The Burlingame Voice

High-Cost Rail - Part 164 Private financing? Don't bet on it

It was fun reading SF Comicle journalist Rachel Swan try to put a happy face on the latest PR from the High-Speed Rail Authority.  As the Feds meander towards cancelling the latest $4 billion check, the latest CEO thinks private money may participate!  From the Chron

At a moment when California high-speed rail faces possible abandonment, the project’s new CEO sees a tantalizing lifeline: $1 billion annually from the state, supplemented by an infusion of private capital.  It’s a hopeful, perhaps heady proposition.

More like a head shop proposition, but she's trying

But when CEO Ian Choudri was appointed last August to run the High-Speed Rail Authority, an agency created to plan and oversee the train system, he refused to let rising costs or critics distract him. Instead, he latched onto the public-private financing gambit, convinced that it just might work.

Here's another guy looking to eat at the trough

“There are significant ways to monetize (and) commercialize long linear rights of way,” said Sia Kusha, senior vice president of Plenary Americas, a firm that specializes in public-private partnerships. Plenary has helped build metro rail systems, hospitals, freeway express lanes and a vast expansion of the UC Merced campus.

Although Kusha did not provide specific details about how to commercialize high-speed rail, others cited the fare box as a basic source of revenue. Beyond that, companies could develop real estate around stations or operate tunnels and charge for every train that rolls through. For businesses willing to engage in a little magical thinking, the opportunities seem boundless.

"A little magical thinking"?  Is that like being a little pregnant?  You can tell Rachel had a deadline, went to the conference where this nonsense was discussed and had nothing else to write about.  The sooner Newsom kills this boondoggle and redirects the $1 billion per year of Cap and Trade money to things like, say, the Broadway grade separation, Caltrain and SamTrans budgets, or even propping up BART, the better.  Nobody has said this, but there's a non-zero chance that the El Camino Real "Little Big Dig" might be seeing cost increases that threaten the project the same as the grade separation.  Even that would be a better use of money than the Train from Nowhere to Nowhere.

Sheriff saga moves into the open: Secrets released

The July 3rd edition of the Daily Post was all Corpus all the time with not one, two, or three, but four different articles plumbing the records that finally moved into public view.  And there was no editorial in that issue.  We covered the origins of the soap opera here back in November and the badges aspect here.  Why the sheriff's lawyers filed documents without their standard secrecy veil is a mystery to me after all this time, but details abound.  The first bit of news that I have not seen anywhere to date explains how Corpus is paying for all this legal work.  The answer is we are paying.  Per the Post:

The County pays for Corpus' attorneys.  State law requires that if requested, an elected official such as the sheriff, can request to be represented by attorneys other than the county counsel.

Talk about Friends with Benefits.  Even if she loses the whole case, will the County see a dime of what has to be a huge bill separate from what is rung up on their (meaning our) side?  That sounds like a state law in need of a rewrite.  A separate article titled "Records reveal more details about alleged affair" has an Undersheriff describing a professional conference he went to with Corpus and Aenlle where they were absent and missed appointments during the day.  It also lists some damning text messages and quotes another officer whose parents live across the street from Corpus in San Bruno who saw Aenlle there and said he tried to duck him.

But the fourth killer article is about the sheriff's alleged slurs about Jews, lesbians, and her predecessor Carlos Bolanos.  She is alleged to have called Half Moon Bay Capt. Rebecca Albin a "jew b****".  I'm not sure why the Post feels the need for asterisks there when they quote her alleged description of Bolanos as a "coconut" according to Detective Morgan--  "brown on the outside, white on the inside."  Who knew there was a Latino version of Oreo, but she is also accused of calling him the N-word back in November?  Make up your mind.  But the absolute kicker is the allegation that she referred

to a Millbrae council woman as a "fuzz bumper" on three occasions, text messages show.

That's a new slur for a lesbian that I've never heard before.  I checked Urban Dictionary and it's there.  Recall that before running for county sheriff, Corpus' assignment was to oversee the small Millbrae-based force that Millbrae had outsourced to the County.  It's hard to imagine the level of hubris to keep all this going at massive taxpayer expense.

Yesterday I picked up a copy of the little free paper Peninsula News that is offered in Woodside, RWC, etc by the Merc.  Their editorial titled "Corpus review lacks fairness, transparency" in the July 4th edition probably went to print before they saw the "secret records" get filed and found.  The Merc got way too far out over their skis and they now look foolish.  We'll see if we see a mea culpa from the Merc.

