Bernalwood is a blog about Bernal Heights, San Francisco.
“An interesting micro-local news source that is fun and funny and sometimes important.” - Neighbor Jillian
We love our neighborhood for all its glamour and grandeur, and we are militantly YIMBY.
Welcome to the local blogosphere of SF! Love the Bernalwood photo
Sarah B.
Glad to find your spot in blog land. Will keep a watch on your future broadcasts. Wishing you all the best for the rest.
as a Ripley street resident in the fabulous world of Bernalwood…i could not be more excited about your niche in the sphere. cheers
Where’s all the “SHARE” buttons!!! NEED!
Wow, this is great. I lived in Bernal for three years, and recently moved to Davis (my hometown) for grad school. The irony is that Bernal is where I feel most at home. I’ll be living vicariously through this blog until I can get my ass back to SF. Well done!
Davis is my hometown, too. Willowbank yay. Come back to Bernal soon:)
Great blog. Love the name! Will you get a Facebook page?
This is fabulous… I grew up on the hill and I’m glad it has so much support from neighborhood, I think Bernal is hands down the best neighborhood in the city…though I wont lie Protrero has better parking and is a close second.
I love this site. I first moved to Bocanna Street in 1976 and half of the stores on Cortland were boarded up. It was scary to walk down the street after dark. Lots of drug dealing done behind the Library. Moved away for a few years and then moved back in 1984 and have been here since. It’s a wonderful NEIGHBORHOOD, something that is lacking in most urban areas and in much of San Francisco. We are lucky to have such a wonderful mix of people, stores, upscale & worker bee, lefty politics and concerned homeowners, babies and dogs. You are documenting its charm and quirkiness in a wonderful way. Thanks for all your work on Bernalwood. It’s great!
I grew up during the same time period. The drug dealing and boarded up window front came from white flight, regan bush economics and overall market economy shifts. But the neighborhood was much more open to freindly then now. families knew eachother, children played in the streets and the diversity of people was much more real, There are parts of the 80′s that reflected the ugle market forces and years of neglect and racism, but the 60-90 was a time in bernal that beautiful elements came together to make this a special place, bernal today is speical not becasue of the new wealthier and whiter white collar indivduals, its becasue of the blue collar artist, activist and open minded people who settled here in the name of justice and struggle, now its become a place of white washing and long diverse history of this neighborhood, are we now happt no more black people live here? or for that matter any working class people?
I agree with you Coyote. There’s an incredible sense of entitlement and smuggness in this new wealthier Hill that I find obnoxious. There’s a lack of appreciation and sense of history of this neighborhood – as if the new yuppies are the ones who put it on the map. I enjoy some of the new changes -it’s all very cozy. But what working class family can move into this traditionaly working class neighborhood, when a fixer-upper is $850,000? I mean, come on people!
Thank you Coyote! I grew up on Winfield from 79 to 99. the neighborhood might be safer but where are all the Natives? san francisco used to be a blue collar city. Halloween in Bernal when I was a Kid was bustling. Now a days my parents, who still reside in the house i grew up in, get next to no trick or treaters. I miss the old Bernal. Blue collar bernal
i’ve lived in bernal for 5 or 6 years and this is my first visit to your blog. love it! well done.
I’ve lived in Bernal since 1996, and it just gets better and better. Love this blog – thank you thank you
I have seen many blogs..this is my favorite…love the name.
I also appreciate the positive feedback on our store. (Chuck’s)
Thank you.
Antoinette
I love that you stay open till 11:00!! You are the only ones on the hill that do and you save me so many times… and so many times to come! Thanks Antoinette!
Yay Bernal! I’ve lived here for the last 15 years. The sunniest, most neighborly part of SF!
As usual, you all are doing a great job with this site. I enjoy it more and more every week. Have you covered that odd new construction at the corner of Bernal Heights Blvd and Bradford, where there is the start of a hill side terrace garden of some sort. I believe you have checked in on the garden, but what about that house? It’s got a million dollar view, for sure, but it looks like it went through three or four architects mid-construction. Anyway – keep up the great work. You make me love Bernal all the more all the time. Mike Hennessey
Thank you Mike! That house actually belongs to a friend. I’ll see if he’s up for show and tell.
Mike, The corner lot you speak of is being turned into a garden thanks to a 60k grant from the city. A Bradford Street advocate worked his way through the bureacracy to get the grant. He also did the top half of MayFlower Street garden which is next to his home which is currently being rebuilt. Carol
Love your blog! I used to live in Bernal, too. Would you consider adding our Potrero site to your Bloggerhood: http://www.unitepotrero.org–thanks!
