The Burlingame Voice

Bgame Got Painted Today

Paint Burlingame celebrated its 5th anniversary today with some fabulous art.  The premise is artist start at 9am, go out and paint "plein air" scenes of B'game.  Bring their finished work to the Avenew and sell it to the rest of us local art lovers.  10% of the proceeds go the Historical Society and numerous local sponsors contribute everything from the space to refreshements, signage, etc.  All in all a totally cool local event.  Here is one of the walls in the old Malouf's space showing some of the art.

A well-regarded local artist did the judging in the youth and adult categories.  All of the honorable mentions and the two grand prize winners were great, but the one that caught my eye was the Western Termite guy we featured here.  Check this one out by Kevin Kasik!

Nicely done!  Art Attack! provided a lot of the volunteer effort and the Historical Society partnered beautifully as usual.

Il Piccolo Finally Makes Breakfast and Lunch

Some of the you real locals know how much hassle Dave Armanino went through to open the space next to the original Il Piccolo.  As I understand it, the city's hands were pretty much tied by excessive regulation from the state.  If you are reading any real news (i.e. something other than the SF Comicle and SJ Mercury News), you know that Sac is basically anti-business at this point.

Well, perseverance pays.  I saw this sign over the weekend that indicates breakfast and lunch will finally be served starting on Friday, Oct. 4th.  Kudos to Dave.  I hope we can continue our discussion about a locally-oriented wine happy hour once you get this phase running smoothly.  This isn't the best photo, but you get the point.

Following the Money '13

The first financial reporting period for campaign funds has come and gone.  The reports found on the city website here are for July 21st through Sept 21st.  Two of the newcomers appear to need remedial financial reporting class and one (Schinagl) appears to have not raised the thousand dollar minimum that triggers a filing requirement.

Money can't always buy elections but it certainly helps.  I am reminded of Gene Condon spending $47,423 in a losing effort in 2005.  Two years ago the 2011 numbers looked like this at the first reporting point.  This time around we need to be vigilant in distinguishing between monetary contributions (i.e. donations) and loans-to-self monies.  Andrew Piecemer's statement claims $30,925 in donations, but Schedule A shows $30,025 coming from himself!  That amount should probably be categorized as loans.  It appears he has raised $900 which would put him in sixth place on contributions behind

Ann Keighran                $21,350

Russ Cohen                    $10,486

Ricardo Ortiz                $9,099

Nirmala Bandrapalli        $6,831

Michael Brownrigg            $5,363

Alex Kent                        $1,075

Steve Duncan appears to have made the same mis-categorization error listing $2,000 from himself as a contribution.  Bandrapalli has correctly listed an additional $14,500 in loans, while Kent and Ortiz have listed small, odd amounts as loans which is a little strange.  ("hey friend, can you loan me $403.94?").

There you have it six weeks from election day. 

Post on Bandrapalli

Today's Daily Post details the newspaper's interviews with all of our council candidates in a full page article.  It's full of interesting information that we have not heard from them before.  In the first of three excerpts, Nirmala Bandrapalli said that

what makes her different from the other candidates is her "natural instinct to listen to others".

Since most of the other candidates have never heard of her before this campaign, one does wonder how she can anoint herself as the best listener of the bunch?  Then she returns to a point we heard in the candidates' debate

She said if the city standardizes its internal financial system, and enhances communication between the public and the city, it could generate more revenue.

She has plans to centralize the public systems, such as information on sewers and water, so that the city information for one house is all in one place.  She said taking out redundancy could save money.

I have to wonder if she even knows what the city's internal financial system is?  Where did she get this information?  How did she determine that this is one of the biggest issues we face?  And what does she know about the public agency procurement system for replacing any information system?  Any such replacement takes capital budget, an RFP, staff to review the responses--then maybe it gets started.  Count me as skeptical that she has any idea of what she is talking about.

The clinker at the end is

Bandrapalli said she is for high-density housing, and would like to see more on Howard Avenue and Rollins Road.

I hope every voter in town reads that bit because I have yet to run into anyone not in the development business that agrees with her.  I can't see any evidence that she has any background in urban planning or any related field to even make the statement.  And she certainly hasn't thought through how the B'game school system would handle all the new kids.  Very disappointing.  

Post on Kent

Next up in today's Daily Post is their interview with Alex Kent who they describe as "a commercial real estate broker".  We know from the candidate's debate post on the Voice that Alex doesn't believe he is a realtor, but the real gem of the interview is his strategy for dealing with "the union"

He said the city should really get to know its union members, and have members know the community better.

"Why aren't those union leaders participating in our fresh farmers markets?" Kent said.

I'm not sure where to start here.  Perhaps the leaders of the nine unions in town already have all the fresh bell peppers and kale they need?  I have to wonder what special talent Mr. Kent has for negotiating with unions?  And given that union negotiations happen in closed session, how does Mr. Kent know how well the city staff and council members know or don't know the unions?  I won't even bother to retype his naive comments about the Safeway project, but he would definitely benefit from read this set of posts.

Post on Peceimer

The riches just keep on coming in today's Daily Post round-up of the City Council race.  The Post's interview of Andrew Peceimer reveals this gem

Peceimer, 48, is a commercial real estate broker and said what makes him stand out as a candidate is that he will have his own privately hired person to put another set of eyes to go through the city's budget.  He said as a person who has managed hundreds of millions, he "reads the fine print" and has taken the time to study the numbers.

