The Burlingame Voice

Bgame on the Ave: Tight squeeze

The 2023 rendition of Burlingame on the Avenue appeared to be quite a success.  I went for part of both days and it was crowded--especially around the main stage.  It wasn't crowded there because of all the people, but rather because of the decision to turn the stage 90 degrees from its usual orientation.  Plenty of people noted that left only about 10-12 yards of space between the front of the stage and the construction fence for the Post Office project.  It only fit a couple of chairs, one umbrella and the cross traffic to the food trucks cut right through the dance floor.  Several musicians noted how cramped it all felt playing to the crane.

Both days were hot and seemed humid for B'game.  Perhaps some of the Hurricane Hilary moisture found its way here.  The "Bayshore Stage" on Primrose next to the Gourmet Food Alley would have been a much better location for the Main Stage---it had shade from the buildings, more room for seating and dancing and less cross-traffic.  Let's hope the Post Office project is far enough along next year that the "community space" can handle the main stage.

Here's the closers, Smokin' Slice of Mojo, bringing it home on Sunday evening.

The Voice: It was 20 years ago today......

Another year has flown by here at the Burlingame Voice blog.  That makes twenty years on-line after we transitioned from the printed, hand-delivered editions you can see on the table in the photo.  Thanks to Mark "at the Mic" Lucchesi's podcast about the Voice highlighted here, if you want to invest the time, you can hear all about the history and perspective that has evolved over the twenty years.  Here's the YouTube entry.

Anniversaries are a chance to reflect.  Our regular readers and commenters make the cathartic exercise of posting regularly worthwhile.  I get a charge out of running into someone I don't know, introducing myself and having them say, "Oh, I read the Voice".  The reaction isn't always the way the song goes:

They've been going in and out of style
But they're guaranteed to raise a smile

But that's OK too.  As we noted in the podcast, even Russ and I don't always agree on every local issue.  District city council elections come right to mind.  In any case,

It's wonderful to be here
It's certainly a thrill
You're such a lovely audience
We'd like to take you home with us
We'd love to take you home

Here is a photo of the podcast session and one of my newest license plate.  If you see me out and about, give a honk or a wave!

Remembering a community leader: Suzanne Tateosian

Family and friends of a local leader in disaster preparedness joined together on Saturday in the Fragrance Garden at the far northeast corner of Washington Park for a memorial service.  Suzanne Tateosian passed away suddenly and unexpectedly more than a year ago.  As a key member of the Burlingame Neighborhood Network and proprietor of Earth Shakes, Suzanne was a forward-looking can-do person.  I met Suzanne years ago when I went looking for my 50-gallon emergency water drum and an assortment of other sensible things to have ready.

BNN board member, Anne Hinckle, led off the memorial comments followed by board member David Harris.  New city councilmember Peter Stevenson concluded the remarks.  Our local woodcarver, James Delaney, recently restored the Fairy House that is tucked away in the Fragrance Garden and now bears a plaque to Suzanne.  You can see the Fairy House in the background behind Anne.  Stop by and check it and its new plaque out as well as the other carvings in the Park.

P.S.  I inadvertently omitted board member Rik Kasuga as a speaker at the event.  He had a number of insights about how Suzanne was a glass-half-full person.  Apologies.

Podcast: Hear About the Voice in Our Own Words

This is one of the most exciting posts in the history of the Burlingame Voice because it is about the history of the Voice.  Man-about-town and now podcaster-about-town, Mark Lucchesi, who we wrote about two years ago when he "retired" from Mollie Stone's, has trained his microphone on Russ and me.  You can listen to a number of "Mark at the Mic" podcasts that he has gone for the Burlingame Historical Society by searching that moniker on YouTube.

Russ and I were happy to be asked and had a blast talking about the Voice past and present for about 45 minutes.  The direct link to our podcast is HERE.  You will hear about how we started, who was involved early on, what each of us thinks about some local issues (hint:  we don't always agree and that is half the fun).  I describe some of the "Principles of the Voice" but I didn't get to all of them during our conversation, so here's the list as it sits currently:

• Respect the Law of Unintended Consequences
• There are Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (popularized by Mark Twain, maybe Benjamin Disraeli)
•               Corollary:  A numerator without the denominator is useless
• There is no Free Lunch, somebody is paying.
• Always do cost/benefit assessments
• Does it pass the “Shoe on the other foot” test?
• People get interested when the pothole is in front of their house.
• A cat seldom changes its stripes.
•               Corollary: “When someone shows you who they are believe them” Maya Angelou

The session was also video recorded, so you may get to see our mugs in the future if and when that version is posted to YouTube.  In the meantime, enjoy the podcast. 

Jazzman passes: A terrible loss for B'game

This is a very difficult post for me to write but acknowledging the passing of one of the coolest guys in B'game is necessary.  I first met Andrew Speight eighteen months ago and wrote about him here.  His vision for local jazz of the highest order continued to blossom as I noted here.  He was the band leader for the regular mid-week gigs at the Broadway Grill and I last saw him there on Wednesday--the day before he died.  You can get more of a sense of the man from this NBC Bay Area report.  Andrew was a mainstay of the opening weekend at the new Keys Jazz Bistro in North Beach, as noted by his friend Simon Rowe in the NBC piece, and I told him so between sets that night.

