Housing vs. Parking

Unfortunately, this is not an April Fool's Day post.  Coming on the heels of the 94010 = No. 24 post below is this Daily Journal article about the City of Burlingame getting into the affordable housing business.  It first surfaced a year ago, so you can catch up here.

The Burlingame City Council is set, during a meeting Monday, April 5, to approve entering an exclusive negotiating agreement with Pacific West Communities to build an affordable housing development on city property currently used as a downtown parking lot.

The pending agreement is part of a larger vision by officials to leverage underutilized city property into more parking and housing units in a city where the high cost of living has become a contentious issue.

The decision to select an affordable housing developer comes just days after residents frustrated with the escalating cost of living in Burlingame took steps toward filing a ballot initiative aiming to repeal the city’s anti rent control ordinance, as well as establish a variety of other renter protection policies.

Putting aside the last failed "exclusive negotiating agreement" at the Post Office, I would much prefer to see the ballot initiative be attempted.  Let's have a vote on so-called "affordable housing" with taxpayer monies.  Actually, I thought we just did and that candidate was beaten by 1,000 votes times two. The last I checked, the parking situation downtown was on more people's minds than how to squeeze even more cars (and their drivers) into downtown.  And that's no joke. 

Comments

[Bruce Dickinson]

Joe, I gotta tell ya, Bruce Dickinson agrees with you. "Threatening" a ballot initiative to repeal the anti-rent control ordinance is going to to have voters resoundingly defeat such a plan (and then, don't you have to replace it with a rent control plan, which is another way bigger hurdle?). Put it on the ballot and once it gets cut off at the knees, resoundingly, I'm willing to bet, it won't surface again. Attempts at controlling rent whether through prior City Council candidates or gadflies yapping and forming various coalitions, has never met any real success. Quite the opposite, actually!

[The golden goose is already cooked]

The City Manager seems very much in support of affordable housing on city owned lots, as do her extended colleagues.

Bruce, have you ever met The City Manager? Do you really know any of the current city council? The city staff? Any residents younger than 55?

That's what I thought...

[Bruce Dickinson]

Listen, little fella, it is undisputed that Bruce Dickinson has superior insights and information about the inner workings of Burlingame, because while I may personally not be interacting with our officials very often, I've got my guys and of course my guys know their guys and report to their CEO (Bruce Dickinson) if you will. Once you get to be as busy and active as yours truly, and operating at the upper echelons of success, you gotta have people working for you and guess what, you delegate! And when I don't know something, like the whole "Yim-gate" at BHS, I admit it! But looks like I wasn't alone as people purportedly "in the know" and interacting with the perpetrator were completely fooled.

It is well known that Burlingame city staff loves big, capital projects with big revenues and we won't get into why I believe they love them so much (though I've addressed the topic before in my pearls of wisdom poetic prose, as it were). It really doesn't matter what they think, as they need to be periodically reminded that they answer to the City Council and the electorate.

There have been a few pro-renter candidates in the past that pretty much got decimated in the City Council elections, to put it mildly. This is why I would love the measure to make the ballot, as I would expect any rent control initiative to be swiftly and decisively defeated.

By the way, from a homeowners' perspective, if all you care about is you property value going up, then vote for rent control, as single family homes and apartments will skyrocket as a much greater housing shortage will be created. But that isn't going to happen, as there is no appetite for economic intervention 'round these parts.

That's enough of a lesson for now. You know, when we're done here, y'all be wearing gold-plated diapers! Never question *the* Bruce Dickinson!

[In-town Affordable Housing for Police, Fire, City Workers, Teachers, etc makes sense]

Bruce, I hear ya. You're a secondary resource kinda guy. Nuff said.

My point is that I'm a primary resource kinda guy, which has it's distinct advantages.

And, yes, you gotta get endorsed by the Democratic party to win a city council election in many Bay Area cities, especially Burlingame. The women that I supported in the last election definitely come from a conservative / Republican background, despite their Dem registration and endorsements. I'm thrilled with the election results.