Left unsaid was why he needs to privately fund some unknown person if he is the person who "reads the fine print"?  One also wonders why this initiative was not mentioned during the candidates' debate?  I have to admit, I tire of him saying the unfunded pension liabilities have to be "tackled" and yet he has already read the fine print but isn't saying how.

Off the Grid Arrives

Food trucks have been one of the hottest topics on the Voice in the past. This post about the Curry Up Now truck from 2009 had 92 comments.  I think the arrival of Off the Grid will be less controversial because of where it is.  The city announced

Please note that Off the Grid is launching their weekly food event in Burlingame starting Thursday, September 26, from 5 to 9 pm at the Broadway Caltrain Station, Carmelita Ave. at California Drive.  This event will add to the diversity of food and dining options in Burlingame. The location is a CalTrain parking lot and did not require any approvals from the City. 

So tomorrow kicks off a trend that has been growing for a couple of years now.  I may stop by just to see if this Blendid dessert truck that I spotted in front of the Post Office last weekend makes a return visit.

Update: From all appearances, OTG was a huge success on its first night in B'game.  Even with the Niners on Thursday night football, the place was packed from early on to well past 7pm when I got there.  Lots of locals were chowing down including some foodies I know, and including Ricardo Ortiz and Russ Cohen--no sight of the other 5 Council challengers, but we sort of expected that, right?  Two candidates are well connected with the community--the other 5--not so much.

The KoJa Korean-Japanese fusion truck was doing a great biz.  I went with Peruvian wraps that were also good.  Here's a photo of the buzz

Debate Recap - One Man's Opinion

I was pleased to stumble upon a nice jazz trio playing at Barracuda last night after I left the City Council candidate's debate because I needed dinner and some relaxation.  For someone who follows local affairs very closely, it was frustrating to hear some of the candidates' erroneous positions or lack of understanding of how things run.  The two incumbents (Brownrigg and Keighran) did very well.  If you are reading this you know that Russ Cohen and I have worked together on the Voice, Highspeedboondoggle, CBB, and several other local initiatives over the last 16 years so I am biased in his favor.  Not that he needs my biased review because it was obvious to plenty of people that he was far and away the strongest non-incumbent.

The Daily Journal has a melange of the statements here, but to get the real essence of it you need to watch the stream on www.burlingame.org here.  Let's go left to right.  This was my first exposure to Nirmala Bandrapalli and I was underwhelmed.  A statement like "high density is inevitable" on Question 1 is just naive in the face of zoning codes, CEQA and our intense community involvement (remember Safeway?).  This gives me real pause as to why she was recently appointed to the Planning Commission nevermind a City Council seat.  Most of her answers were content-free.  High profile supporters like Terry Nagel and John Root had to be embarassed by the poor performance.  For me, Nirmala became Nomala in two quick hours.

Steve Duncan reminded me of Paul Prendeville from elections past.  He sounded like a genuinely nice guy who basically thinks things are going well as they are and didn't have any real suggestions for improvement.  The two realtors (Alex Kent and Andrew Peceimer) were very focused on the budget and unfunded pension liabilities.  I certainly see those as important--just go here, here and a dozen other posts.  What was lacking was what to do about it beyond the current council's actions over the last 18 months.  Peceimer's mail piece was similar and got me wondering how he can rail against excessive city bond issues and spending and pension liabilities on one hand and advocate for a new parking structure (price tag $30M+) in the same mail piece.  It got no clearer last night.  His criticism of the Avenue streetscape was short a few facts (which the incumbents provided) and the school crowd will remember his high-profile opposition to the last two school bond measures very clearly.

I was a little surprised by Ricardo Ortiz' responses last night as well.  Knowing Ricardo over the years I can definitely agree with his basic message that he works well with others.  I thought he really struggled beyond that to articulate a clear vision of what he thinks should be different.  My quick survey of the room showed I was not alone.  Robert Schinagl also surprised me.  He listed himself as a store clerk on the ballot, but noted a long career in senior roles at Security Pacific Bank and Oracle followed by law school and a law enforcement career.  Who knew?  He came never quite warmed up to the proceedings and two attendees saw him as "angry".  My guess is he would agree and that alone can drive someone to throw their hat into the ring just to have a say for one night on TV.

All I can say is thank goodness for that jazz trio at Barracuda and a nice tuna roll.

The Candidate Line-up

Since I had a front row seat at last night's debate and some of these candidates are pretty unknown, here are three shots from left to right (top to bottom) of the stage setup.  In alphabetical order as the League of Women's Voters arranged them; Bandrapalli, Brownrigg, Cohen, Duncan, Keighran, Kent, Ortiz, Peceimer, Schinagl.  The order on the ballot is more influential and can be found here.

Sidewalk Hopes

While cruising the Avenew this weekend I noticed this fresh spill on the fresh pavers.

Moments later I saw one of the workers cleaning the pavers that had just been put down in the construction zone.  So I asked him if he was sealing them.  He said "no", he was applying the de-greaser that comes before the sealant.  So the good news is there is a process for keeping these bricks looking good.  Here's hoping it works!