The Burlingame Voice

Recycling Scam Spreads

Two years ago I addressed the idea that our recycling program has problems because of the economics of recycling the various categories of items.  You can see the 2021 market prices here.  90% of what you and I think is being recycled isn't.  It ends up in landfill.  Now it is a bigger concern because another burden has been laid on top of our small and medium-sized businesses by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle).  Any "dealer" which includes, but is not limited to, supermarkets, community markets, gas marts, convenience stores, liquor stores, membership bulk stores and health food stores that are more than a mile from a "convenience zone" now has to accept used bottles and cans or else.  What's the "or else"?  All dealers in an unserved zone must redeem empty beverage containers and provide consumers with California Refund Value (CRV) in-store or pay a $100 per day fee.  That 36 grand a year!

Guess which B'game business district is full of smaller retailers that sell a few bottles of water, soda or beer per day and now get the pleasure of dedicating floor space, staff time and record keeping for refunding the CRV regardless of where people bought the containers?  Yep, good old Broadway.  It's more than a mile from Mollie Stone's or the Millbrae Safeway.  There's a reason why the old pre-Covid standalone recycling center operated in the parking lot near the Millbrae Safeway.  The bottles and cans are used, dirty and attract flies, etc. so it's naturally an outdoors or separate operation.  Sorry.  The state doesn't care.  You have to wonder how long a lot of small businesses can stay afloat.

Biking in B'game: How many lanes are enough?

I'm a biker.  Sorry, I mean I'm a bicyclist.  I love my route past the country club, up Cortez or Cabrillo, through Ray Park, around the hospital, across ECR at Ray, down California on the bike lane, cross at Broadway and over the Rosalie O'Mahony foot/bike bridge (never saw Rosalie on a bike), through Bayside Park, south along Sanchez Lagoon, through Meta/Facebook and Coyote Point to the harbor and back along Bayswater.  That means less than 5% of my ride is on an official bike lane and I'm fine with that.  I choose Bayswater over Peninsula Ave. for obvious reasons, and I'm fine with that too.

The DJ had an article about the impending bike lane extension and loss of a car lane south of B'way 

The California Drive Bicycle Facility Project — once complete this October — will create a continuous bike lane through the city from Murchison Drive to Peninsula Avenue. The current phase will build bicycle lanes on a 0.8-mile portion of California Drive between Broadway and Oak Grove Avenue, continuing the current bike route that links Murchison Drive to Broadway.  However, five of the businesses and property owners on California Drive between Carmelita Avenue and Broadway have said they never received any notification about the project.

One of those businesses is Kerwin Galleries, which specializes in art sales. Gallery employee Mary Matsunaga said they didn’t know about the project. Had the city given the surrounding businesses proper notification, Matsunaga said they would have spoken up earlier.   “Those metered spaces are precious to us. California Drive is a busy street and by eliminating that it could severely impact our business,” Matsunaga said.

Another concerned business owner, Robert Vernazza, has owned Lou’s Auto Repair for 30 years and said California Drive is very rarely used by cyclists, but the parking spaces are always being used.

The reaction around town has been pretty negative.  I don't know Ms. Hallen, but her letter to the DJ rings of authentic understanding of the local flow

I can’t understand why the Burlingame City Council wants to put bike lanes on California Drive from Broadway south to Burlingame Avenue.

On Carolan Avenue maybe 50 yards to the east of California Drive on the other side of the railroad tracks there are excellent bike lands with very little traffic going from Broadway to Oak Grove during most of the day. And further south going from Oak Grove to Burlingame Avenue is a stretch in front of the Burlingame High School where there is hardly any traffic except when school is about to start or just getting out.

If bike lanes were put on California Avenue, I doubt that any bicyclist would want to use them since they would be biking alongside one lane of very heavy traffic where there were once two lanes of medium traffic. It would be a lot more helpful if bike lane signs were put on California Avenue at Broadway, Oak Grove Avenue and Burlingame Avenue saying that excellent bike lanes were just to the east on the other side of the train tracks.

Lois Hallen

Burlingame

I can't improve on that statement of the situation except to add that BART ridership is sinking like a rock and bicyclist access ain't gonna change that.  And the idea that all of this is temporary until we find another quarter of a billion dollars to do the Broadway grade separation--and actually do it--seems unlikely.

B'game Dining: Some of the 100 Best?

What to make of the latest Yelp restaurant scores?  In Yelp's opinion we are rocking the free world with two of the top restaurants in......America?  You might ask "Where are they?"  I did.  SFGate is reporting on them: 

The best restaurants in the Bay Area are in Burlingame, according to Yelp. The business review platform released its 10th annual Top 100 Places to Eat in America list, which featured Burlingame businesses Gigi's Cafe and Curry Hyuga as the only Bay Area restaurants mentioned in the ranking.

