The Burlingame Voice

High Cost Rail - Part 35 Newsweek's Indictment

I'm not familar with Robert J. Samuelson but his piece in Newsweek titled "High Speed Pork: Why fast trains are a waste of money" is, well, right on the money.  Here's one pointed excerpt:

Obama calls high-speed rail essential “infrastructure” when it’s actually old-fashioned “pork barrel.” The interesting question is why it retains its intellectual respectability. The answer, it seems, is willful ignorance. People prefer fashionable make-believe to distasteful realities. They imagine public benefits that don’t exist and ignore costs that do.

He runs through real numbers and focuses on California specifically.  It's a quick must read.

Friends with Benefits - Part 7 Round off to $9,500

Today's Daily Journal is recapping a study by Northwestern's business school:

San Mateo County’s unfunded pension liability — namely retirement benefits draining current coffers to pay for past employees — is $9,415 per household, according to a recent national study looking at local governments at risk for bankruptcy.

San Mateo was listed among the top 10 counties nationwide troubled by rising pension costs as ranked in an Oct. 13 study out of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Note that the $9,415 figure comes from an assumption of an 8% return on the investments that support this cost stream.  Let's face it, 8% year after year is wishful thinking.  I've seen reports that estimate we should be using 4% as the return figure.  Doesn't appear as if we have made much progress since June 2009.

Bay Area ***Stars***

The Michelin Guide for Bay Area restaurants  just came out for this year and there are six restaurants from the Peninsula.  Los Gatos has two while Mountain View, Menlo Park, Saratoga and Woodside have one each.  None for B'game but I don't feel badly about that.  Having eaten at a couple of the 40 listed for the whole Bay Area, I don't think our dining scene supports that style of restaurant.  I'd love someone to prove me wrong, but the combination of longevity, food quality, service, etc is a pricey undertaking requiring a good landlord or owning the building.

On the local scene, I am impressed by how well Mingalaba is doing.  It's not a large restaurant so perhaps the crowd waiting outside is a little deceiving, but it pretty constant most evenings.

 

Parade Music Stops

The Mercury Times highlighted the budget-driven demise of the Holiday parade this year.  It is reporting

The holiday celebration on Burlingame Avenue won't be as merry this December, as officials said they can no longer afford the annual parade down the commercial drag.

The clincher was

Despite the foot traffic, shop owners said business suffers on the night of the parade because the main drag and some of the connecting streets are blocked to traffic.

The newly formed downtown business improvement district, to which merchants pay fees for joint advertising and projects, said it did not want to fund the event.

I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic about the holiday season for local retailers.  The Avenew is reviving a bit, air travel is up as are the airlines profits so hopefully B'game's TOT (transient occupancy or "hotel" tax) will be up too and the parade can return in 2011.

 

High Cost Rail - Part 34 Meeting Roundups

The Daily Post and the Daily Journal were on the job over the weekend.  The Post ran a front page article that noted

Authority CEO Roelof van Ark told representatives from Burlingame, San Mateo and Millbrae that the railway won't be completely underground because of the diesel-fueled freight trains that must share the right of way.

Now he tells us???...If it was that clear-cut why is didn't his predecessor tell the public this years ago??  And in the Daily Journal's report on Assemblyman Jerry Hill's meeting in Belmont, the paper notes

...high-speed rail was the topic prominent in many attendees' minds.  Although Hill conceded not knowing all the answers, that didn't stop the assembled crowd from lobbing questions.

It appears the time for knowing the answers is rapidly approaching.

Sidewalk Deal

The S.F. Examiner is reporting on the recent Council decision on sidewalk repair:

City Council members have approved a $500,000 program in which the city will kick in half the construction funds and homeowners would pay the other half to repair sidewalks adjacent to their homes. 

Maintenance costs for the walkways were shouldered entirely by the city from 1990 until 2004, when officials decided the city could no longer afford them and began requiring residents to foot the bill.

I think in some cases the repair might involve more of a rerouting of the sidewalk around some large tree trunks rather than the grinding and replacing approach.

Anyone surprised?

Nagel announces run for County Supervisor. See the article here.

"NO" on Proposition 23

On Oct. 4th, 2010 the Burlingame City Council adopted a resolution officially opposing California State Proposition 23, the "California Jobs Initiative". The City's resolution is also supported by the Citizens Environmental Council of Burlingame, a member of the "NO ON 23" Coalition.

In 2006 California adopted Assembly Bill 32 (AB32), the Global Warming Solutions Act. AB32 moved California to the forefront of the clean energy and technology industry. Proposition 23 is principally funded by two Texas oil companies and is designed to stop the enactment of AB32 until California's unemployment falls and stays below 5.5% for a year.  Prop 23 will effectively put AB32 in permanent abeyance, as a 5.5% unemployment rate has only been met three times in the past 40 years. The suspension of AB32 jeopardizes the progress made towards cleaner California air and creates business uncertainty that could reduce future California clean-tech investments and job growth.

A September 12, 2010 San Francisco Chronicle story in opposition of Prop 23 by Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, stated that California's clean-tech industry received over $2 billion or about 60% of all North America clean-tech investment following the passage of AB32. The clean-tech sector is now one of the fastest growing job sectors in the State, and California is home to 7 of the top 10 clean-tech businesses in the U.S. California's Global Warming Solutions Act was passed in 2006 to improve and protect air quality in California. Prop 23 undermines existing California law and jeopardizes the health and safety of all California residents.

Additional information about the NO ON PROP 23 CAMPAIGN and the Citizens Environmental Council of Burlingame is available at www.burlingamecec.org and http://www.stopdirtyenergyprop.com.  The Citizens Environmental Council of Burlingame invites you to join the campaign, get informed and vote!

Respects for a Good Guy

This news from today's Daily Journal was a bit of a shock.  I knew Charlie as an acquaintance--one of those guys who called once in awhile when some burr got under his saddle--but it was almost always something that was bothering me too.  He had great horse sense as they say. 

An 85-year-old Burlingame man died Thursday evening after being hit by a car while crossing 25th Avenue in San Mateo, according to police.

Police were called at 7:55 p.m. Thursday to East 25th Avenue between El Camino Real and the railroad tracks for an accident. A man, identified by the Santa Clara Coroner’s Office as Charles Bolt, suffered life-threatening injuries and was transported by ambulance to the nearest trauma center, Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto, where he died hours later.

God bless you, Charlie.

Safeway Part 60 - Just a Very Cool Photo