The Cheese Boutique is selling out as much inventory as possible in anticipation of its move next door. Photo by Michael Waldstein.

Saturday’s Glen Park Merchants Sidewalk Sale was the perfect chance for Cheese Boutique Cheese Boutique owners Rachid (“Rick”) and Nada Malouf to sell down their stock as they prepare to move one door up to 660 Chenery, into the space currently occupied by the Dalere Beauty Salon. The salon will move into a smaller space in back of the building.

The shift came about when 666 Chenery St., the space occupied by the cheese shop since 1993, was sold late in 2011. The new owners are Dean and Jeanne Eriksen, who plan to open a “self-service” membership fitness gym on the same plan as their Bernal Heights location, Fit Bernal Fit.

The Malouf’s worked on Saturday to sell as much merchandise as possible so they wouldn’t have to carry it out and to the new store. By all accounts, it was a major success.

Julian manning the sales table at P’tit Laurent. Photo by Michael Waldstein

Photo by Michael Waldstein.

Many other merchants on the Chenery/Diamond access took part in the Sidewalk Sale, an event coordinated by the Glen Park Merchants Association and part of San Francisco Small Business Week.

Join the Glen Park Merchants this Saturday, May 19^th 

as they participate in San Francisco Small Business Week

                 Glen Park Hardware, Critter Fritters, Dalere’s Beauty Salon and other participating merchants will offer goodies along with

 Perch and MODERNPAST who will be offering 10% off everything with additional merchandise up to 50% off

also “BUY RICK OUT” Event

Help the Cheese Boutique sell down their products before they make the move 

to their new location, one door up! 

Were calling it “Buy Rick Out”

All this fun on Saturday May 19 

Times will vary, for different Merchants, between 9am and 7pm

Food! Bake Sale! Live Music!

All to benefit your neighborhood bookshop and its cultural programming.

Raffle with three big baskets of Glen Park goodies!
plus lots of miscellaneous cool stuff!

Music by the talented youth from The Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, including the “New Arrival” latin jazz ensemble & much more! The Don Prell/Scott Foster/Tom Hassett trio will kick it off at 2pm. Festivities go to 6 pm.

Chili and a White Bean/Shitake Mushroom/Leek stew cooked by Jerry Ferraz!

Raffle donors — virtually all Glen Park businesses and friends — include:
Buddies Market – Canyon Market – Carlota del Portillo – Cathy Horton – Chenery Park Restaurant – Critter Fritters – Destination Bakery – Ellen Rosenthal – Eyedentity Vision – Friends of Glen Canyon – Glen Park Cleaners – Glen Park Hardware – Glen Park Mail Depot – Glen Park Nails – Great Clips – Hong Sing Restaurant – Julie Salzman – Laura Davis – Le P‚tit Laurent – Manzoni – Modern Past – Nellie Wong – Pebbles Cafe – Perch – Richard Davis – Rockit Swirl – Sassy Salon – The Park Salon – Tyger‚s Coffee Shop

Raffle tix are $3 ea. or four for $10! Buy a lot! The three baskets are easily worth $100 a piece.

It’s a fundraiser, and we do need your funds!

Thanks!

Eric, prop. since 1999
Bird & Beckett Books & Records
653 Chenery, in San Francisco’s Glen Park neighborhood
www.birdbeckett.com

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Mitch Badran, raised in Glen Park and a daily presence at Higher Grounds for 28 years, died of congestive heart failure on February 14th. Mitch was 82 years old. At the time of his death, he lived on Chilton Street, a house that had been in his family since 1951.

He is survived by his daughter Emily, his son-in-law, Emily’s mother Sharon Dezurick (former Glen Park library branch manager) and several nephews and nieces.

Mitch spent his 1930s and 1940s boyhood in a corner house on Laidley and Mateo Streets. He graduated Commerce High School in 1947, enlisted in the U.S. Navy and eventually became an electrical technician for PG&E, Fairchild, and United Airlines before he retired in 1982.

