When it rains, sitting inside the “Aristocrat,” an aluminum-clad RV, is like living within a drum: Everything shakes.
Rain, said Armando Martinez, “is the only time I suffer.” He’s been living in his 1972 Ford RV with his dog, Audrey, on Bernal Heights Boulevard since October 2023.
But the rain isn’t Martinez’s greatest concern these days: It’s the revival of an old parking restriction along the street, one that will displace Martinez and others in the RV community.
While tension has brewed between Martinez, his unhoused neighbors and some disgruntled nearby residents for some time, upwards of 35 Bernal residents are intent on helping their RV-dwelling neighbors stay, at least until they find a better alternative. Within three days after the signs about limited parking were installed, the neighbors sent handwritten letters to the Mayor’s Office and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, demanding a moratorium on the enforcement of the parking restriction.
“Their life is already challenging enough,” said Florence Kelly, a resident who has lived nearby since 1984. The RV residents — there are eight who currently live along Bernal Heights Boulevard — are very careful, she added. “They keep the place well.”
Not all of their neighbors agree. Another neighbor, who requested not to be named for fear of retaliation, runs on the hill every day and said the RV residents sometimes block the sidewalk he runs along, forcing him onto the road. He has also gotten into arguments with the residents, and said that odors are an issue. “It really is a nuisance, you know,” he said. “I shouldn’t have to run in traffic.”
And, in response to complaints, the city posted seven signs on Feb. 27 along the boulevard that runs around the perimeter of Bernal Heights Park: “No parking between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office said that many residents from the area expressed support for enforcement of the parking restriction in letters, emails and during one-on-one conversations. They also noted that illegal dumping of blackwater sewage and other toxic matter along the road presents a health hazard. “As a matter of street safety and public health, long-term parking of large vehicles on Bernal Heights Boulevard is an issue we must address,” the spokesperson wrote.
The parking restriction, while not new, had not been enforced in some four years, and took Martinez and his neighbors by surprise.
“Really, there is no other place to go,” said Martinez.
The city installed signs “without telling us anything,” said Zuieymi Bolio, who lives in one of the RVs with her husband and their five pit bulls.
The advocacy of the housed residents for those living in RVs was swiftly joined by District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who argued for pausing the enforcement until March 28, 2024.
Even if that comes to pass, Martinez and his neighbors are unclear about where they will go at the end of the month.
“We are trying to figure out what those options are,” said Jennifer Ferrigno, a legislative aide to Ronen. She said the supervisor’s office is working with different city agencies to find “some real offers of alternatives.”
Ferrigno did not specify whether those alternative options would be different parking spaces, or housing.
“We don’t see, given the housing shortage, why we should be moving people out,” said Judy Kurtz, who has lived in Bernal since 1976. Kurtz helped spearhead the letter-writing campaign among her neighbors.
Life on the hill
Over the years, there have been disputes between RV dwellers and housed residents but, by and large, they have lived together in harmony, according to Martinez, the RV resident.
Locals walk past the RVs on the climb up Bernal Hill, some walking their dogs. Others avoid the steep route and just make laps around the boulevard, saying hello in passing.
One man who tends to the Bernal Heights Community Garden on Bernal Heights Boulevard told Martinez that he could use the garden’s tap, which is close to his vehicle, for water.
There, Martinez fills up five-gallon bottles with water to use for washing things.
Kurtz said having the RV dwellers keeps what is otherwise an empty street safe at night. “They help keep any crime up there down,” she said.
Kurtz first met Martinez some years ago, when the two worked as volunteers at the St. Martin de Porres House of Hospitality, a soup kitchen in the Mission. She only realized that Martinez was her neighbor around four months ago, when she was walking her dogs up the hill and ran into him.
“I have known Armando [Martinez] for many years,” she said. “I know him and care about him.”
Those in the RVs look out for one another, too. Martinez keeps an eye on his RV neighbor Darwin’s dogs while he is away at work. Likewise, when Martinez is away, Darwin keeps an eye on his vehicle and generator; his last one was stolen some months ago, along with several others.
Since moving into the RV after losing his job as a caretaker and living at a friend’s apartment in Berkeley, Martinez said he has found a sense of community, with both the RV dwellers and housed neighbors. He purchased his RV for $2,000 with his last bit of savings.
“I’m not a camping kind of guy,” said Martinez. But, he said, he likes it in Bernal now.
Living on the hill is tough. When it rains, Martinez lines a towel against the cracked window lining, and comforts Audrey the dog. If the rain overwhelms them, he leaves the RV to go stay at a friend’s house nearby.
