The Burlingame Voice

High-Cost Rail - Part 162 A boring discussion

The insane HSR money pit dig just continues on in the face of fiscal cliffs for local rail, potholes all over the state, unfunded grade separations and more taxes and bonds on the horizon.  This week the last section into LA got its environmental rubber stamp (the last one was two years ago) as noted in the Comicle:

California's bullet train project reached a major milestone: The entire 463-mile route from San Francisco to Los Angeles is now environmentally cleared for construction.  The High-Speed Rail Authority’s board signed off Thursday on a preferred route and environmental clearance for the 38-mile segment that would carry bullet trains from Palmdale to Burbank. It was the project’s last segment between San Francisco and Los Angeles that had yet to be cleared.

If you thought this has any effect on the overall fiscal disaster, there are a number of bridges for sale.  The Comicle reporter, Ricardo Cano, blithely repeats all of the PR missives from the Authority.  Here are a couple of the 

Bullet train service on the Central Valley segment — 171 miles from Bakersfield to Merced — is expected to start between 2030 and 2033, featuring four huge stations.  The project is $7 billion short of completing the Central Valley segment and needs $100 billion to finish the route from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

That will make for a lot of driving up and down I-5 to get to the four huge stations, but no worries--they won't be very busy.  And then

Connecting Merced to San Jose will require tunneling 15 miles of tracks through Pacheco Pass in the Diablo Range. The Palmdale-to-Burbank segment will necessitate boring 30 miles of tunnels that will run along State Route 14 and underneath the community of Acton, Angeles National Forest and the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.

The authority’s Board of Directors spent much of Thursday’s vote debating whether the mountainous segment and its tunnels would be able to withstand a major earthquake. Authority officials said they planned to present more details on the segment’s tunneling work early next year.

"We are fully engaged in planning to make a plan, but don't worry.  In our universe time isn't money and even if it was, we have plenty of it--we just don't know where it is at the moment."  BART is a certifiable mess.  Meanwhile Caltrain, with a mere 49 miles, is insolvent and in need of millions for grade separations, bridge repairs and whatever else we aren't being told about until it's an emergency that requires more taxes for "equity".

Time to reign in E-bikes?

Here is notice of a city study session that is way, way overdue:

On Monday, July 1 at 6pm in Council Chambers, there will be a City Council Study Session regarding micromobility devices (e-bikes, e-scooters, and similar devices). The City Council will discuss applicable State laws and review applicable City ordinances. Please attend to learn more and help inform the City Council's discussion about potential future regulations.

There are kids all over town zipping along at motorcycle speeds with no driving experience or knowledge of traffic laws.  When one of them gets hit you know whose "fault" it will be.

I also wonder if the litter e-bike issue will be addressed.  They are laying around for days all over town, too.

2024 H'borough Concours d'Elegance

Sunday was a brilliant, fog-free, wind-free day up the hill at Crystal Springs Golf Course as the Concours d'Elegance took over the 18th fairway for the 68th rendition of the car show.  That makes it "the longest continually running Concours in the world" and a showplace for some amazing cars and Jeeps.  This year's theme car was the Mazda Miata and one locally owned example won best in its class.  The 2024 winners have not been posted to the website yet but check here later.  Burlingame-owned Frank's Texas BBQ provided the eats and drew a long line of patrons as they usually do whenever they do an event.

I also enjoyed watching kids playing in the sand trap--they found it way more fun than I do.

EssEff: Carl Nolte asking train questions

Columnist Carl Nolte is one of the last remaining vestiges of the SF Chronicle before it transformed into the SF Comicle.  His Sunday column (front section, page 2) is always worth the read and he mixes nostalgia for the lost Bagdad by the Bay with keen observations and, in this week's piece, actual letter grades for the City on a number of aspects.  One snippet caught my attention because it is symptomatic of other screw-ups.  Nolte notes: 

I rode the 30-Stockton bus into Chinatown on the first day of summer, a shopping day. It was packed, standing room only. I rode the subway back. It was nearly empty, plenty of seats. Why did the taxpayers pay $2 billion for a subway when the customers clearly prefer the bus? Good question for the urban planners. It will be on the next test.

Don't expect those urban planners to pass.  The greenwashers keep trying to get people to abandon how they want to travel in favor of how a "planner" wants them to travel.  Look no further than our high-cost rail boondoggle.  Forget $2 billion, think $200 billion and still not "complete" per the promised route.  We'll have electric commercial flights to LA before we have an HSR trip that will take three times as long.  Will Caltrain avoid the fiscal cliff?  I hope so, but it's looking perilous--and expensive for the Bay Area taxpayers.

