The Burlingame Voice

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.

Recycle Your Chronicle...Or Not

We can assign this to the I Told You So file, or the What Did You Expect? file or the Have You Learned Anything From This? file.  Today's SF Comicle editorial titled "What's wrong with recycling" in the print edition lists a comedy of errors that can be expanded upon in a number of directions.  But first, let's read some excerpts:

Back in 2012, the California Legislature declared it the policy of the state that by 2020, at least 75% of the state’s waste would be reduced, recycled or composted. It was a bold legislative goal that turns out to have been a waste of the paper it was printed on.  Since the target was set eight years ago, the state’s annual landfill disposal has grown steadily from about 40 million tons a year to nearly 50 million. The recycling, composting and reduction rate, meanwhile, fell from around 50% to 37%, or about half the rate lawmakers set out to achieve.

One of the heaviest blows to the effort in recent years came from China and other Asian nations that stopped accepting discarded plastic and other materials from wealthy countries such as the United States, much of which was unusable garbage falsely counted for domestic purposes as recycled.  (Imagine THAT!)  That forces officials to contend with more waste that is unrecyclable in general or at least within California’s borders, where state and local regulations can make it difficult to build and even maintain recycling facilities. (Imagine THAT!)

This is the Chonicle!  There's more about plastic bags with recycling triangles on them that aren't recyclable, lithium ion batteries (like Teslas) and propane tanks, but you will have to click through to read the tale of woe.  My point is to draw a direct line between the clowns who pass these laws and do nothing to facilitate meeting the goals.  Let's ban natural gas in new construction, ban gas powered cars by 2035, build 30 miles of high-cost rail instead of recycling plants in-state to recycle our own stuff, overload the electrical grid so we are at the mercy of adjacent states in a crunch, fine PG&E for not trimming enough trees after the fact and shovel taxpayer money at any number of misguided goals.  In the meantime, groups like the Sierra Club line up like lemmings on the approved agenda with no clue that any of it will actually help the environment.

Me?  I'd just like to know that my empty detergent bottle was going to be recycled nearby, I will have reliable power, someone is balancing development with the worst case scenario for water availability in our arid state and my taxes aren't being siphoned off by anyone other than prisoners scamming the EDD.  What is Newsom's approval rating again?

Bye Bye Eucalyptus?

The on-going saga of the "renewal" of El Camino Real took another turn as the Citizens Environmental Council bought off on the plan to take out 85 Eucs along the main thoroughfare through town--the signature feature of B'game. Councilmembers Beach and Brownrigg are the designated electeds on this Council. The key part of the Daily Journal story about the decision is

There was limited feedback from community members during the meeting

Whereas Zoom-dom has made some things more accessible, it seems to me it has stymied the kind of public input that happens when a bunch of people show up live in City Council chambers and look officials in the eye.  We've covered this on-going ECR issue in the past; last January here and in 2018 here.  The fragility of the traffic lights and how we handle that now is here.  The Caltrans public comment period closes tonight, but that is far from the end of the story.  My guess is most of the people in town have no idea that some CEC would agree to take out the historically-designated tree grove.  The story isn't over til the chainsaws roar.

As if that isn't enough, the bike advocates want to take away at least one lane!  The resident twenty-something who has lived here for about a minute and half but doesn't like anything as it is, weighed in

After the discussion, Burlingame resident Madeline Frechette expressed her displeasure with the nature of the discussion, which excluded what will happen between the curbs.  “The exclusion of themes like rapid transit or safe bike infrastructure is confusing,” she said in an email. “Certainly what happens to the tree line and sidewalks could have ramifications for the roadway, and we are at a point in history where we cannot afford to selectively prioritize concerns about greenery aesthetics.”

That last bit is classic doubletalk.  She's the one doing the "selective prioritizing".  More importantly, she is apparently blissfully unaware that there are dedicated north and south bike lanes that parallel ECR a couple of blocks away on California and Carolan that are much closer to two forms of public transit.  Nor has she any consideration of the impact on police, fire and ambulance access of shutting down anything "between the curbs" on our busy artery.  These Eucs offer more than "greenery aesthetics" if one remembers our history like this incident in 2009.

