The Burlingame Voice

New Walgreens is Open

The new Walgreens held its Grand Opening this morning.  Here you can see Councilman Jerry Deal and Councilwoman Ann Keighran holding the ribbon for Mayor Cathy Baylock to cut.  The store looks great and it seems that the criticism of the design diminished as the brick facing went up and people saw how well the store would integrate with the street.  The pedestrian walkway on the east side of the building is a big hit, too.  Now, on to Safeway!

 

Is April Fools' Day Really on the 15th?

After reading the recent studies about who is and isn't paying income taxes, I have to wonder if April Fool's Day has moved to April 15th?  The Associated Press reports that

Tax Day is a dreaded deadline for millions, but for nearly half of U.S. households it's simply somebody else's problem.  About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009. Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability.

I'm willing to bet that the proportion paying no Federal Income Taxes is lower in B'game due to the bias against high cost-of-living areas that is built into the tax schedule.  The Sac Bee reports a lot of very revealing statistics including the disparity in the tax burden by county.  For example,

Residents of Marin County, for example, pay about $11, on average, in income taxes for every $1 paid by residents of Imperial County.

I'll bet San Mateo County's burden is a lot closer to Marin's than it is to Imperial's.  It all causes one to rethink how fair state Propositions about spending--like the infamous High Speed Rail bond measure--are to those counties that are paying most of the freight.  If a voter knows he or she won't be paying for something, why vote against it?

In the meantime, the local post offices on Park, Capuchino and Stanton close at 5pm.  If you are later than that with your taxes, the location near SFO is open until midnight.

Calpain schedule

A recent comment by a Voice blogger got me thinking about the paucity of trains in B'game.  When I come across one of my old printed schedules from 2004 or thereabouts, I'll have something to compare today's schedule with.  But in the meantime, a visit to caltrain's website reveals that there are 28 trains in each direction that stop here each weekday.  Is that considered a weak day by commuter train standards?

Shared Services - Part 2

The topic of merging police departments with San Mateo is climbing in the public consciousness.  By that I don't mean the arcane dealings going on at the department, but rather the everyman and everywoman on the street are starting to talk about it--and the sentiment is not positive for a merger.  Here is the beginning of the grass roots marketing effort spotted on Capuchino Ave today.

High Cost Rail - Part 9 Matier & Ross Catch a Clue

While the San Francisco Chronicle is a skeletal shell of its former self with almost nothing worth reading, nevermind paying for, Matier & Ross are the embers in a dying fire.  Put enough tinder on them and they could light a decent campfire.  So one has to wonder if this column is the beginning of a wider realization that High-Cost Rail is a mindless boondoggle.  Their column opens with

Is it a high-speed rail ride to the future or a Bay Bridge boondoggle times 10? That's what lawmakers are wondering as more and more questions arise about the plan to build a multibillion-dollar bullet train between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

But my favorite part is

Then there is the estimated ticket price for a trip from L.A. to San Francisco, which has jumped to $105 one way - making the line much less competitive with the price of an airline ticket.

I can hear Virgin America licking its chops on Old Bayshore from here.  Or the coup de grace

For example, San Francisco is expected to have 24,100 bullet riders a day, a realistic number given the business ties between San Francisco and Los Angeles. But does anyone really think that the town of Gilroy will have 4,700 bullet train riders a day? Or that Redwood City will have 3,900, or Merced 5,300?

If Matier & Ross have finally caught on to the fantastic (the root of the word is the same as fantasy) estimates then we may be getting somewhere.  Please click through and read the whole column as I do not pretend to do it justice with three short excerpts.

Pez Lawsuit Settled

The San Mateo County Times is reporting the barest of details on a recently settled lawsuit

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against the Burlingame Pez Museum by the makers of the iconic candy dispensers. The case was dropped after the sparring parties agreed to a settlement. One point of contention was a 7-foot 10-inch dispenser. It was certified by Guinness World Records as the world's largest dispenser in 2007. Pez Candy Inc. claimed in the suit that it did not authorize the giant replica and demanded its destruction.

Here's hoping the Pez Museum can continue sweetening up California Dr.

High Cost Rail - Part 8 (Public comment in San Jose)

Today's High Speed Rail Authority meeting drew a standing room only crowd in San Jose to provide public comment and to review the Preliminary Alternatives Analysis that has just been released.

HSRA Board member Ron Diridion (3rd from left in the photo below) started things off on the wrong foot by claiming that the majority of the people in the room were for high speed rail.  Since there were more than 500 people in the room, who knows how he would know that and the audience reaction was swift.  His comments comparing HSR opposition to the opponents of the Golden Gate bridge project were way off-base since the history according to goldengatebridge.org  noted "Strong opposition emerged from well-financed special interests, particularly ferry companies."  The opposition to HSR is neither well-financed nor representing competing commercial interests like the airlines.  Diridion did not appear to even listen to much of the public comment.  Quentin Kopp gave the same impression after his late arrival.

