The Burlingame Voice

Tweaking The BAAZ, Creating The BRAZ

Tomorrow night the City Council will consider making some changes to the Burlingame Ave Autonomous Zone (the BAAZ).  We're just finishing the third weekend of the BAAZ so Council will be looking to extend it to the end of September and add parklets on the side streets.  Back in May when the original plan surfaced, I had several concerns: impact on non-restaurant businesses, non-BAAZ restaurants, parking, handicap access and the cost.  It appears I was prescient since the proposed tweaks start to address some of these, especially the fairness issue. Non-BAAZ restaurants that want a parklet on Primrose, Park, Lorton, Howard, and Chapin would get permanent ones (meaning seven days a week) since they are too expensive to put in and take out often.  The parklets would be created using heavy duty industrial plastic hydro-barriers -- the ugly orange blocks.  San Mateo went the parklet route but only uses the hydro-barriers on the on-coming traffic side as shown below (upper right).  I hope we do the same.

To further address fairness to our "other" downtown, the one that often feels under appreciated by the City, the BRAZ is under consideration -- the BRoadway Autonomous Zone.  It involves Saturday-Sunday closure of Broadway between Chula Vista and Capuchino -- the three middle blocks; attempting to leave some traffic circulation since, you know, it's a 101 exit.  Anecdotally, the Broadway restaurants took a bit of a beating the last two weekends--akin to the non-BAAZ restaurants.  One non-BAAZer used the word "disaster" when I asked how it went the first weekend.

As to parking, the Staff Report notes

In addition to the previously estimated loss of parking on Burlingame Avenue of approximately 150 to 160 parking spaces when the street is closed on the weekends, the creation of parklets will result in a parking loss of up to approximately 60 to 70 spaces on side streets in the downtown area on both weekdays and weekends.

Approximately 50 to 60 parking spaces would become unavailable on weekends if the City Council approves the temporary weekend closure of Broadway. As with the Burlingame Avenue commercial district, there are nearby parking facilities on either side of Broadway, but parking will become tight on busy weekends.

I might suggest putting a cover over most of the EV charging stations in Lot Y so GV's (gas vehicles) can use them because we know EV usage has been quite low. 

Now the costs:

Staff estimates the cost of setting up and removing the street closure on Broadway to be similar to Burlingame Avenue, which is estimated at approximately $10,000 to $12,000 per month. Additionally, staff estimates the cost of renting and setting up barriers to create parklets is $20,000 to $30,000 per month. Regarding loss of parking revenue, staff estimates the overall loss is approximately $20,000 to $30,000 per month. The overall total fiscal impact of the pilot program is estimated to range from $60,000 to $80,000 per month. The actual figure may vary and will be determined after the completion of the pilot program.

We may have our very own Summer of Love.  Like the original one in '67, it would be fun but comes with a price.

Peninsula Hospital: Risky Place to Be

Unfortunately I needed to go to the ER at Peninsula hospital last week.  Fortunately the care I received once I got in to see the doc and the nurse was great.  But the hour spent in the ER lobby left me feeling very unsettled--and not because of the laceration I was there to get treated.  It was apparently a busy time according to the staff comments.  There were at least a dozen people and sometimes more than 15 waiting.  The chairs (which I did not use) were somewhat haphazardly spaced and easily moved around.  There was no painter's tape on the floor, no plastic sheeting or Plexiglas dividers anywhere.  No bottles of sanitizer and towels for DIY cleaning like the grocery stores have for their carts.  Certainly no one came through to clean in the hour I was there.  Even putting Covid concerns aside (which none of us should do) there were several people who appeared quite sick, coughing and barely masked.

What's up with that?  If any restaurant in town tried that it would be taken to task immediately.  I have asked, via the email feedback form, to talk with someone in a position of authority about it, but no response in three or four days.  If you have to go--be very careful--unlike if you went to the barbershop on Park Rd. acroos from the old Post Office for example.