Two views of the Fourth of July

As we celebrate the 249th Fourth of July and ponder the Semiquincentennial next year, more commentators are looking back to the origins of the day.  The WSJ had a column whose perspective was sobering:

Despite having done films on the Civil War and Vietnam, Ken Burns told me he was taken aback by the Revolution’s brutality. One of every three deaths was by bayonet. Warriors were often teenagers and the violence deeply personal, as when a young Vermont loyalist killed his best friend in hand-to-hand combat at the Battle of Bennington in 1777. Per capita there were more deaths in the Revolution than during the Civil War. Yet out of the carnage emerged the world’s first continent-spanning democracy.

Americans who want to dig deeper need not wait for November. There are many new books on the Revolutionary War that are well worth the read. The best are from Pulitzer-Prize winning military historian Rick Atkinson, who crafted a trilogy on the war for America.

He provides amazing detail and masterful staging. You’re in the action, seeing the violence that bitterly divided neighbors and families and understanding how close-run the war was. The vivid details, the intimacy, the sense of immediacy are a result of studious research. Like Mr. Burns, Mr. Atkinson mined the vast corpus of memoirs, letters, diaries and dispatches of the surprisingly literate combatants.

Being a Massachusetts native from the city 50 miles south of Bennington that has traditionally hosted a massive Fourth parade that dates back to 1801 and is often featured on national TV, I've enjoyed many firemens musters, marching bands, car shows and cook-outs on the day.  My Fourth of July birthday girl wife gets tired of my reminiscing about going to the local farm and getting a Baker's Dozen ears of corn for a buck in the '60s.  I was thrilled that our newly remodeled Safeway ran a special that beat the old price!  7 cent corn flew off the shelves yesterday.  I hope you got some.  Have a happy and pensive Fourth.

Fire Station 36 reopens

With all of the overdevelopment near 101 and in the North End, emergency response and fire response has been a growing concern--for those that think pragmatically.  Denser housing, especially where there has traditionally been no housing, brings more need.  So, it was good news that a big Federal grant has allowed the station on Rollins that has been closed for 15 years to reopen with newly hired firefighters.  The Daily Journal grabbed the photo op "Burlingame, Hillsborough and Millbrae councilmembers complete the engine push-in tradition alongside fire department personnel."

Central County Fire — which serves Burlingame, Hillsborough and Millbrae — originally shut down operations at the station as a cost-cutting measure. But the department was recently awarded a substantial $8 million grant from the federal government, allowing it to hire 12 additional firefighters and reopen Station 36.  The $8.1 million Staffing For Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant was originally awarded to CCFD in November 2024 and is to be used over a three-year period. The department will be tasked with providing an additional half-million dollars in funding, per a staff report from the CCFD board.

Reopening the station will provide up to a four-minute improvement in response times to the Bayside area of CCFD’s jurisdiction, Fire Chief David Pucci said.

When you need serious help, four minutes is a looong time to wait.  Test it.  Set your phone timer to four minutes and sit totally still, silent and sort of meditate.  Good stuff.

Filling "The Village" should be a breeze

The Village was in the early planning stages back in January 2018 as noted here.  The public parking lot was turned into the subsidized housing project that now towers over the south side of the Avenew and Howard Ave.  The question I have when I see the sign below is why advertising is needed to fill the building?  If the "housing crisis" is so bad, wouldn't there be a long waiting list to get in? As units turn over, the next name is called.  And yet, yesterday this sign pops up again.

City Budget: Good, just not great

The last time we delved into the city finances in detail was three plus year ago here.  What we saw back in 2022 was

A tentative budget proposal indicated the city could dip into its reserves by $2.5 million this year and again by $4.8 million, $5.3 million and $5.6 million (Ed:  that's $18.2M or 40% for those keeping track at home) over the following three years until a surplus is again achieved in 2025-26. But as (City manager Lisa) Goldman pointed out, the projections include considerable planned infrastructure spending that could be pulled back if needed.

Fast-forward to today and the Daily Journal did some summarizing as follows

The city’s revenue will likely sit at $92.5 million for the upcoming year (i.e. the 2025-26 year), more than enough to cover the city’s planned expenditures of $85.5 million.

However, a planned $9.9 million transfer to the capital improvement fund — which will focus on the city’s potable water system and sanitary sewers this year — plus more than $3 million for debt services, will leave Burlingame at a $3.6 million net operating deficit.

Our extensive water system will slurp up capital monies on an on-going basis due to the waves of investment made over time, and thus aging out over time, as detailed here.  Water isn't getting any cheaper.  The ECR repaving and "good roads" mentioned in the 2022 post are still elusive.  There are plenty of orphan hub caps on ECR to this day as we await The Little Big Dig.

