Elusive “Bikini Jogger” Enlivens, Perplexes Bernal Heights

/ Bronwyn Ximm / 68 Comments
Bernalwood's mysterious bikini jogger

Bernal's mysterious Bikini Jogger, after conquering Elsie Street one chilly September morning.

In the Pacific Northwest, they have Sasquatch. The Yeti is said to stalk the Himalayas. In Scotland, searchers seek the Loch Ness Monster. And of course, Ahab had his white whale. Here in Bernal Heights, we also have an elusive creature that is the object of much fascination and conjecture: The Bikini Jogger.

Necks are sore on the west and north slopes of Bernal Hill as residents do double-takes upon capturing a glimpse of the fit and fierce morning jogger as she works through her intense fitness regime.

The fact that she seems to eat the steep grades of Elsie and Stoneman for breakfast is impressive enough, but the truly remarkable (and much remarked upon) thing is that she does so in the better part of her birthday suit. Even on cold, cloudy days, this Wonder Woman look-alike is clad in nothing but a bikini and sneakers.

Jogging appears to be just part of her regimen. When this reporter tried to interview her on the corner of Stoneman and Folsom streets last month, she was doing a set of burpees, with earphones cranked up high. (Which might explain the failure of said interview. Also, I was in my car.)

In a recent Bernalwood post, commenter Julie Lagarde offered that she has seen the athlete jumping rope. And that the Bikini Jogger used to wear flip-flops!

Who is this beach-ready iron woman? Perspiring and perplexed minds want to know!

UPDATE: Reader Brandon sends along this photo from another recent Bikini Jogger sighting:

Brandon writes:

I took this on October 16th on Eugenia, just west of Bocana. I was walking home from Cortland up Bocana, and found her approaching me from the other side of Eugenia. She turned in front of me, and I recognized that this was probably my best opportunity after several failed attempts to catch a pic from the car when I came across her. What’s interesting to me is that by the time I got to Coso, she was still only about a block ahead of me, despite her running and my walking. On the way down Elsie, I saw a couple come out of their house to watch her run by. We had a brief chat about the phenomenon of the Bikini Jogger, and they were equally bemused!

UPDATE 2: Stop the presses!! Bernalwood has conducted an exclusive micro-interview with the Bikini Jogger!

PHOTOS: Top, Aaron Ximm. Below, Reader Brandon

Tour the Trees of Bernal Heights This Weekend

/ Todd_Lappin / 3 Comments

Redwood silhouette

Attention arborphiles! Friends of the Urban Forest will lead a free “tree tour” of Bernal Heights this weekend, on Sunday, November 13, at 10 am.

Friends of the Urban Forest invites you on a free two-hour walking tour of the trees and other plants of Bernal Heights. Bring your questions, a note book, and a good pair of walking shoes, as we will be covering a lot of ground, a lot of trees, and a lot of great information. Tour leader Mike Boss is a founding owner of the award-winning San Francisco landscape company Rock & Rose Landscapes, and is a former member of the Urban Forestry Council of the City of San Francisco.

Meet at 10:00 a.m. outside Progressive Grounds Coffee House, 400 Cortland Ave at Bennington St.

PHOTO: A tree in Bernal Heights, by Michael De Boer

Once Upon a Time, There Was Bowling in Bernal Heights

/ Todd_Lappin / 33 Comments

I really loved the tale Eric Fermon told earlier this week about growing up during the 1970s in the Bernal Heights Projects on Ellsworth Street. But did you happen to catch this line he tucked in there?

Learning how to bowl at Mission Bowl while participating in a Saturday morning youth bowling league and looking forward to eating the best french fries on the planet there, and knowing that with just the right amount of ketchup they were extra-extra special.

That caught my eye. Bowling? At Mission Bowl? WHAAAAAATT!!!???

I’m a history geek, but I’d never heard of Mission Bowl. So what was it? And more importantly, where was it???

