The Burlingame Voice

Changes to Lyon-Hoag

We've been following the oncoming future of the Lyon-Hoag neighborhood for quite some time including here and here.  This might be the section of town undergoing the most change--at least until the up-zoning in the North end happens.  Regardless of how long the changes have been in the making, it's still a shock to many.  I needed a tow recently and the tow truck driver who has been doing that job for almost 30 years couldn't believe that Hower Auto had closed and that the Datsunville building had been sold and was likely closing.  At least Washington School is getting some new permanent classrooms as the population of kids is likely to jump once again with all of the development coming.

And don't expect the pressure to subside.  Beyond Facebook and the crazy CASA Compact is another wave of price pressure from the next wave of Bay Area IPOs.  The Wall Street Journal notes

Friday’s strong public-market debut of ride-hailing company Lyft Inc., now valued at roughly $30 billion, is expected to kick off a rush of massive IPOs that include competitor Uber and digital-imaging company Pinterest, supplying the Bay Area with possibly thousands of new millionaires.  What sets this IPO season apart from previous offerings is the sheer volume of workers expected to benefit from the bonanza and its impact on the Bay Area, already strained by a growing class divide fueled by the years-long tech boom.

One early Uber employee, who is currently living in a rental apartment with their spouse and sold about half of their shares during an internal sale, said they had been eyeing single-family homes in the city. But that even with a budget of $4 million to $5 million, they didn’t feel they could manage carrying costs and private school for their future children. They are now looking at homes in San Francisco’s suburbs farther south.

The eternal question is whether B'game and our neighboring towns will end up as an expanse of offices, housing and restaurants and nail salons with little in the way of small services like independent auto repair, mom and pop retail, entertainment venues or anything unique from any other suburbia?  Plenty of B'gamers fear the worst about that homogenization and the traffic with the most common question today being "If you decide to go, where would you go?" not generating a satisfactory answer very often.  Here's the Washington addition and the last view of Hower.

Spring Treehugger post: Superbloom

You may have read about the California Superbloom that is happening in SoCal around Lake Elsinore and drawing huge crowds.  Well no need to go that far, we have our own little superbloom right here in H'borough up by 280.  I snapped these just before the rains returned this afternoon.  There are some good trees blossoming, but this is the Spring tree hugger post for 2019.  Enjoy!

Sweating in B'game

The prevailing wisdom is that retail is struggling on the Avenew, on Broadway and elsewhere in town.  Examples include the demise of Books, Inc. and Anthropologie--not exactly Mom and Pop operations that still couldn't cut it here.  But exercise is a booming business in retail areas.  The Comicle touched on this in January as people were thinking about New Year's resolutions and I'm addressing it as bathing suit season approaches.  The Comicle noted

A city retail study in February found that traditional retail growth has slowed but fitness providers and restaurants are still eager to expand. Across the Bay Area, 53 fitness leases were signed in the past three years.  Being near, or even in the same building, as housing and office uses is deliberate. “It’s really about convenience and daily need,” said Weinhaus. “People are coming to us day in and day out.”  Gyms and fitness centers can thrive in upper floors and basements, where traditional retailers might struggle, said Helen Bulwik, a veteran retail consultant and senior partner at the Newport Board Group.  “You can kind of stick a gym anywhere. It’s kind of like Starbucks.”  “We haven’t really been able to find a new location in the city in a long time,” said Frank Napolitano, president of 24 Hour Fitness. “Dense downtown cores tend to have the boutique-type operators. They don’t need as much space.”

Here in B'game we have an ever expanding menu of choices from old school full-service gyms like Primetime on Rollins Rd. or Being Yoga in the B'game Plaza to specialized set-up like Pilates ProWorks on B'way to the very one-on-one approach using a personal trainer such as B-Fit on Park Rd.  I've been a client at B-Fit for two years and can vouch for the one-on-one approach as a great way to get pushed into shape and strength.  In the middle of the spectrum are Basecamp (Dethrone) on California in the old Route 66 building and the newest, Barry's Bootcamp on Howard.  Locals are curious about Barry's after watching a complete renovation of what was just an old Quonset Hut that housed the Bacci Food Center in the 1950's.  I gave Barry's a try and really enjoyed the Red Room where the workout alternates between treadmill and floor/weight/band exercises.  Not so sure about the name in view of the Fifty Shades of Grey reference, but the music and the instructor kept it from being too painful.  The building itself has been completely transformed keeping large skylights and adding showers and a juice bar.  B'gamers have a full range of choices and price points so there really is no excuse for not sweating in Burlingame.  Here's the new Barry's

 

Mission Creep at Caltrain

Wikipedia defines "Mission creep" as "the gradual or incremental expansion of an intervention, project or mission, beyond its original scope, focus or goals, a ratchet effect spawned by initial success. Mission creep is usually considered undesirable due to the dangerous irreversible path, each success breeding evermore ambitious interventions, stopping only when a final, oftentimes catastrophic failure was precipitated."  In other words, stick to the purpose that you were set up to deliver on.  Caltrain is creeping towards mission creep as shown here from the Daily Journal piece

Caltrain officials want to build housing, retail and offices on the agency’s underused property, though plans for transit-oriented development will have to be balanced with the future needs of the railroad.  “I think we’ve got tremendous potential to develop this corridor land for not only housing, but commercial developments along the way,” said Board Member Ron Collins, the San Carlos vice mayor.

Apparently Collins wants to mess up the rest of the Peninsula the way they have messed up San Carlos.