Gigi's Cafe, which snagged No. 14 on the list, features a selection of specialty items from the Sriracha hot chicken sandwich to a classic BLT. The 6-year-old shop is known for its generously packed sandwiches but also offers soups and salads for those with a smaller appetite.

Back on Broadway--not the esteemed Avenue-- we learn

Less than 2 miles from Gigi's Cafe is Curry Hyuga, a Japanese curry restaurant that ranked 55th on Yelp’s list.

I wanted to try Curry Hyuga early in its existence, but that was Covid-time and they were only doing take-out on a night when I wanted to dine-in.  Looks like a retry is in order.  Who knew?  B'game is a dining destination. My reviews to follow. 

Election 2022: Coming into Focus

This summer primary election has been very heavy on the signage with tons of it placed illegally by pretty much every candidate.  But thankfully we only have four more days to go until the blurry races come into focus.  Won't be a minute too soon for me.  You can drop your ballot in the box in front of Walgreen's on B'way.  Why the County would spend good money to put these boxes out and then service them regularly when every ballot is mail-in ready and postage-free eludes my logic.

 

More Signage: Pedestrians Beware....

Today's question of the day is multiple choice.  What is the greatest danger to pedestrians walking up California Dr.?

a)  Drivers speeding to beat the long light at Broadway?

b)  Drivers distracted by another new sign that they can't figure out?

c)  Walking head first into a traffic sign because their slalom skills are deficient?

d)  Pedestrians distracted by wondering how the City can afford so many signs?

Parklets are mostly staying; 8 go away

We touched on the parklet initiative that helped many restaurants get thru the tough Covid times.  Parklets are popular and with the arrival of Spring they should see continued high use.  Today is the day restaurants have to start paying for a "cleaning fee" as we noted here in January.  $250 per month.  No April Fooling, today is the day.  So I checked with the city and so far eight establishments have decided to discontinue their parklets.

Back in December we noted staff said "Burlingame is currently home to 43 parklets occupying 88 parking spaces" so eight discontinued is about 20%.  That's not bad--about 80% keeping them even with the new fee.  Now let's hope the fees get put to the use they are intended to provide.  The restaurants are motivated to clean up inside the parklet.  It may even be a health code thing if the code was updated, but walking around town one sees a different story on the outside of the parklets.  Street sweepers cannot get into the nooks and crannies between parklets, curbs and cars so this will have to be a manual job.  Here is one example.

Lighting up Broadway

Our Broadway district is sometimes referred to as the poor stepsister of the Avenue which can refer to the attention it garners from the city, its more affordable rents, or the rather homey general appearance of the retail district.  Those are intertwined.  I happen to spend more time on B'way even though I can easily walk to the Avenue so any investment in B'way is welcome.

The new street lights are almost done.  The poles are in and await the actual lights.  Some of the poles in front of Mike Harvey Acura were placed in the middle of the sidewalk due to the location of underground utilities making for a pedestrian slalom course, but the ones in the core retail blocks look good.  They aren't an exact match to the originals, but close enough for government work; as they say.  Check it out.

Happy President's Day

Some little moments occur when walking about our town just catch me the right way.  Today is Washington's Birthday or President's Day--take your pick.  After a spell of warm, summer-like weather the seasonal winds and chill returned.  Today had mostly blue skies, light winds and an absolutely lovely string of American flags on Broadway.  It was a reminder of the country and town we live in.  I like it and appreciate that the city B'way BID and the Boy Scouts still do this.

Support your favorite $4,500 parklets

The chickens have come home to roost on fees for parklets as we noted last month here.  The council went with a $250 per month cleaning fee in addition to the $1,500 annual rental fee.  Per the Daily Journal article there was some discussion along the lines of what we noted last month about Broadway perhaps being a lower fee than the Avenue, but that did not come to pass.  It was unanimous.  I was in contact with John Kevranian who heads the Broadway Business Improvement District ("the BID") and I asked if I could publish his whole letter to the Council since I believe it explains very well the state of small businesses on B'way and more generally.  Here's the full letter:

Dear Mr. Mayor, Vice Mayor and City Council members,

I have been asked by my Broadway BID members to convey our position in regards to the parklet owners sidewalk cleaning fee. We on Broadway are Not in support of the recommended city staff report on sidewalk cleaning fee of $250 per month.

Some of you may perceive and have the impression that our restaurants are doing very well. Well, the bottom line is, they are not doing the business they had pre-Covid. The staffing shortages, increased cost of products, and supply chain issues have taken a toll to their bottom-line profit. Also, I would like to remind all of you that the majority of the business landlords did not discount rent the past 22 months during the pandemic.

This year, the increase in minimum wage, sewer rate increases, extra cost of composting, new food-to-go container mandates in March 2022 and other cost increases in the food industry will take a chunk of profit away from our restaurants. Also, not to mention Covid issues and less indoor dining.

