The Burlingame Voice

Political Malpractice

Today every Bay Area paper led with Gov. Brown's signing of not one, not seven, but 15 so-called "affordable housing" bills yesterday.  Let's face it.  We are governed by idiots.  The state is broke.  Anyone who can actually read a balance sheet and understands the basics of pension funding knows this.  Any money for "affordable housing" comes from somewhere else in the budget.  The "somewhere else in the budget" might easily be school funding--let's add huge numbers of new kids and not fully fund the schools.  Couple that with the fact that housing 10's or 100's of thousands of new Californians without one iota of new water storage capacity is downright criminal.  Like I said, "idiots".

We were also treated to the news that

The first stage of California’s costly high-speed rail project may be even more expensive — $3.6 billion more — than previously thought, according to a report prepared by the Federal Railroad Administration and reported by the Los Angeles Times.  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.

You have to laugh at the verb:  "maybe be more expensive".  Dude, it will be more expensive--a lot more expensive.  Remember, they are building in the Central Valley now.  Forget Merced, wait til they get to an urban area.

Addition:  My new favorite term:  "functional insolvency".  See the comments.

New Firearms Range

We have been tracking developments at the Coyote Point shooting range for sometime; most recently here.  It closed for renovation last May 9th.  There are two different communities involved out at the range--law enforcement which needs a certain amount of range time to stay sharp and the public.  Back on June 26, 2016, I commented

There is some big news in yesterday's Daily Post. It reports that the Supes will vote on Tuesday on whether to accept a $5.2 million dollar donation for Tom Seibel and John Arrillaga to remodel and expand the range.

"The project will modernize the 54-year old range as well as add an approximately 7,000 square foot indoor range to used only for law enforcement training. The public will still have access to the outdoor pistol and rifle range."

The supes accepted the donations and that enclosed, sound-proofed, ricochet-proof indoor range is now a reality.  I was able to attend the Grand Opening tour a week ago and got a first-hand view of both the old and the new.  The new indoor range is impressive with low-light conditions (if desired), running and turning targets, lead dust containment, 25 yard distances and capability to go up to .308 caliber rifles.  This is what our law enforcement needs for true "gun control", i.e. hitting what you aim at.

The story on the public range side is a bit murkier as you would expect when you don't have a $5.2 million gift to work with.  The public range is operated by the Coyote Point Rifle and Pistol Club and its website notes that

Phase II, the improvement of the outdoor 100 yd range to be used by both Law Enforcement and the public is underway. This will be completed some time in the first quarter of 2018.

It looks a lot like it probably did in 1962 when the range opened.  Hopefully some nice renovations will allow the public to get some practice in at a nice facility during the hours of 7:00 PM and 10:00 PM Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as it has for years; with some tournaments on the weekends.  Here's a photo of the new indoor range.

Let's make some noise

Here at the Voice (and on other community blogs) there has been lots of discussion regarding the obnoxious horn blasts provided courtesy of Caltrain through our humble hamlet. However, according to the article in the recent issue of The Post only some Peninsula towns will see a reduction in horn noise. Notice Burlingame isn't one of them. Did our council do everything in its power to see to it that Burlingame would see a reduction in noise levels? I can't hear you.

Horgan to Bezos: Stay Away

Every word of John Horgan's latest column in the Merc should be read, reread and politicians should commit it to memory.  Click through here for the whole thing.  I'll just give you a taste.

Jeff Bezos, please stay away.

The latest word from the boss of the Amazon octopus is that he wants to build a second headquarters in a North American metropolitan area — and the Bay Area is on his list. Bezos is proposing a massive, new complex that would employ up to 50,000 people — roughly the combined population of Millbrae and Burlingame.

Housing? There is very little available room left for it. The only way to add any significant number of dwelling units is to go up. The result is unattractive urbanization that is transforming portions of San Mateo County into San Francisco. It’s not pretty. Visit sections of the El Camino Real/Caltrain corridor and certain downtown areas for confirmation.

The construction adjacent to the Caltrain tracks in San Carlos is particularly grim and unappealing in its size and scope. Ugh.