Family and friends gathered at his Chilton Street house on May 6th and remembered him. The common denominator threading itself through remembrances was how you could take the electrical technician and mathematician out of his laboratory and classroom but never the laboratory and the classroom out of Mitch Badran.

“There wasn’t anything he couldn’t fix,” said Marion Bellan, who babysat Emily and whose sister, Rosemary, was Mitch’s companion for decades. “Mitch was tenacious, he’d go on and on until any appliance was fixed.”

His Chilton Street downstairs garage bespoke of this. A workbench housed well-used rows of tools, each aligned in military parade ground precision, while the ceiling, crisscrossed with electrical conduits, ended in a state-of-the art service box affixed to a wall.

“After Mitch put in the wires,” said his nephew Dave Peel, “the City inspector wanted his electricians to take a tutorial from Mitch on how to do the job correctly.”

“A favorite memory I have of my father,” said Emily Dezurick-Badran, “is the inscription he wrote beneath his senior class yearbook photo. It said ‘I want to be a radio technician on the moon.’”

“I attribute most of my knowledge from Mitch to when we’d go hunting and he’d drill me on transistors.” said Dave Peel, who parlayed his uncle’s woodsy Socratic seminars into a full time instrumentation technician job in Pacifica. “We had an old black and white TV on the blink when I was a kid and Mitch took the back off it and repaired it.”

“Mitch had an amazing memory,” said Carol Badran, a niece and a 1972 graduate of Jefferson High School who teaches at City College of San Francisco. “Years later he’d volunteer things about me I’d forgotten.”

Mitch retired when Emily came along, wanting to watch her grow up.

“Emily was his life,” said Marion Bellan.

If his daughter was his life, so was mathematics. On any given morning or afternoon on any day he’d jog around Lake Merced or shoot baskets in Glen Canyon’s pit gym before arriving at Higher Grounds, settling over thumbed-through physics and calculus textbooks.

“Mitch filled spiral notebooks with math problems,” remembered Mary Huizinga, who lives on Laidley Street and often watched Mitch puzzle over differential equations while he nursed a cup of coffee. “He even notified publishers when he found mistakes in the textbook or the answers.”

“I was used to seeing him doing his numbers,” said Greg Adams, a Higher Grounds regular who lives on Foerster Street. “I’ll miss him.”

“My father made a New Year’s resolution in 1980,” said Emily, holding several of Mitch’s handwritten diaries and journals. “He promised to make an invention a day, one thing a day for an entire year.”

She fingered one of Mitch’s carefully written journals.

“He made it only to March 31st,” she smiled.

“Mitch built a Barbie doll house for Emily,” said Mary Huizinga, who often walks her dog Chester through the village. “He even installed a working elevator!”

“Mitch kept everything Emily ever did,” said Dave Peel, as he walked through Mitch’s garage. Kitty-corner to Mitch’s wrenches, hammers, screwdrivers and pliers, across the room from deer antlers he had accumulated from countless hunting trips to Mendocino and Humboldt counties, hung memorabilia from Emily’s school years.

Tacked to a garage wall, testimony to his affection for his daughter, a collage Emily made stared out, entitled, “Math Never Tasted So Good!”

Liking his routines, even his solitude, but not so much that he wouldn’t occasionally sacrifice each to travel with Rosemary, Mitch was disciplined, especially about his health.

“At a time in the 1970s when it wasn’t common for people to be in shape,” recalled Greg Adams, a Balboa high school graduate, “Mitch would shoot hoops at the gym by himself for hours.”

“He never missed a shot,” said Manhal Jweinat, owner of Higher Grounds, “and he always watched his weight.

“Mitch was a health nut and so disciplined,” agreed Marion Bellan. “He’d eat a donut and throw half of it away.”

“Mitch would go to Greenbrae and swim in Rosemary’s backyard pool,” said Dave Peel, who attended Sunnyside Elementary and Riordan High School, “and because it was so small he’d do a gazillion laps.”

On May 6th, Mary Huizinga handed one of Mitch’s diaries to a neighbor, who leafed through it, randomly selecting a page from 1980.

