Woman Critically Injured in Mission Street Hit-and-Run Saturday Night

August 24, 2015August 24, 2015 / Todd_Lappin / 6 Comments

A pedestrian was critically injured in a hit-and-run incident on Mission at Precita last Saturday night, and the SFPD is looking for leads to help catch the driver. The SF Appeal reports:

The collision was reported at 9:58 p.m. at Mission Street and Precita Avenue, where a 24-year-old woman was hit by a pickup truck, according to police.

The truck driver did not stop after the collision and continued north on Mission Street. The truck and driver had not been found as of this morning, police said.

The victim was taken to San Francisco General Hospital with head and torso injuries that are considered life-threatening, according to police.

Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to call the Police Department’s anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or to send a tip by text message to TIP411 with “SFPD” in the message.

New Single from J.Quest is a Love Letter to Bernal Heights and Growing Up in SF

August 21, 2015August 21, 2015 / Todd_Lappin / 2 Comments

Today, he performs as J. Quest. But when he was growing up on Elsie Street, he was Justin Botza.

Buddhist Chickens Guide New Bernal Neighbor on Path to Nirvana

August 20, 2015August 20, 2015 / Todd_Lappin / 17 Comments

Neighbor Maggie recently moved to the upper elevations of Peralta, where shes been exploring Zen and the Art of Exploring Bernal Heights:

My first few weeks living in Bernal were like a fairy tale. They continue to be, but the first weeks of anything feel like a dream-state because everything is brand new. Every time I left my house, the tallest one of the top of a hill, I set out in a different direction. Moving from Brooklyn – where you are forced to walk in a grid no matter how hard you try to stray – it was like a “chose your own adventure” every time I walked my pup, Miko.

Most often, I let her decide where we went. She’s usually the one to find the little paths and secret stairways and gardens that make Bernal so charming and calming. One day we happened upon these very zen chickens. They have their own coop, a fenced in backyard, and a great garden view. It comes complete with a little Buddha that I’ve often seen them cuddled next to – completely chilled out, even when a little mutt is curiously sniffing around them.

Every day we take an adventure in Bernal, every day brings a new gift, and every day I feel grateful to live here.

PHOTO: Neighbor Maggie

Emperor Norton Is Still Alive, Still Well, and Still Living in Bernal Heights

August 18, 2015 / Todd_Lappin / 6 Comments

Last week, the Wall Street Journal published a front page (!!!) story about the odd history of Emperor Norton I, the 19th century San Francisco eccentric who declared himself “Emperor of the United States,” and Neighbor Joseph Amster, the Bernal Heights resident who re-enacts him today.

The WSJ writes:

Wearing a top hat festooned with multicolored feathers, Joseph Amster stopped in front of a Ghirardelli Chocolate Co. store on bustling Market Street and began shouting at the shop’s bemused clientele through its large glass windows.

“Look at them! Ignoring me! Mocking me! They have not heard the last of me!” Mr. Amster exclaimed, the feathers quivering with his wild gesticulations. “I will issue a special proclamation demanding they bring back my sundae!”

Patrons likely had no idea what he was talking about. But Mr. Amster was playing the role of this city’s most celebrated 19th-century eccentric: Norton I, the self-styled “Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.”

Mr. Norton’s was once a household name here. Numerous things were named after him, including Ghirardelli’s Emperor Norton Sundae. But the sundae, like Mr. Norton in general, has since faded from view.

Now some San Franciscans are pushing to return the emperor to prominence. Mr. Amster, 59 years old, who conducts tours dressed as Emperor Norton, is among those trying to bring him back, to rekindle the city’s celebration of society’s oddballs and outcasts.

