The Burlingame Voice

ECR: The Big Dig schedule eases into next year

The massive project to "fix" El Camino Real known around town as The Big Dig after the Boston tunnel project has slipped to a Fall 2025 start with the PG&E part slipping into 2026.  The Axeman still cometh for 90% of the eucalyptus, but it looks like they may live to see another winter.  Finalizing the easements from ECR property owners is causing the slippage.  Per the DJ piece

There are two major elements to the project. One, a Caltrans effort to repair the road, sidewalk and street lights that will span from Millbrae to San Mateo, may begin work by fall of this year, however, that construction may start in one of the other cities first. 

The second aspect of the project is a Burlingame-specific push for PG&E to underground utilities. The construction start date for that work has been delayed to the second quarter of 2026, Okada said. 

Delays to Caltrans’ work on the road revamp are being caused in part by the need for signed reconciliations that affirm property owners are aware if their driveways, gardens and retaining walls in the public right-of-way will need to be removed to make way for sidewalk work.

The city has committed to paying for the reconstruction of those facilities if property owners allow them to be temporarily removed, Burlingame Councilmember Donna Colson said, but has still run into trouble obtaining all of the necessary documentation of the easements.

Slipping timelines equate to slipping funding and budgets even though inflation is moderating.  Thus, this uncertainty could be concerning as the undergrounding of the power lines is where the hidden problems like 1920's buried fuel tanks and other obstructions surface.

On the PG&E side, the paperwork for procuring a contractor has been delayed, Okada said. 

The count of trees to be removed is also a moving target.  It's still a lot of big, beautiful trees, but how many appears to have changed

The tree removal aspect of the project has long been controversial in Burlingame, which is well-known for its forestry. Plans to take down 382 trees, plant 429 and retain more than 193 trees have slowly come together with input from groups like the Burlingame Historical Society.

While we wait for the Big Dig to start perhaps Caltrans could throw us a bone and fix the potholes?  The City should formally request a Spring patch along the whole stretch.  I would also like to see the surviving trees be marked as such well before the project begins.  That's just good transparency.  A constant finding in talking to B'gamers is very few have any idea that hundreds of trees are on the chopping block.

Water, water, everywhere: What I learned on tour

It's somewhat easy to forget about the Pacific Palisades and Altadena fires and all the others that preceded it in California when we are personally unaffected.  It was only four months ago, but it caused me to wonder about how well B'game is set up to deal with something like that?  There is a lot of fuel in Mills Canyon and there is at least one large 50-acre tract in Hillsborough that could foreseeably be a starting point.  And if the wind were blowing just so.....

It's one thing to assess our resilience to a long-term drought which I did here after reading the City Urban Water Management Plan.  That's for drinking, showering, cooking and irrigation.  It's something entirely different to consider a conflagration response.  The B'game Water Department was kind enough to accommodate my curiosity with a two-hour field tour of our water system.  I had some basic understanding from the UWMP, but seeing the network of feeder pipes, distribution pipes, pumps, pressure regulators, tanks, reservoirs, generators and SCADA monitoring was enlightening.  Major pieces of the system are all around us.  One just might not realize it until pointed out.

Three major pipes bring us the SFPUC feed.  They are about a block apart running north-south through the city in the flat lands near ECR.  There are six pumping stations, seven water storage tanks (above ground like the one shown below on Rivera) and reservoirs (below grade) that feed ten pressure zones.  The history of the system closely tracks the history of the city since development moved up the hill and city water followed along replacing wells.  Hence the need for pump--big pumps.  The top-most reservoir is on the west side of Skyline Blvd.

Unlike the LA fire when the Santa Ynez Reservoir, with a capacity of 117 million gallons, was out of service due to repairs needed on its cover, ours are more distributed and have some back-up capability.  I have a lot of confidence that our staff can move water around to the best of the system's design capability.  The question is "would it be enough" if we had a fast-moving multi-acre fire?  My best guess--and it's my guess--not any input or comments from staff, is probably not.  If Central County Fire rolled three or four trucks and all tapped into nearby hydrants, the system would likely struggle to supply them for very long.  Again, that's my layman's guess.

