The Burlingame Voice

Drought 2021: Here We Go Again

I'm still bothered by state Sen. Scott Weiner's naïve response to a water question he got during his visit to B'game almost two years ago.  When asked "where will the water come from to support all the new housing (and people) you are demanding?" his response landed squarely between "I don't know", "We should look at that" and "It's not my concern".  Two years have passed--both drought years -- and we are no closer to a state-wide plan than we were then.  There's always something "more important" getting in the way and yet the development addicts seem able to press on with their demands.

Here in B'game, the every five-year update to our Urban Water Management Plan is behind schedule.  Public works has been swamped (no pun intended) with parklets, paving projects, going green and adding traffic lights and signage.  The next update will be the first to comply with a new state mandate that it examine a five-year drought instead of only a three-year episode.  That should make for interesting reading when the first draft comes out--hopefully soon.

In the meantime, here we go again according to the Comicle

The state’s monthly snow survey on Tuesday will show only about 60% of average snowpack for this point in the year, the latest indication that water supplies are tightening. With the end of the stormy season approaching, forecasters don’t expect much more buildup of snow, a key component of the statewide supply that provides up to a third of California’s water.

Urban water agencies, meanwhile, are asking customers to think twice about long showers and outdoor watering. The calls for austerity will feel familiar to many Californians who less than five years ago faced mandatory water restrictions during the 2012-2016 drought.  More importantly, the northern Sierra’s 8-Station Index, which tracks rain in the region where California gets the bulk of its water, measured only 45% of average precipitation.  While March and April could still bring rain, the heart of the wet season is over. Much of the state is now poised to have a top-10 dry year.

As an avid skier, I can recall several Miracle Marches and even an Amazing April or two, but let's face it, the people who are trying to overbuild the Bay Area just don't care.  It's time some other leaders stepped in and called for a reset, a review, a plan and compliance.

Dividing Up the High School Board

An activist lawyer out of Malibu is causing all sorts of disruption to a multitude of city councils--to no useful end, in my opinion, and perhaps even to the detriment of residents' representation.  That seems to be the consensus among the people I have spoken to in town.  We discussed it last year here.  Now the "trend" is moving towards the high school boards of trustees.  The Daily Journal notes:

Acknowledging the legal challenges associated with defending the status quo, school board President Robert Griffin said it appears as if the shift to district elections is inevitable.  “It seems to be the direction that everyone is going,” he said. “And we are going to abide by the law. We have to.”

As it stands, candidates who receive the most votes in a districtwide election are awarded seats on the school board. Under the by-district system, officials would approve an electoral map dividing the districts into wards, where candidates must live and seek support from voters within those borders.

Critics of the by-district system often claim it promotes balkanization and encourages elected officials to only defend the interest of their constituency, rather than the entire community.

In some ways I think this district approach makes more sense for a sprawling multi-city school district even if all of the negatives are still present.  It's just plain stupid in a city of 28,000 people.  As one commenter noted on the city council post, this seems like a consultant and attorney full-employment move.  Where are the state legislators who can do something about the state election law?  Too busy with saving the globe and being woke?

If You Like Your House, You Can Keep It.....

I have been mulling over this post for a couple of months.  That is because it is so distressing.  But some things just need to be said.  When Paloma Ave. made a comment on the natural gas ban post today, it was the match that lit the fire.  Here is his/her/their comment:

I just read in the SF Comicle that Berkeley is now discussing banning single family neighborhoods.  Didn't Berkeley start the trend to ban natural gas, which our City Council decided they should also ban?  Question to the City Council: Will you also try to ban Single Family Homes in Burlingame? After all, wouldn't that be the woke thing to do?

I'm struck by the follow-the-lemming aspect of it all.  Jon Mays at the Daily Journal had an editorial about the follower mindset among city councils here.  Jon let these councils off easy by noting "To be clear, the following is not a judgment, but rather an observation."  Another observation, mine, would be that city councils need to stand up for their communities even if it means slinging a stone at Goliath.  Nowhere is that more important than in the protection of the neighborhoods.  Let's face it.  The housing thugs in Sacramento are Goliath and they have it in for single family housing.  It has been in the works for awhile as I noted here.  Personally, I think it is an unhealthy sign of envy, but that is a topic for another day.

What they have already done is today's topic--Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs are coming to a lot near you.  The first one in my neighborhood just got into the planning queue.  But it's not a restrictive queue.  I have it from multiple informed sources that the city has minimal control over ADUs.  Sure they can dither over whether 16' or 20" height limits should be imposed, but the bottom line is Sacramento has turned the whole state into R2 zoning with no input from the public.

