The Burlingame Voice

Its all about marketing

On a recent flight I was talking to the flight attendant (do you remember when they were stewardesses!) who told me on her last layover in San Francisco she had wandered into Burlingame and found a great wine store. She bought some Chardonnay simply because the store owner had put a big butter sticker on the description!. She told a couple of folks on the flight about her experience, and said she looked forward to coming back to Burlingame! Thanks Gerald!

- Written by admin

City of Trees - sometimes!

I have always been curious why certain parts of the City of Trees are completely devoid of trees. One fine example of this is Auto Row. Where are the trees to break up those rows and rows of cars?So trying to get informed, I read the Beautification minutes. Perhaps some explanation why certains parts of Burlingame have no trees is because two trees blew down. What happened to the others?

Chairperson Hesselgren reported that Rector Cadillac removed two more trees, leaving no trees at the site. Arborist Porter responded that the two trees blew down and needed removing. Chairperson Hesselgren noted that the site should have a total of 15 trees. Arborist Porter responded that he will send a letter to the Honda Dealership to begin the process of getting trees replanted on that commercial site

We look forward to the Honda Dealership planting those trees. But what about the other dealerships and businesses? Did their trees blow down? Perhaps they could plant a tree or two?

- Written by Fiona

Rosalie aka Constance's mother

Congratulations to Burlingame's very own Rosalie McCloud for not only being Burlingame's real estate broker extraordinaire but also acting in SM County Historical Association's renactment of "The Strange Case of Constance Flood" in Courthouse A at the History Museum today.

This was a great example of bringing history to life in such a beautiful newly renovated courthouse.

- Written by admin

The Not-so-Hidden Value of Crossing Guards

Allow me to draw your attention to the SM County Times article on Page 9 of today's edition titled "Police Want Man for Questioning". A nine year old girl was fending off a man who was apparently trying to lure her into his car near Parkside Elementary Tuesday after school. The girl's action caught "the attention of of Parkside School crossing guard James Cavazos, who started questioning the man before the man drove off". The article includes a police sketch of the man they are looking for, no doubt a more accurate sketch due to Mr. Cavazos description than the nine year old's description.

I think that Mr. Cavazos has earned his salary for the entire year on the 2nd or 3rd day of school in San Mateo. I hope City Councils up and down the Peninsula are paying attention.

- Written by Joe Baylock

Peninsula Hospital rebuild

Those interested in the latest developments regarding the Peninsula Hospital rebuild will be interested in attending the upcoming special study session which will address the Revised Environmental Impact Report and Revised project. The study session, which will include both the City Council and Planning Commission, will be held Monday, August 30th at 7 p.m. in the Lane Community Room of the Main Library.

- Written by Cinderella Story

Safeway Spoonfed

In response to your mention of Linda Humber's letter questioning the opposition to the actual size of the proposal for the failed Safeway complex in Burlingame. I suggest that she read (carefully) the EIR so as not to confuse footprint dimensions with square footage. Mezzanines and cellars are not included when calculating footprint coverage. The footprint of this project is where the sprawling negative impact has been made. By including interior unusable spaces in their calculations, Safeway has attempted to blind side people into believing that their current store footprint is several thousand square feet larger than it truly is. Their purpose is to convince the city and unknowing individuals that undertaking a more reasonably sized project won't be economically viable for them. This is disingenuous. Furthermore, one must consider the cumulative negative affect of combining several separate structures, each currently with an independent entrance and replacing them with one massive complex and only a single entrance oriented towards El Camino. Retail space with usable dimensions, on Primrose but also on emerging Howard Avenue, should be combined with a scaled Safeway/Walgreens complex, perhaps even with housing. As it stands, surface parking is insufficient, truck traffic is still planned for Primrose and the construction of the project is only viable by swapping a well-used public parking lot off of Primrose. Sadly, this tired eight year-old plan will continue to be controversial until it is finally discarded and replaced with a new, smarter concept that every resident of Burlingame can proudly support and unify behind. The Planning Commission has given Safeway Corporation plenty of direction, now the ball is in their court.

- Written by Jennifer Pfaff

Walk in those Footprints!

In the Daily News today, Linda Humber questions the math for the size of the proposed Safeway store and suggests that her figures come up with a very different picture to what some people are claiming about the enormity of the proposed store.

According to Linda, the current square footage: 31,625 sq.ft (Safeway) 17,560 (Walgreens), 7,850 (Wells Fargo) total a 57,035 sq.ft. and the proposed square footage 45,728 (Safeway), 15,295 (Walgreens), 5,887 (retail) totals 66,910 sq. ft., only a 17% increase in store.

Indeed according to "Supplement No. 1 to the Response to Comments Document on EIR", the numbers are

|Building Area|	Existing sq. ft |	Proposed Sq. ft |
Safeway	31,754	45,728
Wells Fargo	7,721	0
Walgreen	15,704	15,295
Retail	0	5,887
TOTAL	55,179	66,910

However Linda misses a very important point. It should be noted that this sq. footage contains an abandoned basement space beneath grade that is not currently used by Safeway. What is truly telling about the size of the store is the massive increase in footprint that the one structure will have over the existing three separate structures.

|Building Footprint |	Existing sq. ft |	Proposed Sq. ft |
Safeway	24,710	45,728
Wells Fargo	7,721	0
Walgreen	15,704	10,750
Retail	0	5,887
TOTAL	48,134	62,365

Although Coffey seems to have seen some "new" plan, these are the official April 2003 EIR numbers. We can clearly see that the Safeway store alone will be more than 80% larger than the current Safeway.