Vice Mayor Michael Brownrigg emphasized that the city was making an investment choice into long-term capital projects and that the operating budget for Burlingame’s essential services was still in a healthy place.

At a budget study session May 21, City Manager Lisa Goldman said the city might consider raising its transient occupancy tax from 12% to 14% in coming years.

Currently, Burlingame’s transient occupancy tax is its second-highest revenue source and will bring in a projected $22.8 million for the upcoming fiscal year. Its most fiscally beneficial revenue source is projected to be property taxes, at $35.8 million.

The TOT is an easy target as it is buried in the hotel bills paid by visitors.  The bigger question is how fast the "recovery" will happen.  It was $29 million from the tax in 2018-19, nearly 35% of the city’s revenue that year so still $6.2M short and there are more hotels in nearby cities siphoning off some travelers.  Thus the new budget is good, just not great.

Local real estate: High water marks set

Hot on the heels of the highest-priced B'game house to ever sell, the Bing Crosby estate has finally sold.  Alex Buljan is having a good year--selling both properties:

It took less than a day to sell an 8,200-square-foot Burlingame home for a record $17 million, at $3.5 million above the asking price.  Jennifer Colvin and Eric Klein sold their century-old home with a modern addition at 133 Pepper Avenue, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The buyer was undisclosed.  “We were on the market for less than 24 hours,” Compass’ Alex Buljan, who held the listing, told the newspaper.  The sale far surpassed Burlingame’s previous highest sale in February last year at 121 Pepper Avenue, two doors down the street, for just shy of $9 million.  They took a historically designated 1924 Tudor home and mated it with a modern addition, on a half acre.

The Comicle piece on the Crosby estate notes:

A historic Hillsborough estate once owned by Bing Crosby has sold for $25 million, more than a third below its original asking price but still one of the most expensive residential sales in the town’s history.

The property at 1200 Jackling Drive, a 14,000-square-foot French chateau-style mansion on 5 acres, was listed in January for $40 million following the death of Crosby’s widow, Kathryn Grant, in 2024. The deal closed Thursday, according to Compass agents Alex and Pierre Buljan, who represented the buyer.  “This property is one of Hillsborough’s legacy estates with an extremely storied background and impeccable vintage craftsmanship,” Alex Buljan said in a statement. “The buyer is a Hillsborough local with an appreciation for classic properties, adamant about maintaining the character and history into the next generation.”

That intent is a relief since H'borough has been looking around at big pieces of land in town to find ways to meet the ridiculous housing requirements from Sacramento.  Five acres would cause some developers to drool especially with all the new free-for-all rules if you can jam a bit of subsidized housing in there.  The bet is when H'borough finally has to come up with more units, they will be as close to ECR--and B'game--as possible.  And this won't be the end of 8-digit houses in B'game even without multiple acres of land to work with.

Historic ECR buildings: "Mogies" make the cut

As we wait for The LIttle Big Dig to start on El Camino it's worth delving into one of the useful things Caltrans did during the planning phase.  They had to commission an historic inventory report on the buildings along the historic thoroughfare--at least the ones that are left after the teardown trend of the last 20 -30 years.  All the way at the south end of town there are two distinctive buildings across from each other at the five-way, St. Catherine's intersection.  They are known as "Mogies" after architect Mogens Mogensen who did a number of projects on the Peninsula as described here:

Mogen Mogensen (1920-1997) Was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He graduated in 1942 in Architecture from the Technical School of Copenhagen. Between 1942 and 1946 he worked in architectural offices in Denmark and Sweden.  Mogensen had early success, winning awards for designs for a school in Malmo, Sweden in 1945, and a City Hall in Ulricehamn, Sweden a year later. He arrived in the U.S. in 1946 with the help of a great uncle and aunt who ran a dairy near San Luis Obispo. He quickly found a job with Wurster, Bernardi, Emmons in San Francisco, leaving them in 1947 for a two-year position as a designer with the David D. Bohannon Organization in San Mateo.

During this time, he became a licensed architect in California. From 1950 to 1952 he worked in several architectural offices in San Francisco and on the peninsula. In 1952 he returned as chief architect for David Bohannon. He opened his own office in 1956. His Bay Area practice consisted primarily of apartment buildings and condominiums although he also built private homes. Mogensen was also involved in master planning, office buildings, and commercial projects.

If you click through on the link you can see he designed the Adeline Apartments in Burlingame, the Ambassador Apartments in San Mateo, the Belmont Executive Center, and for the Bohannon Corp, the Hillsdale housing development and shopping center in San Mateo.