A Bombing in B'game: 1974

As a history nut I could not help but dig in a bit more after reading about the bombing on Ogden Dr. back in 1974.  It resurfaced in the Planning Commission staff report about 1868-1870 Ogden Dr. that is under consideration for yet more condos.  The building is less than 100 yards from the front of Mills High School.  Here's some history:

Due to the United Farm Workers of America's (Cesar Chavez' UFW) leading role in advancing labor rights for farm workers in the United States, the organization encountered the Western  Conference of Teamsters, the original owner and tenant of the subject building, repeatedly during the 1960s and 1970s.  The first of these historic contexts involved a major grape strike and boycott of Delano-area grape growers, which took place between 1965 and 1970. In September 1965, the AWOC struck against Delano-area wine and table grape growers in protest of years of low pay and poor working conditions. Weeks later, the fledging NFWA voted to join the strike in solidarity. Initially, the strike had little effect on growers, and starting in December 1965, NFWA began organizing a boycott of products from Delano-area growers.

The Di Giorgio Company, another major grower, recruited strike breakers and required them to sign cards consenting to be represented by the Teamsters Union, thus breaching a jurisdictional agreement between the Teamsters and NFWA (now the UWF). Progress continued to be made, though. In 1967 the Perelli Minetti Company and six other wineries also signed with the UFW.

There was on-going battles between various agricultural unions and efforts at the ballot box to gain advantages

In March 1977, Teamsters President Frank Fitzsimmons announced that the International Brotherhood was giving up its claims to field workers and that, with the exception of a contract with Bud Antle, it would not seek to renew any of its remaining contracts covering farm workers in California. This development, though unexpected, reflected the reality of the Teamsters’ mounting defeats at the ballot box in 1975 and 1976. The announcement marked the end of the bitter, wasteful struggle between the two unions. Chavez looked back at the period with regret, but looked to the future with great optimism. With a membership approaching forty thousand, the UFW in 1977 was unquestionably the dominant union in California agriculture.

Beyond simply serving as the headquarters of the UFW’s chief adversary in the late 1960s and most of the 1970s, research revealed that 1868-1870 Ogden Drive has the following direct associations with the UFW’s long-term struggle against the Western Conference of Teamsters: The building at 1868-1870 Ogden Drive served as a negotiation site between the UFW and the Teamsters. The building was again the scene of negotiations, this time with Teamster leadership, in August 1973.

But all was not settled and picketing and demonstrations on Ogden continued

The building at 1868-1870 Ogden Drive was bombed on April 18, 1974. At a few minutes after 6 a.m., an explosive device attached to a support column at the rear of the building exploded. The blast, which was powerful enough to be heard four miles away, shattered most of the building’s windows, blew a crater in the floor of the building’s parking area, ripped apart metal air ducts underneath the building, and caused other damage inside and outside the building. Dozens of windows in nearby buildings were also shattered. Only one of the building’s employees—a custodian—was present at the time of the blast, and no injuries were reported. Teamster officials refused to speculate as to who may have been responsible for the blast but indicated that the only conflict involving the Teamsters was with the UFW.

Mention of the Perelli Minetti Company caught my eye as I am familiar with the wine and some of the local story from our local expert.  Here is a bit more on Mario Perelli Minetti from Gerald Weisl:

He was quite a worldly gentleman, an attorney by trade, and sold and delivered his wines directly to our shop on Broadway himself.  We would see him out walking in Hillsborough- his house may have been on Jackling Drive.  He would always apologize for having had to raise the price of his wine by maybe 25 or 50 cents a bottle.  And he marveled at how some brand new producers would ask $50-$100.

Another time I mentioned I met an Italian winemaker whose daughter is name Miriam.  Mario's late wife was Miriam and I asked him if I could trouble him for a label so I could send it to that winemaker in Abruzzo, Italy.  "Hell no I won't give you a label!" he thundered.  "I'll bring you a bottle!"  He did and I sent it to Italy...and these days Miriam is helping her Mom run the family winery and they are a leading producer.  Mom tells me that bottle is on a pedestal, proudly displayed in the family home.  We are delighted to have the the current Napa Cabernet wine in the shop.  We keep a photo of "Uncle Mario" behind the counter...still old-time styled and priced.