Still, Martinez remains positive. “As long as I have a place to sleep, dry and clean, then I’m good.”
I live right next to these RVs. There is s stench of feces and urine that never existed before the city stopped enforcing parking, especially during hot days when we go weeks without rain. Moreover, the RV owner with the 3 aggressive dogs and his occasional roommate has been harassing my 13 year old daughter and her friends by blowing kisses at my daughter, and on another occasion cat-calling her and her friends as they walk our dog by. They no longer walk along that side of Bernal because they do not feel safe. Some of these RV owners have been living rent free for two plus years. They really scored considering they have monopolized that part of Bernal and use the neighbor’s houses as their personal toilets. Where else do you think they are dumping their raw sewage? This is a public space and health and safety issue. Neighbors should not have to deal with the hazardous bio-waste and teenage girls should be able to walk along this public space without being sexually harassed.
Give once and you elicit appreciation;
Give twice and you create anticipation;
Give three times and you create expectation;
Give four times and it becomes entitlement;
Give five times and you establish dependency.
Stop giving you become the enemy.
People that live in nice houses or condos are also fully capable of sexual harassment, so should we evict all homeowners as well?
Meghan’s law allows parents and other residents to check to see if their neighbors are registered sex offenders and determine how dangerous they might be. And if a neighbor was sexually harassing my daughter, I would most certainly call the police on them and if it continued, I’d go further and get a restraining order. We cannot verify if the RV men sexually harassing my daughter and her friends are registered sex offenders if they don’t have addresses; therefore, we cannot determine how dangerous they may be. Nice try trying to justify grown men sexually harassing young girls though.
I used to walk the loop around Bernal hill with my kids, and I stopped walking past this side of the hill because I did not feel safe. I have firsthand witnessed garbage/dumping, terrible smells, and blocked sidewalks from this “neighbors”. If a tax paying homeowner was doing this, the city would intervene in an instant.
I walk to the top of Bernal Heights several times a week for exercise. I have frequently encountered the stench of human waste which the RV dwellers are obviously dumping along with trash. They also sometimes block the sidewalk forcing me to walk in the street. I generally try to avoid the area now.
Most people get $100 tickets for parking in the wrong place for 5 minutes, but these folks get to violate city laws for months with no repercussions. Why?
It seems a stretch to call them “residents”.
They’re just “unconventional” residents, Mike! HEY HEY HEY
“We are trying to figure out what those options are,” said Jennifer Ferrigno, a legislative aide to Ronen. She said the supervisor’s office is working with different city agencies to find “some real offers of alternatives.”
I am a current Bernal Heights resident who reached out to the supervisor’s office a couple of years ago about the sewage, overpowering smell of feces and other waste, and mounds of black trash bags deposited under and around the RVs parked on Bernal Hill and adjacent homes. The city has had years to work out humane alternatives to the tangible public health and safety issues on Bernal Hill for the RV dwellers and residents alike, and a 3-month extension will do nothing more than kick the can down the road. While I can avoid the loop due to the sewage, bio-waste, and blocked sidewalks, those living directly adjacent to the RVs cannot and are bearing the burden of the city’s inaction. The current status quo in the name of progressive politics is not sustainable.
I am willing to bet there are no RVs parked in Pacific Heights and none in front of Hilary Ronen’s house. Such rank hypocrisy. Whether it’s malum in se crimes or malum prohibitum ones – none are enforced. The couple with six pit bulls in their trailer are not exactly the poster children for “Better RVs and Gardens” – did they ever stop and think if they didn’t have six dogs to feed they might actually save enough to find a rental. But why should they save when Ms. Ronan waves her magnanimous wand staying otherwise enforceable laws and showering these modern-day nomads with other people’s hard earned money .
Agreed. 5 dogs kinda says it all.
This article is poorly reported. The mayors office interviewed and worked with the RV owners and offered RV parking at Candlestick Point. Many of the RVers left — not sure if they took them up on the offer. The ones who are staying simply like it better on Bernal Hill (who doesn’t). Unfortunately this is not an RV park, it’s a public park next to a residential community. Of “housed” residents – gag. How about of “property tax payers” and renters. We want safe and clean streets. Sewage running down the hill is not ok. Why doesn’t anyone know where the RV garbage and waste goes? Why does no one ask. Dog attacks, women being afraid to walk on the sidewalk lined with a wall of RVs, dogs rolling in human feces, people walking and jogging on a narrow two lane street to avoid the smell and garbage on the sidewalk. No. The parking law is being enforced equally. Why didn’t these guilty moral narcissists who want the RVs to stay try to help their precious RVers? Offer your toilets, driveways? Support new housing development? Hilary Ronen works for everyone but her constituents. Good bye and good riddance. The Bernal residents have been complaining about the RVers since they arrived. Hilary said she could do nothing. Thankfully the Mayor’s office stepped up. And now suddenly we hear from Ronen and it’s to throw her district residents under the proverbial RV. Trevor Chandler please save us.