Some predictions have a very high probability.  Here's one.  If your residential street has a parking problem now, expect it to get worse in five years.  City councils will have to get very smart quickly.  Maybe the ADU "granny unit", as they used to be called, really is for granny.  Maybe it's a perfect Work From Home office.  But maybe it's the AirBnB ticket that helps pay the mortgage and has no effect on local affordability.  Maybe your kid will live in it.  Maybe all of the above.  Anyway you look at it, it's more density and that has ramifications that will reveal themselves as we go.

  

 

"The Problem With Spending Time in Burlingame is....

....you just don't want to go anywhere else."

So says Nate Pfaff who has created the best video tribute to life in our little burg you are likely to ever see.  Find it here on YouTube.  Exceptional work!

High-Cost Rail- Part 153 Bait and Railroad Switch

The never ending saga of high-cost rail cash bleeding away in stunning amounts continues unabated.  But there is new news on a bait and switch on the actual construction as reported by the Fresno Bee yesterday.  Here are the lowlights

The authority, (Rail Authority CFO Brian) Annis said, has already exhausted most of its other sources of money for the Madera-to-Shafter work, for which the cost is now estimated at about $13.8 billion. That new estimate is about $1.3 billion more than what was forecast a year ago by the agency.

The quarterly cap-and-trade auctions have generally amounted to an average of about $180 million for the high-speed rail authority, Annis said. But the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic knocked the May 2020 auction down to only about $6 million. That auction, and two subsequent auctions in August and November, cost the agency about $288 million in projected cap-and-trade income, officials estimate.

You have to love the use of the verb "cost" here.  The quote of the year so far is

“Hoping that the federal government will come in and save your asses is not a business plan,” said David Schonbrunn, president of the nonprofit Transportation Solutions Defence and Education Fund, or TRANSDEF.

But here is the bait and switch on construction

Additionally, the business plan now calls for building a single set of tracks, instead of two, along most of the 119-mile stretch. (CEO Brian) Kelly said one set of tracks would allow for the testing of train sets and other systems before early passenger operations commence between Bakersfield and Merced in about 2029.

Kelly said building only one set of tracks as an initial phase reflects the agency’s ability to construct what it has money to achieve, and could persist even into passenger operations along the route. “We believe we can meet all the operating requirements” with one set of tracks along with sections of passing tracks, Kelly told board members Tuesday.

Imagine if Caltrain only had one track end-to-end with some passing track sections along the way and was supposed to run four or five times as many trains as it does now.  And was supposed to run them at 120 mph.

Post Office Approval: Done Deal

Back in February of 2012 we asked "Whither the Post Office?" when USPS announced plans to sell the main post office.  A lot of water has since flowed "under the bridge" and through the underground culvert that runs next to the old post office.  It sold, then sold again, and the latest owner, Sares Regis, has worked diligently on plans with the city to get to the approval it just received.  The DJ reports

The Burlingame City Council unanimously voted in favor Monday, Feb. 1, of a development agreement with Sares Regis to convert the shuttered facility at 220 Park Road into a six-story commercial tower, expected to become the city’s tallest building.  The office building is proposed to be six stories, with five floors of office space built over a ground floor of retail and dining space.

The site is adjacent to city property where a surface parking lot is expected to be reconstructed into a new community gathering hub officials imagine to be similar to Courthouse Square in Redwood City.

We've worried about the building itself tucked behind fencing for nine years with potential maintenance issues that inevitably accrue to any building of any age.  The marble-clad lobby seen here is a gem and will make for a great retail or restaurant space.  And the "town square" will be a welcome addition particularly if it can successfully host some much-needed entertainment in town.  It will certainly get more use than the lawn ever did.

Parking should be OK given the giant new parking structure that many residents are gazing up at--some shaking their heads at the size and the shadow it casts.  Along with the Village at Burlingame, 220 California, the Bayswater development at the old Hower Auto site and now the Saris Regis project, one wonders if it is time to take a breather?  Perhaps we should see how this all plays out for awhile?

P.S. I kind of like the juxtaposition of the approval headline with the San Mateo downtown vacancy headline

2020: The Year in Crime

We took a comprehensive look at the five year crime statistics in B'game last year--you can find it here.  I find it important to do this annually because reading the daily Alert@Crimegraphics.com email can cause a forest-for-the-trees effect to kick in.  In checking with BPD for the 2020 update, some of the categories have been called out more specifically--Thefts from Vehicles (i.e. unlocked cars) is now called out in addition to Vehicle Burglaries (from locked cars).  A lot of car burglaries used to happen at the Bayfront hotels, but my guess is that dropped off substantially with some moving into the neighborhoods, but overall the sum of the two is lower than 2019.  Still 34 vehicles broken into per month is more than 400 for the year.

