The Burlingame Voice

Best of 2009....what category?

As 2009 stumbles to a close, let's consider the trite but true "best of" selections for Burlingame.  I have a few and you should feel free to add more:

Best fine dining restaurant:  Rocca

Best grocery store:  Mollie's

Best elementary school fundraiser:  Washington Dad's Club wine auction

Best lunch:  Bonne Sante, but Sam's does the job just fine

Best baby clothing store on Burlingame Ave:  who cares?

Best hike/bike:  the Bayfront edges out Mills Canyon by a view

Best architect:  TRG Associates

Best new building:  it looks like Walgreen's will turn out OK after all

Best Chinese food:  Hot Wok, just over the border in San Mateo, but so close they win

Can't wait to hear your selections.

Coyote Point museum revived

The S.F. Examiner has an article describing the revival of the nature museum on Coyote Point.  Reporter Andrea Koskey writes

In 2006, visits to the environmental museum in Coyote Point Park plummeted to 78,000 per year from its peak of 110,000 in 2000, said Abi Karlin-Resnick, the museum’s director of advancement.

One significant factor that contributed to the decrease, she said, was that the museum’s only exhibit — a text-based collection explaining different California habitats — had not changed in 20 years.

20 years is a long time for one exhibit so the new executive director, Rachel Meyer, took the approach that

To pull the floundering museum out of trouble, Meyer introduced interactive exhibits, rather than just the one permanent display where visitors could read about environmental change. In addition to science-based exhibits, the museum also houses live animals — including an African hedgehog and a California newt — that can be viewed up close, along with 1.3 acres of botanical gardens.

Fund-raising and attendance are growing again.  I'll designate it a Gem of Burlingame even though it's in San Mateo!

20 Year Honor

On Monday, November 16th at 7:00 p.m. the City Council will be honoring five time Mayor Rosalie O'Mahony in Council Chambers for her twenty years of dedicated service to this community.

The public is invited.  There will be presentations on a Children's Bill of Rights and an update on High-speed rail followed by the honorary proclamation for Rosalie.  After a 10 minute recess, the Council will continue with its agenda including considering the BevMo! application on the Avenue, Park and Rec fees, Rec Center seismic study update and a financial report on Q1.

Another History Lesson

KALW 91.7, a local affiliate of National Public Radio, recently featured a segment on The Source with our very own Joanne Garrison titled How the City of Burlingame Got Its Name. To hear the piece, go to

www.crosscurrentsradio.org and then enter "Burlingame" in the search box in the upper right corner.

One thing the radio station did is compare the size of the Howard's rancho (6,500 acres) to Golden Gate Park (1,000 acres).  That's fun to think about!

Copies of the book "Burlingame Centennial 1908-2008" full of such fun stories are still available for purchase at locations listed on the Burlingame Historical Society's website at

www.burlingamehistorical.org or by writing the author directly at MsJGarrison@aol.com.

History for Sale

Many Burlingame residents know that there is no official historic property list for our city.  The Burlingame train station is a listed historic property, but that's the only one in town.  This is due to the reluctance of all past city councils to vote for any of the draft lists that have been compiled.  Nonetheless, there are properties in town that have rich histories.

I recently noticed one that is for sale.  The long-time residence of Colonel Ernest Norberg has gone on the market and the brochure available in front hints at the Colonel's contribution to B'game.  Here are some more high points from his 1979 obituary.

After surviving the '06 quake, the Colonel moved to Burlingame with his family.  His father was a carpenter who built many homes in B'game.  Norberg attended Berkeley, fought in WW I and established an architectural practice in S.F. and later in B'game.

He designed the Levy Bros. building on the Avenue, the Howard Ave. Elementary School (now Washingtone School), San Mateo High School, the Casa Baywood apartments and Hacienda Garden Apartments (in San Carlos) and the Christian Science Church (in San Mateo).  He was a 20 year B'game planning commissioner, Rotarian, Legionaire, Elk, and AIA member.  The only think not mentioned is whether he designed his own house.  It can be yours for about $1.8 million.

Indepezible

How unfortunate is it that the Pez candy company has no sense of humor?  The San Mateo Daily Journal is reporting that

Connecticut-based Pez candy isn’t so sweet on the Burlingame shop boasting about housing “the world’s largest dispenser of Pez” and selling T-shirts emblazoned with “Got Pez?” The company sued owners Gary and Nancy Doss in federal court, claiming they misled people into erroneously thinking the museum and its wares are formally connected with the candy company.

The intellectual property suit was filed June 22 in the California Northern District Court and seeks unspecified damages of trademark infringement and destruction of the fraudulent Pez. In addition to the Dosses, the suit by Pez Candy, Inc. and Patrafico AG names Computer Spectrum of Burlingame.

That is a great picture of local man-about-town Gary Doss and the giant non-Pez-brand candy dispenser.  You would think Pez would appreciate the labor of love museum.

Open Thread: Memorial Day

This is an "open thread" which is a chance for you to offer your thoughts on the topic du jour.  In this case it's Memorial Day.

What does Memorial Day mean to you?  Is there a Burlingame veteran that you would like to recognize?

Burlingame isn't quite old enough to have historic cemeteries like Colma, St. John's in San Mateo or the Union Cemetery in Redwood City so we don't have the civic ceremonies that correspond to those revered grounds, but we still remember.

What is your touchstone on this day?

