Goodbye

I can’t believe a whole semester flew by already! I still remember the day we picked our districts and my feelings of disappointment when my third choice for a district was chosen for me. I remember how I put the Fillmore as my first choice because of the convenience, the Tenderloin as my second choice because it seemed like an adventure, and Bernal Heights as my last random choice because I’ve never visited that district. In hindsight, I am so thankful I got Bernal Heights. What a lovely district I got with so many kind and helpful residents who guided and helped me with my stories, especially Buck Bagot. What a beautiful district with a rich and fruitful culture filled with history and fascinating stories. I’m still in awe with how everyone knows each other there, which helped me tremendously with getting sources.

With any other districts, I had this preconceived idea of Bernal Heights before even going there. I thought Bernal Heights was just another yuppie filled neighborhood with a bunch of dogs, babies, and boutiques. Of course, I also thought it was the reverse Castro as well because I knew there was a large lesbian demographic there.

In some aspect, some of these generalizations of Bernal Heights are true. Yes, there are a lot of dogs and babies running around. Bernal Heights even got its nickname Maternal Heights because there are so many mothers with babies there. Push aside these stereotypes and you will discover that Bernal Heights has a lot more to offer than meets the eyes.

Just like a lot of other districts in San Francisco, there is a huge disparity between the old and the new, the poor and the rich, and the non-English speaking citizens and the English-speaking residents in Bernal Heights. Gentrification is a huge issue there that many long time residents see as a threat to the mixed-income and multi-cultural atmosphere of Bernal Heights. There’s even a Bernal Heights neighborhood center whose mission is “to preserve and enhance the ethnic, cultural, and economic diversity of Bernal Heights and surrounding neighborhoods.” I shall get back to the neighborhood center shortly…

Although the influx of new residents pushed a lot of the old working class residents out, they also brought with them positive changes to the neighborhood. In the 1980s, the area succumbed to drug traffickers, daily gang-to-gang violence, and related crime that left residents living in fear. By the 90s, shops opened up, starting with Good Life Grocery and Liberty Café, and the new residents along with the community activists in Bernal Heights cleaned up the neighborhood. Robberies and daily crimes still occur, but the neighborhood crime rate definitely has changed dramatically for the better.

Throughout this whole semester, I got to learn about the internal struggle Bernal Heights faces with preserving their heritage and cultural diversity in times of change. Trying to find that balance of embracing changes and maintaining history is a difficult task that the residents of Bernal Heights face, but it is something that’s unavoidable and that is being addressed now. My final story about the library mural touches on this topic.

Anyways, back to the neighborhood center…If it weren’t for the neighborhood center, I would’ve failed and crashed in this class. I literally got all of my stories from them, starting from hood to my final trend story. I wrote about every program they offered, including their senior programs, youth programs, and low-income housing programs. The Bernal Heights neighborhood center is literally the heart of the community and I am so thankful it exists.

My first trip to Bernal Heights was the most daunting task ever! I can still vividly remember the cold sweat I got from being so nervous about approaching complete strangers. I’m somewhat of a shy person, but because of this class I had to overcome my fears of talking to strangers. Thankfully, all of the residents who I’ve encountered at Bernal Heights were all approachable, except for that one lady I wrote about in my other blog…but even then, in the end she was still helpful. This class taught me the value of talking to a stranger and learning about his/her stories. You’ll never know what interesting stories are out there until you put yourself out there. Of course, not all stories are interesting or relevant, but it’s worth the try. I can say I’ve mastered the art of bullshitting, thanks to this class.

Thank you Yvonne and everyone for a wonderful semester ☺

What journalists can learn from Sybil

Because it is the press’ job to report the truth accurately and fairly as much as possible, it is vital for them to be skeptical, without being cynical, when handling their sources by fact checking their sources until all doubts are clear. Even if the source is being genuinely truthful, a good reporter should still gather all information so that the whole story can be told. As a journalist, Schreiber was held accountable to the ethical conduct of reporting, but she fell into the trap of wanting a great story to be true by fooling herself into making it true. Even after doubting herself and finding proof to back up her doubts, Schreiber naively fell for a fake diary that Wilbur and Mason made up to quell the mountainous size of distrust Schreiber had about Mason’s story. There were so many tell-tale signs that pointed for Schreiber to trash the story, like there was no forest area for Mattie to conduct her lesbian orgies or Mason’s medical record that only showed she had depression, but Schreiber had her reputation to protect, money to make, and fame to gain. The perks were stacked so high that it caused her to abandon her journalistic integrity. The option to write another story, like a story exposing Mason and Wilbur, wasn’t even fathomable because any story would’ve been incomparable to the story she had about Mason. As a human being I can definitely empathize with Schreiber’s motive to keep the story, but I, as a journalist, know reporting anything that might seem like it’s fabricated is unethical. Readers rely on journalists to report the truth as much as possible, so we as journalists have that obligation to deliver to them honest, liable, and factual stories. A valuable lesson can be learned from Sybil and that is to be skeptical because everyone has a motive. Don’t believe everything you see or read, instead make sure to do research and form your own educated opinion. Being a little skeptical won’t harm you, instead it’s not being skeptical that can harm you, as demonstrated in Sybil Exposed.