My relationship with Andrew evolved from new acquaintance to being good buddies over the last eighteen months.  I was a regular at his House of Bop club on Capuchino Ave. and he was a regular at my place for drinks, music and planning about bringing more jazz to B'game.  Regardless of how obscure of a jazz record that was playing when he walked in, he would pick out the artists by name and expound on their playing and their personalities.  After he did that with a particularly unusual album I was playing, I expressed amazement at the skill and he said, "it's not hard when you have played with the guy yourself".  I often felt like I was sitting in his SF State class instead of my side yard.

The loss is hard to grasp when you understand what we had planned for B'game.  His first album since the 1980's was recorded at his house last year.  It's mixed, mastered and in the queue to be pressed with the working title "Live in Burlingame".  The LP would help promote a Burlingame Jazz Festival that he hoped to arrange the weekend before or after the Monterey Jazz Festival when a number of his artist friends would be passing through the Bay Area and would be available for gigs.  The plan was to have two or three venues to allow for the local kids to get some stage time.  Andrew was an educator to the end.  We lost a gem of Burlingame and all that could have been.  Here he is at Keys Jazz Bistro on November 12.  RIP.

Update:  The local jazz community sent Andrew Speight off in style yesterday (Dec. 18) with a three-hour jam session at Broadway Grill.  About 40 musicians sat in with the closing number featuring a 5 horn front line.

Lions' Citizen of the Year: Historian Extraordinaire

The B'game Lions' Club makes an annual award of Citizen of the Year to someone in our little town who has made a lasting impact.  Past recipients have varied resumes like this and this and my lovely wife.  This year the Lions reached back into the history of B'game to choose our lead historian, Joanne Garrison, for the honor.  Joanne is the author of the seminal history of Bgame book.  If you don't own the book, you should because it is a stunning bit of work by her and photog Mark Hundley.  In addition, Joanne leads or co-leads the historical walking tours around town and the surrounding sites.  All in all, a great choice.  Here she is with Lion president Bunny and former chief Jack Van Etten receiving her plaque.

By the way, a side benefit of attending the ceremony is hearing about the great work the Lions' Club does around town.  As sponsors of what is now the longest running high school basketball tournament on the Peninsula at BHS, they are gearing up for the contest starting on Dec. 6 and finishing on the 8th and 9th.   They are hosting a Toys for Tots Bingo dinner that starts right after the tree-lighting ceremony on Dec. 2nd--doors at 6pm.  You can RSVP at [email protected].   The annual student public speaking contest is in the works as is a blood-drive at the Club Hall in Washington Park.  It seems like blood drives may have been a casualty of Covid so it's good to see one return.  Alas, I asked about the annual car show, also held in Washington Park but that event is still idling in neutral.

B'game better than "Climate best by government test"

If you grew up with oppressive summer heat and humidity like I did, you really appreciate how nice the weather is in B'game.  Yesterday was a perfect example.  It was on the verge of being uncomfortably hot and a bit humid here.  High temperature was 88.  But down in Redwood City, with its motto "Climate best by government test", their temperature topped out at 100 degrees.  Yuck.

And the Chronicle noted "Livermore recorded 102 degrees Tuesday afternoon, according the National Weather Service. Fairfield reached 105 degrees, and Vacaville hit 102 degrees."  Double yuck.  I haven't seen any reports of brownouts yesterday, but we aren't done yet.  When the "Burlingame For All" people reappear, remember why people pay extra to live here and why it's worth it.

It is also time for the annual summer check-up on my ancient pear tree.  The yield goes back and forth year-to-year like last year.   The year before was a low yield too, but we had good harvests the two prior years.  This year I count eight, but they are already big and beautiful, so now we try to outwit the squirrels by letting them ripen, but not too much.

Hey 19: The Voice turns nineteen

Another year has flown by since the Voice became legal.  While things in Burlingame are constantly changing, especially over the last three or four years, things here at Ye Olde Voice stay the same.  Same format sans advertising unlike the hodgepodge of unreadability that characterizes one of the neighboring blogs.  Same categories on the right-hand frame that help you find something from the past.  I think that feature and the backlinks in new posts mark the Voice as different and more useful than other sites.  It's like writing a history book a week at a time.  Commenters have the freedom to use their names or a pen name as old Ben Franklin approved of doing--or just read, which many do.  And there is the same low monthly subscriber fee :-)

If I had to point to any change, it would be the extension of the content a bit further afield than "all B'game all the time".  Much of that extension stems from the impact forces outside town have on us.  It's not just the County, CalTrans, CHSRA, SFO or the state jamming unwelcome laws, rules and regulations down cities' throats including ours.  Our direct neighbors, Millbrae and San Mateo and to a lesser extent Hillsborough, take actions (or fail to take actions) that impact the quality of life in B'game.  But the main focus is and will be right here--from Trousdale Dr. to Peninsula Ave.  We talk about events and impacts in town and out with a strong preference for data, facts, and a healthy respect for the Law of Unintended Consequences.

