The Burlingame Voice

Parking Rates vs Revenue

I almost never park around Burlingame Ave. since I can walk there faster than I can find a spot.  But yesterday I was coming back from out of town and needed to make a quick stop.  I almost parked in one of the lots until I got to the box and saw this

This is old news for some of you, but like I said, I almost never park downtown.  Something about paying $3 for a 10 minute stop just seemed unworkable, so I hunted up a free space a block further away.  Now here's the rub--the merchant I was visiting said they never pay after about 3pm since there is no enforcement and there is a good chance someone already paid for the space you are about to take.  I wonder how common all of this is and whether it is a classic case of "higher rates, lower revenue".

Hold-up on B'way

The police blotter has not been updated yet to reflect the stick-up of a young B'game woman at an ATM machine on B'way on Monday that was followed by a police chase and the capture of the robber.  The recent discussions at City Council meetings on the benefits of having our own PD verses a merged PD were evident in the quick response time, the effective chase and the prompt ID and arrest of the suspect.

Kudos all around and a sigh of relief that no one was hurt.

Avenue Streetscape in Review

There is a nice little synopsis of the B'game Avenue streetscape plans that are almost done here.  The piece says that it is "approved" which is a shade premature, but there is general agreement and just a few details to work out.  Here's a excerpt of the full piece that is worth reading

Under the streetscape plan, angled parking will be replaced with parallel parking and about 10-percent of parking spaces will be removed to make room for pedestrian amenities. Gomery said the city plans to purchase smart parking meters, and set demand-based rates that will discourage long-term parking, and more turn around.

James Engels of RHAA Architects said the bulb-outs will be 80 to 100 feet wide, and the at-grade intersections and sidewalks will be comprised of pavers and concrete.  ”The material palate will promote a richer experience,” he said, adding that the parking stalls can be used as parklets, allowing restaurants to spill out into the street.

The photos and drawings are good too as well as the bike discussion at the end.

Friends with Benefits - Part 19 $ick time

In keeping with our FwB thread found here and here, the Mercury Times- Bay Area News Group is highlighting some more findings that

From Silicon Valley to the Wine Country, top administrators, police officers, firefighters, government lawyers, engineers, clerks, nurses and others received more than $50,000 each, combining last year for more than $30 million, most of it for unused sick days. That is enough money to add about 190 police officers to Bay Area streets for a year or about 375 teachers to local classrooms.

and the article goes on to note

And therein lies the great benefit to employees of saving time off: Governments pick up the tab based on a retiree's final rate of pay, not what he was paid when the time was accrued.

The News-Times has also assembled an interesting database here.  This would appear to be one spot where change should be easier--an ability to "rollover" a week or maybe two for one year is standard practice in most workplaces.

Terry Bradshaw cheerleading for Burlingame?

Tonight the Burlingame City Council will consider a $20K expenditure that will allow a production company to produce a video touting why Burlingame is terriffic.

The idea of a video highlighting Burlingame is not such a bad idea, in my opinion.But....

...It seems to me that there are plenty of talented marketing, production and media folks who live and work in Burlingame that are not only talented but know the city and its highlights a heck of lot better then Terry Bradshaw and the production company who has floated this idea by the city manager and now the council. And I a willing to bet that they might do it for a  lot less $$ than is being proposed.

On top of that, some of the pertinent questions shopuld be asked, and I hope council asks them...like, who is the audience for this video? Where will it be shown, Can the ROI be measured? And obviously why Bradshaw?

Here is a link to the staff report, a link to Terry Bradshaws "Business Day with Terry Bradshaw" website and a link to the SM Journal story:

http://burlingameca.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=36&meta_id=11822

http://businessdaywithterrybradshaw.net/

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=1753221

California - The "Barbell" Economy

Back when the California economy was the fifth largest in the world, the Wall Street Journal used to track it very closely.  Now that we are the ninth largest, the Journal still stops by once in awhile for an in depth review.  Yesterday's edition did just that with a huge article on the economy and a large one on our real estate.

Quoting from the first piece, an economist from Beacon Economics notes that "L.A. is an extreme example of California's 'barbell economy,' with a greater than average share of college graduates, but also of people who haven't finished high school."  A Claremont-McKenna College spokesperson for a cost-of-doing-business survey adds that "the most recent survey ranked 421 cities; 16 of the 50 most expensive were in California, including San Francisco and L.A."  We are still hanging tough with the 48th best business tax climate as well--and that is before this November's election where the ballot has only potential downsides for our rating.

The "barbell economy" is causing a barbell real estate market as well with Silicon Valley leading the way on the heavy ends of the barbell.  Per the Journal, "in the second quarter, the median price of a single-family home rose in 61% of Bay Area communities, compared with a year earlier, according to research firm Dataquick."  We've seen that in B'game pretty clearly.  The question is how much since the article shows Palo Alto up 14% and San Mateo up 2.4%.  My guess is we are somewhere in between, but the flight from S.F. could put us on par with Palo Alto.  And the Drive-in project certainly will contribute to putting us on the higher end in the medium term.

Spam Control...Again

We've had another big spam attack so while we wait for TypePad to figure out how they are doing it and stop them at the gates, comments are being held for moderation.  You can still comment, the comments just won't appear right away.  Sorry about that!

High Cost Rail - Part 80 Just Askin'

Question for everyone:  which is harder to do:  build a 3-4 mile long bridge or a 500 mile "high-speed" rail line?  I'm just asking, since it is not all that obvious that the state can pull off a $6.5 billion dollar project to rebuild half of a bridge.  Yet it wants to take $100 billion dollars we don't have to build a precision railroad through earthquake country.  Just askin'.  This is a particularly rich quote from the only real Senator on his side of the aisle in the Sacramento

Simitian suggested that it was odd that Wiles would have chosen to go "straight" on the Bay Bridge while faking other data.
"It seems a little hard to fathom why somebody's work would be without question rigorous in one venue but then problematic in other venues," Simitian said.

Just askin'.  Here's a photo of the bridge from Treasure Island...let's hope it's sound!

Keeping SamTrans Solvent

The Daily Journal article on SamTrans changes has a "just the fact, Ma'am" approach--as it should.  A couple points caught my eye

SamTrans’ debt service requirement this year is $24.4 million, with $12.7 million going to pay down the debt related to the BART airport extension.

It operates 48 bus routes in San Mateo County but just four them handle nearly half of the transit agency’s weekday ridership.

SamTrans has a weekday average ridership of about 45,000 a day but 45 percent of the riders travel on just four routes: the 120, 292, 390 and 391.

Those last two are the main routes up and down El Camino through B'game.  Keeping it solvent is important especially because

SamTrans only recovers 12 percent of its cost from the fare box and gets most of its support from tax revenue.

That revenue model is where the recurring Caltrain funding issues originate, too.........it's a shame that half the debt is for a BART connection that is so problematic. 

Our Shopping Dilemma

I recently came across a new word for a known phenomenon.  The word is "showrooming" and describes the practice of shopping at a brick-and-mortar shop (the "showroom") but making one's purchase on-line to save money.  The savings come in two forms--cheaper prices of the goods because of the low overhead of warehousing goods in some low-cost location like rural Nevada and the savings on the sales taxes.

The former is unavoidable for the most part when compared to the overhead of the rents on B'way or B'game Avenue.  The sales tax savings are a hot issue right now because of the move in Congress to tax internet purchases--a law known as the Marketplace Fairness Act--that seeks to level the playing field on taxes.  Proponents want a "level-playing field" and the cash for the nearly 10,000 state, local and municipal tax jurisdictions.  The opponents say it's taxation without representation since, for instance, Amazon doesn't have a physical location in B'game.  It's also complicated and expensive to implement especially for small businesses.  The Wall Street Journal quotes a 2006 PWC study putting the compliance costs at 16 cents per dollar of revenue for a small business with an internet presence.

My current interest is for the retail mix in our downtown B'game locations.  The prevailing thought amongst Avenue merchants and landlords is that "showrooming" is killing most retail and therefore we need more restaurant permits since that is the future of the Avenue.  I'm not so sure.  For starters once a retail location becomes a restaurant it's hard and expensive to go back to retail space.  So if the 8.25% (or higher if the state and county proposals go through in November) sales tax disadvantage disappears we may have shot ourselves in the retail foot....and that would be bad for everyone.