The Burlingame Voice

B'game on the Ave. Success

I want to take a moment to acknowledge that the long-running, name-changing "Burlingame on the Avenue" festival continues to show out of towners how great B'game really is.  Sunday was packed and you could feel the energy.  Band stands on both ends of the Avenew and the main one in the middle.  The Kidzone seemed larger than in the past.  Even with the Burlingame Breeze up at mid-day people and their dogs were enjoying themselves immensely.

Kudos to the Chamber of Commerce for a job well done.  My only question/suggestion is why stop at 5pm on Saturday.  I walked over for dinner around 6 pm and it was still light out and there were plenty of people around.  The Ave. is still closed down with the booths, but wouldn't running one more band until 6:30 or so bring some end-of-day focus and energy and a few more dinner bills?

Here's the SF Banjo Band doing that old-timey thang.

Music in the Park Blossoming

Our own Music in the Park series appears to have jumped in popularity probably because the bands are a notch better than in the past.  The new raised stage funded by Facebook as part of its move into B'game doesn't hurt and neither has the spectacular weather.  I missed the show two Sundays ago, but I hear Pride and Joy drew an amazing crowd.  I did make it to the Fog City Swampers this past Sunday and the crowd was sizable.  There is one more show this coming Sunday with All-star Jukebox - I've seen them before and they are really fun.  Here's last Sunday's gig.

Spring Brings Fun to B'game

Spring is here and not just going by the calendar.  Flowers are blooming, hummingbirds are humming and pollen is everywhere.  Spring's arrival also heralds more community activities like music, plays and art which we desperately need.  I'll just mention a few that come to mind over the next two weeks.  We will never garner our own section in the Pink Section but it's a start.  Feel free to add a comment with more that you like.

The 33rd annual Silicon Valley Open Studios event returns to Burlingame on May 4th and 5th.  Details of this free event are here that describe the art studio locations in B'game and surrounding areas.  There are three artists participating plus the full Peninsula Museum of Art studios (with 28 artists) at 1777 California Dr.

St. Catherine's annual play is also a lot of fun and this 23rd iteration promises to deliver the same.  It runs May 10-11 and 17-18 at 7:30 pm with Singin' in the Rain as this year's program.  Staying very local, the Burlingame Historical Society's quarterly meeting will be on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 in the Lane Room.  These are always well attended and interesting especially since this meeting will focus on the old Post Office--it's history and some of it potential future.

A great example of entertainment we need more of comes to the Burlingame Womens Club on May 9th when Il Sapore is sponsoring a night of food, wine and Italian opera with Pasquale Esposito.  Given our lack of clubs with space for a larger production, it's great to see the Womens Club be used to assuage the entertainment drought.  You can get tickets here.  One venue that has been quietly ramping up music is the Vinyl Room.  Aside from the salsa and comedy nights, Friday nights (starting early around 6:30 or 7pm) have become a reliable rock 'n roll gig.  The bands are usually local drawing a local crowd that knows them already.  Here is last week's show by Up and to the Right.

Happy New Year from the Voice

Russ and I wish all you intrepid Voice readers a very happy New Year.  During the course of 2018 we surpassed one million views, approached the 5,000 post milestone (4,790 to be exact) and almost 30,000 comments have been added over the last 15 years.  The themes have stayed consistent and will continue on in 2019 because, well, the issues pretty much stay the same.

For starters, as outgoing mayor Michael Brownrigg said during his speech at the council rotation, we have to guard against "asphyxiating on our success".  I'm as worried about dehydrating from our success as asphyxiating, but that is a topic for another post or two...or three.  At one holiday party this past week, I had a chat with a long time Silicon Valley exec who does not pay much attention to local politics--he's focused on growing his latest start-up.  As I described the prevailing politicians' view that we can build our way out of the "housing crisis" he looked at me like I was joking.  "Don't they understand that the more they build, the more we will build?"  The we is the biotech, information tech and whatever-is-next tech industry.  I told him "no".

You can peruse the right hand frame of this page to see all of the categories of interest.  Locals bemoan the quality of our local restaurants, but I think they are improving...slowly.  And maybe there will be some improvement in SFO runway noise as it garners more attention.  At last night's NYE party, without any prompting from me, five B'gamers just ripped the new roundabout.  And I could not agree more with two of the Daily Journal's Jon Mays New Year's resolutions:

• Perhaps someone can build something that actually improves traffic with the increase in bridge tolls and sales tax for transportation. Perhaps there could be some paving work done on El Camino Real with our gas tax revenue as well.
• If you are a politician advocating for mass transit, take it semi-regularly, not just on occasion.

I'm hoping for more Best of Burlingame postings about locals who add to our quality of life and here's hoping for some developments that move us in that direction--like getting Top Golf going on the bayfront and hearing more live music on B'way and the Avenew.  I'm working on the live music dream myself, so if you know of any venues (mostly restaurants) that might be interesting in hosting, please let me know.  Have a safe and happy 2019.