PHOTO: Joseph Amster as Emperor Norton, holding a print copy of the Wall Street Journal, via Joseph Amster

Wednesday: Learn How to Learn About the History of Your Bernal Heights Home

August 18, 2015August 18, 2015 / Todd_Lappin / 3 Comments

Tomorrow night, Wednesday, August 19, those intrepid time-travelers from the Bernal Heights History Project will share some tips on how to research the history of your Bernal Heights home:

“How to Research Your Bernal Home”
Aug 19, 2015 7:00pm-8:30pm (Wednesday) at Bernal Heights Branch Library

We have an admittedly ambitious plan: We want to research and record the history of every building on the hill, and we’d love your help.

On Wednesday, August 19, we’ll present a slideshow that explains how to investigate your own home and all the resources you can use, including city directories, tap records, Sanborn (fire insurance) maps, neighborhood newspapers, and many more free databases.

We’ll be using several examples of Bernal homes and businesses in our show, but this is an interactive presentation, so feel free to come with stories and photos of your own, especially if you want to find out more about your street and the people who lived in your home before you did.

PHOTO: Left, Anita Nieto, cousin Betty Reyes, and a friend outside the Reyes and Nieto grocery store at Crescent and Anderson, late 1940s; Right, 1905 Sanborn map. (Family photo courtesy Anita Nieto; map courtesy David Rumsey) — at 511 Crescent Avenue, San Francisco.

Earthquake Rattles Bernal Heights; Chert Defenses Hold, Matt Nathanson Predicted It

August 17, 2015 / Todd_Lappin / 15 Comments

So, didyafeelit?

We definitely felt it in the Bernalwood Action Newsbedroom. It was a quick jolt, and the house creaked a little bit, and then it was over. The US Geological Survey says it was a magnitude 4.0, centered near Piedmont.

Once again, we are reminded to give thanks for our blessed Bernal Heights chert:

Although, things still got pretty gnarly at Neighbor Arno’s house:

Monday morning #earthquake. Assessing the damage in Bernal Heights. pic.twitter.com/wkCtsRbOJS

— Arno Hesse (@ahesse) August 17, 2015

Meanwhile, you may recall that the weather last weekend was rather conspicuously hot. And the air was rather conspicuously still. And then this morning, the ground shook. Coincidence? Well, let’s just say that neighbohood rockstar and accidental seismologist Matt Nathanson wasn’t surprised:

IMAGE: Top, Seismic shake map from the 4.0 earthquake, 14 August, 2015.

Tonight! Celebrate the 8th Anniversary of Secession Art & Design

August 14, 2015 / Todd_Lappin / 1 Comment

Secession Art & Design is a Bernal Heights treasure, and tonight it’s proud proprietor, Ms. Eden Stein, is celebrating her store’s eighth anniversary.

It’s hard to emphasize how hard she’s worked to make this happen. Secession has always been awesome, but when she lost her lease in the space across from Safeway in 2014, Ms. Eden had to scramble to keep Secession alive. Thankfully, through lots of hustle and a little good luck, Secession was able to re-open in the former SoCha Cafe space at 3235 Mission (near Valencia). Today, the store is bigger and more vibrant than ever, Ms. Eden is a pillar of the glamorous Mission-Bernal Merchants Association, and Secession become an integral part of La Lengua’s increasingly lively (and delicious) Mission Street corridor.

Ms. Eden writes:

I am hosting our 8th anniversary on Friday night!

Secession is throwing a party to celebrate 8 years in the Mission Bernal neighborhood. Please join us this Friday, August 14 6:30 to 9:30 pm to honor what we’ve all built. Meet our featured artists Andreina Davila, Heather Robinson, as well as many others who’ve been part of our community over the past eight years.

Sometimes you have to dream big and just go for it. Thank you to everyone who helped us on our journey to our new home when we lost our lease a year ago. Thanks to your support, we were able to stay in the neighborhood and relocate to our beautiful 3235 Mission Street gallery and boutique. You rock!

Many of you have asked how you can help us to make sure Secession is part of the arts community and the changing San Francisco retail landscape. If you’d like to support us, the best way is to shop in-store (we’re open Tuesday-Sunday, noon to 7pm), shop online, or donate to our ongoing fundraiser.