Furthermore, what could we do about it in the absence of a gusher of new money?  There's no appetite for higher water rates that are already in an uphill trend.  And even if there were, the design improvements are far from obvious.  Some of B'game might be ripe for the Zone 0 five-foot vegetation clearance requirement and they probably know who they are.  You can look here for the official risk map.  In the meantime, let's hope the state figures out a middle ground on insurance and we get lucky.  At least it appears the Hetch Hetchy is about 90% full.  Here's one place where we keep our portion.

 

 

 

911: An hour of rerouting calls

If you are on the SMC Alert system via text and/or email you got this notice last night at 1:31am:

SMC Alert: The City of Burlingame Phone lines are currently down. 911 lines are being routed and answered by Redwood City Police Dept. For all non-emergency calls, please contact the City of San Bruno's business line # 650-616-7100. San Bruno and Redwood City will be able to forward information to Burlingame Police so officers can be dispatched accordingly. Thank you for your patience while this problem is being worked on.

Thankfully it was followed by the All-clear email about an hour later at 2:27am:

SMC Alert: All Burlingame Police lines are back in service. For non emergency calls, dial 650-777-4100 and for emergency calls dial 911.

I know a bit about how the 911 system and call centers and phone lines work so if I get any details from BPD, I will pass them along.  I like having our own dispatch since the dispatchers know their way around B'game.  There is no substitute for local institutional knowledge.  You should also keep the non-emergency number in your phone.

Travis AFB: Hypocrisy meter hits 100

My hypocrisy meter pegged at 100 yesterday reading the SF Comicle article about possibly using Travis AFB near Sacramento as an ICE detention center.  Forget about the proposed use, who proposed it or where it is and all the other stuff that people will endlessly disagree about in the political realm without changing anyone's mind.  My H-meter spiked because of this:

Federal officials have been looking for months for detention facilities in Northern California and other Western states that could have 850 to 950 detention beds.  Reps. John Garamendi, D-Fairfield, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, and Mike Thompson, D-Napa, told Hegseth in a May 5 letter that they were “deeply frustrated” and “gravely concerned” about using Travis as a migrant detention center.

Why might you ask?

They want the Pentagon to explain how building a detention center would affect Travis’ water and energy infrastructure.

Sure, filling 950 beds in an established major facility that has housed people since 1942 kicks off concerns about water and electricity.  But building thousands of units that have 2-4 beds in every city and town up and down the state?  Don't worry, there will be plenty of water, sewer capacity, electricity, parking, school capacity, police and fire--fergettaboutit.  Just don't use natural gas.  If you are a big-time Federal politician, you can just throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks.  Try that as a regular resident and you are a NIMBY using zoning codes and CEQA as a weapon.  Want to avoid big residential construction on the B'game Bayfront because it lacks said infrastructure?  Too bad.  From the DJ:

New and proposed state housing laws could mean housing on the Bayfront without specific city standards, despite the city’s intent to limit such development there in its general plan.  New housing was zoned for the north end of Burlingame, near Bay Area Rapid Transit, not on the Bayfront — though proposals for changing zoning there have been floated several times over the years.  The Burlingame City Council and Planning Commission, meeting April 29, in a joint session expressed that the laws will severely undermine the city’s ability to effectively plan its own new housing and undercut its environmental and safety goals.

Councilmembers expressed frustration that the state was continuing to remove local control from the city’s development process, citing its recent endeavors to meet its state-mandated housing requirements by building out housing in the North Rollins Road area.

The hypocrisy needle is pinned to the top of the meter.

Safeway: Rooftop fatality

The only place I saw any news about this was deep down in John Horgan's column where he wrote:

A TRAGEDY IN BURLINGAME: Law enforcement authorities have been investigating why a 34-year-old San Francisco man apparently jumped (or fell) off the top of the multistory Safeway Store on Howard Avenue in Burlingame early in April. He somehow survived the approximate 30-foot plunge. But, sadly, he later died of his traumatic injuries at Stanford Medical Center. The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner’s office had not provided a definitive cause for the tragedy on its website as of noon Monday.