From day one Hilary Rosen has given the Nantucket wave to the quotidian workings of government – preferring instead to pontificate on war in Gaza. The former consisting of potholes, the unhoused and their detritus and the endless failure to address the drug crisis – what we actually pay her to do and actually get little bang for our buck . While the latter should be left to the experts in our Nation’s capital. I’ve personlly called and written her staff tens of times about the danger of speeding cars in my Bernal neighborhood and asking for help with the problem but like the RV problem “she doesn’t know what to do”! By the way I never even received a call. But how refreshing it was to hear her on the local news that Hillary called for an immediate cease fire in Gaza. Spoiler alert -BiBi continued the carnage. Hilary do your and fix the potholes, clean the streets, tow the car and RVs that are in violation of existing parking fines, get treatment for the drug addicts and force the mentally ill i to treatment.
The city rents a lot in candlestick for millions, but having one of the best views in the city is much more appealing. “There is nowhere else to go”. Well yes there is a whole country to go, with cheaper rent and available work, but this is easier.
Should we all just get RVs and park them for free in the best spots of the city?
If the neighbors are so concerned about them, they can take them into their homes with them until they get on their feet.
I could not agree more. Aside from the blackwater dumping, garbage, not to mention the frequent and recurring dog poop on the sidewalk from the RV housing three German Shepherds — this and more has been tolerated by the neighbors for THREE YEARS. “Nowhere else to go” is so false.
“There is nowhere else to go” is so ridiculous. There are RV parks all over the Bay Area and beyond.
Anecdote – was walking along Great Highway the other day when I overheard one of the RV campers along LGH loudly bragging to somebody how he ran a YouTube channel documenting his freelance lifestyle.
They are scammers, pure and simple. They take advantage of San Franciscans’ generosity and laugh about it.
Sure, I believe you.
I think SF has been shamed enough about not being compassionate. This city gives more than any other place, when can we actually put residents well being (physical and mental), safety for our kids and common sense before some unattainable goals. You start a conversation for people who are pushing for these RVs to stay and it’s turtles all the way down: it ends up with dismantling capitalism, reparations and white privilege (all with a foam at their mouth). How about simple common sense: you can park your RV when we build an RV park, you can set up your tent when we have a campground. We have shelter for you and also there is shelter for a lot of folks in their city of origin. We will also not let people defecate or use drugs on our streets so that we can be proud of how clean our city is.
Tow RV’s to the county where they were registered last. But tow them. Clear out Lake Merced Blvd, too.
As a nearby resident and very frequent park visitor, I would like to express my full support for the RV dwellers in my neighborhood, and across the city. The cuteness of the hill does not come before the livelihoods of our neighbors, and the answer can’t always just be go somewhere else.
Why are all these entitled rich Bernal people complaining about their neighborhood on a Mission blog? Don’t you have your own nextdoors and such??
Mission residents would gladly trade some of their homeless people for some of your homeless people, how can such a fair trade be arranged?
Also, your homeless people go to work? Wow, just wow … sounds like they at least deserve a port-a-potty. Wait, what? Bernal Hill park still has no bathroom after all these years? It is just a giant bathroom FOR RICH DOGS???? What about all those tourists and visitors? Do they have to go between cars or behind some trees? Hopefully not in your causeway …
But if you are on a mission to create some unrealistic curated neighborhood you may have moved to the wrong area — you are in the poorest quadrant of SF. Plus the local unemployment rate is increasing and for every tech layoff they are likely multiple other positions being lost in other professions. Not to mention now decades of gentrification and inequality agnst…
I’ve seen so many new commenters over the years suggesting locals move to cheaper places, but those same people may have to come back and take care of their sick or dying family. At which point I assume it would be suggested they airbnb from one of the gentrifiers just to be nearby the place they call home …
An existing City ordinance prohibits car camping and RV habitation on residential streets. Enforce the law! Make the Cow Palace and the Cow Palace parking lot available for campers. Simple, common sense solution!!
Of course Hillary Ronen supports the encampment. She’s spent her term attempting to expiate her white, middle-class burden by welcoming the homeless and services for them into the Mission disproportionately. As a result, we have RVs throughout the neighborhood, trash everywhere, and an enormous drug and black market problem.
