhood was conspicuously missing: Bernal Heights.

So in an email, I says to them, I says:

Hey! What about Bernal Heights??! We’re famous! We’re glamorous! Plus, I’ll do the research for you. Here is the animal you should associate with our neighborhood.

They received my suggestion warmly, and now the Bernal Heights print is available for sale.

San Francisco’s neighborhoods have such personality, and we at the GRQP believe each tends to bear a likeness to a particular animal. High atop their perch at the microwave tower, these owls watch over Bernal Heights. Every night they remain vigilant for the residents and wildlife alike. It is these owl’s dusk to dawn duty, nay, their nocturnal mission to keep this neighborhood safe. Whether you live in Bernal Heights or not, with these owls on your wall, you won’t help but feel protected.

Notice also the cameo appearance by Sutrito Tower.

Yaaay! The image 11×14, and printed on archival paper. And just $22! I just ordered one for the Cub Reporter’s bedroom.

YIMBY Power: How Friends of the Lucky Horseshoe Bar Rallied to Sway the City’s Entertainment Commission

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Lucky Horseshoe 007

Lucky Horseshoe 001

Lucky Horseshoe 005

Lucky Horseshoe 003

So, remember how Eric Embry, co-owner of the Lucky Horseshoe on Cortland, asked folks from Bernal Heights to attend a hearing at City Hall on Tuesday night, so that the Lucky Horseshoe might secure the coveted Entertainment Permit needed to host live music at the bar?

Well, a whole lot of people actually showed up at City Hall to express their support. And in the end, the Lucky Horseshow got their permit — which means live music will soon follow.

But the story doesn’t end there. Overall, the episode turned out to be a rather encouraging experience for many of those who decided to get involved. It showed that hard work can pay off, meaningful community can be created, and antagonism from a NIMBY minority doesn’t always carry the day — or spoil the fun.

Neighbor Clane attended the hearing on Tuesday night, and she filed this exclusive report:

Around 6 p.m. Tuesday night a few of us sat in Room 400 at City Hall to support Lucky Horseshoe’s bid for a live entertainment license. Through a long, tangled presentation by a group that had been successfully blocking entertainment — for twenty years — in SOMA, I worked on some crochet to stay occupied. I didn’t look up until one of the Commissioners announced Lucky Horseshoe. That’s when I noticed something great: The room was totally full.

A Commissioner began Lucky Horseshoe’s case by stating they’d received 845 letters of support of it, and only twelve against. A dozing commissioner straightened as the room exploded with applause.

Lisa Marie and Eric, Lucky Horseshoe’s owners and proprietors, both straight out of Super Cute Geek and Smartie Hotness Magazine, explained their case at the podium. The Commissioners asked a few questions and then invited public comment. A line went around the room as people of all ages, shapes, sizes, and colors stood up to speak.

The commission unanimously voted to approve the license, and the crowd went nicely and politely wild.

Afterward, back at Lucky Horseshoe, Lisa poured champagne for everyone who’d come to City Hall, and the outdated jukebox started up right away with the perfect outdated music I go to Lucky Horseshoe just to hear. Seriously, I go there for three reasons: good drinks from convivial bartenders, interesting conversation with random strangers, and the crappy jukebox.

Whenever I go into Lucky Horseshoe I end up talking to someone totally new and unexpected, because it’s practically a scientific fact: You can bond with almost anyone over “Benny and the Jets.” Those gathered at City Hall were no exception, from the elegant, elderly pool shark, to the mussed hipster, to my neighbor. There were OGs and hoodies, moms and hipsters, musicians of all kinds, and bingo-playing church ladies. There was a genteel pensioner and a lawyer in a trucker’s cap. It was awesome, grown-folk style.

A few things were really clear. The support was genuine and heartfelt, and Lisa Marie and Eric had worked hard for it. Since opening they’d differentiated themselves from Skip’s Tavern, but they’d welcomed old regulars and anyone who respected the business. They held community meetings and supported local causes and events, like the Library Mural Project and the Solstice Stroll.

They also thought a lot about why people might be concerned about live music and what issues it might entail. I don’t think you can fake this kind of thing — either the outreach Lisa Marie and Eric put into it, nor the unanimous approval and overwhelming support they received in return. For once I felt like I was at the really cool party. Gathering to make, experience, and reflect art, music, and culture is the life of the City itself.

Post Script: Eric said he and Lisa Marie were just beside themselves with all the support, and wanted to really, really, really thank everyone.

Indeed.

Last night, Bernalwood received an email from Eric, who writes

Thank you very much!!

Now we just have to do some soundproofing, install the sound system, and pass a couple inspections between now and our first show.  We’ll be on for Valentines day if not earlier, hopefully sometime in January!