Hope to see you tonight.

Congratulations, Eden, and best wishes for 800 more fabulous years!

IMAGE: Courtesy of Secession Art &; Design

What Do You Call a Home Seller Who Accepts the Highest Offer?

August 13, 2015August 13, 2015 / Todd_Lappin / 36 Comments

A few weeks ago, in the context of an update about bonkers Bernal Heights real estate trends, Neighbor Sarah posed a question about the behavior of home sellers, and the role they play in pushing prices upward.

Neighbor Sarah asked:

There are two parties involved in any sale, and there’s no rule that says you have to sell to the highest, all-cash buyer, but it seems that even many idealists become hard-core capitalists in that moment. Idea for Bernalwood: get data from real-estate agents in the area about how often the seller chooses a buyer who is offering materially less than the highest bidder (which, mind you, would still likely be a high price by normal standards). Sales to relatives would not count.

Put another way (and in the way we often hear this question posed), if a seller accepts the highest offer, is that greed? Or, if a Bernal seller declines an offer from an existing Bernal neighbor whose bid for a home was not the highest, is that greed too? What if the existing Bernal neighbor is going through a hard time, or is an artist? Or a teacher? What is it when the seller nevertheless takes a higher offer?

Bernalwood turned to Neighbor Danielle Lazier and Neighbor Michael Minson, both of whom are realtors, to provide some perspective. Neighbor Danielle writes:

In my experience, it’s quite rare for the seller NOT to take the highest-priced offer. For most of our seller-clients, their home is their retirement, their nest egg, their ability to go and pursue the next chapter of their lives, and they want to make every dollar possible. Occasionally, if offers are very close in price and terms (contingencies, length of closing, etc), they may then choose the buyer whose “story” they feel more akin to, but it’s just as likely that they’ll ask us about issuing a multiple counter offer to drive the price higher. This is the nature of the sale. The seller typically wants the most money for their home.

Prices (sales and rentals) have gone up in Bernal Heights because more people want to live here than we have housing for. I don’t think the buyers want to drive up prices and pay more than they have to. They just want to live here and are trying to figure out what it’ll take to make that happen.

Neighbor Michael adds some particulars:

The largest amount I’ve seen a seller leave on the table because of goodwill was $15,000 and that was mostly because the accepted offer had better terms (the buyer was more likely to close than their competitors). A little bit had to do with the fact that both the buyer and seller were “cat people”.

IMAGE: Bernal home sales price trend, by Neighbors Danielle Lazier and Michael Minson

New Details Emerge About Circumstances Surrounding 2014 Alex Nieto Shooting

August 13, 2015 / Todd_Lappin / 33 Comments

The cover story of today’s San Francisco Examiner reveals new information about the circumstances surrounding the SFPD officer-involved shooting of Bernal neighbor Alex Nieto on Bernal Hill in March 2014.

The Examiner reports:

Supporters say Nieto was defenseless and never attempted to grab, or point at police, the stun gun holstered at his side. They also believe Nieto was brought to the ground by gunfire, and then shot until dead.

But previously unreported details included in a letter sent from the District Attorney’s Office to Chief Greg Suhr in February, when the DA decided not to press criminal charges against the four officers involved, contradict those claims. The case has since been referred to the FBI.

The San Francisco Police Department echoed the DA’s decision last week when it closed its investigation into Nieto’s death, determining that officers acted within department policy when they fatally shot him on March 21, 2014.

Nieto pulled the trigger on his stun gun three times within moments of police shooting at him, according to the DA.

Each trigger squeeze was recorded by the Taser’s memory. An analyst with Taser International reviewed the weapon’s clock and determined the trigger was first pulled at 7:18:45 p.m., again seven seconds later and then at 7:19:01 p.m., according to the DA.

“These times coincide with time the officers discharged their weapons, which can be heard on the audio recording of the 911 call beginning at 7:18:40 p.m.,” the letter read.

The article also reveals that Neighbor Alex had several disturbing mental-health incidents in the weeks preceding his death on Bernal Hill.