  

Police and Trust: How to Mess it Up

Last week I noted that City Council candidates' public positions on issues mattered even if they did not win a seat.  That goes double--or maybe triple-- for sitting City Council members.  Candidate Mike Dunham had some disappointing positions on policing tactics that I noted here.  This week I am even more disappointed, appalled even, at councilman Michael Brownrigg's statements as reported in the Daily Journal on Friday.  Read for yourself

We have a sitting City Council member advocating for discriminatory hiring practices based on sex.  Let that settle in for a moment.  Perhaps in his failed foray into state politics, Brownrigg spent an excessive amount of time in the company of so-called progressives.  Or perhaps Zoom council meetings that don't have the benefit of a television camera in one's face cause the proceeding to be more casual.  It doesn't matter.  In any case, the public record now shows at least some movement towards hiring discrimination.  I hope the city attorney interjected to correct this and if not, it's not too late.  The future legal problems as a result of letting this sit could be substantial.

Additionally last Friday, the front page headline in the Daily Post read "Police chief abruptly resigns" noting "Menlo Park Police Chief Dave Bertini unexpectedly announced yesterday that he was retiring during an online town hall meeting regarding policing, saying he has lost the trust of the City Council."  These are perilous times and City leaders need to be more careful about their statements.  Brownrigg should retract his statement and apologize.

Plenty of SF Office Space Available

If you are like me, B'game is the center of your universe.  It's also pretty much the geographic center of the "Bay Area".  I use the quotation marks because "Bay Area" sometimes refers to some pretty distant places--all the way to the Delta.  But from where we sit, the two biggest commercial centers-  EssEff and Silicon Valley--bookend us precisely.  The Wall Street Journal is keeping an eye on commercial space in both places and the headline is San Francisco's Office Market Cools as Startups Retreat.  Here are a couple of data points

For the past decade, San Francisco has outshined Silicon Valley in attracting new technology firms, entrepreneurs and younger employees, who tend to prefer the city’s lifestyle and attractions to the suburbs.  (Note:  we shall see how long that lasts)

Now, that trend shows signs of reversing. Office demand has been falling in both markets, as the coronavirus pandemic, slowing economy and the early success of work from home have caused firms to reconsider office use. But San Francisco landlords have suffered more than their Silicon Valley counterparts in nearby cities such as Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Santa Clara.

Commercial real-estate firm CBRE Group Inc. said the volume of tenants looking for space has fallen about 56% in San Francisco, compared with about 32% in Silicon Valley, between the end of February and the end of May.  San Francisco now has the highest sublease availability in the country, with about 30% of the available space in the city being listed by tenants, according to data firm CoStar Inc.  “It’s likely sublease space will continue to flood the market in the year ahead,” CoStar said in a report.

The piece goes on to make the point that Silicon Valley is more stable due to less reliance on startups and more on larger companies with better balance sheets.  My limited chats with people working for Valley companies jives with the market chatter that says "Hey, this working at home thing is pretty good".  I think the trend is solid and will result in some changes to the B'game residential profile.  More on that in the coming week. 

Staking Out a Position on Police

The issue of police procedures and use of force got exactly zero discussion in the last City Council election.  The next election is about a year and a half away, but it's never too soon to take note of a candidate's or incumbent's public position on important issues.  The losing candidate in the last election, Mike Dunham, did fairly well last year garnering almost 2,700 votes (25.5%) so what he thinks matters.  In a letter to the Daily Journal this week, Mr. Dunham objects to police "displaying riot guns and batons" at one of the demonstrations while simultaneously noting that "witnesses spotted gun-toting individuals who were not part of the protest".

I'd like to meet an officer who is willing to provide on-the-ground support at a demonstration of highly-incensed people without a baton and at least a few fellow officers carrying (not "displaying", sorry) something more accurate at distance than a sidearm.  That is a job description of a position that will be open for a long, long time.  Dunham ends by broaching the subject of police funding.  Elsewhere in the DJ another B'game resident, Arne Hurty, starts the discussion of "defunding" our police and bringing on people trained to deal with mental illness, sex workers and even traffic violations.  He doesn't mean in a clinic or center after the fact--he means on the street in real time; as the stuff is hitting the fan.  I'd like to meet one of those pro's and review their credentials.  I'll let Willie Brown's comments in today's Chronicle respond:

The call to “defund the police” as part of the anti-racism, anti-police-brutality movement is either one of the dumbest ideas of all time or the hands-down winner of the worst slogan ever.  I shouldn’t have to explain that actually defunding police is a nonstarter as a practical matter, let alone as a political one.