Millbrae recall election: Sign of things to come?

The La Quinta dogfight in Millbrae described a year ago here that pits the city against the county over tax revenue and homeless housing has given us an unintended view of the future.  The move to district elections at the city level was clearly voter suppression--taking away 80% of any individual's votes for city council and creating tiny little districts supposedly to improve "equity".  Couple the two issues together and we now see that recalling elected officials gets easier.  One hot-button issue can spin up enough people in one (or in this case two) tiny districts easily enough to qualify for a recall election.

I will skip the personalities involved, but the Daily Journal piece also shows the cost of these efforts at municipal self-determination and running special elections:

Millbrae is also embroiled in ongoing litigation against the county for choosing to move forward with the project — which the county intends to fund through still in-flux Project Homekey money, as it has done at several other locations throughout the county.   The lawsuit, which has cost the city $230,000 as of May, City Manager Tom Williams said previously, alleges that Millbrae residents have a right to vote on whether they want the housing project in their community under Article 34 of the state Constitution. 

(Councilmember) Cahalan said she’d wait to see the results of the lawsuit — which the presiding judge said would be returned by June 26 — before commenting further on the project.

And on the cost front:

The special election will cost the city approximately $143,000. The councilmember will be recalled if more than 50% of the votes are in favor. Once they are removed, the positions will be vacant until it is filled by appointment or an election to the unexpired terms.

While that sounds like a lot of money, remember Millbrae would stand to lose $750,000 every year in perpetuity from the lost hotel tax.  One wonders if the Malibu attorney behind the move to tiny little districts had this in mind? 

SFO: Is the airport making Burlingamers fat?

Most of you probably are not up at 1:30 am or 2am, but I am--usually by choice.  The last three nights have had very bad runway backblast noise at that hour.  Between the Asia-Pac passenger and freight flights and US flights deadheading back east for the morning rush, it can get loud.  How loud?  Recall I had the airport put a temporary noise monitor in my yard for a couple weeks back in 2019 and the results were documented here.  30-50 second bursts of 65-68 dB were common.  How do we know that's too loud?  Because a recent academic study described here notes

A new study from researchers at the Boston University School of Public Health and Oregon State University (OSU) found that people who were exposed to aircraft noise levels at 45 decibels or more were more likely to have higher self-reported body mass index (BMI)—an indicator of general obesity, which can lead to cardiometabolic diseases, as well as a range of other health issues. A noise level of 45 decibels (dB) is just above the hushed tones of a library (40 dB) and quieter than a typical conversation at home (50 dB).

The researchers concluded that the highest BMI measures were linked to aircraft noise levels at 55 dB or above. Noise exposure at 45 dB or above was also associated with having higher BMI in middle to late adulthood from early adulthood.

In a 2023 study, Peters found aircraft noise—even as low as 45 db—increased the risk of sleeping less than seven hours a night. She notes that the distance someone could experience 45 dB of aircraft noise could reach out as far as 22 miles from a major airport.

Almost all of B'game is within about 4 miles of the airport with runways 1Left and 1Right pointed right away from us directing the engine run-up noise right at us.  The attempts to get some compensation for home noise improvements (i.e. great windows) and the loss of sleep/enjoyment of our properties went nowhere unless someone owned their home before 1980!  When Jackie Speier was in Congress, she made some attempts to change the law, but those haven't gone anywhere either.

Perhaps soon-to-be County supe Jackie Speier will light a fire under the County to take action against the City and County of SF who own and operate the airport.  It would have a lot more positive health impact than outlawing gas barbeques and stoves.  In the meantime, those extra pounds around our middles may not be entirely our fault--or Salt & Straw's or Pizza My Heart's fault.  "The airport made me do it".  Hat tip, Flip Wilson. 

ECR: The Axe man cometh

I should not be surprised, but I still am regarding how few people realize nine out of every ten Eucalyptus trees on El Camino are on Caltrans' chopping block.  People see the survey team out and about up and down the state highway and wonder "What's that all about?"  When you tell them they go "NO, really?"  To which I say "Really".  It interesting to see where some of the stakes are landing--much further into the sidewalks and private property than you would think.  That may not mean what some think it means, but we shall see when property owner notices start going out.  Here's the theodolite--and yes, I did have to look that word up.