As we pointed out earlier in the year, San Mateo County’s assessor, Mark Church, announced that a staggering 58 million square feet of future development is in the county pipeline right now, the rough equivalent of about 1,300 average-sized Safeway stores. Mull those figures for a moment.

One of the great ironies of the present situation here is that many of the same authorities who green-light big development efforts are the same fine folks who fret and fume about traffic gridlock and a lack of housing in the county.

In other words, they give the OK to commercial and other enterprises which generate traffic and then they complain about the traffic _ and a lack of available dwellings to house employees of those new outfits locally. The policy-makers have created their own emergency.

 

John goes on to wax nostalgic and a bit angry about what all of this is doing to the Peninsula of old "it was relatively quiet, safe, uncluttered, attractive and intimate."  And after a wet winter, the memories of the five dry ones just vaporize from people's heads.  In speaking with a B'game city council member this week, when asked what I would like to see happen here I said, "stop all major new development, digest what we have already approved, and fix the infrastructure and school capacity before resuming.  If we did that in B'game we would have a chance to be different than the mess that is being created around us."  I'm not holding my breath though.

High Cost Rail - Part 138 Transbay White Elephant

You might think the Transbay Transit Center in downtown SF is a long way from B'game and its problems are not our problems, but think again.  The Chronicle's front page piece peels this smelly onion nicely

But the suave architecture masks formidable problems. The budget for the huge complex has climbed from $1.6 billion to $2.259 billion. The situation became so dire that San Francisco stepped in last year to bail out the project, which is being built by the regional Transbay Joint Powers Authority.  The subterranean shell is designed to hold the concourse and platform for commuter trains from the Peninsula and high-speed rail service from Los Angeles. The problem is, it won’t be completed until train tracks that now stop in Mission Bay are extended more than a mile north. And there’s no certainty that all-important second phase will ever come to pass.

By the end of 2015, the budget estimate for the first phase had ballooned to $2.1 billion. Nearly all contingency funds were depleted, and all money earmarked for the second phase was used up as well.  The most optimistic scenario has trains arriving underground in 2027, and $4 billion is the rough estimate solely for the rail extension from Mission Bay, for a total of more than $6 billion.

And here is the real clueless part

As for the $500 million or so in overruns between 2012 and 2015, most of that will be covered by the money that had been earmarked for the rail extension. Taxpayers won’t be asked to cover the extra costs.

So while the MTC pushes a $3 bridge toll increase that continues with automatic COLA increases and revisits the approved underground train route (thereby adding more time and cost), we learn that

Yet even in the worst-case scenario, where the rail extension remains stalled, the transit center’s impact on central San Francisco already has been profound.  You see it in the office and residential towers that have sprouted on nearby blocks. In the workers that crowd the sidewalks at lunch and fill the atmospheric bars after 5 p.m.  Four of those towers, two built and two planned, include bridges to the rooftop space.

So we end up with a really nice $4 billion stretch of rooftop restaurants and bars for downtown office workers.  At least there will be 60 species of trees on the rooftop to sit under and ponder your tax returns.  In the meantime, meaning most of the rest of our lives, plan on getting off Caltrain at Fourth and Townsend.  If one building and a mile of track balloons past the cost estimates, guess how much High Cost Rail will eventually suck up.

Bye Bye Daily Post?

The blue boxes of the Daily Post are still sprinkled about B'game, but actually finding a copy of the paper in any of them has become impossible.  Several avid Post readers have been wondering what's going on.  Has the Post abandoned the northern edge of it circulation area?  It sure seems like it and I believe it would be a terrible loss for B'game.  I like the point of view that the Post brings and keeping an eye on Palo Alto as a harbinger of things to come for tiny (in comparison) B'game is a worthwhile exercise.  I hear the City Council candidates have not received any interview requests yet and that means no endorsements later on leaving the Daily Journal as the only other local watchdog (besides the Voice :-)  Here's hoping the Post returns soon.

Distracted .....Walking

I'm certainly no "nanny state" guy, but every once in awhile a pol hits the right note at the right time.  The Merc is highlighting one such effort

San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa says he believes banning cellphones in crosswalks will save lives, and on Tuesday, his fellow supervisors joined him in passing a resolution that asks state lawmakers to pass the requisite legislation.

