Month: July 2014

  • Supes to Address Migrants in SM County?

    Times columnist John Horgan has his ear to the ground on a topic that several B'gamers have asked me about in the last month–locating (select any one adjective and noun of your choice:  illegal, undocumented, endangered, migrants, immigrants, refugees) here in the County.  He notes

     

    Don't be shocked if the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors decides to emulate its peers in San Francisco and Santa Clara counties and invites the federal government to locate some migrant children, who have recently come to the U.S. illegally, here on the Peninsula. At the very least, let's just hope there is some healthy public discussion with citizen taxpayers about any such move.

    Talk about a hot button issue–I was on the East Coast this week and it has even reached a fevered pitch there and it appeared to me that the usual political spectrum has been scrambled.  Just because someone was basically on the Left did not translate to a "Take them in" perspective in quite a few instances.  Given how supes are elected, how would they decide where in the County to do this?

  • Speaking of history and downtown

    This Saturday you can take a guided tour of downtown with a few folks who know just a little about downtown's historic past—board members of the Burlingame Historical Society. And it's FREE.

    Meet at The Burlngame Train Station at 11am and join the tour. There will be four costumed tour guides.

    Some of them are pictured here:

    Brd. in costume at station

     

  • Perking up Park Rd.

    I had a chance to chat with one of the owners of the Vinyl Room bar a couple of months ago while they were remodeling.  Juan Loredo came across as a really nice young guy who is having fun and building a business with his partner.  You will recall I've had some fun in the bar before.  The Daily Journal also caught up with him since the bar is now reopened for business.  They note

    With the Burlingame Avenue Streetscape project, Vinyl Room at 221 Park Road has decided to do renovations and took a spin off the name Vinyl Room for creative inspiration. In addition, soon-to-open businesses like the Indian restaurant and the coffee and wine bar H29 should draw more customers in, so the bar is extending its hours.

    The DJ missed the coolest part of the remodel in my opinion.  It notes that "An art wall features 200 wood panels that are the size of album covers." but Juan's plan is to attach iconic album covers to the wood panels which will be very cool.  Here's the panels.

    Vinyl room blank album frames

    If I had a bit more time on my hands I would help him out with that part.  I wish them good luck along with the new wine bar and the Roti replacement.  As you are checking out the Vinyl Room be sure to notice the building's facade where Juan and Jose have resurrected the original "Cocktails" graphics.  Nice preservationist touch.  Let's hope it doesn't get overshadowed by some monsterous new building on the Post Office site!

  • Gone fishing.

    It's official, while the Burlingame Voice did not recieve any official statement, the Daily Post reports this morning that Burlingame Council member, Jerry Deal has offered his resignation and will step down in late September—his official term ends in November 2015.

    The council is on summer hiatus and will return in August. They will most likely discuss their options:

    a.) Special election

    b.) Appointment

    c.) Keep the seat vacant until the regular November '15 election.

    Stay tuned.

    Jerry deal sign

    Only Jerry Deal photo BV had on file at press time.

  • Rain!

    I was sitting at the dinner table just now and asked "what is that noise?"  A dinner partner said "rain" and I said "no way", but sure enough South Burlingame had about three minutes of rain just now.  Let the record show that on July 18th all the perfectly-detailed automobiles not in garages got spotted from this passing shower.

    One still has to wonder when the government fines for using too much water will kick in here in B'game?  Let's just enjoy the moment for now.  Check out this Maxfield Parrish sunset from tonight!

    July sunset

  • High Cost Rail – Part 103 The Boondoggle Starts

    One of the biggest challenges of the high-cost rail battle is the common perception that "this thing is never going to be built.  It's too expensive and we don't have the money."  Many of us who are close to the subject hear this pretty often.  So it is notable when shovels hit dirt as an article in the July 13 edition of the SM County Times reported.  The article was originally from the Fresno Bee and notes

    Demolition crews made short work of the old Annie's Hollywood Inn bar on Fresno's Golden State Boulevard on Monday, marking the first demolition statewide to make way for California's proposed high-speed rail project.

    Workers for J. Kroeker Inc. Demolition began using a large excavator to tear into the building, taking the first bite from the rear of the 66-year-old structure shortly after 8 a.m. Within 15 minutes, all of the walls were gone and the building was reduced to rubble and splintered lumber.

    The long-closed bar at the corner of Golden State Boulevard, Pine and West avenues, between Olive and McKinley avenues, is part of the statewide rail line's first 29-mile construction segment….

    Here is another link to the Bee's video where we learn that the demo contract is for $6.2 million.  Good money after bad………..