The brilliant Vicky Walker of the Bernal History Project provided the answer: Mission Bowl — or Sports Center Bowl, as it was formally called — used to occupy the lot at 3333 Mission that is now home to the large residential complex and Big Lots store, kitty-corner across the street from our Taoist Safeway.

But before we get to that, let’s back up a few decades to recall what that site looked like before Mission Bowl — and the reason why I was confused about its existence. My understanding had been that the present-day site of the Big Lots etc. used to be a streetcar repair facility operated by the Market Street Railway Company. And indeed, for the first half of the 20th century, that’s exactly what it was. Here’s how the “car barn” looked in 1921:

And here’s another view looking north up Mission Street in 1928. (Notice how the tracks have a switch that heads into the building on the right):

I knew about the Mission Car House, so I thought I understood the history of that site. But apparently, there was a gap in my timeline. Sometime between the time when the Car House was torn down and the Big Lots was constructed, the site had been home to the postwar Sports Center Bowling facility, aka Mission Bowl, which is shown in the image at the top of this post.

I found this little remembrance about Sports Center Bowl on Facebook:

This bowling alley was the epitome of 50’s and 60’s ambience. Dimly lit and smoky. A simpler times vibe with Dan O’Glove as your host. He was a great promoter of the sport of bowling. His Sports Center Bowl attracted the elite adult bowlers in not only San Francisco, but of the bay area and even southern California. His 32 lane house was a staple of AMF theme houses. Located at 29th and Mission streets in San Francisco. Home to The Washington Birthday Tournament. Such Pro and elite bowlers as Terry and Mike Leong ran the Pro Shop. Woman’s pro bowler Vesma Grinfelds was a regular when not on tour. Notable juniors and future adult stars to have frequent the lanes were Wayne Chester and Joe Goldstein. A 1 to 4 board shot was the norm and pot games were always flowing. The counter served up delicious American food fair right out of the 50’s and 60’s and the pinball machines were always full of adults and kids jockeying to play!

That “American food fair” [sic] presumably included the french fries Eric Fermon remembers so fondly. It also offered ample parking on the roof, via Coleridge Street:

So there you have it. Sadly, Mission Bowl is gone without a trace, and with it, Bernal Heights lost its bowling alley. But on the bright side, bowling is set for a revival in the Mission District, with new lanes planned for the Mission Bowling Club, which hopes to open in February on 17th Street near South Van Ness.

HISTORICAL PHOTOS: via the awesome San Francisco Public Library Historical Photograph Collection

Cortland’s Vega Gets Love from “Check Please Bay Area”

/ Todd_Lappin / 5 Comments

The folks from KQED’s “Check Please, Bay Area” visited Vega on Cortland recently, and they really liked the homestyle Italian fare. The reviewers all loved, loved, LOVED the Gnocci alla Boscaiola, and one reviewer said she liked Vega so much she visited the restaurant twice. Bravissimo!

Here are the summary comments from the three “Check Please” foodies:

1) “If you’re looking for really great Italian food that’s authentic and homemade, you want to stop at Vega on Cortland.”

2) “Cozy, and definitely the gnocchi in the cream sauce is phenomenal.”

3) “To all my east coast–especially New York Brooklyn — fans, you do not have to go home anymore for good Italian food. You have found it here.”

Watch for yourself:

Tasty Bernal Cooking Class Could Make You a Master Chef

/ Todd_Lappin / 4 Comments

Neighbor Jillian wrote in to Bernalwood to talk about a tasty new cooking class available here in our tasty little neighborhood:

We are lucky to have a culinary talent living next to us who just started offering cooking classes on Elsie Street in Bernal Heights.

Our neighbor and Bernal resident of 24 years, Douglas Leach (the guy in the grey coat), has opened his own cooking school, called Home Cooking San Francisco. Douglas wants to teach folks who don’t cook often or at all how to make delicious meals at home. He thinks that cooking should be fun and getting dinner on table should be within reach for the average non-cook.