“Everyone loves their smartphones but let’s be honest — they can be downright dangerous,” Canepa said. “The state rightly banned texting and driving and now it’s time to protect pedestrians.”

One slight correction or addition to the Supe's statement.  It's not just protecting pedestrians, but also protecting drivers.  I don't have numbers but I will bet there are a notable number of unusual driving maneuvers caused by distracted pedestrians sauntering across streets.

B'way: Cleanliness is Part of the Picture

Broadway in B'game is viewed by some as the poor sibling to the Avenue.  My Bemoaning B'way post goes into some of the issues and commenters added on their perspectives mostly reinforcing the image.  As I said then, I kind of like B'way in the same sort of way that I like 25th Ave in San Mateo--it's more local and real.  The person with the closest view of the status of B'way is Gerald Weisl of Weimax who has provided me with this summary of recent clean-up efforts:

Having been spending much of its time tending to Burlingame Avenue, Burlingame's Public Works Department has responded to a hue & cry from both residents and merchants on Broadway.

The City sent a staffer in early August to spray the sidewalks with a high-pressure washing device and as one merchant described the results "It was more like the fellow was irrigating the concrete, not actually washing the sidewalks."  Three Broadway merchants, Weimax, Sutterfields and Preston's then hired a private company to clean the sidewalks in front of their stores.  They invited the Public Works leaders to come have a look.  A bit embarrassed that they didn't do the same quality of work, more Public Works staffers were dispatched to Broadway.

One crew splattered all the sidewalk dirt onto the freshly-painted Japanese restaurant facade at Broadway and Laguna, so a second crew was sent to actually clean up that mess.  A Public Works Supervisor reportedly told the merchants they might be interested in asking private contractors to bid on this sort of work (despite having full-time employees and high-pressure washing machinery).  Another Public Works manager reportedly said "We're not making excuses..." and " We unfortunately are required to focus more on  “quantity”,  as opposed to the quality of the cleaning."

As of this writing, the sidewalks are in considerably cleaner condition, but it only takes a few people to spill ice cream and soda onto the sidewalk, along with people depositing chewing gum.

We have the "ribbon-cutting" of the new B'way interchange on Thursday morning which brought out more Caltrans trucks than I have ever seen in one place on Saturday night around 10pm as they get ready.  I'm hoping for lane clarity and better flow as they "finish".  I would also suggest it might be time to ban 18-wheelers from B'way.  As one council member noted when I suggested it, there are now good alternatives to get around B'way.  So the time is ripe.  Let's hope the combination of traffic improvements, better cleaning and the Planning Commission's emphasis on good retail uses helps B'way stay vibrant--and local.   Here's the crew cleaning up

Local Gem: PEZ Museum

The San Francisco Chronicle made a rare foray down to lil ole B'game to visit our friend Gary Doss and his PEZ Museum and wrote up a lovely review of the local gem

“I’m good, thanks,” said Doss, when asked by a museum visitor if he would like a raspberry-flavored Pez candy to chew over while he pondered exactly what he had gotten himself into 24 years ago when he opened the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia at 214 California Drive, a few blocks from the Caltrain station.

Inside the museum are 1,100 dispensers — at least one of every model made by the Austrian candy company since it began cranking them out in 1950.  The museum is one of those places that, if it cost more than $3 to go in, nobody would. A magazine named it one of America’s top 50 roadside attractions, along with the beer-can house of Texas, the shoe tree of Nevada and similar places that most parents have made a habit of driving past on road trips without stopping.

Fortunately, three bucks buys not only an admission ticket but a personal guided tour from Doss, a former computer salesman and metal worker who got hooked on Pez a quarter century ago at an antique show. He tossed the computers from the Burlingame storefront to make room for the Pez dispensers and has never looked back, even when — as on Thursday morning — only three people showed up.

Way to go, Gary.  As the giant new building rises across the street, let's hope over sized, glass-faced beasts don't consume everything quirky and quaint in town. 

Tom Jr Reaching Adolescence

The replacement eucalyptus tree in front of the Easton Addition library is growing in slowly.  We last checked in on him five years ago here.  He is fondly referred to as Tommy Jr. by friends of his dad who was known far and wide as Tom the Tree and met his demise about ten years ago.  Here is his slender profile today.