I gotta say, this blog is OUTSTANDING! I just moved to Bernal Heights last Fall, all the way from Boston, and am absolutely loving it here. I think this blog proves to me that I wasn’t just hallucinating about all the good stuff here. Keep up the great work!
What a coincidence – moved from Boston (Somerville) to Bernal last fall as well – arrived in mid-October! Loving Bernal as well!
As a nine year resident of Bernal, so glad this site is here. Our wonderful neighborhood attracts creative souls! Keep up the great blogging!
I’ve lived in Bernal for 27 years. It’s gone through a lot of changes ( most of them positive) over the years and I’m glad to see a site dedicated to it for the community. There’s still a lot of people in the city that have never heard of Bernal Heights or think it’s not part of San francisco. Thank you for your commitment to Bernal and it’s inhabitants.
I’m a Gates Street resident for the past 28 years, and lived a few years before that in a Bernal Heights rental–raised my kids here and we all love this neighborhood!!
So happy to have stumbled upon this blog! I recently moved from Boston to SF last October. Loving Bernal Heights so far!
Is anybody paying attention to what is happening to the library? New “final” designs have been
posted that are truly …. awful. And the BLAP committee is trying to get them manifested -
through approval from the library commission and the arts commissons. Heads up alert!
Dear Bernal Neighbors,
My name is Gabriel Martinez, and I am the GED Coordinator for the Precita Center on the north slope of your lovely neighborhood. (For those of you who can’t place us, we are the building on Precita with mural in front.)
In any case, I am writing to you because I would like to get you all involved in all that we do at the center–considering it’s a neighborhood center and you are the neighborhood, I think it’s a good match. As a way in, I’d like to invite you all to an event we are having this weekend (August 6th). It’s a show with poets, singers, and jazz musicians and all the money we raise at the event helps us help our GED students.
Below, is a press release we’ve been sending out for the event. I’m hoping you might help me spread the word by posting this. I can also provide an e-flyer with graphics if that helps. The bottom line here is that we need your help, and going forward, we want to hep you in any way we can. This would be a great first step.
Thanks,
gabe
Dear Bernal Neighbors,
My name is Gabriel Martinez, and I am the GED Coordinator for the Precita Center on the north slope of your lovely neighborhood. (For those of you who can’t place us, we are the building on Precita with mural in front.)
In any case, I am writing to you because I would like to get you all involved in all that we do at the center–considering it’s a neighborhood center and you are the neighborhood, I think it’s a good match. As a way in, I’d like to invite you all to an event we are having this weekend (August 6th). It’s a show with poets, singers, and jazz musicians and all the money we raise at the event helps us help our GED students.
Below, is a press release we’ve been sending out for the event. I’m hoping you might help me spread the word by posting this. I can also provide an e-flyer with graphics if that helps. The bottom line here is that we need your help, and going forward, we want to hep you in any way we can. This would be a great first step.
Thanks,
gabe
Here is the press release:
We’ve all needed a hand now and again. And sometimes, you have the opportunity to give something back and even get something in return. Here’s that chance:
On August 6th, Stories in the Making 2: A Benefit for the GED Program at the Precita Center is on. This program has served hundreds of students over the years, and this year we graduated 22 young people who are now going to college, in work programs, and are on their ways to better lives. But we need your help to keep this program growing. Poets like James Cagney, Myron Michael and Sojari Bradley are teaming up with musicians from all over the Bay Area to show us their support. Now all we need is you! There will be food and drink and a raffle, and all of it is for $5, which goes to paying for students of our GED program to take their tests.
You can’t beat that with a stick!
And with all the state budget cuts that we all hear about every day, your 5 bucks will go a long way to helping us keep this program strong and vibrant.
So here are the details:
Stories in the Making 2:
August 6th @ The Precita Center
534 Precita Ave. (corner of Alabama)
Doors open at 7
Open mic @ 7.30
Featured performers start at 8.
Love the blog! It is our small town newspaper. I am anxiously awaiting the t-shirt.
Yeah!! T-Shirts would be great! Maybe they could use that cool Bernal postcard image. I would buy 1… No 2! I would send one to my dad as well!!
Any chance of getting more representation on the Holly Park side of Bernal? There is, for example, a new coffee shop opening on Richland tomorrow which would be great to push out…
Hope you can help…..I am an ex-Bernal Heights resident and am trying to find out the name of a now closed Italian restaurant. I believe the last time I was there was in 2004 or 2003.