I'm all for more mental health counselors, but it has to come from net-new funds and there are going to be precious few of those for the next couple of years.  And they have to be backed up by a judicial system that functions better than the one we have now; as seen in the comments on the Social Media and City Government post.  Now there is a problem I'd like to hear elected and future candidates weigh in on.

 

Pandemic Tipping Point?

We tracked the Covid-19 numbers for the last six weeks here.  That was entirely in the SIP timeframe, but things are loosening up in multiple directions now.  Restaurants are reopening for dine-in service, non-essential stores are allowing limited numbers of people at a time, and churches are resuming live services; outdoors and with waivers in some cases.  Essential stores are pretty crowded; Lowe's for example.  The county as had several large demonstrations where social distancing was ignored.  It feels like we might be at a tipping point in the coming week or two, so here are the baseline figures today from the county site at SMChealth.org.

In our county of 759,000 people 46,480 have been tested (about 6%).  The positivity rate has been declining and is now 5.4% -- meaning we have either 2,528 or 2,553 cases --both numbers appear on the same data page.  That's about 335 cases per 100,000.  NYC has 2,460 cases per 100,000--more than seven times as many.  The age distribution of cases in San Mateo County has shifted to younger people with 50% being in their 20's, 30's and 40's.

Let's see how things look again in a week.

Hungry Mouths

What better way to lighten things up for a bit here at the Voice than a photo of three hungry baby robins taken in my yard.  We thought it was an old nest since it was empty for awhile, but Mom filled it up with these three hungry kids.  The nest is somewhat hidden in a rose bush, but I still worry about the hawks taking notice.

Prop. 13 - Who's Getting the Shaft?

News reports indicate that the "split roll" initiative to split commercial Prop. 13 tax policy from residential policy has submitted enough signatures to be on the November ballot.  I guess we should be thankful that California law about new taxes says it has to go to a vote of...the people instead of just the politicians.   The whole Proposition proposition is a mess, but that is a discussion for another day.  This day we have to assess whether reevaluating the market value of commercial property on a frequent interval and taxing it accordingly is a good thing or not.

I touched on this after hearing our assumed new state senator, Josh Becker, throw his weight behind the idea here.  But is there more to the story?  And does the hidden story involve the Law of Unintended Consequences?  Care to guess?  Well, the Law of Unintended Consequences is a bit like the Law of Gravity.  The SacBee, no enemy of new taxes, just reported this interesting consequence:

County tax collectors are reiterating their opposition to a proposed “split roll” initiative that could raise tax revenue from commercial and industrial property, calling the measure “problematic” and difficult it to implement.  The California Assessor’s Association in a letter to lawmakers says tax collectors don’t have the resources to execute the plan, which calls on them to more frequently assess commercial properties worth $3 million or more.

“In my opinion, the property tax measure as written will be impossible for assessors to implement — not just difficult but impossible,” Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone said.

Assessors project the changes would cost just over $1 billion to put in place over three years, and would “overwhelm” county assessors’ capabilities.  For example, according to an attached analysis commissioned by the Association, Santa Clara County would experience a 12-fold increase in the number of commercial and industrial properties it reassesses annually.   “It is expected that similar increases would result in all counties,” the analysis states.

While we might have sympathy for all the tax collectors having to massively grow their empires to implement the law, what about the people paying these new taxes?  Most people who have never rented a commercial space or run a small business don't know how that world works.  That apparently includes our next state senator.  The term to learn is a "triple net lease".  I'll let Wikipedia explain it here.  If you don't know what it is, you have no business voting for this initiative.  Suffice it to say the very same shop owners and restaurants that I have been fretting about (more than usual) for the last two months are the ones who would get shafted by this ballot initiative.