A Week of Crime

Here is my crime map.

Theft, robbery, vandalism, and burglary from 4/19-4/20.

Not surprisingly, a majority of the petty thefts happened on Mission and Cortland Street, which are the main commercial streets.

View Larger Map

Springtime in Bernal Heights

So my original intent when I went to Bernal Heights today was to capture the beauty of the neighborhood.  Bernal Heights offers a plethora of scenic spots: Bernal hill, Holly park, Precita park, and numerous of stairwells that I still need to find myself.  The weather has been unusually nice lately, so if you have time and want to go somewhere scenic that isn’t outside of the city then I completely recommend checking out my neighborhood.

Here are just some pictures I took:

- Bernal Hill -

The Lady in the Yellow House

Generally when I talk to the residents of Bernal Heights they only have positive things to say about the neighborhood, but today I finally met someone who does not share the same sentiment as everyone else.

It all started when I took this picture of a peace sign in front of a house on the corner of Bennington and Newman Street.

As I was taking the picture, a lady and a gentleman approached me and the lady asked me, “did you know this lights up at night?”  I told her I did not and thanked her for the information.  Instinctively I knew they were residents of the neighborhood and as journalist I wanted them as future sources.  In order to go on with a conversation, I pretended to be lost and asked for directions to the stairwells.

“Which one are you looking for? There are so many,” said the lady.  “I think you should start off with Eugenia Garden.  We’re heading towards that way, so if you’ll like we can walk you there.”

Ordinarily I would be very skeptical of someone being so generous, but during my time in Bernal Heights I’ve met a hand full of genuinely nice people who were willing to help me for nothing in return.  No longer a complete skeptic, I immediately took her offer.

The couple walked with me for about six blocks.  While on our walk, we chatted about the neighborhood and about each other.

The married couple, Sharon Steuer and Jeff Jacoby, has lived in the Bernal Heights for almost 5 years already.  Sharon Steuer is an artist and author who specialize in the topic of mergence of traditional and digital art forms.  Jeff Jacoby is, to my surprise, an assistant professor in the Broadcast and Electronic Communication Art department at SF State.  They are both contributors to this very cool website called untappedcities.com, check it out if you have time.

With very precise directions on how to get to the staircases, the couple bid me farewell at the corner of Bennington Street and Eugenia Avenue.

I got to the top of the stairwell by Eugenia Avenue and Winfield Street and immediately encounter another resident of Bernal Heights, but unlike my first encounter with the married couple, this didn’t start off so well.

When I got to the stairwell, I noticed an older lady sitting on one of the cement blocks by the entrance, so as a sign of common courtesy I smiled and said “hi” to her and preceded to the stairwell to take some pictures.

I jumped on top of the ledge to capture the picture below me, and as I hopped back down to the ground the older lady shouted at me.

“Hey! What are you doing? Don’t you see there are flowers growing over there? Young kids like you are always coming over here and ruining everything,” said the lady with salt-and-pepper colored hair, black attire from head to toe, and a canary colored loose fitted cardigan.

Although I didn’t see any flowers or any signs warning people to be careful, I apologized to the lady and told her I didn’t mean to disrespect the property.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” she said in a disdainful imitation of me. “I hate it when people say sorry.  Instead of saying sorry, why don’t you do something useful and help clean up the stairwell?”

My first reaction was to label her as a cranky senior and ignore her grumpiness, but instead of judging immediately I started talking to her.

Through our conversation, I found out she’s been living in the yellow house located next to the steps for over 40 years.  Her husband died, so she lives in the house by herself and relies on her neighbor “Matty” to help with maintaining the property.

She told me that just recently a bunch of “no good hoodlums” came and tagged up the stairways, the cement blocks, and the trashcans surrounding her neighborhood.