I park up there off and on--more "on" as the on-going refresh of the store continues--and it's hard to see how one could fall off.  Let's hope there's no criminal activity involved.

Broadway headscratcher

We haven't had a crazy parking post in a while.  The last one that was photo worthy was in the Safeway lot in November 2023.  Today's headscratcher beats that by a mile.  On Broadway, in broad daylight, someone decided to somehow back into the angled spot on the other side of the street!  Imagine.  You would pull past the open spot, check for on-coming cars then back across the lane into the space.  Then to top it all off, you don't actually back all the way into the space causing eastbound drivers to have to pull into the westbound lane to get around your car.

Broadway was jammed as usual because everyone hates Carmelita now, but I hear the TSP Commission is considering which stupid rubber speed humps to remove at this week's meeting.  Fingers crossed.  I saw parking enforcement walking B'way on my way back 20 minutes later, but not sure if a ticket was issued.  I'm not even sure what said ticket would read?  If I had taken video instead of this still photo, you would have heard Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in the background since it was playing on my radio.  Uncanny.

  

Spanish solar blackout: Will we ignore the warning?

The usual critique of solar energy is that the sun doesn't shine all the time--and that's certainly true.  But millions of Spaniards, Portuguese and some French people spent hours without any electricity Monday as the over reliance on solar bit them in the culo.  You had to read widely to even hear about it in California since the Green agenda doesn't want to talk about these things.  The WSJ noted:

Life changed for Spaniards at noon on Monday. With the sun at its peak, the country’s largely solar-powered electrical grid shut down. Mere days before, Spain’s government had announced that its grid had for the first time run entirely on renewable power, with new records set almost daily for solar. Breathless declarations of victory flowed, in service of the government’s promise to phase out reliable nuclear power plants with many years of remaining service life. As in Germany, this promise is now the Spanish politicians’ nightmare.

The Financial Times had some of the numbers that lead to the collapse of the grid:

About 55 percent of Spain's supply was from solar sources when 15 gigawatts of electricity generation disconnected from the grid within just five seconds.  Several European experts said Spain appeared to lack enough firm power--readily available, reliable energy supply from sources such as fossil fuels or nuclear that can be reduced or raised--to kick in when the grid's frequency dropped sharply...an oversupply of electricity might have initially caused the problem.  Normally, the grid operator would have managed this by asking traditional plants to moderate their output but this was not possible because so few plants were on line.  Of the scheduled 26 GW of electricity supply on Monday, just 5GW came from non-intermittent sources.

About a fifth of the country's power normally comes from solar power, but hey, the government wanted to set a new Green record--and they have.  Traffic lights, electric trains, home medical equipment, internet access, ATMs---all of it down for hours.  My part of B'game was out for 50 hours two years ago during the big storms.  We have enough weather and vehicle accident-driven outages without adding more risk by virtue signaling.  As the Journal concluded:

Events will inevitably test any electrical system’s limits. A rational system should be designed to handle such events. Spain’s system was engineered politically, not rationally. It’s the latest lesson in how not to make energy policy. Will anyone learn from it?

Top Golf: First impressions

Six years after we got the preview of the Top Golf plans (as described here), I finally made it out to the Bayfront for some swings and refreshments.  We went with a large group and booked two stations for two hours on a busy Saturday afternoon.  The facility is impressive and expansive.  There are 36 hitting stations on each of three levels.  We were on the middle level, and I got a bit of the agoraphobic feeling I had when I did the special event at Oracle Park hitting golf balls on to the baseball field from stations in the stands.  There are nets in front.