You are going to hear a lot about the budget shortfall, the evil commercial landlords who have been skating by for years, the school budget cuts and whatever else gets thrown against the wall in hopes it sticks.  Now is the time to understand who will actually be hurt by the latest tax grab.   Full disclosure:  I do not now, nor have I ever owned commercial property.  That doesn't mean I don't recognize a train wreck in the making.

Arson at the Library, War Zone on the Ave.

Just as things were reverting to a highly-modified normal (an oxymoron if ever there was one) we get hit with the triple whammy of an arson event at the main library and a warning from BPD to shop owners to take necessary precautions against vandalism and looting.  Then a two-night county-wide curfew went into effect.  When the Ring Neighborhood alert came in yesterday about a fire in the 400 block of Primrose, I got worried.  Fortunately, as you see below, the fire appears to be just umbrellas in front of the library, not the library itself.  BPD made an arrest of a 45 year old, white male and I'm sure there will be more information to follow.

The scene on the Avenue is really disappointing.  Many shops were just reopening or announced that they will in the coming week.  The precautionary boarding up of windows certainly won't induce people to return soon and the restaurants that have been barely eking by on take-out will have to absorb even more stress.  Anyone who thinks this will somehow cure what ails our society is mistaken.

High-Cost Rail- Part 151 Will Corona Kill H$R?

As we ponder the paltry silver linings of the Corona pandemic, one that appears increasingly likely is nails in the coffin of High-speed Rail.  I recently asked a reporter for CalMatters if she thought the state budget disaster from COVID-19 might put an end to HSR.  Her somewhat political response was that, like many issues in Sacramento, politicians on both sides of the issue will attempt to use the pandemic to support their prior positions.  We've already seen that as some politicos attempt to position the giant sucking sound from the Central Valley as a necessary construction job program. Oh, please.

Today the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial titled "Democrats Bite the Bullet Train: The coronavirus may finally kill Jerry Brown’s boondoggle to nowhere".  The Journal recaps things a regular Voice reader would already know, but it's a nice summary.  I've added some back links to earlier Voice posts:

In the very small department of coronavirus silver linings, a budget crunch in California is causing Democrats to re-examine some wasteful spending. This includes, fiscal saints be praised, former Gov. Jerry Brown’s bullet train to nowhere.

Gov. Gavin Newsom last year scaled back progressive ambitions for a 500-mile high-speed train from Orange County to San Francisco due to cost overruns, logistical headaches and legal challenges. Instead the state would build a 171-mile starter train between Bakersfield and Merced in the Central Valley.

Democrats now want to shorten the line to the 120 miles of track already under construction and run lower-cost diesel trains in lieu of cleaner electric ones. Recall that the train’s original purpose was to reduce carbon emissions. California’s 2008 bond initiative also said the train “will not require operating subsidy.”

The state High-Speed Rail Authority now projects the 171-mile stretch would cost $20 billion to build and lose between $40 million and $90 million a year. Even that assumes millions of people living in the Central Valley each year will ride the train to Merced and then use commuter rail to connect to San Jose.

As economic consultants William Grindley and Bill Warren have pointed out, a round-trip between Bakersfield and San Jose would take 12 hours and 10 minutes and cost $189 without a subsidy and $104 with a subsidy.

Assembly Democrats are pushing legislation that would allow $5 billion to be redirected from the Central Valley choo-choo to commuter trains in Southern California and Bay Area. This would relieve highway congestion and perhaps ease housing demand in dense coastal cities. Democrats in Sacramento deserve credit for setting new pandemic priorities.

Reports of the BART budget shortfall and the Caltrain slippage and budget bloodiness should give the Assembly Democrats even more incentive to redirect precious transportation money to the "bookends" in LA and the Bay Area.  The commuter line fallacy is the latest attempt to justify HSR, but even the long daily hours on HSR don't capture the full commute time to any location that is not in walking distance of Diridon Station.  Getting to the Highway 237 nerve center or anywhere near Google or Facebook's campuses adds another half hour on a perfect day.  Now is the time, Governor.  Carpe diem.

