The Burlingame Voice

High Cost Rail - Part 50 Quake Planning?

My weekend was consumed with Spring cleaning including refreshing my earthquake preparedness kit.  I hadn't looked in there since it was assembled as a project for one kid in elementary school!  Here's the State's checklist that I've been working off of.  Several recent newspaper articles and the Japan quake got me motivated and gallons of bottled water are on sale for $1 this week.

But relaxing at the end of the day with this week's edition of The Economist brought high-cost rail right back into focus.  Near the end of a piece called The Curse of Complacency about quake prep, they write:

One of the NRC's most important (and certainly most expensive) recommendations is a national earthquake warning system like the one Japan installed in 2007.  Thanks to its network of 1,000 seismic stations around the country, Japanese authorities had enarly a minute to halt bullet trains in northern Japan (none was derailed) and warn local employers to stop lifts and switch off dangerous machinery.  The seismographs detect the burst of "p-waves" emitted by an earthquake that travel at twice the speed of the most destructive "s-waves", giving valuable seconds of warning depending on the distance from the epicenter.

But seismologists fear a national earthquake warning system is unlikely to be built in America because of complacency and the spending squeeze.  Finding just the $50m needed to complete California's pilot network is proving hard enough--and Californians need no reminding how valuable such a system would be.

Then this morning KQED runs a segment that says essentially the same thing but notes that 400 sensing stations are already in place in California and pegging the cost to complete the system at $80 million.  So the question of the week:  How is it that we have $66 billion to build high-cost rail, but we can't find $50-80 million to ensure it and all sorts of other activities like surgeries, riding elevators or sitting in classrooms of old school buildings are safer?   Just askin'.

Supe's Race - Journal Endorses Pine

I missed the Daily Post's supervisor endorsement and you know how it is with the Post--if you missed it, you miss it, since it is not on-line.  One of our bloggers posted some of it and I was not impressed.  They appear to give our own Terry Nagel credit for things I have not seen--and I'm watching pretty closely.  More closely than the Post, I think.

So today, the Daily Journal endorsed Dave Pine for Supervisor.  This is available on-line.   Newspaper endorsements always start out so complementary of all the candidates which is generally false.  In this case, Holober and Papan do not deserve the kind words for this reason among others.  But the Pine endorsement is genuine and based on actual accomplishments.  It concludes

When Pine unsuccessfully ran for state Assembly in 2002, he was a political novice with a lot of bright ideas. Now, he has proven himself in elected office and has gained a reputation for his thoughtful and open approach to the toughest issues. He is also a quick learner, which will be key as he will be immediately engaged in challenging and critical decisions on the Board of Supervisors that affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. And his belief in more transparency at the county level through his work on the charter review committee, and this election as a result, proves he is willing to take on the establishment.

Chances are you got your ballot in the mail today.  There's no real need to wait for more union-paid for glossy mail for Holober or robocalls from some lady you've never hear of telling you how nice Papan is.  Just check the Pine box and send it in.

Safeway Part 65 - Mid-construction

Thinking back to the new Walgreen's project, I am reminded that it's difficult assess a big project mid-way through the construction.  A lot of Voice bloggers were upset by the Walgreen's early appearance during construction, but the dislike evaporated as it was finished in brick and opened.  Here's hoping the same will be true of the new Safeway.  The wall on El Camino and the angled wall at the other end of the lot are raising plenty of concerns on the street.  I'm cautiously optimistic that both structures will end up fitting into our streetscape.

 

High Cost Rail - Part 49 Jerry's Fear Mongering

I know.  I'm treading close to breaking my New Year's Resolution about less High-cost Rail stuff, but I can't help it!  Today's SF Examiner is only one of several outlets reporting Gov. Jerry Brown's fear-mongering speeches about UC tuition increases of 100%.  Meanwhile, the SacBee columnist Dan Walter's take on Jerry's pension reform plan concludes with

So far, however, all we’re getting from Brown is fluff.

And all the while plans to blow $66 Billion dollars on a Railroad to Nowhere that will lose money to infinity (and beyond) plow ahead.   Sorry Jerry, not credible. 

Quentin "Q-ball" Kopp has resigned from the California High-Cost Rail Authority but his replacement, Jim Hartnett from Redwood City, doesn't hold out much promise of being anymore informed or sensible.  If he were either of those things, why would he take the job?

What's a Farmer to Do?