Collins said he wants affordable housing to be part of the plans and Board Member Charles Stone, a Belmont councilman, agreed emphatically.  “I want this policy to prioritize affordability,” Stone said. “We’re a transit agency, we want to do projects certainly that don’t interfere with ridership and enhance ridership and we want to do projects that don’t hurt us financially and improve our finances if possible, but at the end of the day what I’m most concerned about is we play a part in the affordability crisis where we can.”

Voila, mission creep.  How about you just run the railroad and prep for electrification, increased schedules, improve service including "unmet demand", and work on the last mile problem that inhibits ridership.  Could you just do that?

SB50: Mi CASA no es tu CASA

Senate Bill 50 is the latest in a long line of bad ideas put forth by myopic politicians who cannot stand that some communities have different priorities than others.  That myopia is compounded by feelings of envy over perceived "inequality" and the self-righteous do-gooder, YIMBY mentality.  It's further compounded by politicians who have no qualms about reaching for Other People's Money (OPM).  Current case in point is Assemblyman David Chiu and his bill AB1487 that would create yet another regional agency to search for OPM to fund affordable housing.  As the SF Chronicle piece about the bill notes:

But the notion of a new agency and more taxes infuriates some city leaders who say the government is running roughshod over local control.  Residents often object to new development, saying it mars the look and feel of their communities.  The region is tightly interconnected, Chiu said, so a city council obstructing development in Burlingame puts pressure on Oakland and San Francisco. And, ultimately, the effects ripple, creating a severe economic split between homeowners and renters, and older and younger generations.

The finger-pointing at Burlingame might be because of Mayor Colson recent piece on local actions and the importance of local control which was much better thought out that anything Chiu has ever proposed.  You won't see the Burlingame reference in the on-line piece, but it was right there in the March 8 print edition.  Perhaps some editor thought better of stirring up this 'burb too much?  Here are some points from Donna Colson's Daily Journal piece:

Last month the Metropolitan Transit Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments presented the CASA Compact, a 15-year policy package to confront the Bay Area housing shortage. The compact presents a 10-point plan for housing production, preservation and renters’ protections that was developed by a group of mainly non-elected, self-interested housing industry and policy advocates.

San Mateo County communities had no voice in the CASA Compact process. Not a single elected from San Mateo County was included on the leadership team, steering committee or technical committee which is frustrating as many small cities were already taking the initiative to craft viable housing solutions for their communities. Some cities are allowing teacher housing, others are embracing renters protections to limit gentrification, while some, like Burlingame, are updating their general plans to allow for up to 20 percent more growth near transit while protecting the character of existing single-family neighborhoods.

So where is all of this headed.  Going back to the Chronicle article:

It’s still unclear what will happen if cities refuse to build. Right now there is no real mechanism for the state to override local land-use authority. When Newsom proposed withholding transportation dollars from cities that don’t meet their housing targets, he ignited a political flame war.

It comes down to what the build-build-build politicians think they can get away with using OPM and political pressure.  Small minds like Chiu have no problem attributing their failure to manage growth to other communities, but cannot see that they are most of the problem.  Any one who thinks we can build our way out of costly housing without real restraints on commercial development doesn't understand economics or the intrinsic attractiveness of the Bay Area for businesses in our predominant industries of high-tech and biotech.  Build it and they will come, especially if the government is subsidizing the housing cost equation.  Here is the print version calling out B'game.

Cell antennae: 4G, 5G, Gee how many?

An issue that has been simmering in B'game and elsewhere for a long time is the number and placement of additional cell antennae around town.  The migration to 5G is starting to pick-up in the U.S. although we are probably still a couple of years from seeing much in town.  Yet coverage is still spotty in many places and the various providers are looking for ways to fill-in coverage which means more gear on poles or towers.  The Daily Post did a piece a couple weeks ago about a major tower management company, Crown Castle, seeking to add seven nodes in Palo Alto.  The article is instructive on the look of things to come

Crown Castle wanted to place an antenna on each of the small cell node light poles, with the associated mechanical equipment going in a green fake mailbox on the sidewalk nearby.  City planners didn't like the idea of fake mailboxes, which they said would clutter up sidewalks and are susceptible to damage.

The net result was approval to put all of the gear on top of the light pole in a green cylinder and their council upheld that decision 4-3.  The Telecom Act of 1996 and a subsequent FCC ruling really tie municipalities hands on cell growth, but the top-of-pole vs. "fake mailbox" vs. underground vault dispute is likely to continue.  Coming to a light pole near you soon.

Chocolate History in B'game

Monday night a jam-packed Lane Room audience, drawn in by the promise of a chocolate tasting, heard Amy Guittard talk about the history and quality of her family's business.  Amy is a fifth-generation Guittard and current Director of Marketing at the long-time Burlingame business that provides the sweet smells that often waft through our little burg.  Amy started the history lesson with her great-great grandfather Etienne who realized there was opportunity amongst the gold miners for something other than picks, shovels and whiskey.  She then walked the Historical Society membership through the early days in EssEff and the eventual move to B'game in 1955.  As their website notes

Guittard remained on Main Street until selling the property to the city to make room for the Embarcadero Freeway. It was at that time, that Horace A. moved the company to Burlingame, California

The audience got an education in the growing of cocoa around the world and the stringent quality control and product development that is on-going at Guittard.  The public only sees a small portion of the company's output since a lot goes to other consumer brands like See's and to chefs around the world.  I was struck by how similar a rigorous tasting of chocolate is to wine tasting.  Here's Amy with the step-by-step Chocolate 101 lesson