BHS: Graduation 2020 Like No Other

As I look for silver linings amidst the shelter-in-place restrictions, a few things come to mind.  The staff at BHS have done a nice job of getting to virtual and providing some live memories to grads.  Tonight's virtual Senior Awards Night and Thursday's virtual graduation are first steps.  The pre-recorded graduation will feature speeches by Superintendent Kevin Skelly, Board Member Linda Lees Dwyer, Principal Paul Belzer, and three graduating seniors as well as the BHS Choir and Band.  In between is a family stroll through the gardens at Filoli tomorrow with a defined path and two ticketed entry times.  I did a similar stroll through Filoli a week ago and the setting and the gardens are a welcome change of pace.  The warm weather is expected to last through tomorrow so it should be nice down there in the evening.  Willie Brown highlighted a similar "stroll" in his Sunday column:  Monterey County grads and their families will get to drive the whole race course at Laguna Seca and get their diploma at the end.  Sweet!

Congrats to the Class of 2020.  Everyone will remember your year as something special.

Close the Avenue? Not So Fast

I was hoping this idea of closing Burlingame Ave. to all cars would quietly disappear as things slowly re-open and people get used to mingling a bit.  But the City has apparently asked merchants for their opinions so it's an active idea and we have a Guest Perspective in today's Daily Journal that espouses the closure.  The author comes from a great B'game family and has done a stint on the Planning Commission, but he might have benefited from serving on Traffic, Safety and Parking instead.  I'm sort of glad he broached the topic.  Here's bit of that piece

With summer weather approaching and business attendance at an all-time low, now is an incredible, once-in-a-generation time to experiment with what  Burlingame Avenue could be like if it were more pedestrian-oriented, and less vehicle-dependent.

The city needs to take strong actions to make sure the heart of its downtown, its restaurants and bars, are positioned as well as possible to succeed in a prolonged sure-to-be-tough environment. The best way the city can do this, in my opinion, is to allow them to operate at normal capacity (while adhering to strict distancing guidelines), through the expansion of temporary seating zones. Of course, the only way to accomplish this would be to follow the example set by Oakland and numerous other cities, and close Burlingame Avenue to cars.

There's an old debate tactic called the Straw Man argument that says you refute an argument that your opponent hasn't actually made.  A corollary to that is to refute one argument and omit the others.  That's what is going on in this piece:

Now, the obvious contrarian opinion is that there won’t be enough parking (a particularly Burlingame classic!). Well, my response would be: Good! Let’s finally put our environmental policy and action where our mouths are and create paths for people to safely travel, and park, via bicycle.

Allow me to note some better arguments against a full closure.  First, there are many other businesses on the Avenue besides restaurants.  All of them rely on out-of-towners and B'gamers who live far away and won't walk or bike to their stores.  Convenient parking may be over rated by some store owners, but it's not a non-issue.  Some of them sell (or would like to sell) more product than one can easily carry for blocks.  Second, what about the disabled customers?  We have handicap spaces for a reason and it's a good one.  No "TSPoon" commissioner would ever think of taking them all out, but a full closure does exactly that.  Third, it seems unfair to advantage some restaurants at the expense of others not on the Avenue.  Should Park & Howard, Narin, Coconut Bay, Stella Osteria, Il Fornaio, et al just figure it out themselves?  I don't think so.  How about Broadway?  I won't play Straw Man and suggest we close all of downtown, but fair would be fair.  Fourth, police and fire access is still required and required fast.  How do you do that with tables and diners in the street?  Lastly, the realpolitik of the City's situation is a major budget problem as noted here.  We are definitely better off than many cities, but with the hotel tax and sales taxes taking a major hit, the revenue from the meters should not be ignored.  As the City seems intent on giving away money, perhaps taking some in would be wise.

So what to do?  Doing nothing is anathema to government.  We've seen that across the board during the corona crisis.  Here's a middle position that might work for restaurants all over town.  The space in front of the restaurant can become a parklet.  I broached the idea eight years ago here.  As you can read from 2012 it got no attention--not one comment, but now might be the time.  Parklets are big in EssEff and a few sprouted in San Mateo.  One space (10' x 20' if memory serves) could hold 2 four tops.  Turned twice a night, that would be 16 more diners.  Added to sidewalk dining, it would help.  Closing the whole street is unfair, may be unsafe and likely costly.