Two other new break-outs are Construction site theft and Package thefts.  Package thefts are the big surprise for me--only 4 per month--just watching the incidents on the Ring camera site would seem to indicate more than that--maybe people just don't bother to report them.  The "Other thefts" total from past years has been discontinued so we cannot compare 2020 totals with the 127 crimes per month of 2019.  The new tracking totals to 71 per month or about 850 of these crimes per year.  Here are the totals

 

Monthly Average                        2016    2017    2018    2019      2020

Residential Burglaries                   5        2            3        3          2

Vehicle Burglaries                      23      25        21       39         20

     Thefts from Vehicles                                               -          14

Commercial Burglaries                  9      4            5        4            6

     Construction site theft                                             -           1

     Package thefts                                                        -            4

Other Thefts                               60      51        56        61          -

Robberies                                    1        1            1        2          2

Stolen Vehicles                            9        6          4         6           9

Vandalism                                  13    13          11       12          13

As I noted last year, there are other crimes not included here especially the really serious ones, but this is a good Quality of Life baseline.

The Man Behind Mollie's is Ringing Out

Austin Walsh at the Daily Journal has delivered an outstanding piece about the impending retirement of one of the most well-liked people in town -  Mark Lucchesi.  Click through here to read it; I'll just grab a couple bits for the historical record.

But with almost two decades of work in the industry beyond his 28 years at Mollie Stone’s, Lucchesi has seen more than his fair share of grocery store wars. As a youngster, he took his first job out of college working for his father who owned two markets – Jim’s Super in Burlingame and Capuchino Market in Millbrae. Following his term in the family business, Lucchesi pivoted to working at Petrini’s before eventually matriculating to Mollie Stone’s.

He worked for a while at the company’s Palo Alto location but jumped at the opportunity to manage the Burlingame store when it opened in 1999, excited to take a job back in his hometown and work close to where he lived.

Mark has been integral to a number of local events and charities-- Taste of the Town and charity auctions for the schools come to mind and I'm sure you can recall others as the Lion's did.  "He won the Burlingame Lions Club Citizen of the Year Award in 2017 for his philanthropic endeavors."

He also brings back the memories of the Safeway rebuild that you can revisit by working backward from here.

Lucchesi said in that role he has encountered a great many skirmishes over the years, first recalling the rivalry formed with the construction of a new downtown Safeway in Burlingame. Reflecting on initial fears that the titan’s competition would topple Mollie Stone’s, Lucchesi is proud of the way his independent outlet sustained itself.  About a decade after the new Safeway arrived in Burlingame, Lucchesi said the potential blood feud has since evolved into something more closely resembling a friendly rivalry.

Speaking from experience, I think Mark and Kathy are going to really enjoy retirement.  With their network of friends in a town they love, they'll never be short of a friendly face to have a chat with.  The next time I see Mark I will snap a photo for this post.  Hopefully he will be in an aloha shirt and looking relaxed.  Congrats, man.

BSD: Between a Rock and Classroom Hard Place

For once I don't have a dog in this fight, but from what I am hearing and reading on the School post here, there are strong feelings on both sides of the issue of when to reopen in-person learning at the Burlingame Elementary Schools.  One can only imagine the concern over months and months of video classes for young kids and the absence of school sports, band, plays, speech and language help, etc.  The goodly number of kids at my nearby park (Pershing) daily after school hours is not nearly as many as there are kids in the neighborhood.

Here are excerpts from the latest message from the BSD Board of Trustees:

The recent and sudden changes made by the state which forced our school district to remain in distance learning have been frustrating for all of us. We know that it has been challenging for parents to explain to our youngest learners why, once again, they will not be going to school...San Mateo County is made up of 24 school districts, of which only 3 are open for some in-person learning, with the remaining districts at various stages of reopening plans and waivers. Burlingame School District is next in line for live instruction, with an approved reopening safety plan and approved waiver already in place....If it is safe for one district to conduct in-person education with an approved plan, then it should be safe for all districts with an approved plan.

The state hasn't been exactly helpful in this regard although a comment from Guido (apparently a teacher) on the post linked above does note:

Time to pause and not do anything stupid, I guess they think we are lazy and that's why we should be back in class. I would be teaching with a mask on and the kids in front of screens under the current conditions and probably the "Red" tier. Can't share materials, etc. By the way, the State didn't change the the rules, they clarified them for stupid administrators who can't read and are trying to force the issue for some reason.

Data might help here--or not; but the San Mateo County website provides some here.  As of yesterday, kids age 9 and below have accounted for 2,167 cases out of almost 34,000 (about 6.5%) so it's small but not insignificant.  The 34,000 total is about 4.4% of the county population.  The question is really "What are the trade-offs?"  Are the risks (well known and real) of not reopening worse than the risk of doing so?  Answering that question is what school board elections are all about, but we have to agree this was completely unexpected and not discussed as there were no debates the last time around.  I'm guessing that might change next time.