Prop. 47 Shenanigans around the ballot

You know things are getting bad in Sacramento when even the SF Comicle starts calling out the legislature as "shady".  An initiative to reverse Prop. 47, which was approved by our clueless electorate a decade ago to reduce the penalties on drug offenses and theft, is headed for the November ballot.  As we noted, the action on the ballot this Fall is in the initiatives.  The shady bits to stymie the initiative are slowing coming out as even Emily Hoeven at the Comicle has caught on:

Earlier this year, lawmakers unveiled a bipartisan package of bills that would, among other things, create a new crime for serial retail thieves, allow prosecutors to combine certain low-level thefts when charging offenders, permit courts to issue retail theft restraining orders and institute sentencing enhancements for those who steal, resell and destroy especially large amounts of property.  Thus far, the package has been smoothly chugging through the Legislature. 

But Democrats have now cooked up a scheme to kill most of their own bills if voters approve a ballot measure to reform Proposition 47 — the controversial 2014 initiative that reduced penalties for some drug and theft offenses — which formally qualified Tuesday for the November election.

Last week, news leaked that Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire planned to amend the Democratic public safety package to make it effective immediately upon Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature, rather than the customary first day of the new year, and then repeal it if voters approved the Prop 47 reform measure. 

It was a crafty, if cynical, strategy that effectively left ballot measure supporters with a choice: Either they could support the package of bills, which were all but guaranteed to become law in a matter of weeks, or they could take their chances with the ballot measure, which voters might or might not approve and which would require millions of dollars in campaign funding.

Click through to the Comicle piece for all the dirty little moves, the virtue signaling about "mass incarceration", demonizing district attorneys and whatever else our betters in Sac who have the super majority can throw against the wall.  It really is appalling.

History: Two new Washington Park plaques

I'm a bit behind with this post as the unveiling of two new historical plaques in Washington Park was a couple weeks ago.  The plaques were made possible by donations from two BHS Class of '62 members, Bill Walsh and Fred Hawley, and the services of the B'game Historical Society for the content and Park & Rec staff for the installation.  One at the entrance to the high school driveway covers the history of the school.  The other is deep in the park near the rose garden and covers the history of the Gunst mansion that stood on the site.

Mr. Walsh is on the left and Mr. Hawley is in the middle flanked by three Historical Society board members--from the left, Joanne Garrison, Jennifer Pfaff and my lovely wife Cathy.  Check out these new historical additions to our town when you are in the park.  Hopefully there are more to come.

Election 2024: The action is in the initiatives

Dan Walters at Calmatters.org has distilled the upcoming election for us noting that the candidate-based voting is a forgone conclusion, but the numerous initiatives is where the action will take place.  I grew up in "Taxachusetts" but my home state has nothing on California.  Squeezing more blood from the middle-class stone is on-going and the question is will this be the election where the backlash arrives?  As Walters writes

The scale of the conflicts is most evident in an initiative, sponsored by the Business Roundtable and anti-tax groups, that would make state and local tax increases markedly more difficult to enact.  It hits Democrats and their allied public employee unions where they live and they have mounted a two-pronged effort to block passage: a lawsuit, now pending in the state Supreme Court, to strike the measure from the ballot, and a competing proposition that would impose a higher and potentially prohibitive vote threshold on the tax measure.

On crime, he notes the ballot will include an "initiative that would modify Proposition 47, a 2014 ballot measure that reduced penalties for many crimes."  I think of it as the "Walgreen's initiative" after hearing multiple instances of people walking out of the store on B'way with a garbage bag full of stuff.  You want shampoo?  Call a clerk to unlock it.  Today's Comicle has a piece about some Safeway taking out the self-check kiosks and it ain't because they want to hire more checkers.  Walters expects the backlash initiative to qualify.  Further down the ballot:

Other high-profile measures either qualified or likely to qualify include a business-sponsored initiative that would repeal the Private Attorneys General Act, a two-decade-old union-sponsored law that makes class action lawsuits against employers relatively easy to file. Others include a third effort to make it easier for local governments to enact rent control, a boost in income taxes on high-income Californians to finance pandemic prevention, and an increase in the state’s minimum wage.

Talk about dumb and dumber.  Let's mess up the rental market, the entry-level job market and kill the Golden Goose all in one fell swoop.  There are five months to go.  We shall see if the voters have had enough or if we get more of the same.  Stay tuned.