The Burlingame Voice

Housing Manipulation: A Workshop That Worked

Regular Voice reader David Harris also contributes on occasion and has kindly provided this summary of a recent Housing Workshop held by the City.  David writes:

No matter where you stand on the issue of housing, affordable or otherwise, the city’s workshop on February 10 at the Lions Club was a well thought out and well attended effort to learn what residents are thinking and what their concerns are. Rather than a series of speakers addressing the audience, much of the meeting consisted of groups of residents huddled around tables exchanging ideas and sharing responses to questions posed by a facilitator.

“How does the housing climate affect you and the people you care about?” and “What are your hopes for the future of our community?” were a couple of the ice breakers that got conversations started.

Various housing options such as Accessory Dwelling Units (Granny units), multi-family units, live/work units and employee housing were presented, and pros/cons discussed at each table.  Residents were asked what their concerns were about each, and what other ideas they might have to create additional housing.

A few factoids that were shared and are available from the presentation on the city’s web site:

• San Mateo County has created about 79,000 jobs between 2010 and 2016, but only about 4,900 housing units.
• The median price of a home in San Mateo County has doubled and average rent of a two-bedroom apartment has increased 66% between 2011 and 2017.
• 30,000 people live in Burlingame. Nearly 39,000 people work here. Of those who work here, 38% earn less than $40,000 a year.
• Homeowners comprise 47% of the city’s population. Renters comprise 53%.

One can’t help but notice the imbalance between new jobs and new housing that seems to playing out each day as we watch a lot of commercial development (e.g. 300 Airport Blvd, north of Coyote Point) move forward lately and traffic congestion keeps growing.

After the meeting, one official told me that one of the reasons for the meeting’s format is that Burlingame has some big decisions coming up in the years ahead. It’s easy to know what residents are against, she said. But figuring out what they will support is a tougher challenge. Hopefully, this meeting helped provide some useful insights and perspective. Another, planned for April or May, is to focus on prioritizing options.

I appreciate David's recap of this workshop.  I am quite worried that some of the Big Decisions are being made without consideration to the quality of life in B'game.  This Monday night is a prime example of that with city parking Lots N and F on the slate for development of the "Village at Burlingame" affordable housing.  I have been hard pressed to find any current residents who think this is a good idea or that it will make a dent in the "affordability problem" with several thinking it will actually make things worse.  More than once I hear people ask "We can't afford a new, seismically safe Rec Center, but we can build affordable housing?".  Maybe we need a workshop on that trade-off.

H2O - Plenty of Restrictions

It could not be clearer to those who can see-- we Californians will never have enough water.  What is completely muddy to me is why our politicians and leaders don't see that and thus decline to do anything about it EXCEPT add more usage restrictions.  Yesterday's Chronicle notes

Recognizing California’s increasing propensity for parched weather — this winter being no exception — state water officials are planning to resurrect many of the temporary water restrictions that were enacted during the recent five-year dry spell and make them permanent.  “These rules are about a larger suite of actions designed to build resilience to future droughts and climate change,” said Max Gomberg, a senior environmental scientist for the state water board.

Translation:  Get ready for even more draconian restrictions.  Here are the proposed restrictions:

• Watering lawns in a manner that causes runoff
• Using a hose without a shut-off valve to wash a car
• Hosing down driveways and sidewalks with potable water (like any of us have much access to any other kind of water!)
• Using potable water in a fountain or decorative water feature (like I said.....)
• Watering within 48 hours of rain (So you all stay home and manage your sprinkler timers)
• Irrigation of median strips by cities and counties (Nice for a City of Trees...NOT!)
• Laundering of towels and linens at hotels without first asking guests (Waste of time, it happens all the time)
• Residents being punished by homeowner associations, cities or counties for practicing water conservation

And in the meantime, leaders cannot figure out how to restrain over-development even when they know it's the right thing to do for the community even aside from a lack of future water as noted here.   Creating mock affordable housing to squeeze even more people into the Bay Area makes even less sense.

A Time for Leadership

Last Wednesday's Daily Journal covered the proposed office development on the parking lot next to the Avenue train station.

Burlingame officials offered largely positive reviews to plans for a large office building proposed adjacent to the downtown train station, despite concerns the project may worsen the city’s transportation struggles.  The Burlingame Planning Commission unanimously agreed to push forward the proposed redevelopment of a car lot at 250 California Drive into a four-story office building.

The revealing part of the article and the meeting was in the quotes

Before voting in favor of the proposal and making it clear he supported the developer’s interest, (commission chair Peter) Gum shared development criticism he commonly receives from residents.

“What I hear on the street is please stop building and please stop the traffic congestion,” said Gum, according to video of the Monday, Feb. 12, meeting.

Gum acknowledged though the commission is required to consider projects according to the city’s zoning code, which allows for redevelopment of the property, so he voted in favor. He also made his preference for the site clear.

“I would suggest building nothing there, or keep it significantly smaller,” said Gum.  “It overpowers the most important building we have, which is the downtown train station,” said Gum.

So even Planning commissioners who hear the concerns--and there are lots of them--and seem to agree with them, apparently feel powerless to do anything to rein in over-development.  The public is not happy.  Last weekend I got talking to someone I had never met before and who had no idea who I was nor had she ever heard of the Voice.  The first sentence out of her mouth after hearing that I also lived in Burlingame was "Can you believe that building?"  Of course, she was talking about the monster on California Dr. across from this new proposed office building.

It's time for some leadership from the City Council.  If there are no zoning code terms in place to slow things down then it's time to enact them.  I'm not talking about spot re-zoning targeting an individual project--that is clearly illegal.  We need a general change.  It needs to address height, mass, trees (or lack thereof) and water availability.  We're well into drought conditions but no one seems to think that is a problem until restrictions are imposed.  With the Summerhill project now in progress and several more well along, it's time to take a breath, take stock and slow down.  Here is the Carolan Ave. claw as a visual reminder of what is already approved.