“I wasn’t feeling well earlier, but I mustered up the strength and painted over the graffiti.  If I don’t do it, then no one will?  Who do you think maintains this area?  The City? Ha! Give me a break,” the lady said.

According to the lady, who wouldn’t give me her name, teenagers usually like to come to the stairs to “shoot up dope and cause a raucous” during the weekend.  It’s been a persistent problem that hasn’t been solved by the police or any of the neighborhood foot patrols.

She told me that she had to install security bars for her windows because she feared these teenagers would rob her place.

I asked her if she would prefer to get rid of the stairs and without hesitating she replied with a confident “yes.”

“It’s been a headache.  Why didn’t the city ask the people who live here what they want?  We are the one who has to deal with the mess,” she said.

After 15 minutes from the start of our conversation, her senior service bus arrived and swooped her away to go to the hospital.

Unfortunately, she never opened up to give me her information, but I hope that will change after I visit her again.  I would really like to use her as a source because so far she is the only person that I’ve encountered who dislikes Bernal Heights and has a completely different viewpoint from the general consensus.

I guess only time will tell if she’ll open up to me, but, boy, would she be a great source…

bottom of eugenia garden

one of the tagged trashcans on her block

newly painted blocks

that's her yellow house. right next to the stairs.

Progressive Grounds

Like many college students, I like to go to a café to work on my homework.  My reasons may be different from others, but just being in an environment where it seems like everyone else is actually working on something significant motivates me to actually do my work too.  There is this sense of obligation to be productive at a café because you do not want to be that person stealing someone else’s seat only to check your Facebook or watch Youtube videos.  It’s a silly reason, but because of that deterrence I restrain myself from getting distracted and force myself to work on my homework.

San Francisco has a plethora of coffee shops in every district, especially the Mission, but finding that perfect coffee shop that fits all of my needs proves quite difficult.  So what are my needs, you ask?

1. Outlets – I need to charge my computer so it doesn’t die while updating this blog, duh.
2. Free wifi – how am I suppose to blog this blog if I don’t even have access to the Internet?  Not just that, a lot of my work requires some sort of research online, so having wifi is crucial.
3. Good coffee – must be strong, bold and tasty.  I need to be kept awake, so the caffeine must help me with that.
4. Music – I went to Four Barrel once in the Mission and they had some sort of black metal music playing, definitely not studying music.
5. Comfortable seats – I tend to stay at a coffee shop for more than an hour, so my backside would definitely appreciate comfy seats.
6. A space to sit – I used to go to this coffee shop in Japantown called YakiniQ, but recently it’s been impossible to get a seat in there because out of nowhere it got very popular.  It’s too bad because this place had almost everything on this list of demands.
7. Parking – I refuse to pay $6 to park for two hours, so I tend to look for coffee shops with residential parking.

Not a very long list as you can see, but the search for this one coffee shop has been a long and daunting journey…until now! Thanks to this reporting class, I’ve found the perfect little café to do my homework at.  Right in the heart of Bernal Height’s commercial street on Cortland Avenue lies my new go to homework café, Progressive Grounds.  The crowd in Progressive Grounds generally consists of young adults, who like me go there to work on schoolwork or work related work, and locals of Bernal Heights who consider Progressive Grounds their regular local coffee shop.  At Progressive Grounds, I’ve discovered a new technique of finding sources.  I like to sit around for hours on end half working on my homework and half listening into the locals talk about their neighborhood. Sounds crazy, but it worked for me!   I’ve found two of my sources just from being an eavesdropper.

The layout at Progressive Grounds is quite unique as well.  There are three different sections, each one with its own distinctive atmosphere.  The front feels like a typical café with the rows of tables and benches laid out on one side of the room and on the other side is the counter where you order your drinks and food.  There’s usually an older gentleman reading his newspaper by the corner where the window is and the rest of the tables are filled up with young adults on their Macs with their headphones on.  The backroom, which you enter through a narrow hallway from the front, is very cozy and has a very tranquil vibe to it with rows of benches on both sides of the walls decorated with colorful throw pillows. This is more of the study room because everyone is on their laptop or reading a book not making a peep.  The backroom is very relaxing, and as an added bonus there are outlets for every table so that way no one has to fight to plug their charger.  From the backroom, you open a glass door that leads to the beautiful three tier back patio.  I could already envision myself in the back patio with my friends chit chatting and eating Mitchell ice cream on a nice summer day, which of course is in September/October in San Francisco.  Oh did I mention, this café serves Mitchell ice cream too? Well, they do! I’m completely going to take advantage of that when the weather permits.