Here on the South end, the Mogie at 90 El Camino has been deemed historic in the report which is timely since the building has also gone up for sale for the first time that I can remember in the 34 years I have lived a block away.  Disen Cai has the listing and it pops up on-line for $2.8M.  We will revisit the other "Mogie" across the street--an angular apartment building--at another time. Here's the little Mogie gem:

B'game Night: When trivia takes center stage

It was a standing room only crowd at the historic Burlingame Women's Club Wednesday night as newly minted 2024 Citizen of the Year Russ Cohen and past Citizen of the Year Mark "Mark at the Mic" Lucchesi led the crowd through more than an hour of entertainment and education.  The first ever Burlingame Trivia Night hosted by the Historical Society and some local partners saw attendees vacillate between nailing trivia answers and flailing away until Russ gave mercy answers.

It's one thing to know there are seven creeks in B'game.  It's quite another to know all seven names.  Same goes for the decorative sculpture above the door of the Old Post office that lives on in the new building--it's called "The Letters".  Nobody got that one!  Russ has a true skill with the microphone, a la Phil Donahue, that kept everyone engaged and entertained.  It's just one example of the many contributions to community spirit he has made and continues to make.  The Citizen of the Year nomination noted his work leading the Historical Society Museum refresh, donating poster designs (like the Pet Parade), serving as a city council member and, of course, co-founding the Voice as noted here.

In his acceptance speech last week, Russ quoted Mark Twain's obituary description of Anson Burlingame (they were friends) as one of his aspirations.  Twain wrote “In every labor of this man’s life there was present a good and noble motive.”  Mr. Cohen is well on his way to achieving that life goal.

The Dairy Boy was a featured question at Trivia Night.  The treasure chest of questions is deep enough for a repeat performance in the future.

 

Bay Area "Labor market malaise" to continue?

It's best to take the long view when watching the economic dynamics of the Bay Area.  Point in time measures can't tell the whole story but do provide some sense of the state of things.  $12 billion dollar state budget deficit?  Check.  Transit "fiscal cliff" that sends politicians running for more taxes?  Check.  Massive Bay Area employers backing off of paying for huge residential housing projects?  Check.  Employment down? Check as the Merc is reporting today:

The Bay Area lost 14,700 total nonfarm payroll jobs in all categories over the first four months of 2025. Over the same time, California lost 32,300 total payroll jobs, official reports from the state Employment Development Department show.

“There is little doubt that federal government job losses will be an important contributor to the labor market malaise that already appears to be falling over the Bay Area,” said Scott Anderson, chief economist with BMO Capital Markets.  In sharp contrast, state and local government agencies have increased hiring, but that may soon change.

Let's hope so.  The Merc doesn't provide the denominator to the fraction, i.e. how many nonfarm jobs are there?  But a $12 billion deficit is not a chump-change.

Job losses within the federal government could become far worse in the months ahead, some experts warn.  “These numbers are the tip of the iceberg,” Levy said. “The majority of federal job cuts are not reflected in the April data.”

A $2.4 trillion-dollar federal deficit ain't chump-change either so I take issue with the characterization of federal RIFs becoming "far worse".  Right sizing government and bringing some sanity to the Bay Area jobs-housing ratio that might stop the "Wienerization" of the suburbs is to be encouraged.  Want to stop the $inkhole sucking taxpayer cash that is the high-cost rail project?  It's only claim to fame so far is that it "creates" a lot of new jobs.  I'm sure we could put a few to work on the Broadway grade separation for a tiny fraction of what is being wasted in the Central Valley.  Don't hold your breath.

Safeway - Part 75: The Grand Re-opening

Yesterday was the grand re-opening of the newly refreshed Safeway that was last re-opened in 2011.  It's been a six-month project, and I would say it's better, but not any sort of total game changer.  The biggest difference is probably energy efficiency as a lot more refrigerated items are behind doors instead of in open shelving.  It all looks bright and shiny.

I didn't realize it was the re-opening, I just needed groceries, but the balloons, a DJ, food sample tables all over the store, a Burlingame ice carving (I missed whatever was being served) and the local street names on each aisle's signage made for a festive occasion.  Everybody got a Safeway scratcher ($2, $5, $10, etc) and we now have a B'game Concierge!  Kathleen B was near the front door doing conciergy stuff.  The mailer that went out to nearby residents has her email:  [email protected].  That could come in handy.  Here's the scene

Spring Treehugger post: Dogwood

Here is the bookend treehugger post to the early Spring post back in March.  This dogwood's blossoms have held on for weeks even with all the wind.  Just a stunning bit of arbor beauty.  The long evenings of sunlight make it even better as you can see here: