The Burlingame Voice

A funny thing happened on the way to...

Well, who knows where this car was headed early this morning, but we know where it stopped.

Howard Avenue and California Drive--for a free car wash. (No one was hurt.)

Slocum vs Masur - Head to Head

The crowded San Mateo County Supe's race narrowed to the top two yesterday as Warren Slocum and Shelly Masur came out on top.  The Daily Journal noted

Slocum called the county budget and ongoing deficit his key priority. He supported three county tax measures on last night’s ballot, building a new jail and aggressively marketing the county for economic development.

Based on May finance disclosure forms, Slocum had the largest war chest in the race although the majority of the $112,162 this period included $102,683 in loans from himself and his wife, Maria Diaz-Slocum.

Masur, whose day job is executive director of the pregnancy prevention program Teen Talk, has sat on the school board since 2005 and actually serves with Diaz-Slocum. During the campaign she touted her public health background and experience as mom in bringing a unique point of view and link to the county’s younger residents. She also highlighted similarities in budgeting between the county and schools as both rely on the state for money.

I'm still very interested in their high-cost rail positions.  Even though supes' responsibilities for HSR are limited to the unincorporated parts of the route, they should still be clear on their positions.  In the June edition of "Labor" published by the SM County Central Labor Council, Masur is quoted as supporting HSR and that "The county can benefit from high speed rail; it is good for Caltrain and the benefits outweigh the costs."  That is clearly an uninformed position on about a dozen counts, so we will have to see if a) she changes her mind in five months or b) Slocum puts some distance between himself and high-cost rail that would merit supporting him.

The November election will have about triple the turn-out of yesterday's primary due to the presidential election, so it's a whole new ballgame.

Fighting Graffitti

I've been noticing the same trend as the San Mateo and B'game police departments--more graffitti around town.  The Daily Journal has an update today that notes

(The) Neighborhood Response Team has made a dozen arrests in recent months and has worked with the cities of Burlingame and Belmont on removing graffiti, especially along the highway.

Recently, police Chief Susan Manheimer reported to the City Council that crime overall is down in San Mateo but that graffiti and blight are up.

The city has made abatement a priority but covering up the graffiti is only a part of its effort to stop the crime, said Matt Bronson, interim streets and facility manager for San Mateo. Police are now looking to catch the offenders in the act and punish them appropriately. A code enforcement effort is also under way to get private property owners to remove the graffiti, Bronson said.

Two weeks ago, Burlingame arrested two juveniles and sought another in connection with multiple incidents of graffiti throughout Burlingame. One of the juveniles was a San Mateo resident and prolific tagger, Mefford said.

The B'game graffitti isn't just along the highway.  You can see the "SM4C" tag all over town including this one on the old Comcast office building on California.

Passing of a Friend

Some people are just naturally the life of the party and they are hard to say goodbye to because of all the good memories you shared with them.  A memorial service was held today for Mo (Conway) O'Rourke--one of those gems of B'game that is hard to say goodbye to.  The assembled crowd at St. Matt's in San Mateo heard from her three daughters, sister and brothers about Mo's zest for life--a life cut short at 57 by leukemia.

The obituary notes that "If you didn't have a drink in your hand five minutes after entering her home, you went to the wrong house." to which I would add "or the wrong restaurant" because if you were at her and Meg's restaurant, Towle's Seafood, that was also never an issue.  There were multiple mentions of Mo dancing on tabletops and I can attest to those as well as her dancing on the bar.  Now in addition to missing the food, the music and the ambiance of Towle's, we miss Mo also.  RIP.

Congrats BHS Class '12

I just went by the BHS football field and you could feel the excitement in the crowd lined up for entry into the graduation ceremony scheduled for 4pm today.  Looks like the grads have lucked out on the weather again as well.  Congrats to some very fortunate kids who can now call BHS their alma mater.