Mitch had inscribed:

“January 2nd – Built a can opener. January 4th – Built a clock. January 6th – Built a shampoo holder. January 8th _ Built a screwdriver holder. January 21st – Built a handle for garage door.”

“Mitch was comfortable with himself, always stoic, and he wanted no speeches,” said Dave Peel. “He wanted to keep things simple.”

An entry from another of Mitch’s journals, though, this one dated September 18, 1964 speaks to matters that were anything but simple. Mitch wrote:

“Trig class tonight. Sure going to keep us busy. Our workbooks are from the University of Nebraska. We have 88 problems over one-and-a-half weeks. Each problem contains many others.”

Mitch dressed as simply as he conducted his life, commonly seen in his familiar warm-up jacket zippered over a T-shirt.

“When we went through his things,” said Carol Badran, “we found so many T-shirts with the American flag on them.”

Understated as he was trim and fit, Mitch didn’t wear his patriotism on his sleeve, only close to his heart.

Family and friends scattered Mitch’s ashes beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, along with rose petals on March 24th.

“Afterward we celebrated his life with a bit of Armenian brandy,” Mary Huizinga said.

“To Mitch,” everyone toasted, keeping it simple. “It was great knowing you.”

Effective Saturday May 12, Lieutenant Greg Yee will be assigned to the Ingleside day watch as their new platoon commander.  Greg comes with a wealth of administrative knowledge and has over 20 years of experience.

Ingleside continues to be plagued by residential burglaries where bicycles are stolen.  If you have a bicycle, please write down your serial number so that if your bicycle is stolen, we have a better chance of recovering it and returning it to you.  Even though it is in your garage, I recommend you lock up your bike with a strong lock to deter thieves.

We have also seen an uptick in illegal dumping of trash in the Bernal Heights and New Mission areas.  Not only is this type of dumping unsightly, but it is also a public safety issue as most often this trash also contains toxic and hazardous materials.  Residents should report all suspicious persons and vehicles.

New Ingleside Anonymous Tip Line.  I have reinstituted the Anonymous Tip Line here at Ingleside.  This is not a replacement for calling the police in cases of emergencies or something that requires an immediate response but if you suspect something that needs a future investigation, you can call.  This line will be checked once daily.  The number is:  (415) 404-4035.

Notable Incidents– With the recent rash of auto thefts, members of Ingleside Station partnered up with Mission Station officers in a joint operation targeting auto thefts.  Several vehicles were recovered and one person was arrested getting into a stolen vehicle.  This person had arrest warrants in San Francisco and San Mateo for auto theft, was also on parole for auto theft and had master keys in his possession.  Job well done by both stations!

Our next Ingleside Community meeting of this year will be held on May 15, 2012 at 7:00 pm at the Ingleside Community Room.   Greg Crump from the Department of Public Works will be on hand to introduce himself and to discuss illegal dumping.

Emerging Crime Trends—Please be aware of a recent spate of thefts where females drive up in cars, ask to use your cell phone—and then drive away with it.  The cars have been described as a red or gold 4-Door car.

Attention Mazda Miata owners—recently, there have been thefts whereby the thief has stolen the entire hard top of the car.

Remember— if you “See Something—Say Something!”

Captain Daniel J. Mahoney

The following are crimes from the Ingelside Station Newsletter

Saturday, May 12

1:30pm          San Jose & Randall St           Vehicle accident

Friday, May 11th

11:24am              100 Blk Laidley St               Burglary

Officer Morrow responded to a report of burglary.  The witness reported finding two interior doors open that are normally closed.  The lights were on as well, that are usually turned off.  Three bicycles were missing from inside the premise.  Report 120374216