So now you have two more bits of local history:  the historic events that took place on Ogden Dr. and one of the movers and shakers who lived here.  Stop by Weimax to see the photo!  Here's the Teamster hall

Looking for Silver Linings of 2020

As this annus horribilis winds its way to its midnight conclusion, I have been searching for whatever silver linings come to mind.  There aren't many and perhaps some of you will add a few more, but these are what I have come up with:

With schools going virtual and organized sports on hold, it was a rough year for kids.  On the bright side, it's gratifying to see how many kids rediscovered their bikes.  Bike sales skyrocketed (unfortunately so did bike thefts) and seeing so many B'game kids cruising the streets with or without their parents has been great.  Popping wheelies is also back and modern bikes allow for some impressive wheelie yardage.

Sales of puppies may even be outstripping that of bikes.  On my dog walks, I have seen more puppies in the last two months than I can ever recall.  Even better, new owners seem to have the time on their hands to do puppy training.  I took the puppy obedience classes at the SPCA at Coyote Point years ago and know the basics, but there must be some good YouTube instruction for these new owners to learn virtually since they are doing so well.  I bet there are a lot of dogs as happy as are mine with the extra walks.

Our restaurants have been at the epicenter of the business stress.  Many were temporarily closed even before the latest lockdown and some are not likely to make it.  But in speaking to the owner of one of my favorites on the Avenue, he noted that through all of this he has gotten to know his customers better than he ever has before.  People really wanted to talk when they were out, as we saw with the BAAZ, and owners and staff are happy to comply.

Spring cleaning started right on time and then continued for months and months.  It is still on-going if the "Donations Are Full" signs at Pick of the Litter are any indication.  I once saw the donation line at the Goodwill in San Mateo stretch into the street and bend back almost to El Camino.  20 cars.  People generally have good hearts and 2020 made it more visible.  Home improvements followed suit and local gardens certainly benefited.  Lowes, Home Depot and nurseries made it to "essential business" status.

All things on Zoom and virtual is a double-edged sword.  Hanging out with people is key to many, especially the extroverts, and web conferencing is a thin substitute.  But on the plus side, we can hangout with friends from far away or long ago easier than ever.  Having health care providers adapt to virtual sessions will be another long-term benefit.

The last silver lining I have is a prediction.  As things return to normal, we will all have a greater appreciation for a lot of heretofore less-noticed things.  Meetups for morning coffee, sitting at a ballgame at Bayside or Washington Park, the Lion's Car Show, Art on the Avenue, going to church in church, and family gatherings will all be sweeter than before.  Happy New Year!  Bring on 2021.    

Serious Street Stupidity

Last night I saw the most dangerous thing I have ever seen on B'game's streets in 30 years.  During the daytime, the set of traffic lights on El Camino at Bayswater went out.  That is the five-way intersection at St. Catherine's church.  It is normally pretty safe even though it's more complex than your average intersection.  The quick fix involved putting saw horses with Stop signs attached in the middle of each of the five converging streets.  There were no flashing lights attached.  During the daytime, I saw several cars handle the surprising situation by slowing down to the rolling "California stop" and proceeding with caution.  There were several more that just blew through the intersection like there was nothing there--one almost hitting a pedestrian who peered southbound down ECR in amazement.

After dark I happened to be there again on foot--still no lights, no enforcement, just the signage shown below.  It got even more unnerving as car after car blew straight through on ECR in the dark.  On one hand, perhaps the drivers with cars behind them were acting rationally since they could have been rear-ended.  But really?  Whoever made the call to just put up unlit signs, no warning back a block, no flares, and no parked empty police cruiser on the sidewalk with its lights flashing ought to be fired tomorrow.

Luckily I did not hear any sirens through the night and the lights were working this morning.  But it's pure dumb luck.

  

Natural Gas vs. Electric: Pay Up

It's never too late to repeal the B'game ban on natural gas in new construction--unless a contractor has already started the build.  We hashed over the issue in February here.  Whether such a ban does any actual climate good and what it might cost (in a cost/benefit sense) is important.  This week the Wall Street Journal carried two letters to the editor that bear on the question:

Regarding Allysia Finley’s op-ed “Now We’re Cooking With Gas. But Tomorrow?” (Dec. 17): Forbidding natural-gas connections in new buildings ensures that more, not less, natural gas will be consumed to meet the new demand for electricity. Similarly, government mandates for electric vehicles, space heating and cooking will increase the total amount of natural gas burned.