A House and a Home

Over the weekend I had an opportunity to view a lovely old home for sale that was being held open for the first time in 57 years.  The home is almost 100 years old and has been owned by only four families in its near-century life.  First-time Open Houses are often busy especially in Burlingame where neighbors come together to get a sense of the house’s condition and prospects.  Sometimes local realtors even hold first openings on Saturdays to give the neighbors their chance before the serioius buyers appear.

This house generated real excitement because it is special with a corner turret articulated with curved glass windows, front and back staircases, mature redwoods….you get the picture.  Once I tell you it is on a 16,000 square foot lot, you can almost sense the Olde Burlingame feeling that I felt.

The housing market is struggling in many zip codes, but this house will be a great barometer of how 94010 is doing.

A Gift for Burlingame and Others

Some ideas for gift giving:

FIREFIGHTERS ANNUAL TOY DRIVE - Firefighters will be hosting their Annual Holiday Toy Drive. All Burlingame & Hillsborough Fire Stations will be collecting new, unwrapped toys until Dec. 24th. Monetary donations can be made to:
CCFD Holiday Toy Drive, 1399 Rollins Road, Burlingame CA 94010
Info: (650) 558-7600 or email hbarahona@centralcountyfd.org

BURLINGAME'S ADOPTED SOLDIERS - the men of Bravo Company, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, are spending another holiday season in Iraq. You can purchasing items from the wish list, or by sending a tax-deductible donation to:
Burlingame-Adopt-a-Unit, c/o Don Dornell, Chairperson, P.O. Box 1912, Burlingame, CA 94011-1912. For more information please call Norma O'Connor at 342-4637 or Phyllis Everson at 344-5632, or visit the Adopt-a-Unit web pages.

BURLINGAME LIBRARY - The Library has a list of donation options you could consider this holiday season. Appropriately, the list is titled "12 Ways to Help Your Library this Holiday Season!" Click here to view the list.

BURLINGAME WISH LIST - click here for great ideas like funding a bench or a tree or two over and above donating to the Centennial Tree ...

BURLINGAME CENTENNIAL TREE - To honor Burlingame's Centennial year, the Beautification Commission is asking residents to participate in the special planting of a majestic "Centennial tree" at Cannon Park on California Drive and Lorton Avenue across from Stack's Restaurant. The tree will be planted as part of the annual Arbor Day celebrating Burlingame as the "City of Trees" to be held on Saturday, March 8, 2008, at 10:00 am. For a donation towards the "Centennial Tree," contact the Parks & Recreation Department at (650) 558-7330.

- Written by Fiona

A Burlingame Treasure

From today's SMDailyjournal.com

The bread of life'
By Anna Rendall

Forty-one years after Sister Suzanne Toolan wrote an internationally known hymn, she celebrated her 80th birthday and had a memoir published under the same name as what many know as I Am the Bread of Life.?

Toolan wrote the popular hymn while teaching chorale at Burlingame's Mercy High School. If a student hadn't overheard her the day she created the song in 1966, the hymn would not exist.

I did it in my classroom during a free period, and the bell rang, and I didn't like what I had written so I tore it up and threw in the wastebasket. And then this little freshman that was in the infirmary next door to my classroom ... came out said, What was that, it was beautiful,' so I went back and scotch taped it together,? she said.

I wish I could find her and thank her,? she said.

I Am the Bread of Life? is used by the Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist and New Lutheran churches. It also has been translated into 25 languages.

People come back from Europe and Asia they tell me they heard it there in other languages ... it's really nice,? said Toolan.

Toolan said that one of the reasons she thinks this song took off? was because it was sung in English. Toolan was one of the first composers to write music in English after Vatican II for the Catholic Church. Before, the songs were sung in Latin, she said.

The lyrics were a message of resurrection ... It's a message of hope,? Toolan said.

I Am the Bread of Life? is one of many hymns Toolan wrote. Another is Jesus Christ Yesterday, Today and Forever,? which she wrote when the pope visited San Francisco in the '80s. She likes that hymn in particular because she said it is so adaptable, it is expandable, [it] can be done easily with a small or big group.?

Toolan, with a master's degree in music from San Francisco State University, has a process to hymn-writing. First, she said, she will work at the piano and try out several things before writing it in pencil. Then, she said she will step away from it for awhile before coming back to look at it again which she calls putting it in the refrigerator.?

One hymn she wrote that has never before been published, I Will Sing of Your Faithfulness,? which is included in her memoir, titled I Am the Bread of Life.? Coauthored by the Elizabeth Dossa, the communications director for Mercy Sisters, the memoir documents everything from Toolan's childhood to her coming to the convent to her talks on prayer and religion.

In addition to writing hymns and teaching, Toolan led the transformation of the Sisters' novitiate into Mercy Center, a retreat and spirituality center in 1982. She also volunteered among many communities including inmates at San Quentin State Prison.

Dossa said it took about two years and at least? 20 interviews to write the book.

Sister Suzanne is just a marvelous treasure for the community. I kind of miss not doing those interviews anymore,? said Dossa, It was a great project.?

Dossa was the one to come up with the idea of writing a memoir on Toolan, who Dossa said helped to shape the lives of many women through her teaching.

[Dossa] came to interview me one day and I thought Oh gosh, she's going to write an article for one of our ... papers here, and we talked and the next week she came back and I thought, she must have [forgotten something], and then the third week she came back and I began to suspect this was more than just an article,? said Toolan with a smile.

Mass followed by a book signing will be held 11:15 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 11 at the Mercy Motherhouse, 2300 Adeline Drive, Burlingame. For information edossa@mercyburl.org or 650 340-7480.

- Written by Joanne