So if you’re looking for a new cafe to study at, then definitely check out Progressive Grounds.  I highly recommend it.

Foreclosure Block Party

The Occupy Bernal group took their rally outside of Bernal Heights and brought it all the way to Russian Hill.

Why? Well to give the Wells Fargo Chairman, President and CEO John Stumpf a taste of his own medicine.  Occupy Bernal held a fake foreclosure auction at Stumpf’s home at 1090 Chestnut St, in San Francisco on Saturday Feb. 27.   As expected Stumpf wasn’t home, but that didn’t deter the Occupy group from the “foreclosure block party.”  Police were there for security purposes, but everything went off well and without a hitch.

I, unfortunately, got there an hour late (at 2pm), so by the time I got there more than half of the people disbanded.  Fortunately, I was able to take some photos, so hope you guys and gals enjoy!

I didn’t get his name, but this photo makes me laugh so I’m going to post it anyways.

Shaun Cartwright from Occupy San Jose

Chestnut Street was blocked off from Larkin to Hyde Street

John Stumpf lives somewhere in there

Occupy Oakland was there too. This lady was taking a picture of Stumpf's view from his condo.

And this is the view. Not too shabby I must say.

Love Thy Neighbor

With the hustle and bustle of city life, who actually has time to get to know who their neighbors are?  Factor in more than 800 thousand people in a city that’s only seven-by-seven square mile as well, getting a cup of sugar from your neighbor just seems impossible.  I for one do not know my neighbors.  Living in an apartment building with only eight units, you would expect me to know everyone’s first and last name, but sadly I do not know one single tenant’s name.  I could easily tell you my upstairs neighbor’s work out routine and I could tell you what the person below me listens to, but when it comes to their names I will draw a blank.  The concept of knowing thy neighbors and forming a community is something that is lost in a big city like San Francisco, but to my pleasant surprise I discovered that it is possible to live in this city and have a sense of community.

Bernal Heights, one of the most overlooked districts in San Francisco, defies the stereotype of city life and actually feels like a real neighborhood.  People actually say hi to one another when walking down Cortland Street, Bernal’s main commercial street, and neighbors actually know one another, so much so they even have each other’s keys.  Weird! I know.

Within this community, neighbors look out for one another.  When news broke out that almost 80 Bernal residents were endangered of getting evicted from their homes, the folks in Bernal Heights organized and created Occupy Bernal to help their vulnerable neighbors.  They got a list of struggling homeowners and started walking door-to-door offering their assistance.

Life insurance agent Alberto Del Rio struggled for 2 ½ years fighting to keep his house that his parents bought in 1973.  Like many, Del Rio felt ashamed of the predicament he was in, so he fought for himself and got nowhere.  Wells Fargo denied him any loan modifications and even got to the point of threatening to foreclose his home.  It was not until Occupy Bernal came in Wells Fargo started to negotiate.

“We have accomplished more in 60 days than the 2 ½ years I’ve been fighting,” Del Rio said. “They have done so much more than I could’ve done.  I’m very grateful that they’ve been there.”

Because of the persistency of Occupy Bernal, Del Rio was able to postpone his foreclosure auction for another 90 days plus a chance of renegotiation.

“Everybody collectively helped me a lot in a form that I don’t have to really walk with too much shame.  It is still there because the process isn’t over.  But the one thing you have to do is fight, you have to be willing to stand up and fight and put yourself out there,” said Del Rio to other people who are struggling.

The 101 on Bernal Heights

- Get to know Bernal Heights in Two Minutes -

Although this is an advertisement video to entice prospective homeowners to move to Bernal Heights, it’s still a good video to get a quick and easy glimpse of what Bernal Heights has to offer.

- Where the heck is Bernal Heights at? -

Map of Bernal Heights

Bernal Heights lies south of the Mission, east of Glen Park, west of the Bayview, and north of Portola.

- How to get to Bernal Heights -

      

Bernal Heights 67

Divisadero 24

If you have a car, then I would advise you to just drive your car to Bernal Heights because there are plenty of residential parking spots where you can park for free, and, on top of that, you will be avoiding a very steep hill.

Don’t have a car?  Not a problem!  Both the 24 Divisadero line, which runs from Pacific Heights to Bayview, and the 67 Bernal Heights line, which starts at 24th and Mission St., can take you to Bernal Heights’ commercial district on Cortland Avenue.