Month: January 2017

  • High-Cost Rail – Part 131 Peninsula Update

    I attended a "Working Group" meeting with the HSR folks last night.  I say "folks" because there are a lot of them– facilitators, consultants, FRA reps, HSR Authority people with all sorts of responsibilities and various other engineering, architecture and design people.  The main value for me was the up-to-the-minute news about what is planned for the Peninsula.  Here are a few points–many a reiteration of what we thought we knew:

    • The Board of Directors approved the SF-to-SJ Peninsula Corridor Segment Funding Plan
    • The target date for the "Record of Decision" on the EIR is December 2017
    • The only Peninsula station is Millbrae (earlier discussions about Palo Alto, RWC or San Mateo are not active)
    • Grade separations in San Mateo (25th, 28th and 31st Ave) are active but B'way is not active
    • Millbrae is expected to get two additional tracks so it will be four tracks wide for passing, etc
    • Peninsula speed will be 110 mph
    • Frequency:  4 high-speed trains and 6 Caltrain trains per hour/per direction (average 1 every 3 minutes)

    There is plenty of other discussion about track straightening, the maintenance yard in Brisbane, the idea of needing a "system identity" that would cover more human factors, but you now have the pertinent local items.  It is fun to sit and listen to true believers who see dirt being dug in the Central Valley and think (hope?) all is well elsewhere. 

  • Newsflash: Laguna Ave floods again

    Oops.  Wrong headline. The Daily Journal's headline is "Neighborhood in Burlingame hit with floods".  The piece describes flooding along the "northern stretch of California Drive."

    Vera Wilson, who lives nearby, said the water in the street rose as high as 3 feet before emergency workers and city personnel responded. In the wake of the damage, Wilson said she does not know where to turn to recoup the value of lost property.

    “I think a class action lawsuit or something might be in the works if [city officials] aren’t going to respond to our concerns,” she said.

    But in reality, those with a sense of history of B'game know why Laguna Ave. is named Laguna–it's been flooding since before B'game was incorporated.  And the Historical Society has vintage photos to show the long history of flooding and why some locals kept a canoe handy.  The city knows this and so do the residents

    Burlingame Public Works Director Syed Murtuza though noted the residents live in a flood zone and home owners are required to hold insurance policies offering coverage for such an emergency,

    “The area itself is a low-lying area so the property owners will have to follow through with the flood insurance protocol,” he said.

    So before people go throwing around "class action suit" they might consider the possibility of a reverse class action suit by other B'game residents who are not fond of the idea of paying for something that should be covered by mandatory insurance.

  • Opening the Asian Box

    It looks like Asian Box is finally open.  I noted that The Melt closed down around April 19th of 2016– nine months ago.  I'll never understand what takes so long to switch from one type of pretty simple restaurant to another.  Here is the sign indicating today's and tomorrow's sales are going to a really good cause.  See you there.

    Asian box open
     

  • Burlingamers protest Trump

    Many say Burlingame is one of those communities that doesn't suffer economically like so many other cities throughout the nation. That however didn't stop some from expressing their first amendment rights today. This photo taken today, Innauguration Day 2017, at the intersection if Adeline and El Camino Real. However, I hope that in the days to come, these same folks who are concerned with national politics will look to their own community and get involved in the issues that affect us right here and more importantly will affect their lives in a more direct way.

    IMG_4719

  • H2O – Still Not Enough

    With ever more hopeful headlines about the drought like this one

    DP Feds Drought Over

    But you would have to be reading the Wall Street Journal to get the rest of the story

    Even with reservoirs brimming, it will take time for California to recover from other effects of drought. In addition to weakened forests, groundwater levels have been drawn down sharply in many southern parts of the state, said Jay Lund, director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California, Davis.

    Mr. Lund said between 10 million and 15 million acre feet of water has been pumped out there over the past five years, or the equivalent of three Shasta reservoirs.

    “Some parts of the San Joaquin Valley might never recover from drought because groundwater levels are so low,” Mr. Lund said.

    But lest we think all is doom and gloom, here is a glass-half-full story from the SacBee

    Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, is leading a troupe of lawmakers today on a tour of the Sites Reservoir, a $4.4 billion proposed water storage project four decades in the making.

    Unlike most of California’s reservoirs, Sites would be off-stream and collect water from the Sacramento River via a 14-mile pipeline. Backers of the project say Sites could add 500,000 acre-feet of water to the state’s system per year, which Gallagher says is enough to serve 1.2 million families.

