The Burlingame Voice

Game On is On

You have no doubt seen the GameOn Burlingame signs popping up around town, like this one

Here's a synopsis of the effort behind the signs from the Game On website

BCE has joined with the PTA's of all schools to launch GAME ON BURLINGAME! - a fundraising and advocacy campaign to maintain District-wide educational excellence currently at great risk. Our goal for the next two months is to:

        raise $500,000 to bridge the funding gap created by the State budget crisis, and

raise our voices to tell Sacramento it is time to invest in, not cut education.

B'game has always had it's game on for BCE and the high school district, so it's good to see a new message and new vitality springing up.

Memorial Parade

Hillsborough has stepped up to make their Memorial Day parade an annual affair.  It was very hometowny yesterday with a fun assortment of community groups, politicians waving in the backs of cars, vintage firetruck and police vehicles from all over the County plus Monterey.  Here are the Cub Scouts

I love the vintage vehicles--none more so than the BPD California Special Mustang

BHS Graduation 2011

With very comfortable weather, if a bit changeable at times, and plenty of low-speed trains passing that cause everyone to stop and clap (a BHS tradition for a loooong time), graduation went off without a hitch yesterday.

SMUSHD Trustee Linda Lees Dwyer gave the commencement speech and did a fine job.  LLD, feel free to post it here as a comment if you happen to read this.

Since this might be my last graduation for awhile, allow me to mention the amazing amount of volunteer work that goes into the whole process.  Starting with Prom, moving through Awards Night, Senior Day, the actual graduation and Grad Night (which was a cruise on the bay this year), a lot of parents step in and make B'game proud by upholding traditions and standards.  Kudos to all!!

 
I have probably missed a few activities as well, like "senior sidewalk" and the end of season sports nights.

Curves - What Happened?

Does anyone know what happened to Curves?  It looks a bit like a fire happened and the sign on the front is a construction company, not a realtor's sign.

 
I hope the building is still sound.

Smoke Shop Closure

Blogger Fred notes

It wasn't quite the Burlingame institution it used to be, but it is worth noting that the Burlingame Avenue Smoke Shop is closed. The building has been sold and the smoke shop is no more.

To which Blogger Jennifer replies

Ah, too bad. It certainly was a nice hang-out for us kids for many decades.

We thought such a passing deserved its own thread.  With the split off of the cigar shop as a pure smokers' paradise, the old Smoke Shop lost a bit of cachet.

 

Safeway Part 67 - Fox Mall Suggestion

Now that the new Safeway and 203 Primrose and "Wells Fargo building" are taking shape, I have a suggestion.  Maybe even call it a request.  The back side of Fox Mall never really got, or deserved, much attention.  But now it is an intrinsic part of the view in the Safeway campus, so I think it's time to spruce it up a bit.  What do you think?

 
 

New Chief in Town

The City is announcing the appointment of interim Chief Ed Woods to the position permanently.  Here is part of the announcement

City Manager Jim Nantell said that “the City of Burlingame has been very fortunate in having someone of Ed’s caliber and dedication serving as our Interim Police Chief during the past 17 months.  We were confident in recruiting Ed to the Burlingame Police Department back in 2007 that he would be a very competitive future candidate for the Police Chief position.  Ed's willingness to work in the interim role to allow us to consider the possibility of a merger that might have resulted in a lack of a promotional opportunity for him is indicative of the kind of professional Ed is.

Ed started his career in Belmont in 1986 and came to the B'game PD in 2007.  Welcome, Chief.

High-Cost Rail - Part 53 Expanding to the Central Valley

The local group behind the High-speed Boondoggle campaign is expanding its reach by teaming up with like-minded citizens in the Central Valley and SoCal.  I had the pleasure of making a trip to Madera County yesterday to help them install some large banners on old cotton trailers they own near highways.  Here is a great photo of how the Boondoggle message appears in the Central Valley

The banner is six feet high by thirty feet long and will be viewed by more than 10,000 cars per day.  What I learned by talking with the farmers and ranchers in the Valley is that even though our concerns appear very different on the surface, they are actually very similar at their essence.  High-cost rail is bad for the farms and ranches that it would bisect just like it is bad for B'game and the commercial and residential districts it would bisect.

With highly critical editorials in both the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post this week, the media tide is turning and very soon politicians who support High-cost Rail will find themselves isolated from public opinion and wondering why they ever bought into this Boondoggle.

Classic B'game Interior

Those of us who love the charm of B'game's neighborhoods and classically designed houses, get a thrill out of seeing the insides of houses on Sunday Open House tours.  I saw this prototypical Arts &Crafts inglenook in a house on Howard Ave. recently.  Fabulous!

And check out the detail of this corner moulding

Softball Advances, Baseball is Done

Yesterday's CCS baseball playoff game against Los Altos is very well described here in the Daily Journal.  The boys put up a great fight, but as the piece notes, offense has been the challenge all year.  Nik Gutierrez' home run got us started, but the bats went pretty quiet after that.  My photo below shows Zac Grotz in the fifth with the no hitter still intact on the scoreboard.

I read that girl's softball had a great win in Monterey over the higher-seeded Monterey High, but cannot find what's next at the Daily Journal's CCS overview here.  Anyone know where the game is on Saturday?