The Burlingame Voice

Philz Arrives

I'm finally convinced by the hiring sign out front and a couple of weeks of straight work happening inside that the second biggest eyesore in downtown is going to be cleaned up and occupied again.

The arrival of philzcoffee should keep our downtown techies and realtors happy since java will move in next to David's Tea for their caffeine fixes.  Heretofore one could only get philz by the bag at Mollie's.  With Prestige liquors moving off the Avenew and into a space a couple doors down, that section of Primrose is finally looking up.

 

In Memory: Maureen Brooks

My wife and I had a chance to join several council members and city planning staff at the memorial service for Maureen Brooks on Sunday at the Thomas Fogarty Winery on Skyline Blvd in Woodside.  "Mo Bro" as she was known in City Hall was a long time city planner who was integral to a number of the projects and initiatives in B'game over the last twenty-plus years. (Maybe someone from Planning could note exactly how long she served?).

I'll always associate Mo with the Safeway project for which she wrote up copious minutes of lengthy meetings, but she was there for a wide variety of projects in town like the hospital redevelopment, the 301 Airport non-development and many others.  The staff will miss her encyclopedic memory of people, places and projects and her hands-on-the-handlebars knowledge of bicycle and pedestrian issues.

Brilliant Enforcement

The Daily Journal has this little blurb today from Bethesda, MD:

A Maryland police officer went undercover dressed as a homeless man to catch people who were using their phones while driving.  He went undercover equipped with a police radio and a body camera.  He held a sign that read, "I am not homeless.  I am a Montgomery County police officer looking for cellphone texting violations."

Suffice it to say it was quite successful.  Anyone who thinks this is not an issue in B'game does not walk around town very much.  I suggest a similar approach at B'way and El Camino, Howard and El Camino and Howard and California.  I would suggest California and B'way also, but there is enough going on there already and enforcement has picked up nicely after this thread occurred.  I have seen SFPD and the Sheriff's Transit police at that intersection along with BPD motorcycle cops.

Halloween Hunger

I started the "Wildlife" category as a bit of a lark, but now I find plenty of material to keep it fresh.  I woke up yesterday morning to discover this sight on my front porch.

What animal do you think did this?  Squirrel?  Raccoon?  One of those big black birds that are everywhere?  In twenty-plus Halloweens I have never had this happen before.  Don't forget tonight is the B'game Halloween pub crawl.  No dancing on the bar!

B'game Star (Michelin That Is)

The new Michelin restaurant ratings are out and for the first time in my memory, a B'game restaurant has made the list with one star!  The Times has the full list here.  Reservations at Rasa just became harder to get and that is a good thing.  While not as dour as the entertainment drought in B'game, the dining scene has been improving very slowly.  Given how much work Rasa had to put into the space, this star will come in very handy.

Michelin stars are not easy to hold on to either.  All Spice in San Mateo just lost the one they had.  I've eaten there several times and it is quite good.  Oddly, they opened a new location in EssEff and it got the star in its first year.  My guess is that is more about the level of service than the food.  Great restaurant anyway.

Auto Burglaries Up?

Last Wednesday was an unfortunate high-water mark for auto burglaries.  There were nine (9) in one day in B'game ranging from three in my neighborhood (Ralston, Occidental, and Chapin Ave.) to the Bayfront and both downtowns (Donnelly and B'way).  Tools, laptops and iPads were the main losses.  It's probably time for a sting operation.  Oh, and who leaves a laptop in their car?  That was the original point of laptops--they go with you.

Ballot by Mail Questions Raised

Following up on an earlier piece, the Daily Post is reporting that some correctly completed ballots have been returned to sender by the postal service.  The assistant assessor-county clerk thinks it may be human error at the post office since the voter's address is visible on the back of the envelop.  The piece highlights the B'game city council race of 2013 saying "just 10 votes separated two candidates from a spot on the council", but we know it was really nine votes.  The point is valid though and so is the comment from one citizen who got the ballot back and said "she regularly travels for business and could have easily overlooked the fact that her ballot had been returned to her."

My advice is to keep your eyes open for these boomerang ballots and drop it at City Hall.

 

The county does provide the ability to see if they have received your ballot back by going to https://www.shapethefuture.org/MyElectionMaterials/    I'm not sure what the turn around time is on noting they have it since I mailed mine about a week ago and they don't show it as received yet.

High-Cost Rail - Part 116 Show Me the Money

The Daily Journal and the Daily Post had near identical articles about a the lack of private investors for high-cost rail and those investors' concerns as sleuthed out by the AP

Businesses that might bid to build a high-speed rail network across California are questioning whether there will be enough government funding to complete the complex and ambitious project.

That picture emerged from documents the companies submitted to the state rail authority overseeing the project, which solicited ideas for how it should approach building a first segment of 300 miles of track by 2022.

In response it received 36 submissions from firms including global construction and engineering giants AECOM, Siemens and Parsons. The rail authority released the documents to the Associated Press under a Public Records Act request.

This will not come as news to anyone reading the Voice, but this wrinkle is new

In the documents, many firms suggested breaking the project up into smaller contracts, typically in the $3 billion to $5 billion range. Anything much larger could scare off even the world’s largest construction and financing firms, the respondents said.

“The market cannot absorb a single $20 billion contract,” a group led by ACS Infrastructure Development, Inc. wrote, arguing that the risk to a construction firm would be too high and that “financial institutions would not invest into a project of such unprecedented scale and cost.”

This smacks of desperation all around.  And yet the SacBee is reporting

State high speed rail officials confirmed last week they plan to call for bids from high-speed rail companies in mid-2016 to build the sleek aluminum trains that will run at 200-plus miles per hour between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The state is expected to need about $3.2 billion worth of train “rolling stock” to serve the new system.

The cart would appear to way in front of the horse here.

 

Our Eucs Are Not Just Pretty

One of my quirks about walking to the Avenue is that I cross El Camino immediately because the west side of the street near me does not have any of our beloved eucalyptus trees.  They probably got cut down when the apartment buildings were built years ago.  But our eucs are not just pretty, they are a pedestrian and cyclist safety feature too.  Here was the scene at Howard Ave and El Camino Tuesday evening.

The fire trucks are on El Camino and the SUV and the Porsche are on the sidewalk after the SUV some how did a 180 degree spin.  Unfortunately, the stretcher is there for a reason and I hope that person is OK.  Instead of Caltrans trying to cut down eucs, I wish they would plant some more a couple blocks south of Floribunda.

H2O - Public Concern Rising, Reservoirs Dropping

This Field poll is in the news today

California’s punishing drought has taken a firm grip on the electorate’s conscience, with more than 3 in 4 voters describing the state’s water shortage as extremely serious, according to a new poll.

The Field Poll, released Tuesday, follows months of mandatory water restrictions, public relations campaigns and media focus on the drought.  Seventy-six percent of registered voters describe the drought as “extremely serious,” an uptick from earlier this year, according to the poll. Eighteen percent of voters say the drought is “somewhat serious.”

One has to wonder when people will put 2 and 2 together and get 4 regarding over-development and realize that at the rate we are going, we will never have enough water?  You can watch the Hetch Hetchy water level decline here.  Put in a wider date range than the default one-week view for the full picture.