If the residents of Burlingame don't want the city-owned parking lots to become affordable housing, I'd recommend talking with the city manager and city council about it.

There are also advantages to having your police, fire, city workers, teachers, etc live in your city vs. having to commute across from Hayward or Oakland. If these folks were given the priority for these rental units, that would seem to make alot of sense both in Burlingame and Peninsula wide- especially in light of the likelihood of a major earthquake in the next 30 years.

[So Ignorant]

That is such ignorant thinking. We shouldn't be giving more benefits to the people with the earliest retirement ages and the richest pensions and the most job security of anyone. C'mon thinkaboutit.

[hillsider]

Weren't we supposed to be prioritizing a new Rec Center that would not fall down in the next earthquake? And isn't there no money for that?

[Bruce Dickinson]

Wait, is what Bruce Dickinson witnessing is a "self-debate"? I think a new term was just coined, as debating with oneself typically doesn't happen in a public forum, that is, until now! All of a sudden a certain poster cares about City workers, teachers, firefighters and police officers....yes the very same people that were railed against in all the "unfunded pension" "big government" "egregious post retirement benefits" "corrupt cops" and "Jerry Brown & Co union cronies" drivels of endless mind-numbing nonsense?

Do not waste our valuable time....just take the debate up with......yourself! But do yourself and us a favor and take it OFF LINE! There are much better, more therapeutic places to be your own devil's advocate, if ya know what I mean?

[David]

I have seen these types of affordable housing projects be very divisive in the community. Everyone knows that address ABC is affordable housing and they start to ask is so and so that much less well to do than I am. This would be true for many of the renters in Burlingame. People also wonder who someone knows to get in or if they are there a long time is anyone checking that they still qualify. I have seen it be divisive in the school system also. I hope the counsel knows what it is getting into.

[In-town Affordable Housing for Police, Fire, City Workers, Teachers, etc makes sense]

Folks, one can be in strong support of city workers, teachers, fire fighters and police officers, and still want to stand up against the conflicts of interest and malfeasance that our state and local government leaders have even been prosecuted / confessed / jailed for, correct??

It's those felon politicians that are these union worker's worst enemies because it's those same felon politicians that are destroying the long-term viability of the government agencies and the pensions that they and tax payers support. That's part of the reason why the FBI makes government corruption that #1 priority.

When one combines the widely-publicized government leader corruption, along with the "primary resource" corruption that I've directly heard local politicians admit to - Bruce is right - it is mind-numbing to think about it.

So, despite Bruce's attempt to misrepresent the truth and to distract you from the topics at hand (his constant arrogant references to his supposed Ferraris), he can't quite wish away the proven corruption among local and state.

And yes, I advocate for teachers. My grandparents and parents started off as teachers, my wife is a professor, I've worked with public and private schools for 10 years, I've served on the City of Chicago Public School Tech Steering Committee, The Lincoln School Tech Steering Committee, and I now serve on my children's school district "Strategic Planning Committee", and I'm on the board of directors of my local Rotary Club, which raises money for schools, teacher grants and scholarships.

Bruce, how have YOU helped local schools lately?

Bruce also has a hard time following basic logic. I believe that it makes sense to offer affordable housing options in-town for any town, for those life-safety and also teachers and city workers, who we all want to be part of the local community. Like I said above, especially due to our earthquake prone area.

This is a public opinion / free speech blog that welcomes diverse perspectives and debate among those perspectives.

[Bruce Dickinson]

Listen little fella, if I showed you the amount of money I donate to the local schools through the Burlingame fundraiser organization (BCE), it would 1) make your eyes pop and 2) probably exceed many people's income. And I don't even have kids that go to school here as they are grown up and I have grandchildren.

Burlingame schools get a lot of funding to pay for teachers, specialists, and improvements through parent and community donations. There are a lot of good people donating time to our schools, so I let them as the experts handle those tasks, while I provide the resources to enable this. Without the money present, there is really not much for these volunteers to do other than talk to each other and raise some modest amount of money for each school, which is really small potatoes compared to the community donations. That's what I call real contribution and putting money where your mouth is, so to speak!