Natural gas consumed as a fuel to heat or cook is more than 90% efficient, while electricity produced from natural gas is at best 60% efficient. This means that boiling a pot of water on an electric stove uses 150% as much natural gas as a gas stove. This is before any consideration is given to the inefficiencies of induction heating or losses in transmission.  On the other hand, if all U.S. homes were required to burn natural gas for space heating and cooking, the total amount of natural gas consumed nationwide would probably decline, with the added benefit of increasing the proportion of U.S. energy sourced from renewables. Unintended consequences can be a cruel mistress.

Richard Varner, Wichita, KS

California’s efforts to curb natural-gas use can be devastating to low-income households. The top rate for electricity is more than 40 cents per kilowatt hour, which equates to nearly $12 per therm of heat. Natural gas, by contrast, costs about $2.50 a therm. This means that it costs more than four times as much to cook your dinner, dry your clothes or heat your bath water with electricity than with gas. You can get a somewhat better deal using a heat pump (at a cost of several thousand dollars) to heat your house; the electricity for this costs only twice as much as the gas for a furnace. Many people involved with California real estate are aware of this. Unfortunately, few of them are in government.

Robert A. Saunders, Rohnert Park, Calif.

On the earlier thread a commenter made a good point that I had not considered.  The B'game ban is a "reach code" that supposedly only affects new construction.  But over the long-haul, with about 150 other California towns doing similar things, how long before qualified technicians, replacement parts and replacement units become harder to find and most costly?  Not long, I bet.

EV Charging: A Slow Go Of It

We last checked on the usage for the electric vehicle charging stations in Lot Y just off Broadway back in February.  It was low then (1.25 charges per space, per day) and has dropped off from there.  That was pre-Covid so perhaps a sizeable drop was to be expected although October and November appeared pretty busy around Broadway.  Here are the latest figures

	Total charging minutes	Total charging Sessions
October 2020	2650	121
November 2020	3571	137

That tallies to about a half of a charge per day, per space.  If overall parking demand in Lot Y is low that is probably OK.  With the authorization of parklets on B'way by the city council coming just ahead of the latest lockdown on outdoor dining, we now have empty parklets on B'way taking up quite a few spaces.  I would guess overall parking demand is down even with free parking on Saturdays on B'way.  Will the news about a possible Apple EV with new battery technology make a difference--or are EVs still so expensive that everyone who has one also has the wherewithal to put in their own charging station instead of hanging out in Lot Y?  If it's from Apple, you know it won't be cheap.  We'll see.

Apple has long been rumored to be working on a car, even before everyone got excited about EVs. According to a new report from Reuters, that vehicle might finally be coming to fruition in 2024.

Reuters reported that the autonomous Apple car will start production in 2024 and will feature “next level” battery technology. The news service cited someone "who has seen Apple's battery design" as saying it could "radically" reduce battery costs and increase range.

Winter Solstice, Christmas Star

I like to take note of the Winter Solstice as I did in 2014 here.  It's the shortest day of the year, so it's all downhill from here to those glorious, long June nights in B'game when you can sit out in the dusk until 9:30.  I'm not too affected by the darkness being a nighthawk to begin with, but I know many people for whom it is a struggle and this year is probably the worst ever.  The shortest day means the longest night and tonight is special since it marks a Jupiter - Saturn Conjunction.  As this site notes  and shows a great time lapse rendering

The year 2020 will end with a special astronomical event: the closest great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 397 years. On December 21, the two planets will almost touch in the sky.  Since September 2020, Jupiter has been moving closer and closer to Saturn in the early evening sky. Wherever you are in the world—even in light-polluted urban environments—the two planets are an impressive sight, and easy to find after sunset. If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, look toward the southwest.

You can also use my new favorite app, Sky Guide, and easily locate stars, constellations and planets.  No more memorizing what is where like when I was a Boy Scout.

On December 21, the day of the conjunction, Jupiter and Saturn will be separated by a mere 0.1 degrees, and may appear as a single bright “star.” The two planets are completely merged together on our Night Sky Map for this date, although a careful observer should be able to separate them in the sky with the naked eye.   The pair of planets will become visible at twilight, close to the southwestern horizon in the Northern Hemisphere, or the western horizon in the Southern Hemisphere. They will set within a couple of hours or so, so it is important to have a clear view toward the horizon.

As Jupiter and Saturn will rendezvous just a few days before Christmas, forming what will look like a single bright object in the sky, the 2020 great conjunction is sometimes also called the “Christmas star” or “Bethlehem star.”  In fact, some scholars have theorized that the original Christmas star, known as the Star of Bethlehem, might also have been a great conjunction.