To hell with her taxpaying constituents!
The lack of compassion is appalling … like a Michelle Obama says . When they go hi , we go low . It’s horrible how we have billionaires and unhoused victims . We need to tax the millionaires and billionaires . Get rid of prop 13 . Tax 75 % over 100k
I live in Bernal Heights and walk past those RVs frequently and never had any problems with them. I thought it was great that they can park RV there and there were abundant parking for housed residents elsewhere. As the article mentioned, their RV presence actually makes the park felt safe at night. Where can I show my support?
One option is to have these RV’s move on to your street – perhaps even in front of your house. Or you could build a casita in your backyard and offer the occupants of at least one RV to move in. You could even share compost bins. Did you know that when John Lennon wrote “Imagine” he owned five opulent homes including nearly two floors of the Dakota Building in Manhattan. “Imagine no possessions” – indeed.
Guess what, there are RVs parked on my street or in front of my house. So what is your point.
@ZW I’m going to take a wild guess that you do not have a young 13 year old daughter being sexually harassed by one of the RV owners. Our daughter and her friends don’t feel safe at all walking by those RVs at all. If you did, you would not make such a statement that the RV owners make us safer. We’ve made a police report, we’ve written Mayor London Breed’s office, and we’ve written Ronan’s office, although Ronan’s office seems more concerned about advocating for the men sexually harassing my daughter and her friends than advocating for the girls being harassed. It’s so sad when we prioritize men over the safety of girls. Glad you feel so safe walking by them though.
FYI, I changed my user name from SF Parent to SF Bernal Heights Parent to make it clear I live here.
In light of your admission I retract the first sentence of my reply. As a progression, perhaps instead you can simply put a “We (Heart) RVs” placard in your window as a show of support for the lawbreakers.
From a Bernal jogger who passes these frequently: This is truly neighborly. Kudos to the advocates for doing this.
God bless these compassionate residents. Ignore those who are more concerned about their property values than their fellow man.
now…which ones are unconcerned about their fellow man?
Property values are for people you evil marxist. Marxists create horrible societies …. ALWAYS! Just read “Before Night Falls”.
Hello, I’ve walked past these folks living the best they can and never had a problem or smelled any offensive odors! These folks have only respect for where they are living and the neighborhood!!!!
Bernal hill and Bernal park used to be some very dangerous property and park!!!! Let these respectful people camp there and let’s all be grateful they watch over the hood and themselves!!!!!!
Great story. A lot of people – usually white people – don’t view the RVers, or frankly any homeless people, as human beings. They don’t hand any understanding of or sympathy with people who are poor in America. These people feel powerless in their own lives. But they don’t have the common sense to realize the actual source of the problems in their lives – the corporate oligarchy. So they misdirect their anger at the poor, most often people of color. That misidentification of causes and misdirection of anger, and its racial and class implications, are the key to Trump’s success. So sad to see it happening in SF. I never thought that Bernal Hill was a good place for an RV community. So I have worked with my RVer neighbors to help them find other places to live. I recommend more sympathy, identification, and progressive activism to the bitter pathetic souls demonizing the RVers. It’s good for the soul.
‘usually white people’ – Huh?
‘corporate oligarchy’ – That’s a stretch
‘racial and class implications, are the key to Trump’s success.’ – WHAT THE heck
‘bitter pathetic souls ‘ – we’re your neighbors!
Can you hear yourself?
Lemme guess, no kids, renting, hates the cops.
Thanks for doing this piece. Lots of us on the Hill were mad when the city and the Chron started a witch-hunt against what are obviously some of the most squared away, organized and unproblematic homeless people in the city. It’s especially maddening that they were going after them in the name of us neighbors, many of whom have no problem with the RV camping at all. As long as they keep their spaces clean and tidy (which these folks do), we have no problem with them being here.
I checked the definition of “witch-hunt” in a few dictionaries. Not surprisingly none of the definitions made reference a citizen or group of citizens seeking to have their local government enforce extant valid regulations or laws. Tarring San Franciscans with the brush of mob vigilanteism simply because they seek to hold city officials to their sworn duty to uphold the law is – quite simply – nonsense squared.
Bernal Hill isn’t just used by its immediate residents, it’s used by many City residents and many tourists. (Just like Valencia bike lane isn’t just used by people who live a block from it. We want those businesses to thrive for the state of the City).
A move back to district elections would likely show San Franciscans are not in favor of RV’ing in non RV parks. I Hope potential D9 Sups are listening.
> what are obviously some of the most squared away, organized and unproblematic homeless people in the city
Might be true, but the bar is on the floor.