PHOTOS: Top, Lisa-Marie and Eric. Below, friends of Lucky Horseshoe attending and testifying at the Entertainment Commission hearing. Fabulous photos courtesy of Adrian Mendoza.

Bernal Aerospace Advances Cutting Edge of Rocket Science

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Bernal Aerospace Rocketry

Bernal Aerospace Rocketry

The rocket scientists from the Bernal Aeronautics and Space Administration have been very busy lately, advancing the frontiers of high technology.

BASA

One recent BASA initiative, shown above, focused on nighttime rocketry. Advanced light-emitting diodes were used to recover the launched BASA spacecraft, while dark clothing made it possible to elude capture by local law-enforcement.

The Optical Systems Division has also been active, leveraging recent advances in miniaturization to mount video cameras on rockets and record launches from start to finish.

This action-packed video shows a BASA rocket going up, coming down, and almost getting hit by a car while awaiting extraction from the Recovery Team:

Meanwhile, back at Bernalwood’s Editorial Control Room, the Cub Reporter has been busily working on a rocketry project of her own. After several after-dinner nights of painting, gluing, and careful decal application, we are proud to unveil the Precita One, our debut launch platform:

Precita One

The maiden flight of Precita One is scheduled for this weekend, at BASA’s top-secret launch facility. Our engineers have just received a new shipment of rocket motors, and the team is ready to fly!

PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics

Precita Park Cafe Set to Soft Open on Friday

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Tablehopper has an update on the opening date for the much-anticipated Precita Park Cafe. Looks like the doors will open for the initial shakedown cruise on Friday:

Getting close: ~PRECITA PARK CAFE~ is due to soft open this Friday December 16th in Bernal Heights (the project was mentioned a while ago in tablehopper). It will be open seven days a week, from 7am-8pm. The hours of operation will be longer than at their other cafes Dolores Park Cafe and Duboce Park Cafe because Precita Park Cafe will eventually have dinner service (look for hours to extend until 10pm in the New Year).

Thanks to all who brought this to my attention!

UPDATE 16 December: The Precita Park Cafe opened at 7 am this morning. I dropped by last night for the opening party, and it was grand. The interior is spacious, airy, and nicely decorated, and the food was very good. Very exciting.

PHOTO: Rebecca Kinney at Tablehopper. Below, Telstar Logistics

TONIGHT: City Hall Hearing on Lucky Horseshoe’s Entertainment Permit

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Lucky Horseshoe

**Hearing Date Corrected from Previous Version**

Eric Embry, co-owner of the Lucky Horseshoe bar on Cortland, is getting ready for a big evening *tonight* at City Hall. That’s when a hearing will be held to consider his application to get an entertainment permit for the bar, a move which would enable the Lucky Horseshoe to host live music.

In an email to Bernalwood, Eric writes:

We hope lots of folks will come to City Hall, Room 400, Tuesday evening at 6:30 to let the Entertainment Commissioners know that Bernal Heights wants live music at The Lucky Horseshoe. We’ve collected hundreds of signatures and letters of support, and we have a rock-solid plan that will integrate live music into the community in a positive way that was previously unknown at the venue. The entertainment we host will be as warm and welcoming as The Lucky Horseshoe is, making the bar an even more integral part the community.

I’ve been watching the hearings online and it’s actually going to be fun, in a civics lesson kind of way. Maybe not fun in some other ways but…The Commission will no doubt ask some tough questions, as the music scene at Skip’s Tavern in years past was far from cherished by the neighborhood at large. The folks at City Hall need to hear about the positive changes we’ve brought to the bar, and not just from us. Lisa Marie and I dearly appreciate all of the support and kind words that so many of you have given us, and we want the Commissioners to hear about it first hand. Come on down to City Hall and let’s bring live music back to Cortland Avenue!

PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics

Who Is Flying Over Bernal Heights (And Where They Are Going)?

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Contrail

After I got home late last Friday night, I wandered into my back yard for a moment to savor the silvery light of the full moon. But I also got a bonus treat: I watched a jet pass by high overhead, creating a fluffy contrail that divided the night sky into two neat halves — as you can see in the photo above.

I’ve written before about the map which shows the major air routes that pass over Bernal Heights:

Yet as handy as that map is for making general sense of the activity that takes place in the skies above us, it’s also fun to know the specifics. Like, exactly what kind of jet is that passing overhead? And where did it come from? And where is it going?

That’s what I wondered as a meditated on the spectacle of the aircraft streaking silently through the clear Bernal night. Yet because we live in an age of high-tech wonders, I didn’t have to wonder for long. In fact, there’s an app for that.