The December 21, 2020 conjunction will be the closest great conjunction since July 16, 1623. At the great conjunction of 1623, Jupiter and Saturn were slightly less than 0.1 degrees apart. However, this event would have been difficult—although not impossible—to observe since the two planets were near the Sun.  The last time that the two planets were easily observable when separated by less than 0.1 degrees was almost 800 years ago, during the great conjunction of 1226.

There is more on the site linked above, so check it out and get outside after sunset to see the Christmas Star.

Update:  A friend who lives on "Panoramic Heights" in San Carlos and is very capable with a telescope and camera sent me this picture (taken with a 1200 mm lens)!  Enjoy!

Water Security: An Historical View

Just because I have not written on water issues lately doesn't mean I haven't stopped worrying about our water security.  The drumbeat for development has not diminished even as we hear of the Bay Area exodus continuing.  I have attended a couple of professional seminars on the topic recently and neither have given me any confidence that this long-running problem is being worked on.  How long running?  Here is an historical perspective from the Tahoe Weekly newspaper's local historian Mark McLaughlin:

In 1870s, Southern Pacific Railroad (SPRR) started taking rain (in 1871) and snowfall (in 1879) measurements at its train stations across the Central Sierra. A primary reason for the data collection was to help convince American farmers to buy acreage in the Central Valley that SPRR had acquired in land grants and was now selling. Farmers from the Midwest and East Coast were attracted by California’s long growing season, but skeptical that the 20 inches or less of annual precipitation in the valley was sufficient to nourish crops. The railroad used its weather data to illustrate that portions of the west slopes of the Sierra Range receive up to 80 inches of precipitation, with much of it falling as snow above 6,000 feet in elevation. The prodigious spring and summer snowmelt fed streams and rivers flowing into the valley, thus providing abundant irrigation water for crops and ranching.

The importance of snow runoff storage was apparent even 150 years ago.  In a piece in today's WSJ about the Bay Area exodus, it notes

Between 2005 and 2019 employment in the five counties that make of the bulk of the Bay Area grew by 29% adding 674,000 jobs, according to California's Employment Development Department.  Yet construction permits were issued for just 211,000 units, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  Planners say the ratio of new jobs to new housing units should be around 1.5 to one.

So you see the problem.  "Just 211,000" units with many, many more in the pipeline and legislative threats to ramp up even further, but no new water storage in the SFPUC-run system.  What could go wrong?  Heckuva way to run a railroad.

Exodus - Part 2 Elon Musk Departs

Back in July we asked "how big? and how long?" would be the exodus from the Bay Area?  We got one more view of just how big today when the Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk said at a WSJ CEO Summit council this week he has moved to Texas.

Taking up residence in Texas comes with personal benefits for Mr. Musk: The state doesn’t collect state income or capital-gains tax for individuals. The auto executive qualified this year for billions of dollars in stock-option compensation as part of a pay-package agreement, making him the second-richest person in the world.

During the spring, when Mr. Musk was sparring over coronavirus shelter-in-place orders that shut his factory near San Francisco, California Gov. Gavin Newsom told CNBC he was “not worried about Elon leaving any time soon” and the state was committed to the car maker’s success. “We may not be the cheapest place to do business but we are the best place to do business,” Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, said.

California’s taxes underlie many of the complaints. Its personal income tax tops out at 13.3% for amounts over $1 million a year, the highest in the nation. Capital gains are taxed at a similar rate.

In a separate piece this week, the WSJ also highlighted how mid-tier cities are gaining population at the expense of SF and NYC

For every person who moved to the Bay Area from Austin between April and October, 2.9 people moved in the other direction, according to an analysis from LinkedIn. That is a 39% increase from a year earlier.

Perhaps the Gavinor could make a phone call, apologize and get back Musk's tens of millions of dollars in annual California taxes.  He would also have to call the CEOs of HP Enterprise, Palantir and dozens of start-ups and sports stars.  But as the Journal noted "Many who call the Bay Area home have expressed relief at the departure of tech professionals who have been blamed for driving up the cost of living and congesting the freeways."  When I was an analyst, we called that a "going out of business strategy".  Nobody is less pleased with the over-development of the Peninsula than me, but if we are to fund the good stuff (schools, social services, infrastructure, pensions) and the bad stuff Newsom wants (high-cost rail, costly green policies, giveaways) then he might want to pick up the phone and start calling.