The FOOTPRINT measure is very important because ALL buildings will be contained in one big box. Presently there are three buildings, which breaks up the bulk and mass.

When Walgreen's lease mysteriously disappears in the not too distant future, Safeway's store will be 61,023 sq.ft. versus the current 40,414 sq.ft of the two separate stores. That is a store that is 50% larger than the current two separate stores. Not quite a "good quality grocery shop" our Mayor has in mind! If Safeway had better leadership and a better architect and our City had any leadership, the building could be reconfigured and the problems solved.

This is too important a piece of land within our city to permit having anything but the best built here. What Safeway is proposing is not the best by far. The one-building-only-Plan A will be one huge hulking mass of blob on a solid FOOTPRINT of 62,365 sq.ft.

- Written by Fiona

Cost of water

Well, did your recent water bill surprise you? I wasn't, I was shocked to the core! After my wife slapped my face, to bring me out of my 1000-mile stare, I thought there was a mistake. I quickly checked last year's bill for the same period and we used less water and the bill had doubled. At this rate a quart of water will be worth more than quart of gold. Besides getting a new additive in the water that we are suppose to believe is good for us. Just because the additive is a know carcinogen and will kill your water pet fish, frog, etc we should feel privileged to drink the new? water. If you have been to Filoi Mansion recently, I am sure you have noticed that the pollywogs and frogs are missing from the reflection pond. The reason is the new? water killed them. The problem gets worse because the frogs in the pond are the spotted red leg frog, which is on the endangered list.

In an effort to reduce the amount of water used at the house, I've decided to institute some drastic measures. First I am going to cement over every square inch of dirt, so I do not need to water anything. Secondly, I will be making a drastic change in personal hygiene. I will be bringing back the old idea of only taking a bath on Tuesday night. To reduce the amount of water used we will take turns using the same water. Being a nice guy, I will use the water last. The washing of clothes will be drastically reduced. The bath water will be used to wash all clothes. All under garments will have to be worn at least three days and outer garments will have to be worn four days. This may cause some scheduling issues, because I will have to make all social contacts immediately after the bath, cause later in the week I might be kinda odiferous! This may not be a complete disadvantage. Sitting in the front row at council meeting might prove to be interesting.

- Written by rich grogan

Growth issues: Polls shows ignorance

There is an interesting column in the Burlingame Daily News today by Dan Walter (also available online in the Sacramento Bee .. ed), who writes on statewide issues from Sacramento. The column is titled "Poll Shows Ignorance on Growth Issues". I cannot find it on the Daily News' web site to include the link, so I'll give you a short recap and some comments.

Walters quotes a Public Policy Institute of California poll that found that just 16 percent of Californian's could accurately peg the state's current population given a set of ranges and even fewer could accurately say what it's likely to be by 2025. He goes on to say that, "That knowledge deficit notwithstanding, Californians are concerned about growth impacts, such as traffic congestion, stains on other infrastructure and environmental degradation, the poll found."

He then discusses the usual tension between tighter immigration enforcement (especially of illegal immigration) and the attempts to restrict growth at the ballot box, often termed NIMBY measures. He voices concerns about jobs, housing, culture shifts, highways and schools, but leaves out water, electricity, sprawl in rural areas, the impact on true neighborhoods and general quality of living.

I hope Walters stays on this train of thought because there is a lot more to the trend than he can jam into one column. There are a variety of forces that are pushing to get California to accomodate an additional 5 million residents each decade (the forecast he quotes). Our own Assn of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) has been a big cheerleader for this kind of growth. Even closer to home, the newly formed Peninsula Coalition appears to be a fan of unbridled growth. And, of course, the local trade unions always turn-out in force whenever a project like 301 Airport or Safeway comes before a Planning Commission or City Council.

I know regular readers of the blog are way more informed than the general public on this issue(someone has to compose the 16% that knows what is going on). It would be great if a capable columnist like Walters would start to ask the grow-at-any-price advocates about the ramifications of their actions. Afterall, forecasts were made to be changed.

- Written by Joe Baylock

Fuchs or Facts

Missed this piece at the end of Fuchs' smart growth piece:

"If opponents of Safeway support a downsized version of the new store, why would they be so upset that Mayor Rosalie O'Mahony has brought the project back only six months after its rejection? Isn't the purpose to bring a new Safeway store to Burlingame? But they should have no fear. Safeway is not happy with the mayor's proposal, because they won't build a new store for $20 million, which when Walgreens is included, is just a little larger than their present store. So have no fear, a new Safeway is not near."

Perhaps Mr. Fuchs needs to be reminded that the new plans are NOT just "a little larger than their present store".

- Written by Fiona