Back from hiatus

So it’s been four months since the last post here on Bernal Hype; did I miss anything?

Honestly when COVID and shelter-in-place hit, it took time to readjust to the new normal. It was hard to feel motivated to write about what was happening around the neighborhood because everything had shut down, and I was relegated to my home, Andi’s, and Good Life.

_{3745 Folsom has been a strong contender for most interesting house of Shelter-in-Place}

While I was hunkering down for pandemic hibernation, the Bernal Heights community was opening up. From home-bakeries to pizza kits to scavenger hunts to cookie slides to social-distanced dance parties to rainbows and bears (in windows) to rainbows and bears (in celebration of Pride) to patio opera to food banks, Bernal had risen to the challenge of the pandemic experience and had exceeded all expectations. Even the New York Times took notice and wrote an article about us (including a one-sentence blurb about yours truly and my Easter Bunny costume):

_{“On Easter, a neighbor wore a bunny costume and walked around waving at children.“}

Though things are creeping back to normal (Andi’s has gone back to their standard 6am-Midnight hours), we still have a long road ahead of us. Cases are ticking up and London Breed just delayed Monday’s phase of business re-openings.

_{My evening ice cream runs are back thanks to Andi’s new (old) schedule!}

All this time, the Bernalwood Facebook group has been more active than I’ve seen it in the 7 years I’ve been in Bernal. It’s clear that folks are as invested as ever in this little slice of San Francisco that we call home, and I am ready to dive back in and re-engage with this blog and this neighborhood.

As always if you have any leads or would like to help write, please email me at bernalhype@gmail.com. Hope to see more of you all, masked and 6 feet apart preferably!

Time to ditch that Christmas tree

2019 has come and gone, and with it so has the season of homes filled with fir and spruce varietals. Now that it’s 2020 and time to pack up ornaments, what’s a Yuletide reveler to do with their tree?

Lucky for us Bernal residents, Recology offers free treecycling from January 2nd until January 15th: https://sfenvironment.org/treecycle

All you have to do to ensure your tree gets picked up and disposed of properly is the following:

Place clean, unflocked trees curbside the night before your scheduled collection day
Remove all tinsel, decorations, plastic bags, stands, and lights.
If your tree measures more than 6 feet tall, cut it in half before putting it on the curb.

So what does Recology do with the 500 tons of trees it expects to collect this year? According to SFExaminer:

They haul the trees to Recology’s transfer and recycling station at 501 Tunnel Ave. near the former Candlestick Park. There, Recology feeds all the trees into a ginder [sic], turning them into wood chips. The chips are then transported to Recology Blossom Valley Organics near Modesto where they are turned into mulch and sold for commercial projects or use in public parks.
“Christmas trees contain pine pitch. That makes it difficult to compost, but great for commercial landscaping projects because the pitch in the finished mulch helps suppress weeds at landscaping projects,” Reed said.
Joshua Sabatini, SF Examiner

Help needed to recover a stolen pup

During a Saturday afternoon stroll with my big puppy pal, I noticed a whole host of flyers posted around the neighborhood with the following message:

It’s obviously incredibly heartbreaking to have your furry best friend go missing, but having them stolen while running a routine errand at a heavily foot-trafficked place like Good Life is a whole other ordeal.

As mentioned on the flyer, Jackson is a 30lb Mini Aussie with blue eyes (as really seen below), and the current reward is offered at $5000 if found. I’ve been following posts on Instagram, Twitter, and Nextdoor, and as of this evening, it doesn’t appear that the dog has been found yet (though I’ll update here if I hear anything).

The owner has created a webpage for the search at bringjacksonhome.com, and has set up a GoFundMe here with proceeds going to Rocket Dog Rescue if Jackson isn’t found.

As a dog-lover who is particularly haunted by these tales, I’ll happily donate $250 to Rocket Dog Rescue if Jackson is found so that we all root for the win-win scenario here.

Barebottle now offering free co-working space 9am Mon-Fri

Ever find yourself needing a change of scenery from the home office or the office office? Annoyed that some of the 3rd wave coffee shops are anti-wifi and anti-power? **cough** Ritual, I see you with those covered outlets **cough**

Our pals down the hill at Barebottle are now opening every Monday through Friday at 9am with a wonderful co-working environment and brews of a slightly different style (think beans not hops).

I reached out to Lester and Michael, two Barebottle founders, to get more information on just what’s being offered if you spend your mornings working with them:

– We roast our own coffee (currently a Guatemalan Huehuetenango and and Ethiopian Guji dry process) and do individual pour overs
– Mike constructed three phone booths in the lounge for quiet phone call space (including power outlets)
– We have power outlets in the building, but also power packs you can rent for free
– Free wi-fi
– Get a lot of natural light coming in from the front of the building
Lester Koga, Barebottle Co-Founder

– We noticed people piling into coffee shops, and felt like we could help out the Bernal community by opening up our space for people who wanted a place to work.
– It’s totally free! No reservations or membership required, just come on in.
– This is where we work as well, so if you’ve ever wanted to rub elbows with brewers, this is a great chance!
Michael Seitz, Barebottle Co-Founder

I’m a huge fan of multi-use spaces, especially in a city as square-footage challenged as San Francisco, so it’s really nice to see Barebottle taking some of their large warehouse space and opening it up to the community.

Best part of the whole deal? If you need a little break from hunching over your laptop, you can always grab a delicious beer and let off steam with some rousing table tennis, shuffleboard, cornhole, pinball or other arcade games.

Introducing Bernal Hype

When I moved to Bernal Heights in 2013, one of the best resources for my finger on the pulse of our wonderful neighborhood was Bernalwood. Whether it was a new restaurant opening, a reminder of a local event, or even a map of the best ski runs of Bernal Hill, Bernalwood was a staple for my discovery of all our humble little hood bad to offer.

About 18 months ago, Bernalwood went dark. I checked back every day hoping that I wouldn’t see the same news of BagelMacher at the top of the site, but it seemed that Todd and his local blog had rolled their last post on that fateful 4/20.

I went through the five stages of grief, but as I approached “Acceptance” I realized that there’s something better than simply dealing with the loss of a central neighborhood news outlet. There’s doing something about it.

And here we are! I’m starting Bernal Hype with the hopes of becoming the go-to single source of what’s happening in our little foothill community. For the most part, I’ll be focused on the area flanked by 280 on the south, San Jose/Dolores on the west, Cesar Chavez on the north, and 101 on the east:

That said, if there are big openings or events in nearby neighborhoods like the Mission, Glen Park, Noe, Bayview, or Portola that I think are of interest to fellow Bernalites, I’ll post those here as well.

I’ve set up a twitter account at twitter.com/bernalhype where I’ll be posting more often, so definitely follow there for the timeliest updates.

Lastly, much like any neighborhood, Bernal Hype gets better the more the community participates. Have an upcoming event or scoop on a new opening? Shoot me an email at bernalhype@gmail.com. Have an incredible neighborhood secret or story that needs to be told? Tell me. Want to help write or take photos or brainstorm article ideas? I’m looking to grow this from my little blog to our little blog.

Bernal Heights has given me a wonderful place to call home for the last 6+ years, and Bernal Hype is my small way of paying it forward to residents and visitors new and old.