The sports bar in the lobby is likely to draw a good crowd of all ages with the giant screen shown below, a full bar, pub fare, foosball and shuffleboard.  I could see going out there without hitting any balls.  With the soccer field a short walk away, there were plenty of kids kicking back after games.  For the uninitiated, the gamification of the golf shots is not exactly intuitive.  The idea is to set up teams and rack up points similar to pinball by hitting targets.  If I were Top Golf, I would offer some coaching to newbies on how to set it up and perhaps explain why an additional $5 charge per player for "membership" kicked in above the station rental fee.

The stations are set up for hitting and socializing.  Some have high-tops and all appeared to have couches.  We had a few tag-alongs who didn't hit a single ball and still had fun.  The food appeared to be pretty average.  There were no complaints about the chicken sandwich and fries, but a local hack I will tip you off to is the Mexican restaurant (Gabriel's & Daniel's) in the old driving range building across the parking lot is still operating albeit on limited hours--they closed at 5pm on Saturday.  The food is excellent--probably the best Mexican between Millbrae and San Mateo.

Another oddity is the drink menu doesn't have any prices on it!  The Angel's Envy Old Fashioneds are $17.75.  A Hendricks Martini is $19.75 while good ole Grey Goose goes off at $12.25.  You don't find that out until the bill arrives.  Those aren't usurious prices, but why not print them?

We shall see if the business turns out to be the sales tax gusher the city is hoping for.  Other Top Golf sites that are older and perhaps not as cool were reported to be under plan as we noted here last September.  With 108 stations and a fun bar, I hope they do well so we can do well.

Hillsborough shooting: Reward goes up

The Hillsborough PD are still looking for the shooter that hit an officer in their parking lot on Feb. 22nd.  We're a month in.  The state has stepped in with an additional $50K of reward money to add to the H'borough $100K.  Oddly enough the Comicle didn't mention the first $100K but did run the drawing of the suspect.  Here it is

AI: The County Full Employment Act of 2025?

Here is a classic entry for the Friends with Benefits category.  Our Supes, in their wisdom, have passed a resolution that requires county departments to "suggest new jobs to create" if positions are cut due to the implementation of AI.  Let that settle in for moment...or three.  I suppose one could use AI to suggest the imaginary jobs, but wouldn't that be circular illogic?

Our newest supe, Jackie Speier, is quoted in the Daily Post as saying, "There was an Industrial Revolution, now there's the AI revolution....We're going to have to adapt."  How about "We're going to have to adapt exploit"?  Voila.  Fixed.

If I had told any of my former bosses over 40 years in the Real World that I knew of a way to do the same or more work with less resources, but I wanted to "create" some new positions to make up for the savings, I would have been laughed out of the building.  If you were thinking we might be moving towards Adult Supervision down in RWC, you might want to "create a new sentiment" to replace that old, tired out one.

Revisiting the '06 Quake in style

Today, April 18, at 5:12 am is the anniversary of the Big One that hit EssEff in 1906.  The festivities at Lotta's Fountain will take place as usual on Market Street, but this year there will be a special attraction from B'game.  I happened to be at an event at the Candy Store last night where it was announced that the 1906 Locomobile Model H seven passenger touring car that lives at Candy Store will be fired up and driven to Lotta's Fountain to join the remembrance.

It cruises comfortably at 40 mph, so the owner will only have to leave around 4am after he lights the carbide head lamps.  How fun!  Here it is.

Panthers invade Oracle Park

I wish I had known about this game ahead of time, but thanks to John Horgan I get to regret not being there.  Horgan writes:

Tyler Jamieson got a dream job last weekend at Oracle Park in San Francisco, at least for a few hours. He was the lead public address announcer for a high school baseball game between San Bruno’s Capuchino and Burlingame. Jamieson is the longtime P.A. voice of the latter prep program at Washington Park in Burlingame. The Mustangs and Panthers played against each other last Saturday at the Major League Baseball venue as part of a Giants’ promotion. Capuchino won, 1-0. Jamieson, as always, was in fine form.

"Stats" Jamieson is an institution at Washington Park for BHS baseball games doing the introductions, playing the music, and keeping the scorebook.  He must have had a blast at Oracle!