After 27 years of being dark, the Pernicano/Casa di Baffi sign lit the night this past spring. HillQuest received several emails and calls, as the community was abuzz with a spark of life returning to the old building and hoped that something positive might be happening to the biggest blight on our village. A couple of weeks earlier there had been activity in the parking lot. Could it be? Were the bulldozers there to demolish this vessel of graffiti and litter?

No, but the small house in the southwest corner of the parking lot was razed. Owner George Pernicano explained that transients had repeatedly broken in, so he decided to remove it. Of course, he said it with a bit more color. A few weeks later three police cars pulled into the parking lot. Transients had broken into the restaurant again.this time stealing copper to recycle.

The next morning as George bustled around his property, grumbling about the S.O.B.’s that broke into his restaurant, the stocky little man (now almost 90) said the broken pipes caused his basement to flood. He also cursed the community for not seeing the transients push a shopping cart away with their booty or the vandals for defacing his beloved restaurant with graffiti — the most recent addition, “Tear this bitch down!” It’s a shame. Many have fond memories of his restaurants. Large overstuffed booths and the inviting smells filled the popular eateries. (HillQuest publisher Nancy Moors even had her 1969 wedding rehearsal dinner at Casa di Baffi).

What’s to be done? Suggestions include the city declaring eminent domain, leasing to a new restaurant entrepreneur or creating a green space in the core of our neighborhood. Re: the lit sign. George thought the sign had only been on one night during the time of the break-in. Not true he was told, it had been lit for a week. “No way!” George groused between expletives, it was all a big mistake. The light went dark that night.

First published in HillQuest, an Urban Guide to 92103 & Beyond, volume 5