    Gallagher get the Voice of the People prize for today.  Note 10M divided by 500K equals 20 reservoirs needed to have the groundwater backup that we just used up over the last five years.

  • High Cost Rail – Part 130 “Told ya so”

    Check out this Mercury News headline

    HSR Cost Overruns article

    The Federal Railroad Administration is the author of the "confidential" report:

    The federal agency is monitoring the California project because it has invested $3.5 billion in the first phase, through the Central Valley. Eventually those tracks will be extended to San Jose, according to the latest plan.

    The analysis warned that the Central Valley track, 119 miles from Merced to Shafter, could be 50 percent over budget — and seven years behind schedule, according to the Times. The original budget was $6.4 billion, but costs could reach $10 billion, the Times reported.

    This should not be a surprise to anyone given what is known about such projects (see Part 113 and Part 88).  For me, the real kicker -or is it a kick in the taxpayers' teeth- is "labeled a 'confidential-draft deliberative document for internal use only".   Any why, exactly, it that the case?  This is one public agency supposedly auditing and making some predictions about the performance of another public agency.  As far as I can see it does not address any forthcoming contract details nor does it make any individual personnel comments.  So why is it confidential?

    Lastly, can we just dispense with the fiction that this boondoggle will come in at $69 billion or even $96 billion?  This is a 12 figure boondoggle for sure. 

  • Larry Teshara Retires

    The Daily Journal has a nice piece on former BHS principal Larry Teshara's retirement

    Larry Teshara, director of the San Mateo Adult School and former Burlingame High School principal, announced plans to retire at the end of the school year after 50 years of working in education across San Mateo County.

    Looking back, Teshara, 73, attributed his longevity to a boundless passion for teaching and influencing the lives of young learners.

    “My primary interest and career have been the same thing, and I consider that to be a blessing,” said Teshara, who came to the San Mateo Union High School District in 1972 as a 28-year-old counselor at Crestmoor High School in San Bruno after working as a teacher for five years in the San Bruno Park Elementary School District.

    He transitioned from his counseling role to become the assistant principal at Aragon High School, before being named principal of Burlingame High School, where he stayed for 15 years.

    With all of the recent turmoil at BHS emanating from the principal's office as noted here and here and here, it's pleasant to look back at a time when things were calmer at the school.

  • Time for an SFO Curfew?

    With the arrival of some nice winter storms comes the loud flights over B'game from SFO.  As a heavy traveler myself, I don't want to suggest doing anything that would make getting into or out of SFO any more difficult.  But.  Perhaps it is time to press for a late night curfew on departures when the airport is in the storm pattern mode.  The low hanging, loud noise directly over the residential part of the mid-Peninsula was close to unbearable last night until well after midnight.

    There is a rush of departures at 10 pm as East Coast redeyes and European flights leave and they have to be allowed to get out.  Storms slow everything down and can push these flights past midnight, but there has to be a limit.  People have to get up for work in the morning so there has to be a balance.

    From the Council assignments (see item 8a on the consent calendar here) that were confirmed last night Ricardo Ortiz will remain our rep on the Airport Round Table that meets quarterly.  That would be a good place to broach the topic.  What say you, Voice commentators?  Here are the runways that come right at us in reverse operations.

    SFO Runways

  • Skating in the Bayfront?

    The tug of war between more golf amenities and new ice skating rinks continues over at the Bayfront.  The Merc put the question into the context of all mid-Peninsula rink capacity with this article

    After several lean years for Peninsula ice skaters and hockey players, the move to build one or more new facilities is gaining momentum, particularly in Burlingame, where a nonprofit group has proposed constructing a rink on the site of a driving range.

    The Mid-Peninsula Ice Rink Foundation recently submitted a proposal to the Burlingame Parks and Recreation Department, which is considering two other bids. The department is expected to wrap up its review early in 2017 and report to the City Council.

    But there’s an unusual catch. To make the project viable, the foundation claims it would need to secure several million dollars from neighboring San Mateo.  Michael Strambi, president of the Mid-Peninsula Ice Rink Foundation, estimates it would cost up to $20 million to build a new rink at the Burlingame driving range. Using funds from San Mateo as seed money, the nonprofit would seek private and public investors.

    Getting up to $4 million gratis from San Mateo would be surprising to say the least.  Vice Mayor Michael Brownrigg is quoted as being interested and so I say "negotiate away"!  I'm just not sure where there is room out there to put a couple of rinks with the associated facilities, etc.  As soon as a proposed design appears somewhere, I'll post it.  In the meantime, the holiday rink in Central Park is doing quite a good business.

     

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