Thursday, May 10th

1:55pm          200 Blk Surrey St                    Recovered vehicle

2:00pm          100 Blk Randall St                   Stolen vehicle

Wednesday, May 9th

12:51am     5400 Blk Diamond Hghts       Battery

Officer Almaguer was dispatched to SFGH for a report of battery.  The victim told the officer that early in the evening, she exited the MUNI on Diamond Heights Blvd.  The victim began walking when she was approached by four suspects.  The first suspect asked the victim what her name was.  The victim attempted to ignore the suspect and continue walking.  The victim was suddenly grabbed and thrown to the ground.  On the ground, the suspects repeatedly kicked and punched the victim.  She briefly lost consciousness.  When she came to, the suspects had fled.  The victim went home and had her mother drive her to the hospital.  The victim suffered from a swollen nose, several small cuts and a chipped tooth from the incident.  Report 120370377

Tuesday, May 8th  Nothing in the report from Glen Park

  Monday, May 7th

8:34pm       2800 Blk Diamond       Theft

While working at Ingleside Station, Officer Leong was approached by a female victim who wanted to file a report. The victim said that she was at a gym on Diamond, taking some classes when an unknown suspect walked inside the gym, and began asking staff questions about joining. He then went on to ask the staff members for tissue, for which he was directed to go to the back of the gym, where all of those attending the class place their items. At the end of the class, the victim noticed that her wallet, and several other items that she had in her purse were missing. She believes that it was the unknown suspect who took her belongings but she had no proof of this. Another gym member also claimed to have items taken from her purse. No arrests have been made at this point. All parties were provided with follow up information.  There were no surveillance cameras in the areas which might have captured the incident.  Report number 120364160

6:00pm     Mission/Randall        Traffic collision

 Sunday May 6th      Nothing in the report from Glen Park

Saturday, May 5th

4:50pm       200 Blk Randall St                 Burglary

Officers Morse and Gomez responded to a burglary report.  Upon leaving her residence, the victim secured all doors, however, the deadbolt on the front door was broken, so she was only able to lock the door by the lower lock.  The victim returned home and did not find anything out of place initially.  Later, she realized that some of her jewelry was missing from her jewelry box, but the less expensive jewelry remained untouched.  The victim had no idea who would have entered her residence, but acknowledged that the house was under construction with workers coming and going.  The victim did not suspect any of the workers.  There were no signs of forced entry into the residence.  Report 120357579

Wednesday May 2, Thursday May 3 & Friday May 4 Nothing in the report from Glen Park

Tuesday, May 1st

9:23am       200 Blk 30th St                           Burglary

Officers Martinez was dispatched to a report of burglary.  The witness had arrived at work and got into the elevator that took her to the second floor.  When the doors of the elevator opened, the witness saw the suspect standing in the hallway.  The witness immediately ran to her office and locked the door.  A second witness arrived and saw the suspect. He asked the suspect what he was doing, and the suspect told the witness that he was lost.  The second witness escorted the suspect out of the building.  Officer Martinez viewed the surveillance footage, which showed the suspect prying the door open to gain access into the building.  Several items were later found stolen.  Report 120344946

11:10pm     300 Blk Sussex St                        Burglary

Officers Baldovino and Contreras were dispatched to a burglary report.  The victim secured his residence prior to leaving in the afternoon.  Upon his return later in the evening, the victim entered his residence and realized that several of his personal items had been stolen.  The victim believed that the suspect may have entered through one of two windows, but the officers were unable to find any evidence of forced entry at either window.  The victim told the officers that the only person with access to his residence is the person he hires to clean it.  Report 120346992

 Sunday May 6th      Nothing in the report from Glen Park

Saturday, May 5th

4:50pm       200 Blk Randall St                 Burglary

Officers Morse and Gomez responded to a burglary report.  Upon leaving her residence, the victim secured all doors, however, the deadbolt on the front door was broken, so she was only able to lock the door by the lower lock.  The victim returned home and did not find anything out of place initially.  Later, she realized that some of her jewelry was missing from her jewelry box, but the less expensive jewelry remained untouched.  The victim had no idea who would have entered her residence, but acknowledged that the house was under construction with workers coming and going.  The victim did not suspect any of the workers.  There were no signs of forced entry into the residence.  Report 120357579

Wednesday May 2, Thursday May 3 & Friday May 4 Nothing in the report from Glen Park