A Bit of Music on Our Quiet Avenue

The lack of entertainment on the Avenue continues to plague our otherwise vibrant downtown.  We have no lack of eateries and we seem to be able to attract bakeries even when the newest one (Panotiq) barely lasted three months--Dynora is coming soon.  But without any regular clubs or bars hosting frequent music, we have to get out and support those that offer something for the ears.  I was pleased to hear the semi-regular Thursday night gig at Barracuda with Sam Peoples on keys and Lynne Billig singing.  They were joined by guitarist Michael Sims from L.A. to provide a but of music for our entertainment drought-stricken Avenue.  Lynne told me they would be on the Avenue proper busking under the pergola next month.  In meantime, wouldn't it be great if the City put one-one hundredth of the effort on development to include some entertainment development?

Here's the Thursday night band.

High Cost Rail - Part 140 Audit, Audit...We Don't Need No Stinking Audit

The SF Comicle tried to appear responsible last week by calling for a "clear-eyed audit" of the high-speed rail boondoggle.  The editorial postulates that "The sore points and failures an audit probably will find could produce the right responses to get the idea back on track...Ways to save money, trim costs and get the system rolling more quickly should be explored."  Good luck with that wild goose chase.  San Jose Democrat state Sen. Jim Beall requested the audit along with Fresno's Republican assemblyman and the Comicle thinks this "dual parentage" will ensure a quality audit.  Somehow the Comicle editors feel they can just assert that "A state with 40 million residents can't rely on freeways and airports."  We just never get even an inkling of why not.

A much more clear-eyed observer of train issues, Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. of the Wall Street Journal, gave us some very insightful facts and figure this past week.

Of the 719 people killed in U.S. rail accidents in 2016, two were paying customers and 581 were “trespassers,” individuals killed by a train while violating some barrier or warning sign. Another 117 were “nontrespassers,” or people on foot or in cars who were killed while not in violation of any barrier or warning signal.  If 719 people were killed by airliners every year, Americans would go ape.

And the faster the train, the greater the risk. Take a 2008 federal study promoting a “high-speed” service between Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C. It estimated that the difference between 79 mph and 110 mph would produce three additional deaths per decade (for a total of 51 in the absence of major changes to crossings).

While the Comicle bleats on about how "These benefits (of HSR) will happen only if there's a public and political enthusiasm that the bullet train doesn't have now", Jenkins finishes with

California’s bullet-train project is the tutti case in point. Hundreds of millions have been spent to rearrange places like Fresno in anticipation of a sealed corridor for 220-mph trains. The relentless Ralph Vartabedian of the Los Angeles Times last Sunday described how, up and down the planned route, properties seized by the state have become an arson- and crime-prone “linear ghetto.”

California’s bullet-train controversy is turning into a culture war between Sacramento’s liberal dreamers and the people in its path who increasingly know in their hearts they are being pushed around and inconvenienced for a train that will never run.

Let's hope Jenkins is right about that last bit and that we don't fritter away another 5, 10 or 50 billion dollars before the axe falls.

Going to Pot

I recall our own State Senator Jerry Hill asking a question at one his "Coffee with Jerry" town hall meetings about legalized marijuana.  It was more than five years ago and is one of the rare instances when any politician seemed to really want to gauge the constituency's sentiment.  Here we are many years later with legal pot as a reality in California.  Some commenters have been interested in the topic, but I haven't gone there before since there wasn't much to discuss that was B'game specific.  There still isn't much so far and, in fact, a search of the city website gets only one hit in the job description for a Police Clerk III who is tasked with

Purge marijuana records in the in-house computer as well as in the hard copies of reports/arrests.

There was some prior Council talk about limiting outdoor growing and the number of plants, but that must be buried in some staff report that is not searchable at this level.  What did catch my eye over the weekend in the SF Comicle was this discussion about Oregon-- a state that is three years ahead of us.

Oregon’s top federal prosecutor said Friday the state has a “formidable” problem with marijuana overproduction that winds up on the black market and that he wants to work with state and local leaders and the pot industry to do something about it.

U.S. Attorney Billy Williams also sought to calm fears among pot growers, but said the market has a problem that must be addressed. Everyone needs a “bottom-line answer” on how much excess marijuana is being produced and how much is being smuggled out to other states where it remains illegal, he said.

Here in California, we won't import black market pot for legal reasons, but more likely for tax evasion.  And when we inevitably get to "overproduction" like Oregon, tax evasion will increase to keep end costs to the buyers low.  That will make all of the usual restrictions like zoning harder.  I have to believe we will see a dispensary application pretty soon--maybe a really upscale one on the Avenue?  With the news of trunks of cash being driven around due to banks being unable to legally service the industry, the pot merchants can probably afford the Avenue rents better than tea, burgers, or greeting cards!

Wurlitzer Fountain Returns

There is a small ray of hope that not all of Olde Burlingame will be lost in the rush to overdevelop our downtown and residential neighborhoods.  The Winter edition of the B'game Historical Society newsletter verifies early rumors that the Three Dancing Maidens water fountain that has been "out for repair" will actually return and be placed behind Malouf's.  If you aren't a Historical Society member, you should be.  I won't try to repeat the lengthy history of the fountain that Joanne Garrison wrote for the newsletter, but I will repeat the credits she mentioned.  Fred Shifferle of the Wurlitzer Trust and local realtor Greg Terry and Sam and Gloria Malouf were key to getting this bit of Olde B'game back in one piece.  Here is the photo from the newsletter.