Douglas trained with the founders of the French Laundry restaurant, Sally and Don Schmidt, at their Apple Farm Cooking School in Philo, CA. For ten years he made annual pilgrimages there to learn the art of getting dinner on the table. There is nothing that Douglas loves more than the conviviality of cooking, learning, and eating together.

I took his October 13th class, a Fall menu, on a warm early evening: Chicken braised with Olives, Oranges, Onions and Rosemary, Creamy Polenta with Fontina, Zucchini Noodles, Green Salad with Crostini & Cheese, Fall Fruit Clafouti

Personally, I find cooking intimidating — especially with meat. I can handle a salad, but a whole chicken? Ugh. Doug reviewed the menu with us, and guided us through the process of preparing the meal, talking us through all the details. We started the chicken first since that had to braise in the oven while we prepared the side dishes. I thought “to braise” meant pan frying — nope! It is actually a simple technique: first sear the meat, then bake it in covered pot with liquid. In this case, chicken with chicken broth, olives, onions, oranges and rosemary. Much easier that I’d imagined.

And the results? Normally I never, ever eat legs or thighs (dark meat and tendons, ew!). But after braising in those flavors for 1.5 hours, it was divine. The meat fell off the bone, and the infusion of olives/oranges/onions/rosemary was absolutely delicious. We served the chicken over polenta, with creamy fontina cheese.

Before this class, I would have never attempted this at home, but I now consider this a must repeat recipe.

Douglas loves flavorful hearty, home style cooking, but knows how to do it in healthful way. Like the zucchini noodles, they are literally zucchini cut into thin strips with a mandoline and sauteed with olive oil and salt. Super simple, unexpected and delicious. Fruit Clafouti was also easy, low fat and delicious.

He also covered simple techniques: knife safety & cutting techniques, meal planning, when to substitute ingredients, or how to flip roasting pumpkin seeds for the salad. Check out a video I took for a quick tip.

Douglas’s classes have only 8 students per class. It is very hands-on, so you pick up a lot of learning. It’s suitable for a posse of friends to reserve one night of cooking class together, or ideal for worker bees who live in Bernal and are too knackered to attend a typical weeknight class, because they can just walk on over! No need to drive to the Ferry Building or elsewhere. I had a fun time, and Douglas has great personality. I think his Home Cooking SF is a real Bernal gem.

PHOTOS: Collage, Jillian Moffett. All others, Joha Evans

ABC7 News Team Makes Bernal Heights Sinkhole Disappear

/ Todd_Lappin / 1 Comment

Dan Noyes is the Chief Investigative Reporter at ABC7News, and he’s probably feeling pretty good about himself right now. That’s because he decided to unleash his investigative kung-fu on a nasty Bernal Heights sinkhole, and he made it go away.

No, we’re not talking about that expanding sinkhole on Ellert that has recently been under repair. This is a different one: There was another sinkhole on Holladay and Costa, and it was making the neighbors on the east side of Bernal rather unhappy. Luckily, the ABC7News uFixIt crew swooped in to embrace the cause:

We have the story of a sink hole that’s been sinking for years and people in the neighborhood are fed up with the inaction over getting it repaired, but when the ABC7News I-Team showed up things got rolling.

People who live near the sink hole tell us the ongoing patch job is a quick fix that’s not safe and it’s a waste of tax dollars. They wanted the sink hole in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights fixed the right way, once and for all, so they contacted uFixIt for help.

Voila!

In other news, a baby was born in Bernal Heights, and ABC7News UFixIt Team made it happen. Elsewhere, Little Timmy on Tompkins Avenue used to walk only with the aid of leg braces, but thanks to the ABC7News UFixIt Team, Timmy just finished in the top 10 during last weekend’s New York City Marathon. And when the sun rose this morning, bringing light where formerly there was only darkness, did you think that was just a coincidence? Ha! As if! Please send your cards and thank-you notes to the ABC7News UFixIt Team.

Reporting live from Bernal Heights, this is Bernalwood Action News.