Tuesday, May 1st

9:23am       200 Blk 30th St                           Burglary

Officers Martinez was dispatched to a report of burglary.  The witness had arrived at work and got into the elevator that took her to the second floor.  When the doors of the elevator opened, the witness saw the suspect standing in the hallway.  The witness immediately ran to her office and locked the door.  A second witness arrived and saw the suspect. He asked the suspect what he was doing, and the suspect told the witness that he was lost.  The second witness escorted the suspect out of the building.  Officer Martinez viewed the surveillance footage, which showed the suspect prying the door open to gain access into the building.  Several items were later found stolen.  Report 120344946

11:10pm     300 Blk Sussex St                        Burglary

Officers Baldovino and Contreras were dispatched to a burglary report.  The victim secured his residence prior to leaving in the afternoon.  Upon his return later in the evening, the victim entered his residence and realized that several of his personal items had been stolen.  The victim believed that the suspect may have entered through one of two windows, but the officers were unable to find any evidence of forced entry at either window.  The victim told the officers that the only person with access to his residence is the person he hires to clean it.  Report 120346992

Focus on SOTA!

On Saturday, May 19th, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm, join us up at the Miraloma Clubhouse, 350 O‚Shaughnessy (at Del Vale) for an afternoon of good food, libations, community spirit and LIVE MUSIC! featuring “New Arrival” — a terrific young latin jazz ensemble — and more incredible vocal and instrumental talent from SOTA — the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts — the performing arts public high school that sits at the rim of Glen Canyon!

$10 tix!
Raffle!
Buy your tickets at the door or call the bookshop to reserve.
Proceeds help your neighborhood bookstore/cultural institution survive and flourish!

Neighbors! Can you help us out with the Bash and help us spread the word?

We’d love to put you to work — we need to get the word out as far and wide as possible. Fast! If you can hang a poster in a strategic place, hustle down to the bookshop this weekend and pick one up. Also, tell your friends to tell their friends!

We can also use help at the Bash itself, selling B&B merchandise, soliciting folks for direct donations to our nonprofit org, managing the raffle/auction, selling/serving food and drink. In advance, help us procure or just pick up and deliver food and drink to sell, as well as items to raffle off, etc. etc.Proceeds help your neighborhood bookstore/cultural institution survive and flourish!

Come by the bookshop around closing time (6-7pm) Monday or Tuesday and chat with Eric, the owner, if you think you can lend a hand. We’ll find something for you to do if you’re game. Call if you can’t stop by.

Thanks!
/s/ Eric Whittington, proprietor, since 1999
Bird & Beckett Books & Records
in San Francisco’s Glen Park neighborhood
415-586-3733
www.birdbeckett.com

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They say if you pass the Bird & Beckett

in the wee hours of the morn,

you might hear the strains of the K.C. Blues—

‘ lest that’s according to Village lore.

Some say that just above the tenor sax

the voice of Samuel Beckett quips:

“Let us not waste our time in idle discourse!”

Bird fills in the silences with disquieting riffs.

“No, I regret nothing,” Beckett will confound

“All I regret is having been born,

dying is such a long tiresome business

I always found.”

All night long they jam together,

in a play of words and be-bop

‘til the Village awakens

“Quick, to the back of the shop!”

Where the two will curl up

in a corner dust heap

and saying goodnight

they’re soon fast asleep.

©Stephen Labovsky 2008

California poppies blooming in Glen Canyon – May 3, 2012

Story and photos by Murray Schneider

After spending two hours pulling Italian thistle along a steep Glen Canyon hillside, five Friends of Glen Canyon Park volunteers and one Natural Areas apprentice followed Recreation and Parks manager Randy Zebell on a one-hour tutorial wildflower walk.

Randy Zebell, Natural Areas manager, standing on Glen Canyon hillside, giving Friends of Glen Park Canyon Park a wildflower tour.

“Watch for poison oak,” Zebell said, as he guided the group along a twisting path above Alms Road, which eventually ended only a few yards from the scene of last year’s tragic Berkeley Way fire.