I reached for my phone, and opened Plane Finder, a $4.99 app for the iPhone or iPad that monitors the ADS-B tracking data transmitted by commercial aircraft to generate a near-realtime air traffic radar map.  So when I wanted to find out about the plane I spotted over Bernal Heights, here’s what I saw:

That showed me the flightpath. Then I touched the plane icon, to learn more:

Voila! The plane I saw passing over Bernal a little after 1 am on Friday night was a China Southern Airlines Boeing 777-200, traveling almost 32,000 feet overhead, en route from Los Angeles to Guangzhou, China.

Personally, I find there’s something oddly satisfying about having access to this information; It makes the planes I see overhead feel more neighborly, because I can picture where they came from, where they’re going, and the kind of people who are likely sitting inside.

And as those passengers stare down at us, many would probably feel a similar sense of connection, if only they could dial up an app that presented a view that looks something like this:

PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics

Jazz at the Library: Free Concert with the Bernal Jazz Quintet, Wednesday

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Hey cats! Dig it: The Bernal Jazz Quintet will perform at the Bernal Heights Branch Library on Wednesday evening, and the gig is free. Library manager Valerie says:

WINTER HOLIDAY CELEBRATION

The year is winding up and it’s time to check in at your library! You are overdue for a Winter Holiday Celebration with the Bernal Jazz Quintet. Catch up with your neighbors while listening to the mellifluous sounds of one fabulous ensemble. There will be craft making for children and teens…. and of course refreshments!  Free Event

Wednesday, December 14th @ 6:30 pm

  • The Bernal Jazz Quintet
  • Crafts for Kids
  • Refreshments

Bernal Branch Library, 500 Cortland Street (Andover & Moultrie)

PHOTO: Bernal Jazz Quintet

Sad: Bizarre Homicide On Justin Drive in St. Mary’s

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With the sweet, sometimes comes the sour.

No sooner had the New York Times run that charming article about the charms of Bernal’s St. Mary’s Park microhood than the local newspapers began reporting on a bizarre homicide that happened on Friday bight in a home on Justin Drive, in St. Mary’s. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

(12-12) 12:24 PST SAN FRANCISCO — A 72-year-old woman was found dead Friday night with a blood-covered suspect at the scene in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood, San Francisco police said. The medical examiner identified the woman as Hao Mei Wu of San Francisco.

Police were called to the 200 block of Justin Drive around 10:30 p.m. to assist San Francisco fire officers who were already on scene, police spokesman Albie Esparza said.

Wu was found unconscious on the floor. Authorities said they also found a suspect, whose identity has not been released, at the scene with blood on him.

The suspect suffered self-inflicted wounds and was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, Esparza said.

St. Mary’s Park in Sunday’s New York Times

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St. Mary's

In case you missed it, there was a spiffy little overview article in yesterday’s print edition of the New York Times about St. Mary’s Park, the cute micro-‘hood in the southwest corner of Bernal Heights.

A sampler:

OLD SCHOOL
St. Mary’s College of California opened here in 1863, offering Catholic-based education far from downtown San Francisco temptations. In 1889, fog and wind prompted its relocation to Oakland, and in 1928 a move farther east took the college to its current home in Moraga.

LEAVING A MARK
After the college left San Francisco, some of the land it had been on was farmed. In the 1920s, the city’s Roman Catholic archdiocese subdivided and sold some of the property. Mark Daniels, an architect, planned the subdivision’s trademark shape, a nod to an original college church bell. Mr. Daniels’s influence can also be seen in many other local neighborhoods, like St. Francis Wood, Sea Cliff and Forest Hill.

HANGING THEIR HATS
Many of the red-tiled-roof homes in St. Mary’s Park are occupied by grown children of the first owners, and several centenarians are in residence. The original Irish and Italian community has diversified: Latinos and African-Americans have moved in. Newer residents include a lesbian rabbi.

PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics

Saturday’s Lunar Eclipse, As Seen from Bernal Heights

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So, did you happen to catch the lunar eclipse that took place at around 6 am last Saturday, December 10? It was a total lunar eclipse, which means that the moon seemed to disappear for a few moments as it passed through the Earth’s shadow.

Neighbor Joe Thomas woke up early to capture the cosmic event from his apartment in Bernal Heights (so you didn’t have to). He then compressed the results into the fabulous time-lapse video you see above.

It’s like, totality, dude.

UPDATE: La Lengua rebel leader Burrito Justice also arose early to watch the eclipse, and he took some great photos from atop our Bernal Hill homeland. Sutro Tower and a disappearing moon… together at last!