The Burlingame Voice

Hwy 101 Carpool-Toll Lanes?

The DJ is the latest paper to report on the possible study of adding carpool or toll lanes to 101 through B'game:

With commute times on Highway 101 getting worse, the City/County Association of Governments is moving forward with studying whether carpool and toll lanes can solve the problem.

The C/CAG board is seeking $9.4 million from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to conduct the preliminary environmental and design work needed before any potential construction can actually take place on the corridor.

C/CAG has also requested another $8.5 million from the San Mateo County Transportation Authority for the environmental phase of the project.

The plan now is to bring the lanes south from the Santa Clara County border north to Interstate 380 in San Bruno.

The average peak commute speed on Highway 101 is now about 25 mph, said San Mateo County Supervisor Don Horsley.

The piece goes on to note that a carpool lane would only increase the average speed by 3 mph, but "we have to do something".  Who would care to speculate on the Unintended Consequences of such a move?  I know a bit about commuting down 101.  Not as much as I did 10 years ago, thank God, but a bit and it is ridiculous to describe either the problem or the solution in terms of averages.  If C/CAG and the MTC come back with a recommendation of a toll lane will we also get a movement for "affordable commuting"?  The whole phenomenon is driven by the Silicon Valley economy which is cyclical, but one thing is for sure--high-speed rail on the Caltrain corridor will not help things!

Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all

Beautiful fall foliage, brisk weather, a bit of welcome rain, Lions and Packers on television, and the aroma of roasting bird wafting through the house.  Family assembling for a fine meal.  A small chance to put one's problems aside for a couple of hours and focus on the good bits of one's existence.  Enjoy fellow Voice bloggers, you are one of the things Russ and I give thanks for every year!

Unintended Consequence: Sidewalk Dots

The Mercury News' Roadshow column hit upon something that I have been wondering about since the beginning of the Dot Era:

Q A friend fell on the yellow bumps on the sidewalk at Safeway and broke her leg in four places. She had no insurance and was in the hospital for three days. 

A These truncated domes at curb cuts are designed to meet requirements by the Americans With Disabilities Act and are meant to inform blind pedestrians that they are stepping into traffic. But lawyers have had a field day with these. They've filed so many lawsuits that cities and corporations are going way overboard to insulate themselves from lawsuits. How so? Some make it difficult for people using walkers, canes and crutches to easily cross these dotted surfaces. Places like Costco and Target often run them the entire length of an entrance. Critics say they are also a huge headache for non-disabled folks.

I'm not sure how a city goes way overboard to insulate itself from lawsuits.  It certainly doesn't work in other instances like this one!  These things are all over the place and seem to get bigger with each new installation.  This one is on Primrose.

 

Prop. 30 Extension

Death and Taxes.  Like death, many taxes are permanent even if they are sold to the public as temporary.  Such may become the case with Proposition 30 passed in November 2012 by an 11% margin and retroactive to the beginning of that year.  Don't you just love retroactive taxation?  Prop. 30 added .25% to the state sales tax (now 7.5%) and bumped up the marginal California rates on the top 3% of earners.  Greater than $250K to 10.3%.  Greater than $300K to 11.3%.  Greater than $500K to 12.3%.  Greater than a mil to 13.3%.

Today's news from the SacBee is that

Last Thursday, the Secretary of State’s Office announced that a proposal to fund schools by extending the Proposition 30 income tax on the wealthy could begin collecting signatures. While popular with many Democratic politicians, the idea has middling support among California voters, and proponents of the measure – a mix of education and public employee unions – must contend with the fact that Gov. Jerry Brown promised in 2012 that the original tax would be temporary.

But hey, maybe the accelerating migration to Nevada, Texas or Washington is a good thing.  Less traffic.  Less need for high density housing.  Sounds like a plan.  Our friends and neighbors at the CA Teachers Association on Trousdale Dr. are feeling the pressure to lock in some taxes since they are faced with a solid lawsuit (Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association) that would allow teachers who are not in the union to avoid paying a $650 per year "agency fee".  That would put a real dent in the lobbying money that goes into passing Propositions and their extensions.

Foliage Fest 2015

Since it was such a spectacularly lovely day in Old B'game today, I have chosen today for the annual tree-hugger post.  There is a wrinkle this year since I am going to bookend it with a big loss.  I'm not sure what this species is (a little help here experts) but they are pretty common in B'game and particularly bright this year.

The bookend is the mighty Euc that we are losing across El Camino from the Safeway near the bus stop.  If you have been caught in any of the single-lane bottlenecks that Caltrans has had to use to take down the tree you know where it is.  It seems to me that they are about five days into it and there is still a lot of eucalyptus there.  The good news is I have it on good authority that this one is a "good kill", i.e. it was legitimately sick.  Here's hoping it is the only original one we lose for awhile.

BPD Priorities - Part 1 Quality of Life team

I finally got a chance to clear my schedule and sit down with the no-longer-new B'game police chief Eric Wollman and Support Services Captain and long-time BPDer Mike Matteucci for the chat I mentioned back in September.  I like to think in 3's so my outline started with the chief's three top priorities and we covered a lot of ground around those; some of which I'll relay here in Parts 1, 2 and 3.  Commenters can sort their thoughts and commentary accordingly.....I hope.