Peninsula Ave. - A Fix in Search of a Problem

It more than four years since the last flurry of activity on the City of San Mateo's plans for the Peninsula Ave. interchange, as we noted here.  There wasn't much support from regular people for the plan then and I doubt there is much more now, but they just keep trying.  Per the city--San Mateo, not B'game:

We are proposing to relocate the existing U.S. Hwy 101 southbound on- and off-ramps from East Poplar Avenue to Peninsula Avenue in order to create a single, full-access interchange at Peninsula Avenue and Airport Boulevard. This would improve safety and traffic operations as well as reduce most typical travel times within the Peninsula Avenue interchange area for residents of both San Mateo and Burlingame.

Lots of eminent domain takings are needed for such a giant maneuver and the "improvements" in safety and traffic operations seem quite speculative to me.  As I noted here almost four years ago, the slight changes at Poplar Ave. have worked wonders for improving that 101 on/off ramp.  Simplifying it with a bit of median strip and fencing and voila.  Now they want to close it?  What's up with that?

San Mateo will make its pitch on-line next Wednesday, Jan. 27th at 6pm.  You can register to get the link sent to you here and there are a lot of links to other official documents.  If you live in the Lyon-Hoag neighborhood this is practically a mandatory meeting.

A Chat With the New Mayor

I had a chance to sit down with our new mayor for 2021, Ann O'Brien (Keighran) to discuss her priorities for the year.  In a normal year, City Hall would fill with people on the evening when the mayorship and vice-mayorship rotate, everyone would hear from the outgoing and incoming mayors and adjourn for cake and champagne in the lobby; where the politically active in B'game would catch-up.  I felt bad that Ann Zoomed it instead of having the live event and the cable TV broadcast, hence the socially-distanced, outdoor chat.  That's just me--she noted that this is her fourth time as mayor, so her excitement would have been muted regardless.

O'Brien's long tenure on the council, preceded by her long tenure on the Planning Commission, and buttressed by her day job as a staffer for a County supervisor shows in her grasp of a wide range of issues.  Whether it be city finances, local business conditions, edicts coming down from Sacramento, or her main priority this year-- what's happening on our own backyard -- she's fluent and sensible in my opinion.  It can be enticing for any local politician to grapple with state or national issues, but when push comes to shove the job is about the local community.  Issues like our very own minimum wage, banning natural gas in new construction, or forcing rent control take a back seat to relief for our business owners, our hospitality sector and helping residents back to work.

On the bright side, the council has recently approved funding of $500K for small business grants, purchased the parklet barriers, leveled the playing field for our hotels by implementing a TOT for short-term rentals and developed CARES debit cards to help businesses and low-income families.  These all need continuing care, feeding and tweaking.  Village Burlingame, the downtown parking garage, Top Golf and other Bayfront improvements like a park on state land speak to a stronger B'game economy.

On the not so bright side, the housing edict from Sacramento to create a free-for-all on Accessory Dwelling Units leaves the council with little room to moderate the effects--mainly parking and backyard privacy.  Anyone who served as a Planning Commissioner would know what the effect on street parking will be from an onslaught of ADUs--and it's not like street parking has been great in town to date.  I'll bet there are very few former planning commissioners in the Assembly or State Senate.

Similarly, the current state election laws give a lot of cover for a single private attorney to force cities to go to district elections.  I think it's misguided, counter to good government and probably detrimental to the people it is supposed to help, but that's just me.  As the census data comes available, this council will have to determine district boundaries and a new election process.  There are about 20 applicants for the city attorney position and the new hire will definitely be busy with this change.

Kudos to Ann on her fourth turn holding the rudder to the city government.  Here's hoping it is a productive year focused squarely on local issues. 

Covid Tracking: One Year In

Rather than having to scroll through 50 comments to get to the weekend update on the last Covid post from early December, let's start a fresh thread.  We are about one year into this pandemic.  I'm reminded by the fact the Super Bowl is three weeks away, that the best thing to happen to the Bay Area in this ordeal was the Niners losing the game and not having a parade.  A million people lining Market St. shoulder-to-shoulder for several hours would have been devastating since we know the virus was already here.

So the weekend update from the County website is

Total Cases: 31,204 (+3,450 from last week, increasing more than a 1,000)

R-eff: 1.09 (down 0.19 from last week)

Positivity: 4.3% since last March. 6.5% for the last 30 days which is up .1% in the last seven days--stable.

Burlingame Cases: 799 (+89 similar to +82 and +88 the last two weeks--stable.)

The Burlingame numbers may be larger due to the count at the Burlingame Skilled Nursing facility.  The Daily Journal reported that "A recent COVID-19 outbreak resulting in the infection of 118 residents, 49 staff and one employee’s death at Burlingame Skilled Nursing...Burlingame Skilled Nursing management informed the Ombudsman and the county of the outbreak a week ago, said Bernie Mellott, and the National Guard was called in to assist the facility."

That would be 15% of our total case count.