The Burlingame Voice

Broadway Loses Hardware Store

Unfortunately B'game has slipped back to a one hardware store town.  It may seem like a small thing to some, especially those who aren't DIYers, but having easy access to a place where you can get a 8/32" threaded screw in less than half an hour can be key to keeping one's weekend chores on track.  I'm thrilled that we still have the Ace Hardware in the old Kern's Jewelry space (anyone notice that the Kern's sign is still on the back wall?).

But I'm sure people in the north end will miss the store on B'way as they have to make the trek to the Avenew or up to Orchard Supply in Millbrae.  Here's the closed store to remind you of what's gone.

I wonder if the sign will live on as a reminder?

School Reform - LA Style

We're very fortunate that we have five excellent elementary schools in town.  The middle school gets variable grades from parents, but is generally as good as the administrators in charge in any given year.  The two high schools are also very, very good.  Alot of that goes to parent involvement and donations via organizations like BCE, Taste of the Town, athletic boosters, site councils, etc.

But there are plenty of schools in California that aren't so good and the January 2010 state law that allows parents to pull a "trigger" if more than 50% of them want to force a particular school to close, shake up the administration or move to charter status.  This is clearly not popular with the teachers' unions which was the topic of an investigative article in Saturday's Wall Street Journal about a school in Adelanto.  According to the article on page A11

"About two weeks ago, the California Teachers Association flew in a cadre of paid operatives from Sacramento," says Ben Austin of Parent Revolution, the liberal activist group that conceived of the parent trigger and has supported the campaigns of Compton and Adelanto.  "Suddenly parents were acosted in the parking lot by CTA operatives blocking cars from moving until the driver agreed to take a flier plastered with lies."  Operatives also went door-to-door across Adelanto.

The piece goes on to describe alleged spreading of misinformation and notes that the operatives refused to identify themselves.  The CTA response, per the Journal article is

CTA spokesman Frank Wells acknowledged that his union sent representatives to Adelanto, but he said their primary purpose was to hold information sessions for (school) parents.  The door-to-door recission campaign was "parent-led," he told the L.A. Times, and "as far as us going around and telling people to do something one way or another, the answer is no."

This may qualify as a "where there is smoke, there is fire" and must be causing some discussion on Murchison Dr. where the CTA is headquartered.

Whither the Post Office?

We've been following the machinations of downtown development and asking simple questions.  With the latest announcement from the Postal Service, as covered in the Daily Journal,

Earlier this month, the sale of the Burlingame Main Post Office, 341 Lorton Ave., was approved by postal officials, said U.S. Postal Service spokesman James Wigdel. A timeline for selling the property as well as the relocation process, which requires a public meeting, has yet to be set. But the announcement could be good news for Burlingame officials who have long eyed the central downtown property.

The Burlingame Post Office is about 13,400 square feet but only 4,100 square feet is needed, said Wigdel.

“The plan is to relocate all retail and P.O. Box operations currently housed in the Burlingame Main Post Office to a yet-to-be-determined new location in the same vicinity as the current post office that is appropriately sized for our current needs,” he said.

Similar things are happening in Palo Alto and caused the Daily Post editor, Dave Price, to ask on Monday why the Postal Service thinks downtown (Palo Alto) rent will be any less expensive than a paid-for building.  He also questioned how much they will get for it due to zoning restrictions in PA.  B'game may not have that restriction, but certainly the historic nature of the building and the tight parking have to be considered.  There are still simple questions to be answered.

Foot Fun in B'game

The Daily Journal has profiled the futsal facility over on Rollins Rd.  Between futsal, the go-cart racing and a couple of gyms, the Rollins Rd. area is getting plenty of traffic. 

Present and future athletes from as far as Campbell, San Bruno and even Half Moon Bay ranging from ages 2 to 60 are attending Burlingamers, a center for fine-tuning soccer and even futsal skills for recreation and competitions.

Futsal?

The sport is a close-quarters, fast-paced style of soccer, at the same time independent in its own right with different rules and an essential, unique and aggressive finesse.

Housing more than 130 teams totaling about 3,000 players per week, Burlingamers has developed futsal champions and hosted tournaments out of a modest facility on the border of Burlingame and Millbrae. Funded by private investors, Burlingamers is an indoor soccer field divided into two courts, the primary interest being futsal.

Donna Colson (with the help of a coach, Dusko Rosic) built, owns and participates in Burlingamers.

Nice work, Donna.

So you think you know Burlingame?

Mark your calendars for next Sunday, Febuary 26th. Yes, it's Oscar Day, but it's also the day of the great Burlingame memory Teaser and Trivia Bowl. It'll be held at The Burlingame Library Lane Community Room and it will feature long tome residents and business folks and audience participation. Fun for the whole family! Starts at 2pm.

 

County Tax Proposals

The financial situation that SM County finds itself in is well-documented and in need of fresh thinking.  Apparently that means some new taxation targeted mainly at travellers and tourists.  The Daily Journal is reporting on the supes' decision to go to ballot

San Mateo County voters in June will likely be asked to increase taxes on hotels in the unincorporated areas and approve new taxes on rental car and commercial parking businesses — add-ons a national travel group denounced as punitive.