IMAGE: Alex Nieto photo illustration by Telstar Logistics

Neighborhood Vineyards Is Making Locavore Wine in Bernal Heights

August 12, 2015August 12, 2015 / Todd_Lappin / 10 Comments

Oh hey. Did you some folks are growing grapes and making wine in Bernal Heights? Well, it’s happening: Some folks are growing grapes and making wine in Bernal Heights, at America’s first urban vineyard.

Neighbor and celebrity wineblogger Alder Yarrow pointed us toward this recent Chronicle article about Neighborhood Vineyards at Alemany Farm:

I found myself walking through dense rows of headstaked Pinot vines on an otherwise weedy hill just west of the Alemany Farmers’ Market, squeezed above a block of public housing and below a row of modern Bernal Heights townhomes. Hartshorn set out an old knit blanket and poured me a glass of Albariño.

Her vineyard dreams began in France, where she went in 2009 with hopes of becoming a cheesemaker. That plan fizzled, not least because she realized her social life in rural France mostly involved playing petanque with septuagenarians.

After some wine marketing work in France, she returned to California in 2012, but not before she had visited Clos Montmartre, the tiny vineyard planted on Paris’ outskirts. Hartshorn loved the notion of thousands of Parisians coming to help with the mostly symbolic harvest. It wasn’t about the wine; it was an affirmation of wine’s cultural importance. Could San Francisco, as much a spiritual wine capital as Paris, have something similar?

Well, you can probably guess the answer to that question. Watch this video about Neighborhood Vineyards to see how they planted their 349 pinot noir vines right here in the glamorous terroir of Bernal Heights:

Want to visit? There’s a special guest talk and wine tasting happening this Sunday, August 15.

PHOTOS: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

A Huge Group Hug For Helping to Make the Esmeralda Mini-Park More Fabulous Than Ever

August 12, 2015August 12, 2015 / Todd_Lappin / 15 Comments

Last weekend, a glorious group of Bernal Heights volunteers gathered at the Esmeralda Mini-Park to help restore and rebuild the park (and the secret slides) to a new state of fabulous.

Around 40 Bernalese showed up to lend a hand, and the results look rather spectacular. The trellis has been sturdily rebuilt. The planter boxes are beefy and better than ever. The slide has a new launch deck up top and a new rubberized landing below. New retaining walls hold the hillside in place. It was a great scene while the work was happening, and Neighbor Carl Nolte even showed up to write about it for The Chronicle:

They say all politics is local. And so are all cities worth their salt. They are villages, neighborhoods. I found that out just the other day by walking up my street in Bernal Heights. […]

The [Esmeralda] project’s biggest triumph came Saturday, when more than three dozen neighbors showed up as part of District Nine community day to work on the park and the steps. The city lent tools, technical advice, even a free lunch.

This year’s Esmeralda project is a bit of a reprise of an old neighborhood tune on Bernal Heights. Back in 1978, a different group of neighbors got the city to build the park and put in landscaping in the first place.

Seriously. Go check out the park. It looks so great.

And for that, some super-extra-very-heavy-duty special thanks are due to Neighbors Joan Carson and Nancy Windesheim, who live near the mini-park. Say hello:

Neighbors Joan and Nancy did the grunt-work to organize the effort to get the project funded and make sure it was done right. Without them, none of this would have happened. None of it.

Yesterday Neighbors Joan and Nancy wrote Bernalwood to share a few thank-yous of their own:

To everyone that came out on Saturday for the Esmeralda Slide Park Workday. —Thank you!

To Mohammed Nuru, Director of DPW, Larry Stringer, Deputy Director for Operations DPW, and Kevin Sporer, Superintendent of DPW Bureau of Building Repair — Thank you for going the extra mile to make this rebuild a success.

To the DPW work crew, especially Carpentry, Painting, Street Environmental Services, and Urban Forestry — Thank you.