Bernalwood Action News

Sutrito Tower Now Available for Google Earth

/ Todd_Lappin / 2 Comments

Sutrito Tower, the microwave antenna array atop Bernal Hill, has been an icon of our neighborhood for generations. Now now you can add a digital model of it to Google Earth to make the virtual 3D map of Bernal Heights even more realistic.

For this we must give a nod to Joe Thomas, aka Jobius, the neighborhood gentleman who also gave the tower its quasi-official name. As Joe explains:

It’s possible to create models in Google Earth using photo textures with an “alpha channel,” so you can see through parts of the building.  That’s exactly what we want here, so I went out to take a few pictures on this beautiful blue-sky weekend. The blue made it easy to “chroma-key” out the background. I only had a good angle on the southwest-facing side of the tower, so I cloned that onto the other sides. I think this exaggerates the number of antennas, but I’m okay with that.

You can see the results above. Slick!

Want a digital model of Sutrito Tower of your very own so you can zoom about like a virtual red-tailed hawk over Bernal Hill and Cortland dale? Just download a copy of the .kmz file, fire up Google Earth, and away you go.

Autumn Light in the La Lengua Liminal Zone

/ Todd_Lappin / 3 Comments

Autumn Light

I drove down Mission Street last weekend, tracing the path of the Liminal Zone boundary that unites the Dominion of Bernalwood with the upstart La Lengua Autonomous Region.

Prickly geopolitics aside, what I noticed most was the gorgeous hue of the early evening light, and how it so clearly screamed AUTUMN! There’s something about it that felt so primal, so seasonal, and so right, which may also explain why I suddenly found myself craving hot cider.

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics

The Sights and Sounds of Pavement Progress on Precita

/ Todd_Lappin / 10 Comments

There was some big excitement happening on Precita Avenue this morning, as I awoke to the thrilling spectacle of an asphalt scraper-flume thingy doing its asphalt-launching trick right outside my home.

At long last and after many months, it seems the Precita sewer replacement and repaving project is finally nearing completion.

The asphalt scraper-flume thingy is a real monster. Properly speaking, it’s called an asphalt milling machine. It’s a giant beast on tank-like tracks that looks as if it should be operated by Jawas, and it makes a throaty roaring sound that says “Your Tax Dollars at Work!”

All motorists, cyclists, and skateboarders who regularly traverse the Precitaville Administrative Region are excited for our namesake roadway receive its final layer of fresh asphalt. Smooth at last! Smooth at last! Yay, infrastructure!

PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics

Star Sighting: Bernal Photographer Adrian Mendoza

/ Todd_Lappin / 4 Comments

 

I had a few minutes of free time on Sunday afternoon, so I decided to check out the reception for the Bernal artists whose work is currently on display at the Inclusions Gallery on Cortand. I’m glad I did because a) the collection on display is terrific, and b) I had the pleasure of meeting Adrian Mendoza for the first time.

As you may recall, Adrian is a recent addition to the Bernal Heights community, but in a few short months his photographs have appeared in this blog many times, and I have been very grateful for his photographic skill, journalistic instincts, and unfettered generosity. Meeting Adrian was a pleasure, and if you happen to see him while he’s out and about, I encourage you to smile and say “cheese.” He’ll make you look fabulous.

Also, I’ll publicly say something here that I’ve said in private many times: One of my favorite things about editing Bernalwood is that I get to meet so many of the people whose stories grace these pages. The pattern usually works something like this: I hear about a story through the grapevine, then publish it on Bernalwood. Then, not too long after the story appears, I meet the subject out and about in the neighborhood.

I love that pattern, and the conversations that take place when it occurs. To me it feels like the best of both words: a virtual community that fosters meaningful real-world connections close to home. So thank you, Bernal Heights, for sharing your stories with us, and for just being you.

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics

Tales from the Bernal Heights Projects, Class of 1971

/ Todd_Lappin / 11 Comments

Eric Fermon doesn’t live in Bernal Heights anymore.