  • SMUHSD SAT Scores

    I stumbled across this set of SAT Scores for the high schools in the SMUHSD from the Calif. Dept. of Education's website.  You can find them there and you have to filter it down to the dates and schools you want–but I have done that for you for 2012-2013 which is the latest available

    School

    Percent Tested

    Total >= 1,500 Number

    Total >= 1,500 Percent
           

    Aragon High 

    71.47 

    184 

    72.7 

    Burlingame High 

    62.03 

    156 

    72.9 

    Capuchino High 

    54.58 

    66 

    48.2 

    Hillsdale High 

    58.79 

    119 

    61.3 

    Mills High 

    80.91 

    188 

    70.4 

    Peninsula High (Continuation) 

    1.32 

    * 

    * 

    San Mateo High 

    63.98 

    143 

    69.4 

    District: (San Mateo Union High) 

    61.08 

    857 

    67.32 

    County: (San Mateo) 

    51.85 

    2,204 

    61.77 

    Statewide: 

    40.36 

    93,136 

    46.44 

    The old saw that "There are lies, damn lies and statistics" applies since the percentage of Mills students taking the tests is quite a bit higher than at BHS, so the 2.5% higher percentage of BHS students that are above a 1500 is a little deceiving when comparing our two high schools.  Also, if you look at the details on the website, BHS students did slightly better on Critical Reading and Writing while Mills led on Math skills.  

  • Library Renewal

    The Daily Journal is updating us on the library update project which will renew one of our restoration jewels in town

    Construction is slated to begin Aug. 11 to upgrade Burlingame’s main Primrose Road library with the city hiring a construction firm to carry out the work.

    The $3.5 million project will modify the downtown branch’s interior to meet the needs of modern patrons by providing flexible space for collaboration, creativity and exploration. The City Council awarded a $1.74 million construction contract to Zolman Construction and Development to create the new tech and media lab with updated computers and LCD screens, video conferencing capabilities, four group study rooms, new conference room that fits 20 people, expanded teen area, a Burlingame Library Foundation bookstore and café, along with new carpeting. Officials are excited for the changes, which are targeted to be completed in April 2015.

    Here is the teen area set for expansion.  It's usually quite busy when I go by there.

    Library Teen Room

  • Hoover School’s New Wing – cont’d

    I'm exhausted from clicking through all of the pages of comments on the original "Hoover School's New Wing post" from March and I'll bet you are too.  So I have a new approach.  I am taking the last two comments from Get Real! and EPC and reposting them here, so you guys can have at it without clicking through three (or soon four) pages of prior comments.  Typos are original to the comments — go for it.

    Get Real! wrote:

    The neighbors' motivation is at the center of this whole thing. If they wanted a safe school where they accepted a certain level of disruption, a negotiation may have sufficed. If, as I think I heard them say, their motivation is to stop the school at any cost, then they would sue and ask for an injunction which is exactly what they did.

    Once the EIR is complete, their motivation will once again play a crucial role. My guess is they will find other legal avenues to delay the project.

    As to the number of cars, it is reasonable to assume that 250 children will not cause 250 cars. That between carpooling (particularly of siblings) and walking this number will be substantially reduced. That and estimate of about 2 kids for one car seems reasonable. Then 100 cars is not off the mark but the opponents don't want that number thrown around because it trivializes their cause. Once again, the motivation.

    And EPC responded

    What people don't seem to realize is that BSD increased the size of the annex building by 3 times and elimated a huge portion of the blacktop that was formerly used for parking and drop off. In fact, one of their initial options was to simple rehas the existing annex building so that they could keep the blacktop as is. Had they done that, there would have been room on the site itself for parking and drop off. This option, along with some other similiar ones were presented to them by the town of hillsborough before they even approves the project and started construction, which would have greatly mitigated the impact to the neighborhood. This is truly a design issue. An EIR would have exposed this design flaw and that's why BSD chose not to do one in the first place.

    I will also draw your attention to the comment from Where Are The Parents on the next post "Affordable Myth" since it is pertinent.

     

  • Affordable Myths

    The Daily Journal is reporting on the Council study session on so-called "affordable housing" downtown.  I shiver whenever I hear the term "affordable housing" in a government-driven context because the Law of Unintended Consequences is upheld so often.  Trying to create "affordable housing" in one place usually means increasing the cost of housing in another, nearby place because of the displacement effect.  It also ignores what economists call "externalities".  That link to Wikipedia talks about the costs of "unregulated markets" actions, but that is just Wiki progressivism since a "regulated decision" like this one can be even more harmful.  In this case, one of the main external victims would be the school system.  You need only read the ever-growing post on the Hoover situation to know the school crowding issue is real.  The article notes 

    During a Monday study session, the City Council heard a presentation from the firm Pacific Western Community that proposed whether take two city parking lots and construct affordable housing for working people, or workforce housing, on one lot and construct a public parking structure on the other. The two proposed downtown lots are Lots F, located on Park Road and Howard Avenue, and Lot N, located just east of Lot F on Lorton and Howard avenues.

    The piece goes on to note

    “The most appealing part of the proposal is we would get several hundred parking spots downtown — that would be huge,” Nagel said. “There are many, many questions. This is just the start of the process. It’s important to have all types of housing available. People who work for nonprofits, teachers and others are the backbone of our community — people who are not paid huge paychecks. We’re hearing from them loud and clear we need to do something about this problem.”

    I'm thinking it may be time for a Freedom of Information request to the City to review what we actually are "hearing loud and clear" that people want the City getting involved in on housing.  Anyone wanna bet it would be a very short file coming back?  And if you see how many of the comments come from B'gamers I'll bet it is even shorter.  By the way, maybe we should see what happens with the Post Office before the Council even thinks about getting in bed with another developer?  The last date didn't work out so well with Grosvenor!

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