The logic is

An increase in the transient occupancy tax would put the county on par with neighboring jurisdictions. The county currently charges 10 percent and a change to 12 percent would generate an extra $200,000 yearly based on current receipts of approximately $1 million, according to the County Manager’s Office.

The county doesn’t currently tax parking facilities but several like Millbrae and South San Francisco do. Of the approximately $80.9 million in gross receipts created by SFO, nearly $63 million falls in the unincorporated area. Assuming the figures stay roughly the same, a business license tax of 8 percent would generate approximately $4.9 million annually.

A 2.5 percent business license tax on the operators of vehicle rental businesses would bring in approximately $7.75 million in general fund revenue annually based on the $310 million in receipts generated in 2010.

Tax increases that move the County areas to on par with B'game won't help or hurt B'game much, but the other idea of a new hotel at the airport (to replace the old Hilton that went with the remodel) would take a bite out of our revenues.  More fodder for the June 5th election and questions for the group competing to be the new supe.

Kudos to BHS Grapplers

I'm late in congratulating the BHS wrestling team on a big 48-24 win over Capuchino HS that allowed them to finish in a three-way tie for first place in the PAL Ocean division.  The team has built on the momentum gained from hosting last year's PAL tournament and has a bright future.  Here's the team after the last pin ended the meet.

It's a nice counterpoint to the distractions around campus over the last week.

County Considering Closing Care Facility

One of our long time, active bloggers has been following the discussion about the future of the County-run long term care facility on Trousdale Ave., right across from the police station.  There will be a meeting of the Board of Supervisors at the Westin on Old Bayshore (instead of in Redwood City) this coming Tuesday at 9am.  Here is a bit of the discussion from an article in the Daily Journal from Jan 6th:

San Mateo County may close its antiquated long-term care facility in Burlingame, shifting residents to other care homes and potentially laying off hundreds of workers, rather than lose more than $9 million annually by renewing its lease.

Health System Director Jean Fraser is asking the Board of Supervisors to forgo another agreement for Burlingame Long-Term Care and instead open 32 more skilled nursing beds at the San Mateo Medical Center.

The real rub is this

The center at 1100 Trousdale Drive currently uses about 230 of its 281 beds and the average stay is a year although several clients remain indefinitely. Patients at Burlingame Long-Term Care are a mix of ages, no longer needing the acute care of the hospital but still requiring medical help.

So there are another 200 beds to be found if the "antiquated" building is closed.

BHS Lock Down

Here's the story of today's lockdown as reported in the Daily Journal

Burlingame High School was briefly locked down Friday and a student detained after he sent an email to administrators claiming he had a gun and a bomb, according to police.

The school, located at 1 Mangini Way in Burlingame, was locked down shortly after 2 p.m. and police responded to the campus, according to Barbara Tufo, an administrative assistant with the San Mateo Union High School District.

Administrators identified the student and determined he was on campus while police evacuated the school. Police detained the student and searched his backpack and lockers but found no weapon or explosive device. Police also swept the campus with a bomb-sniffing dog. The student was cooperative and police are investigating whether the threat was real, a hoax or a case of mistaken identity, according to police.

The lockdown was lifted shortly after 2:30 p.m. and parents were permitted to pick up their students at the school, Tufo said.

An automated call went out to parents notifying them of the incident, Tufo said.

It was a quick response with the full team including the dogs.

Downtown Plan: Cart Tripping Up The Horse?

Tomorrow night the City Council will take a deeper look at one of the most controversial development proposal since the original Safeway and 301 Airport Blvd. project at the Drive-in raised red flags a decade or more ago.  The Council will be attempting to give the staff some direction on how to proceed with two developers who want to use city-owned public parking lots to build housing-retail projects in the downtown area between the Post Office and Bayswater Ave.  But is the horse already stuck behind the cart?  I think so and here is why:

The City put out requests for qualifications to 90 developer contacts on May 27, 2011.  The request was only open for two months and yielded 19 responses.  Those 19 responses were winnowed down to six for interviews.  Now the City is proposing to limit consideration to only two and they are not even interested in the same parcels for their proposals.  Given the short timeframe for responses in the midst of some of the worst real estate headwinds in a decade, this all seems premature and not smart negotiating tactics.

Second, the two developers being considered (Grosvenor and Equity Residential  NASDAQ: EQR) have concepts that include 100 to 140 residential units and 35,000 square feet of retail with parking for the units only.  The replacement public parking is TBD elsewhere, so these projects are really even bigger than described since underground or elevated parking will need to replace that which is lost.  Plus we have yet to see the impact of the rest of the Primrose retail upgrade on parking.

Lastly, one of the projects envisions retaining portions of the Post Office structure and notes that is has an uncertain historic status.  Well, not really.  Its status is pretty clear when one looks into it. The Post Office sale is far from certain to begin with.  It is the parking lot nearby that is of interest.  So why give a developer a firm, single bid committment when the resource is very much up in the air?

Lots F and N are nothing special.  Lot F, in particular, is often a mess but now is not the time to go sole source with a developer who has only a hasty "concept" to offer at time when the economy may finally be on the rebound.  Tune in tomorrow to see how the discussion goes.