The Burlingame Voice

Broadway intersection: From bad to worse?

First in April and then again back in July we broached the question of whether it was wise to grab a lane of car traffic and some parking spaces to accommodate a new bike lane on California Ave. south of Broadway.  The early controversy was about the loss of store front parking for many small merchants on California, but now that concrete has been poured and stripes have been laid, the issue of car traffic safety has burst into the discussion as well.

Last week we had the first accident at the tighter B'way-California intersection when a Samtrans bus turning left/south from B'way to Calfornia clipped a car in the northbound California lane.  At least it was the first accident someone paying attention saw and photographed.  See below for the photos I received that also appear on Nextdoor where the commentary has been, shall we say....less than supportive of the lane changes.

This intersection has had an F grade for years.  Maybe decades.  It's not like the new B'way bridge did anything but bring more traffic to a failing intersection.  Caltrain will be giving the city council a presentation on its electrification project Monday night.  Buried in there is this on grade separation--another long running issue:

• Broadway Avenue grade crossing is heavily congested
• LOS F operations during peak hours
• #1 priority in CPUC grade separation priority list

• City and Caltrain advancing design towards 100% design in 2024
• City continues to seek funding to fully fund project, recently received large TIRCP award

It also asserts "Project Complete- Spring 2029.  There have been statements that once grade separation is complete the lanes will change again, but unless someone changes their mind in City Hall, we will have this configuration for years to come.  The last big project that was completed on time was a 101 upgrade in EssEff or SSF that had a massive contractor bonus for early completion.  We're not likely to be that lucky.

One wonders if the city council really understood what they were voting on.  When I asked one member if this was just striping that could be swapped back easily, they said "yes".  Now we see that the answer is "no" due to the concrete islands that have been added.  Other inquiring minds want to know how police, ambulances and especially fire trucks will proceed on California when some sections have nowhere for cars to pull over?  If they get some response to the question, we will post it here as a public service to help drivers pass this "B'game IQ driving test".  Here's the accident scene that closed southbound California for a half hour.

 

Mills Canyon: Almost ready for affordable housing? ECR?

With the winter storm damage to Mills Canyon being repaired per this DJ article, perhaps it's time to look at that open space's suitability for satisfying some of our RHNA housing requirements.

The winding trails of Mills Canyon in Burlingame took a hit from harsh winter storms with the popular lower route washed out from tree failures, but work is almost done to complete a reroute.

City Arborist Rich Holtz said the city is aiming to have the trail completed and opened sometime in the coming weeks. Damage from the January storms caused a landslide on the lower portion of the Ed Taylor Loop Trail.  In March, the city contracted a company to develop a trail reroute, which costs around $65,000, for about 600 feet of damaged trail.

We already know that claiming the area is a "wildlife sanctuary" like Woodside tried will not work.  The Sacramento nags won't have it, so maybe it's time.  Six or seven stories would seem to fit nicely and give the top floors a bit of a view!

Just Kidding---I just couldn't wait until next April Fool's Day for this.  But what is not funny is the steady incursion of EssEff-level problems into our little burg.  This Tuesday, 9pm photo of a newly erected tent on El Camino at the B'way bus stop is the latest example.  I've heard of vagrants camping out at the Bayfront and along the Caltrain tracks in the trees, but right on ECR?  Maybe it's time to collect TOT.

Retro Cool Ice Cream in B'game

Mercury News reporters Linda Zavoral and Jessica Yadegaran put on some miles (and possibly some pounds) while building a list of the 10 beloved Bay Area ice cream shops, from the classic to the eclectic.  From Orinda and Pleasanton to San Jose to B'game where they noted Preston's celebrated its 75th anniversary last year:

RETRO COOL: Preston’s Candy & Ice Cream, Burlingame

The vintage signs outside and the checkerboard floor inside are reason enough to put Preston’s on any list of beloved ice cream parlors. It’s a look that transports you to yesteryear. New owner Javier Santiago, a career chocolatier, bought the iconic shop recently from longtime owner Irene Preston and vowed to keep making her customers’ nostalgic favorites — honeycomb, peanut brittle, pecan turtles — while making a name for himself with his contemporary chocolate bars under the Javier Confectionery brand.

Santiago is also keeping the ice cream tradition alive. The shop scoops 20 to 30 flavors of Loard’s ice cream ($4.95 for a small cone or cup, $5.95 medium), and he’s making the often-requested Presti Bars ($5.65), ice cream sandwiched between two freshly baked cookies and covered in chocolate. The bars come in several flavors, including vanilla, burgundy cherry and espresso.

The scoop: The top seller is the Mint Chip ice cream, and it’s easy to see why. Preston’s makes the mint chocolate candy, then Loard’s uses that to create this custom flavor for Preston’s.

My first paycheck job was at Friendly's where I was a short order cook, washed dishes, mowed the lawn and, yes, scooped a lot of ice cream.  Black raspberry was my favorite.  I'll have to stop into Preston's and see if they have some!  Kudos to Javier on a nice press hit.

California Drive bike lanes and...or parking?

I'm a bit behind the back wheel on this story about the kerfuffle over an new bike lane on California Drive. just south of Broadway.  I did address it three months ago here.  The good news is there is a regular Voice reader who has really thought about the Unintended Consequences and the law as it stands.  Here is his take on the plan:

Not all parking is the same. As currently designed by the city, this project will remove about 12 spaces – on just that one block alone.  But these are the most productive, highest quality parking spaces there are on California Dr. These are metered parking spaces. Which in addition to providing revenue to the city, also provides turnover for the businesses. These are 2-hr, 1-hr and half-hour parking spaces.  So one space can be used by 10-20 different customers.  They’re being replaced by unrestricted parking (on the east side of California).  So the new spaces will just end up just like the rest of the parking on that side of the street – RV’s, autobody shop storage and cars that don’t move for weeks at a time. In addition to being inaccessible and across the way, they truly will not benefit the impacted businesses.

There is even the outstanding question of the legality of parking on that side of street, according to the City code.  The city council has not acted to rescind the parking meter requirement on the block the City intends to remove (13.40.010).  It also has not acted on adding the parking where the City code says it is unlawful (13.36.010).

Lurking behind all of this is if and when the Broadway grade separation might happen.  We can think back four years to this post and ask are we any closer?  The intersection (really two intersections--California and Carolan) have been graded F and might be the worst in the Bay Area.  While Sacramento figures out how to pour billions into mass transit and will need many tens of billions to get High-Cost Rail just to run between two towns in the Central Valley, poor B'game idles away.

Here's the intersection as it looked yesterday and a nice marked-up aerial view to add details.

Cellblock 6 is almost done

I was driving down Rollins Rd. south of Broadway with a friend who remembers the Velvet Turtle days and the arrival and departure six years later of Fattoria e Mare restaurant after that.  As we approached the new building he said, "It looks like a prison".  And so it does.  I hope they didn't spend to much on architects for Cellblock 6.

This is the view from the bike trail along the channel at Bayside Park.  Doesn't feel like B'game does it.

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?