The Burlingame Voice

Ain't Exactly "Glee"

In the category of fame B'game may not need, this BHS grad's move to Hollywood falls well short of Balco, but it isn't exactly on par with that of another recent BHS grad who acts in the TV show Glee.  While 1.3 million views is impressive, let's hope Step 1 doesn't get out of control for her.

Merry Christmas from the Voice

B'gamers near and far, have a Merry Christmas and a prosperous, happy New Year.  Thanks for stopping by to visit the Voice.  We look forward to another year of informing the folks in town as well as the growing population of former B'gamers who are checking in from around the world on their Own Little Mayberry!

Local Sentiment on Steve Jobs

Since famous people tend to die in threes, I'm sort of waiting for the last shoe to drop, but in the meantime Al Davis and Steve Jobs certainly made an impact on the Bay Area.  Jobs had a global impact, but it is reflected locally by these flowers in front of the B'game Ave Apple store.

 

Horns a plenty

Ever wake up at 2am and think, "Why is that train engineer leaning on the horn for so long?"

Now is your chance to find out. Below is a letter that appeared in the SM Journal with all the details:

Train horns are a nuisance

September 12, 2011, 03:30 AM

Editor, If your sleep is being continuously interrupted by the loud noises of the train horn, kindly join me for a meeting with the Union Pacific Rail staff in conference room A at the Burlingame City Hall, located at 501 Primrose Ave. Burlingame  1 p.m. Monday Sept. 19. Should you know more people who share the same concern please forward this very important message to them. Please also confirm by writing to my post office box address PO Box 2071 San Mateo, CA 94401 whether you are able to attend so that I may get a head count. The meeting should not take more than one hour. I thank you in advance. Juda  A. San Mateo

Bicycle Safety Workshop

Bicycle Safety Workshop

Date: Saturday, August 20, 2011; 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM

Cost: FREE!

Location: Burlingame Recreation Center - 850 Burlingame Ave.

and

Bike Handling Skills Clinic

Date: Saturday, August 20, 2011; 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM

Cost: $30

Location: Burlingame Recreation Center - 850 Burlingame Ave.

Both Sponsored by the City of Burlingame Traffic Safety and Parking Commission, Burlingame Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee, and the Citizens Environmental Council - Burlingame

Join us for a free 60-minute Bike Safety Workshop conducted by a certified bike instructor from the League of American Bicyclists. You can expect:

• An interactive bicycle safety presentation for bicyclists (and
  drivers too!).
• Information on current traffic laws for bicyclists and drivers,
  bicycle maintenance, maps, booklets.
• To find out more about the Alliance programs for bicyclists (e.g.,
  Bike to Work Day, "Let's Roll, San Mateo County"),
  bike parking rebates for employers, and commute incentives -- for a
  'greener' Peninsula.
• To improve your skills and be more confident to ride safely on
  public streets, and enjoy a fun ride with your family and friends.
• Prize Drawings (including a $25 Starbucks gift card, a Bike Helmet,
  and assortment of Alliance bike safety items).

Instructor and prize drawings provided by the PENINSULA TRAFFIC CONGESTION RELIEF ALLIANCE. www.commute.org

RSVP by Thursday noon, Aug 18th, and get an extra raffle ticket to win a door prize.
Call Jeff @ (650) 348-1443 or E-mail the Alliance @: gina@commute.org

 

Special Bike Handling Clinic.  Want more FUN on your bike?  Take this two-hour ON BIKE, OFF STREET class to improve your bike handling skills. Learn to confidently mount & dismount, start & stop, turn, scan over your shoulder, give hand signals and use your bike's gears.

A working bicycle and bike helmet are required.  Contact Bike EducatorJohn Ciccarelli at john@bicyclesolutions.com .  Read class reviews at www.TeachStreet.com/teacher/john-ciccarelli .

Garbage Bills

The Daily Journal is covering the garbage rate hike happenings:

Burlingame residents have until the end of a public hearing Tuesday night to protest a 17 percent rate hike for all garbage and recycling that, unless successfully protested by enough customers, will take effect Feb. 1.