Welcoming Anson Back to B'game

The unveiling of the new bust of Anson Burlingame in the downtown library Friday night was quite the affair.  More than 100 people attended to hear an excellent recap of Anson's career (delivered by Dr. George Koo and David Chai), some words about his family from family member and recently arrived Burlingame resident Lisa Lillelund along with a few politicians.  Sculptor Zhou Limin spoke about his inspiration for creating the bust and we heard a few words about the Burlingame Foundation from its president, Dr. Walter Christman.  All in all great event and a wonderful way to welcome Anson (and his descendants) back to B'game.  Here are Lisa, Dr. Koo and the unveiled bust with the US and Chinese flags of the period.  The program was also streamed to China for added viewers.

Walking Through B'game History

The Historical Society put on a fun tour through three parts of B'game yesterday.  I only caught the Burlingame Ave. tour given by Joanne Garrison and Jennifer Pfaff which started at the train station and took about 50 people past the new Greetings mural, down the Avenew, past the library and stopped at City Hall.  The crowd got an hour and fifteen minute whirlwind introduction to a number of prominent architects from B'game's formative years including A. Page Brown, Geo Howard, William Weeks, W. H. Toepke & Havens, Col. Norberg, Charles Weeks, and William Whifler.  The combination of some of their life histories while standing in front of some of their designs made for a delightful afternoon on a busy Sunday on the Ave.  Hopefully a few new members signed up as a result.

Cars in the Park Roared

Saturday was another beautiful day to see a lot of gorgeous cars in Washington Park at the annual Lion's Club Cars in the Park show.  The number of local (i.e. B'game) entrants was excellent and the overall quality was superb.  The food choices were a little limited compared to prior years and one wonders why the Off The Grid trucks don't latch onto this as a fun and profitable place to be?  I particularly liked this classic beauty which gets the Voice award for 2018.

Burlingame Voice Blog is 15 Years Old Today!

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.

Some might say that Russ and I have frittered away more than a few hours on the Burlingame Voice, but it's our time to waste if we like and we find it cathartic.  We also get enough positive feedback from sources known (and unknown) that it feels worthwhile.  Ever since the days of the hard copy Voice hand-delivered to porches across town, he and I (along with various compatriots along the way) have provided an informed, vocal and intensely local opinion about events.  The move to on-line back on July 25, 2003 saved the time of designing and delivering the paper version and offered an opportunity to increase the reach and frequency and reduce costs.  The platform costs $14.99 a month which is much cheaper than a therapist!  You can check out those first few posts here.

The categories shown on the right hand frame have expanded over the years to 46 ways to find what you are interested in at the moment or relive some event or controversy of the past.  Try doing that on NextDoor, the newspapers or the City website!

When all is said and done, the Voice blog is a means for us to not suffer the fate Pink Floyd bemoans in Time

Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines

If one is to "scribble lines" they might as well be a full page worth!  Thank you, dear readers and commenters.  Onward to another 15 years!

Mural Mural on the Wall

When your family and friends come to visit B'game you now have a new destination spot to take them downtown.  And it's convenient while you wait for a table a one of the local revolving restaurants.  The Historical Society has been working diligently with the developer of the old Radio Shack building (Dewey Land Corp.) to incorporate a tile mural on Hatch Lane that enlivens a really boring space.  They have succeeded.  Wander down the alley and check out the newest addition to the B'game scene.  Here is a photo of the Historical Society board members at the Friday unveiling event that featured tasty bites from Cheese Please!, fun emcee commentary from my Voice colleague Russ Cohen who loves to give away raffle prizes (nice fedora) and about 75 of the movers and shakers in B'game.  #greetingsfromburlingame is the placeholder in the non-Voice social media, but why bother with that when you can see and discuss it here?

 

Councilwoman Dorothy Cusick Passes

When we look back at the City Councils of years gone by, a few names stick out as having made an impact on our little city.  The Daily Journal noted the passing of Dorothy Cusick this week

Born in 1938, Dorothy grew up in Wisconsin and graduated from Marquette University. She married Dr. Lawrence Cusick and moved to the San Francisco area in early 1960s, where she taught elementary school classes. She raised four boys, became a Realtor, and was elected to the Burlingame City Council. 

“She will always be remembered for her positive attitude, smile, laugh and caring attitude.”

I can add a bit to her City Council legacy since she lived a couple of streets away from us when we first moved to B'game and she was active in the original movements to protect the charm and history of our neighborhood.  Dorothy served on the council in the early '70's and will always be remembered by residents of Burlingame Park as the person who pushed back on changing the zoning to R3 here.

Burlingame Park is the bit of B'game west of El Camino all the way to the south; tucked in between lower Hillsborough and San Mateo Park.  Think St. Pauls down to St. Catherine's and west to H'borough.  Changing it to R3 would have been devastating to the fabric of the neighborhood.  Dorothy stood against the idea and had to stand tough back in the "good ole boys" days.  She also encouraged others to follow in her footsteps and sometimes that is just what one needs to take the leap into public service.