If you are a budding B'game farmer, you have a conflict next Thursday evening.  The City's e-newsletter lists two events of interest happening at the same time in different places.  The Community Garden event is at the Womens' Club at 7:30 pm but you would have to abandon the 2 hour class starting at 7pm for $30 put on by the Rec Center that will teach you how to do this:

For the same amount of water and effort, you can get rid of that grass and grow healthy veggies. In this workshop, learn about lawn removal and veggie garden basics: what to plant and when, and how to use small spaces. Instructor and Urban Farmer, P.A. Moore has been lawn-free for two years, and eats from her garden year round.

The good news is the chicken-raising course is Tuesday, so you can do that uninterrupted.

Panther Baseball Alumni Return

Last weekend's BHS Baseball Alumni game was another rousing success.  I missed the Friday golf outing at Poplar Creek, but can attest that the dinner at the Lion's Club was very well done.  Kudo's go to the Panther varsity for setting the tone with a win over Hillsdale High, then for serving the alums and parents fine bbq from Old Texas BBQ while rocking out to Jeff Tateosian's DJ delights.

Saturday broke cloudy for the 1950-1970's alums early game, but the weather cleared a bit for the younger alums to play the 2011 varsity.  With kids pitching to their alum Dads, older brothers pitching to current Panther brothers and a triple play delivered 5-5-4, the varsity prevailed over the Old Guys.  Here's one of them swinging for the fences with the rest cooling their heels on the bench.

 

High Cost Rail - Part 48 Priorities--Priorities???

I had the unfortunate experience of reading a response from Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office to a constituent who was concerned that High-cost rail in California was a waste of precious tax dollars.  It was unfortunate because the staffer who wrote DiFi's response was clearly ignorant about the reality of high-cost rail.  Very disappointing.  I expect stupidity from Boxer's office, but DiFi---really?

So let's just use today's single edition of the S.F. Examiner to test our priorities.  We learned in today's edition that

A report released last month by Transportation for America, a lobbying group campaigning for greater investment in transportation infrastructure, found that 74 of San Mateo County’s 344 bridges are considered “structurally deficient” based on federal and state data.

So that report is only important to people who drive.  What about everyone else?  Get this from another article in today's paper:

Depending on its funding contribution to Caltrain, SamTrans could run out of cash within three years, forcing the agency to cease operations entirely. Even if the transit agency slashes its current annual allocation to Caltrain by two-thirds — a potential death knell for the rail operator — SamTrans would still become bankrupt by 2015, according to the agency’s latest financial models.

Turns out a big part of the problem is the last boondoggle called BART to the airport

The agency, which has a $138 million annual budget, has been hurt significantly by dwindling funding contributions from state and federal sources, along with its onerous debt-financing program, which includes nearly $13 million in annual repayments for the BART extension to the Peninsula.

Plenty of people told SamTrans that BART to the airport was stupid, but they were too stupid to listen.  The real question now is whether or not DiFi is too stupid to listen to the High-cost rail critics.  How is it that we have $66 BILLION dollars to spend on High-cost rail, but we cannot fix 74 bridges in the County, fund the commuter train that already exists and keep our bus service????  Please Senator, go ahead and put a comment right here to justify your current position, ma'am.

Major Announcement - Burlingame Voice To Merge!

The Editorial Board of the Burlingame Voice is announcing an agreement to merge its intensely local blog with the newly combined AOL/Huffington Post/Patch.com properties.  After the February 7th announcement by AOL and the HuffPo and the subsequent move to put Arianna Huffington in charge of the Patch.com properties, AOL knew that it had to up its game in term of true, experienced local reporting.

The Board has agreed to sell the BurlingameVoice.com property to AOL for $375,000 plus a three year retainer and will immediately donate 50% of the net proceeds to various local charities.  The decisions on which charities will be determined by nominations from long-time Voice bloggers including Ron F., Holyroller, Anne, Scheherazade, Two Cents, A Little Bird, KRN, Fred, JF, Pat G., Jeff, Jennifer, Mr. Slate, Boogeyman, Been Around, Chianglo and Lorne.

AOL spokesman Seymour Argent noted "The Burlingame Voice is an incredible example of what true community interaction can deliver.  As a non-profit blog it has blown away all for-profit competitors and we believe we can commercialize it without losing the flavor that has made it successful."

The deal is expected to close on May Day when the current TypePad platform will be migrated to a union-maintained, TARP-subsidized, LEEDS compliant, platform with frequent spammers like Nike, Coach, Ugg and Supra as inital sponsors.  Blog on!