The Burlingame City Council will consider the increase at its Jan. 18 meeting. Letters of protest must be received by 5 p.m. Tuesday or delivered during the public hearing to be counted. As of Jan. 13, 11 protests were attached to the staff report released last week. If less than a majority of rate payers protest, the council can then vote on the increase which would go into effect Feb. 1.

Although it was unclear how many protests would be needed to block the increase, there are thousands of accounts. Finance Director Jesus Nava, however, said it was clear the letters gathered thus far didn’t come close.

Burlingame’s rate increase is based on several factors including an 11 percent cost of solid waste collection and disposal; 1.4 percent increase due to customers using smaller containers with less revenue potential; and 4.6 percent increase to pay Allied’s final bill under the expiring franchise, according to a staff report written by Nava.

Later in the article some higher increases are listed for neighboring cities!

 

Garbage reminder

The SM Daily Journal has a little reminder article about the change of garbage companies to Recology that we have been following.  The nugget in the piece is the reminder that

Recology will also collect recyclables and compost weekly, as opposed to the current system of every other week.

Good thing since the blue bins seem to be filling up early in the cycle.  Also don't forget if you have more than one compost bin they need to have a good amount of space between them so the automatic arm works properly.

Recology Gets Ready to Pick-up

I've been pondering the changes to our garbage collection for sometime.  Last week I was in Bed Bath & Beyond and stumbled across an Oggi "Kitchen pail" for $30.  It seemed like just the thing to separate food scraps from everything else right at the source so I bought it.  One nice feature is a charcoal pad in the lid to keep any errant smells under control.

Then this morning, a little pail appeared on my porch delivered by Recology!  I'm glad they're thinking ahead and helping people get the food scraps into the compost bin, but I think many B'gamers will opt to have something like the Oggi container on their kitchen counters.  Here they are:

 

Spam Control

Dear Bloggers,

You may have noticed lately that we are suffering from some spam attacks.  We've communicated with WordPress who run this TypePad-based blogging platform and they are looking at some improvements to their anti-spam defenses.  But there are no improvements in the immediate future so they are suggesting, and we have decided to implement, "moderated comments" for awhile.

This means that when you add a comment to a post, it will sit in queue until one of the editors approves it as a real comment--not a vague advertisement for sneakers, Viagra, Ugg boots or anything else.  Please be assured that any and all real comments about anything on the blog will be approved and will appear as they have in the past.

We suspect that the spam is coming from hired, human spammers in Asia and this approach may well push them to go spam elsewhere.  We can turn "moderated comments" on and off at will, so there may be times when your comment appears immediately and times when it does not.  It's sort of like cat-and-mouse while Wordpress works on the challenge.

Blog on,

The Editorial Board

Garbage Update

Garbage is on everyone's mind today as well as (still) on their curb.  Allied Waste workers went out on strike yesterday and the Daily Journal is reporting the revised schedule as

Customers scheduled for a Wednesday pickup will be serviced on Friday;
Customers scheduled for a Thursday pickup will be serviced on Saturday;
Customers scheduled for a Friday pickup will be serviced on Sunday.

Regular services is expected next week.

The SF Examiner has a piece today that I have been meaning to cover on the new company, Recology, and the single-stream recycling that is coming to B'game.  We have received mailers saying that we would get our new bins the week of Nov 25th.

The containers, which will carry recyclable paper, plastic, aluminum and glass in a single bin, will be distributed to homes and businesses in the cities between East Palo Alto and Burlingame that make up the South Bayside Waste Management Authority. The authority’s 92,000 residential customers will also get a new black cart for garbage and a green cart for organic material.

The new bins are part of the takeover of the authority’s collection service by San Francisco-based Recology, which won a hotly contested bidding process in 2008 for a 10-year contract. Allied Waste, the current contractor, will continue to run collection until Recology takes over Jan. 1.

 

I think weekly garbage and recycling is progress.