Much of the public comment focussed on protecting neighborhoods from the Peninsula to the Gardner, North Willow Glen and Gregory Plaza sections of San Jose.  Burlingame Mayor Cathy Baylock reminded the Board members of B'game's numerous residents, community center and high school that are east of the tracks as well as the proximity of the historic train station and the commercial districts.  She reiterated the City's desire for the train to be underground to protect all of these constituents.

Burlingame had more than a dozen residents present including members of CBB, Don't Railroad Us and the newly formed HSR-PREP group who displayed signs outside the chambers asking for the build to be done right.  In addition to the mayor, three local residents were able to speak in the jam-packed hour.

The "Alternatives Carried Forward" in Table S-1 of the document that was released indicate that an Aerial Viaduct, an Open Trench or a Covered Trench are being put forward for B'game.  It appears the Berm approach (similar to Caltrain's section in San Carlos) has been ruled out along with At Grade and Deep Tunneling.  The most disconcerting part of the report was the last paragraph:

The Preliminary Alternatives Analysis report shows that is alternatives from San Francisco to San Jose were created from the most costly design options put together, the costs would be between four to five times what has been accounted for in the Business Plan or other previous estimates.  Such high cost alternatives would be impracticable.

Translation:  we don't think we can afford to do this right on the Peninsula. 

Remembering Mr. Welch

I missed this obituary last week in the Times so thank you to the blogger who brought it to my attention

Robert Marvin Welch Aug. 12, 1936 - Mar. 28, 2010

Resident of Burlingame Robert Marvin Welch died peacefully at home surrounded by his family on March 28, after a 12-year courageous battle with multiple myeloma cancer. Bob was born in Dawson, MN, August 12, 1936 to Marvin and Leona Welch. Bob attended Dawson schools and was active in Boy Scouts, church activities, and athletics. He attended Augsburg College on athletic scholarship. Bob served as team captain in football both his junior and senior years, and was a Little All-American candidate. Bob married Martha Mattson in 1956 and they had two daughters, Robertta and Pamella.

Bob enjoyed a successful and rewarding 38-year career in education as a teacher, coach, and administrator. Bob first taught in Round Lake, MN before moving to CA in 1960 where he taught in Burlingame. He spent 35 years at Hoover School, Franklin School, and Burlingame Intermediate School (BIS). Under Bob's leadership as Principal of BIS, the school was recognized as one of the first Distinguished Schools in CA. BIS was selected by the National Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development as one of 25 schools in the nation to develop plans to become a model middle school. Bob served on the original state committee that wrote "Caught in the Middle," a blue print for change in the middle school level. Under his leadership, BIS served as a mentor for schools up and down the state.

In 2007, Bob received the "Wall of Fame" recognition from the Burlingame School District for outstanding service to the children and community of Burlingame. In 1995, Bob retired from the Burlingame School District and took a position as Principal of Middle School at Hong Kong International School. He served in this position until soon after he was diagnosed with cancer. Bob and Martha returned to their Burlingame home in July of 1998. They continued to enjoy their love of travel, their involvement with Hope Lutheran Church (San Mateo), and avid support of their grandchildren's activities.

So if you have gazed at the banners in the BIS auditorium and wondered how the Distinguished School effort happened, you now have the rest of the story.

Little Green Sprouts - Part 2

Back in October we noted that there were some Little Green Sprouts appearing on the city's horizon.  While the City's press efforts were a little thin back then, there do appear to be some more little green sprouts popping up on the Avenew these days.

The old Sakai space has been re-opened as Tuttimelon

 

and the previous Peet's Coffee spot has re-opened at Teacakes

Can the pet food store that is supposed to be moving into the old Blockbuster space be far behind?
 

Shared Services - Part 1

Former San Mateo councilwoman Sue Lempert has an opinion piece in today's San Mateo Daily Journal on cities sharing services.  She has one fact a little off that I am aware of, but the general direction is accurate

Few like to surrender turf, even in difficult economic times, so consolidation or sharing of local government services is often a hard sell. It often takes political courage to fight for the course which makes the most sense. So congratulations to the city of Burlingame, its City Council and city manager for considering doing the impossible — combining police services with its southern neighbor San Mateo.

Sue goes on to write

Today, Burlingame is the county’s leader in pioneering ways to provide citizens efficient and effective city services while minimizing layoffs and drastic cuts. The key, according to Nantell, is to avoid duplication, consolidate the command structure and maintain line level staff which most impacts citizens. In the case of police that would be detectives, school services and traffic. Burlingame and Hillsborough already have a successful fire department partnership which is saving each city at least a million and a half dollars a year.

But jumps the gun a little when she writes

Originally, Burlingame and Hillsborough were talking about sharing police services but that hasn’t worked out. Hillsborough has two police officers for every thousand residents; Burlingame and San Mateo have one per thousand. Instead, the city looked to San Mateo as the logical long-term partner. The first phase, accomplished last year, is to share dispatch services in San Mateo’s new state-of-the-art police station. That will save Burlingame $200,000 a year.

That dispatch consolidation hasn't happened yet.  As I understand it, the planning phase for a test has started but calls are still being answered in B'game today.