Only minutes before, the volunteers had left behind their mattocks, tarps and yellow pop-up bags. Now collapsed, the pop-up bags listed inside a Rec and Parks truck flat bed loaded with uprooted thistle, which, if left unabated, could lead to a monoculture inimical to the botanical diversity so highly prized by Natural Areas stewards.

“Be careful,” cautioned Zebell, as he directed the volunteers along the precipitous slope. “It’s slippery.”

The volunteers, all retired but not unfamiliar with the serpentining paths, were careful to negotiate a swath, loose with stones. Poison oak bordered both trail edges, its oily green leaves sweating in the morning sun.

The group, two former school teachers, one former postal worker, a former IT and an artist, passed blankets of purple needle grass and June grass.

“Look at all the yarrow,” said Zebell.

They inched upward, gaining purchase on the sliding pebbles. They passed hummocks of pink sticky monkey flower and purple coyote mint. Striding past some coastal oaks, they came into view of blossoming blue dick and some owl’s clover.

One of the volunteers asked why the native was called owl’s clover and was told that the tiny plant boasted owl’s eyes embedded among its leaves.

The group continued to climb, gathering its second wind as Crags Court came into sight.

California poppies canvassed the cliff and craggy chert formations erupted from the slope, serrated and a bit ominous.

Zebell went off trail. The group followed. He pointed above him.

“Up here,” he said, “I think we can find some brownie thistle.”

Zebell led the volunteers through native grasses, many he had personally reseeded in his effort to fight invasive radish and mustard that threaten native shrubbery and grassland.

“There,” he said. He pointed to a clump of cup-like white plants hugging the ground. Each had the appearance of sea-going anemone. They lay nestled among breeze-blown grass, spiny but benign, not at all like the Italian thistle with which the volunteers had earlier engaged in combat.

Kay Westerberg, a volunteer who lives on Chenery Street, pointed a camera and snapped a photograph while a chorus of robins sang near by. Bumblebees hovered above a stand of bee plant and a circling red-tailed hawk swooped, scouting for a meal of mice or gopher.

“Brownie thistle is uncommon in the City,” lectured Zebell, who has served the City for 12 years and holds a BA in biology and a MA in conservation biology.

Steven Uchida removing a single stalk of Italian thistle during wildflower walk – May 2, 2012.
California poppies blooming in Glen Canyon – May 3, 2012

Steven Uchida, a volunteer who lives on Monterey Boulevard, tugged a mattock from his belt, eyeballing a solitary stalk of Italian thistle. Kneeling, he swung the tool and it perforated the earth with a muted thump. Uchida pulled its root, unearthing it, tucking it away so he could dispose of it later.

The group soldiered past more yarrow and morning glory and a pocket of yellow sun cups.

Getting close to their weekly quitting time, they bunched together preparatory to their descent down the final incline. The trail was steep, and Indian file they gingerly navigated their way, leaving in their wake a forest of Italian thistle that cluttered the ravine.

Rarely seen California native Brownie thistle, high on the slopes of Glen Canyon – May 3, 2012

Zebell gestured to a horizon of healthy grass where a year before he’d used a string trimmer to reduce mustard that threatened the slope’s biodiversity.

“This was a challenging place to work,” he said.

Now the mustard was all but erased. In its place, coyote mint and checkerbloom flourished.

Jean Conner, Mary Huizinga and Kay Westerberg on a wildflower walk – May 2, 2012.

The group reached the canyon floor, looking forward to its weekly ration of cookies and water, provided by its mangers, the cash-strapped Natural Areas Program, whose mission is to restore and enhance 32 City natural areas while developing and supporting community-based stewardship of these sites.

Veteran volunteer steward Kay Westerberg looked back over her shoulder where the California natives now comingled in harmony.

“That’s a success story,” she said. “It means it can be done.”

Anyone interested in volunteering for weekly Recreation and Park Natural Area Program Glen Canyon Park work parties can contact Jean Conner at 584-8576 or Joe Grey, volunteer coordinator at Joe.Grey@sfgov.org.