Every leader and manager evolves to such a position by focusing on their team.  I came into the discussion knowing that the number of sworn officers in B'game has declined since the dotcom bust.  Right now we have 37, down from a peak of 50 and there are 20 more staff in parking enforcement, dispatch and the like.  The chief's top priority is figuring out how to staff up a "Quality of Life" team of officers.  Such a team would not be tied to real-time events that arrive over the radio, but rather would pay extended attention to things like a particular address that has complaints, retail theft prevention, Mills Canyon or Washington Park shenanigans, or even leash law violations.  I had not pondered this before, but it makes sense that a single officer cannot react in real-time on a shift and hope to catch things in prevention mode very often.  That also fits with my experience from a ride-along I did in 2006.

A quality of life team would also allow for a wider B'game school partnership (beyond the solo officer currently doing it).  We also have four detectives who rotate on/off patrol every three years and typically have an active case load of about a dozen cases each.  During the discussion, I highlighted the growth in town (Summerhill, the drive-in site, other Bayfront development, you name it) and how that drives a need for more cops on the beat.  I'll look forward to that budget discussion.

BPD Priorities - Part 2 Property Crimes

The second of three priorities I discussed with Chief Wollman and Capt. Matteucci was property crimes.  I've been wondering if auto and residential burglaries are really up or are we just more connected via social media (what one Voice wag calls Nosy Neighbor Network), the on-line crime map and newspaper reporting?  BPD's perspective is that auto burglaries are up somewhat on the Bayfront (i.e. at hotels and restaurants), and commercial areas are seeing some uptick, but residential area crime is basically flat verses historical trends.

Common sense and education of our tourists would help on the Bayfront.  It still surprises everyone involved that people would leave computer bags or other valuable in plain sight in locked cars.  BPD uses "bait cars" with some success and the "decoy" car that can be seen on the Avenew is a modest effort to deter retail theft (where there have been some notable losses lately).  A portable, pole-mounted camera is also in the works for hot spots in the Bayfront parking lots.  We also discussed the rumor around town that BPD does not fingerprint cars that have been broken into.  They do fingerprint unless there are circumstances that would render it pointless (like rain).

In residential areas, one of my hot buttons has been door-to-door solicitors.  There is agreement that this is often the first step to a residential break-in.  Knock once, knock twice, go around back if no one answers.  I know several B'gamers who have experienced this and get told "Oh, I thought I saw a friend of mine".  Yeah, right.  Commerical solicitors need a permit and there are only two in place right now, but charitable solicitations do not.  BPD welcomes a quick call to the non-emergency number alerting them that solicitors are in the area (use (650) 777-4100).  Bottom-line:  Use your trunk, take out valuables and alerting phone calls are welcome.  Here is the decoy on the Avenew.

BPD Priorities - Part 3 Technology

The last of the three areas we discussed was the opportunities and risks associated with a variety of newer technologies that are available to law enforcement.  I have a pretty good working knowledge of a number of these technologies from my professional expertise in mobile, phone, video and data center technologies.  BPD's list of projects spans all of these as well as areas like records management and GPS trackers in the "bait cars".

There is no separate capital budget dedicated to BPD, rather the full city management team assesses all of the departments' capital needs.  Back-up (known in business as disaster recovery/business continuity planning) is a key area that is constantly evolving.  Having Dispatch back-up with San Bruno PD, common radios with surrounding PDs and the time and staff to innovate are key efforts.  For example, the chief knows there are a number of private cameras sprinkled around town (e.g. ATMs, home surveillance) and building a data base of those that could be called upon when an incident happens nearby would be an innovation.  I came away from Part 3 with an appreciation of BPD's sensitivity to public concerns, especially privacy, and with a sense that there is a lot of opportunity.  Thanks to both officers for taking the time to talk to a concerned citizen.  You can read the history of posts on crime here.

High Cost Rail - Part 117 Water Instead!

Hot on the heels of Gov. Moonbeam declaring that the water restrictions may go to next Halloween

Despite forecasts of a wet winter, Californians can expect another year of water conservation in 2016 under an executive order issued Friday by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Californian are currently under orders to reduce consumption by an average of 25 percent, as compared with 2013. Brown’s order would extend the cutbacks through next Oct. 31 “if drought conditions persist through January 2016.”

Many experts and state officials said it’s almost a certainty the conservation order will continue through next fall. While El Niño is expected to drench the state this winter, many forecasters believe it won’t create enough precipitation to repair water supply problems created by four years of drought.

Two politicians have proposed the most sensible thing we have heard out of Sacramento in a decade or more

Two Republican elected officials have submitted a 2016 ballot measure that would shift $8 billion in unspent high-speed rail bond funds to water storage projects.

The initiative by Sen. Bob Huff (R-San Dimas) and Board of Equalization member George Runner is a direct challenge to the high-speed rail project championed by Governor Jerry Brown.

The Capital Radio piece reporting on this notes that Brown has $20 mil in his campaign chest that he could use to fight it.  I say let's drain his chest before he drains ours with his High Cost Drain! 

Veterans Day History

In honor of all of our veterans, I went to Wikipedia to remind myself (and you all) of the history of Armistice Day that morphed into Veterans Day.  It was started in 1919 under Woodrow Wilson to commemorate the end of WWI and expanded to honor vets of all wars in 1954 under Dwight Eisenhower.  You can read the details here.  Thank you veterans, one and all.

Great minds were thinking alike.  As I was writing this post, a regular Voice reader sent me this light pole banner from Ephrata, PA as an example of something that one of our BIDs could do on B'way and the Avenew.  Great idea!