To David Campos and his aide Hillary Ronen — Thank you.

We all love this Park. And with the help of the Department of Public Works (DPW), Campos’ office, and hardworking volunteers, we are keeping it that very special place.

The planter box and trellis are back and beautiful. The benches and picnic table will be back within a couple of weeks.

Your help was so appreciated and we will continue to reach out when opportunities arise. If you can help, great. If not, maybe next time. One thing we can all do (as we’re using the area or just walking through it) is to encourage slide users to take their used cardboard with them. When left behind, it leaves a big mess.

If you want to remain active on volunteering your time for upcoming workdays on Esmeralda Slide Park, RSVP Joan Carson at jcartist5691 AT @gmail.com

Nancy and I really couldn’t have done this without all of you so, once again: THANK YOU.

PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics

Charlie’s Cafe on Precita Park Is For Sale

August 10, 2015August 10, 2015 / Todd_Lappin / 52 Comments

It’s sometimes hard to remember how much Precita Park has changed in just the last five years.

Think back, however, and you may recall that the Precita Park of 2010 was lovely, but rather lifeless. The eastern side of the park near the playground was home to two beer-and-chips corner stores, one of which was frequently shut down because of run-ins with the law. On the western side, along Folsom, Cancilla’s Market was yet another corner store offering beer and chips. Cafe Cozzolino was sometimes open and always empty, in no small part because it offered some of San Francisco’s most disappointing Italian food. The Park Bench Cafe coffee shop was also sad and empty, which left Charlie’s Cafe as Precita Park’s only real restaurant and community gathering place.

Fast-forward to today, and the landscape is transformed. The Precita Park Cafe now occupies one of the former corner stores across the street from the playground, and it’s such an institution that it already feels like it’s always been there. Hillside Supper Club moved into Cafe Cozzolino, Harvest Hills Market is a walkable alternative to schlepping to a supermarket, and Neighbor Eliza is building a new pizza shop inside the former Park Bench Cafe.

Now Charlie’s Cafe proprietor Charlie Harb writes Bernalwood to tell us that his cafe has just been listed for sale, and he wants Bernal neighbors to have first dibs:

After over 14 years in the neighborhood, it’s time for me to sell my beloved cafe. Adam, the current manager, is leaving town after running Charlie’s for 2 years, and I now have other interests. If you are interested, or know of someone who is interested in purchasing the cafe, feel free to contact me at charliescafesf AT gmail DOTCOM.

All the particulars are in this Craigslist ad.

A personal footnote: Your Bernalwood editor would like to extend my gratitude to Charlie for running his cafe. When I first landed in Bernal Heights after moving from the alien shores of The Mission, all the way on the other side of Cesar Chavez, Charlie was one of the very first people to welcome me here, and his kitchen fed the construction crews that rebuilt my home during two grayhair-producing years of renovations. In so many ways, he was the first person to teach me about the strength of the Bernal Heights community. Thank you Charlie!

PHOTO: Charlie’s Cafe on August 10, 2015 by Telstar Logistics

Fumi Curry Now Open on Mission Street in Bernal’s NanoTokyo District

August 7, 2015August 7, 2015 / Todd_Lappin / 6 Comments

There’s a new grand opening to celebrate in NanoTokyo, the emerging cluster of Japanese restaurants located around Mission and 29th Streets in Bernal Heights. Last night, Fumi Curry & Seafood opened for business for the very first time in the former Eagle Donuts location at 3303 Mission.

Neighbor Jen took the family for a test-drive dinner at Fumi last night, and she filed this report:

First night open was last night. We had a curry chicken, curry crab fried rice, and the kids teriyaki chicken meal (shown above). All were very good! Not like the best you’ve ever had, but definitely above average. Kids meal was a great value for $6 and even included a little toy yo-yo. Lots of families with young children there and one couple on a date who seemed a bit overwhelmed by the family crowd. Good service and the place looks amazing. As much as I miss Eagle Donuts, the decor is a distinct improvement.