It was on Cortland on the same side of the street and a block or two? from Maggie Mudd. They had an amazing bell pepper farfalle dish. I was hoping the chef had opened another restaurant somewhere.
Hi Mollly — Is it possible that you are thinking of Palatino?
You can still get the same great food at Milano, which is on Russian Hill (with parking at the Jug Shop). Same owner
Thank you, Steve. Need to check out this place too. Hopefully over the holidays.
Over Christmas, I was wearing my (exclusive, glamorous) Bernalwood t-shirt around my dad’s condo in Virginia. “Isn’t that something Shakespearean?” he asked. “Something about Bernalwood and Dunsinane?” Close:
Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until
Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane hill
Shall come against him.
Hi Jody,
Thank you so much! You are right. It turns out they have a new restaurant in Russian Hill. I was told that on Mondays they have a similar menu to Palatino’s.
http://www.milanosf.com/stories.html. I am hoping to find the bellpepper pasta dish again.
Thanks again,
Molly
Hi Molly — How funny! I just ran across your post today (from December) and you just heard about Milano this week — kind of awesome. I will have to check them out. I remember Palatino too and that it was good
- Jodi
The owners of Milano opened Palantino…
Thanks! Have you been?
Love this site! Thank you so much for paying a daily homage to my hometown and my childhood stomping ground.. My mother and father were the only African American entrepreneurs in BH back in the 80s. They owned Wool Street Grocery. What an amazing time
period. While I still love BH, I miss the diversity. I miss my latino neighbors who ran Arrow Pharmacy. I’m taking my grade school friend to the hill to reminisce. Ahhhh…Bernal Heights. I can’t afford to live right below the hill on wool and eugenia. Wah!
This is without a doubt the coolest blog in the city, a must-read each day. Love the hard and funny work you put into this. My folks from out of town think it’s a riot. So do I. Great job!
Love your blog, just moved in to Bernal …. Couldn’t be happier!
Would have loved to send you this article but I could figure out ho to do that. so….
The Sad, The Good and the Bad
The Sad
Whether she was physically assaulted, mentally disturbed or under the influence of drugs, the woman’s cries from Precita Ave. early Saturday morning were sad. As she and stumbled down the street yelling for someone to please help her, you could not help but me moved. She said someone had sprayed something in her eyes and face. She claimed se had been physically assaulted.
The Good
The plaintive sounds began at 6:00 A.M. from somewhere near the Precita Center between Alabama and Florida. Almost immediately a neighbor was out on the sidewalk to help. He called the police and told them the woman claimed to have been assaulted and seemed to be in plain. He also asked that they send someone right away because she seemed like she may be injured, or injure herself. The woman was inconsolable. Over the period of the next 25 minutes several neighbors took the time, many in robes or pajamas to come down onto the street to offer help and let others know that they had also notified the police.
It is a great to live in a neighborhood where you know people will make the effort to help when needed. So many stories about crime and problems in our streets include messages about how bystanders and neighbors turned away or ignored the situation. Not to long ago and not too far from Bernal Heights a man dies after being stabbed. He dies on the street while people ignored him. Bernal Heightyites(?), Bernal Heightians (?) Bernalers(?), whatever we are called, we seem to conscientious, helpful people when put tot the test.
The Bad
At least 5 neighbor households claim to have called the police. The first call came around 6:05 A.M. To be generous, we will call it 6:10 A.M. details were given. At 6:25 the first police car finally showed up. Approximately 15 minutes passed from the time of the first call to the time “help” showed up. Now, I will make this clear. This writer is a big supporter of our police and other first responders. I believe they work hard and generally do a good job. But, 15 minutes for an urgent call like this is unacceptable.
Whether the limited number of officers assigned to our area were otherwise engaged, or whether they didn’t understand the seriousness of the multiple calls or whether they were simply so far away that they could not get here is not an excuse. Imagine, as I have, that this woman was your wife, daughter, niece or neighbor. Imagine that her injuries were equally invisible from the outside, but perhaps life threatening below the surface. Imagine that the assailant was within a block or two when the first call was made, but on BART and already in Oakland by the time police showed up. Inexcusable.
This cannot be how our neighborhood works. It can’t be a place where victims or helpful neighbors reach out to help only to find that they are dangling without professional support. Without prompt response times, we can expect crimes to rise, or help to fall. Both of which are not what our neighborhood wants or needs.
Great blog for a newbee neighbour. Enjoying your regular feeds. Thanks!