The cleaning fee of $250 has to come from somewhere such as reducing the hours of workers or increasing prices on customers. The cost of chicken has tripled and the cost of beef and other products have skyrocketed. How much can you increase on a customer? 

Over the past 2 years, I have convinced my Broadway BID board of directors to waive our assessments (2 years' worth $54,000) to help save our businesses. I approached San Mateo County Supervisor Dave Pine to have the county waive the Environmental Health Department fees county wide for 1 year totaling $5.8 million, and I was successful with my request. I have done everything possible to save these merchants expenses, so they can survive during the pandemic and after. 

Businesses who have Parklets and outside seating are being targeted with federal lawsuits for ADA noncompliance. So far, I have 3 Broadway BID members who have received the lawsuit. The plaintiff's attorney will not settle for less than $10.000 and also the cost to remediate the violation.

I respectfully ask the entire council Not to adopt this program.

Best Regards,

John Kevranian

President

Broadway Burlingame Business Improvement District

John also researched the Covid relief funding that the City has received and reports that it was $371,871 from the CARES Act and is estimated to be $5,814,178 from the American Rescue Plan allocation.  As I noted in the comments to the December post, my surveying of restauranteurs about the additional fees has yielded split views.  Some will pay thinking they have little choice and others will give up the parklet.  John asked that I also publish the joint email address for the Council in case you want to weigh in even after the vote.  It is [email protected]

Planning for a Rollicking Rollins Rd.

I’m very excited by the impending housing growth in North Burlingame that will end up bringing “thousands of new homes” to the Rollins Rd. industrial section of town.  The amount of planning that went into this decision by state and county officials, the City Council, the Planning Commission and city staff is impressive.  Here are the details:

Water:   I know the decision makers have a grasp on our dire water situation because they said so back in May  calling it “alarming”.  They also know the SFPUC cannot be trusted to keep the Peninsula’s water interests front-of-mind regardless of whatever “contract” we have with them, so the negotiations with the state to gain access to Bayfront land for our new desalinization plant (instead of a park) are to be complemented.  Desalinized drinking water is about ten times as expensive as water agencies buy now due to the energy costs.  Then there is the cost of getting rid of the brine, but the free land access will help the economics.  The new water tank on Rollins will ensure reliable water for the new neighborhood.

Outflow:  In the spirit of “what goes in, must come out”, the city study on sewage treatment capacity at the Bayfront plant will probably find a need for additional capacity, but we can be sure that raising the sewer rates to pay for it will be easy as we just saw this year.  Burlingame is a welcoming community, so higher rates will be fine with the public.

Power:  The decision makers’ extensive negotiations with PG&E to get it to strengthen the Burlingame grid are to be complemented.  Not only will the grid improvements supply the new desalinization plant’s load, but it will also ensure grid stability for the rest of the city.  Generous state and federal funding for new solar panels on the new construction and some existing Rollins Rd. buildings will help; as will a brand new grid-based battery facility.  Whoever got that big grant should get a promotion.  The natural gas pipes should be fine since there won’t be any natural gas allowed.

Schools:  Given the thousands of new homes coming, it was prescient of the city council to snap up a large parcel on Rollins Rd. and sign a long-term, low-cost lease with the Burlingame School District.  This will enable BSD to build a new school serving North Burlingame Eastside students.  The parcel may be large enough to also build a BIS Annex to cut down on car traffic to BIS.  I expect that the next school bond measure to pay for it all will pass easily as Burlingame is a welcoming community.

Traffic:  As we consider the extensive traffic study conducted as part of the General Plan update, it is gratifying to see that the Broadway grade separation project is now fully funded and we are ready to start The Big B'game Dig in 2022.  As today's SF Comicle notes:

The intersection of Caltrain and Broadway in Burlingame has the ignominious distinction of being the street-level train crossing most in need of fixing in the state, based on a calculation that factors in number of accidents, disruptions to local traffic and other overall safety concerns.  The busy crossing serves demand from trains, vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists, a hectic mix that has resulted in 11 car-train collisions in the past five years, a number of near misses and some fatal accidents. It has also caused considerable traffic backups: The crossing gate is currently down about an hour per day, and the city estimates that will rise to nearly three hours per day by 2040.

The project should go fast as most of them do; and be completed in time to help ease the load on Millbrae Ave. and Rollins Rd. for the new North Burlingame residents.  Luckily, the city’s negotiations with Caltrain were also successful in getting the Broadway station to reopen.  That will make a big difference for local traffic through the B'way intersection over the next 10 years.

Of course, Rollins Rd. isn't the only part of town with strong growth so all of these impending improvements will benefit the whole town.  That's why Burlingame is a welcoming community.

I admit I was initially skeptical about a huge new residential section at the north end of town.  It seemed like many of the growing pains would be intractable problems, but with a lot of diligent work everything appears to be on track.  Many people are to be complemented.