But when he did, Eric was a young kid from the Bernal Heights Projects on the south side of Bernal, alongside I-280. Richard Nixon was president, and life wasn’t always easy, but Eric remembers it fondly. He wrote to Bernalwood recently to share some of his memories of what it was like here back in 1971:

I remember so many things about Bernal Heights while we lived there between 1967 and 1971, but the sunny days and the vantage point from living near the top of Ellsworth St. on the south side overlooking the 280 as it snakes through the Portola Valley are encompassing memories. We arrived there one sunny afternoon in a rented moving van driven by my cousin Big Mike who couldn’t have been older than 16 or 17 at the time. Pulling up over the crest of Ellsworth St and parking on the right side of the street just a few feet from the apartment entry way is a stark memory. We had a bunch of oranges contained in a red plastic mesh bag and my sister Gladys had been eating oranges all morning and when we got there she was itching like crazy and her skin had broken out with hives.

We moved into 832 Ellsworth that day and as far as I could tell, leaving the Potrero Hill projects and moving to the Bernal Heights projects was a step up.

Here’s some of the things I remember most about living in Bernal Heights:

Climbing Bernal Heights hill on a sunny day or flying kites up there or at Holly Park on a windy day.

Going to the Library and nearby play ground on Cortland Ave.

Throwing dirt bombs on the Muni bus that drove up Ellsworth St.

Walking home with my two sisters and at times with my older brother from the Potrero Hill child care center to Bernal Heights on afternoons when we either didn’t have a ride home or money to take the bus. We would walk down Connecticut St. and cross Army (now Ceasar Chavez Ave) onto Evans Ave., then pick up Toland St. and walk through the host of industrial and construction companies until we got to Industrial St. We’d then make a right on Industrial St. and cross under the 101 overpass then march through Farmers Market and past Sun Valley Dairy before heading up the hill on Crescent Ave. until we got to Ellsworth St.

Attending Paul Revere in the 5th Grade and taking class in the Bungalow that was located in the school yard.

Having races in the school yard at Paul Revere to see who was the fastest in the class and me being second to a girl named Sharon, who incidentally came to Aptos Jr High in my eighth or ninth grade year. I had a brief crush on her at Aptos and didn’t even realize it was the same girl from Paul Revere until she reminded me one day some years later as young adults while helping a family member move.

Fond memories of Claire my very first grade school crush. She was hispanic, had long black hair, a pretty face, beautiful smile, athletic body and happened to be a pretty good kick-ball player.

Making friends with Keith Lewis a basketball prodigy who saved me from Danny the bully and who eventually attended Lowell HS where I had the privilege to play against him in a few varsity basketball games while I attended Lincoln HS.

Watching my older brother Carl run down the hill and return triumphantly riding his 3 speed Schwinn StingRay bike back up Ellsworth St. after telling him a teenager from down the hill took the bike from me while I was riding it out in front of the apt.

Seeing local teenagers sniffing glue out of a paper bag in the bushes right across from our apt. and later while walking back home from the corner store seeing one of those teenagers on the roof of a house crying and whacked-out threatening to jump off the roof, while a group of people tried to talk him down.

Meeting the new next door neighbor Sheldon and eating Mushroom Pizza for the first time with him & listening to him talk about his parents having sex.

Learning how to bowl at Mission Bowl while participating in a Saturday morning youth bowling league and looking forward to eating the best french fries on the planet there, and knowing that with just the right amount of ketchup they were extra-extra special.

I’ve lived in a number of places since then but the time we lived in Bernal Heights was an awakening period of sorts for me because I lived there between the ages of 6 and 10 years old. The few notable memories listed above characterize my stay in the Bernal Heights projects and make me a proud member of it’s Class of ’71.

The Coda? Eric is an Air Force veteran who lives in Seattle. He does information systems work for AT&T, and is currently writing a book.

PHOTO: 832 Ellsworth in 2011, by Telstar Logistics