A regular reader told me about pointing one of his neighbors to the Voice based on their conversation; thinking he would enjoy it.  A few weeks later my friend said his neighbor told him he read "the whole thing for hours and this guy must be living in my head".  I hope to stay welcome in there, neighbor. 

Where have all the good stuff (and people) gone?

It all started with a column by John Horgan that pulled at my heart strings

Steve Squires is preparing to leave town. He has to make a clean break by the end of the month on orders from his landlord. The San Mateo rental property he utilizes east of the Caltrain rail line is scheduled for redevelopment.  Squires, a very sharp and spry 84, has been a quiet commercial fixture at the same location on South Claremont Street in San Mateo since 1977 when Jimmy Carter moved into the White House.

Squires’ chosen profession: Repairing, restoring, rebuilding, trading and selling antique slot machines. It’s a unique specialty.  A visit to his cluttered, cramped, 3,000-square-foot shop last week was instructional. The Squires & Corrie establishment is literally filled floor to ceiling with slot machines, hundreds of thousands of parts and an impressive array of tools and machines. 

That tribute was followed the next week by an SF Chronicle article about the impending demise of Great America now that the property has been sold.  I knew the journalist, Peter Hartlaub, had grown up in B'game and he verified it in the article.   But what really caught my attention was his Dead Pool list of other attractions

My first trips to Great America as a Burlingame resident were in elementary school, not long after it opened in 1976. The trifecta of roller coasters — Willard’s Whizzer, Tidal Wave and Turn of the Century — worked as sort of a progression ladder for conquering my young fears.  Soon, Great America will be just another memory from a very distant time. When you grow up in the place that started a technology revolution, there’s not a lot of square footage left for fun.

Will I be sad to see it go? Sure. Did I expect to take my grandchildren there? Definitely not.

Those of us who grew up on the Peninsula and in the South Bay are used to the disappointment. We lost Marine World Africa U.S.A., Frontier Village, Castle Golf & Games, the Circle Star Theatre and almost every local roller rink and cool old movie theater in the area. How the Winchester Mystery House is still operating is anyone’s guess.

I wasn't alone as a letter writer to the DJ noted

With the announcement that Great America has been sold, and eventually bulldozed, another one bites the dust. Heck Santa’s Village, Frontier Village, and of course Marine World are just memories (albeit fond) for many of us. Malibu Grand Prix, pee-wee golf. The list goes on. Lets not mention the drive in in Burlingame, or South San Francisco or ... The “Block 21” project in San Mateo is moving forward. The 11 current parcels and their tenants have to look elsewhere and relocate. I know Steve from Squires Slot machine is moving to Stockton. I believe he, as well as Las Palomas, Wing Fat, The head shop and Jaybirds, have been local for 40 plus years. So Long.

In today's paper we see all of the residents in Oyster Cove Marina are either already out, or are scrambling to find an affordable place to move. I worry about my grandkids and what sort of fond memories and activities they will have.  And please do not mention our water shortage or inability to increase our cities infrastructures i.e. more police and fire. Perhaps I’m just gloom and doom but maybe someone will build a bowling alley.

Peter C. Carey

San Bruno

In a truly crazy twist of fate, my decade-long search for a vintage slot machine yielded results last Saturday right here in B'game!  It is a 100 year old machine and it needed repair, so I knew I needed to get to Steve Squires ASAP.  Hauling the gorgeous hunk of machinery out to Stockton and then going back to pick it up months later wasn't appealing.  I stopped in, got a 10 minute tutorial on what might be the issue, viewed a half-dozen YouTube videos as an aid to Steve's description, but couldn't be sure.  Another visit brought Steve's offer to "just bring it in, I can show you in a couple minutes".  This from the guy who has to pack up 45 years of stuff and move in a couple weeks!  I was back in a flash and indeed he fixed it in short order after closing time.  The best part of all was I got to watch him do it.  We chatted about the lack of opportunity for kids to learn useful manual skills, the difficulty in finding staff with said skills, and the carving out of small businesses--especially in San Mateo where condos and offices are treated like saviors.

I started thinking of all the other things that are either gone or going.  Remember when there were three antique stores in B'game and several big ones in San Mateo.  Some old timers probably remember more.  Remember when you had choices on where you could get furniture stripped or an appliance repaired?  Independent gas stations and repair shops?  Markets not named Safeway?

Like Mr. Carey I worry about how sterile life with nothing but condos, offices and restaurants will be like here.  How many trips to Stockton will we be making to find real skills (with the tools and parts) like Steve Squires has?  What a gem---he gets an honorary Best of Burlingame designation.

Rudy Benton, RIP

During the locked down, distracted days of the pandemic, the passing of Rudy Benton slipped by--not unnoticed, but not celebrated either.  That time has come and his daughter, Kathryn, notes this on Facebook

For those of you who knew Rudy Benton aka Mr. Benton, aka Mr. B, my dad, we are having a Celebration of Life for him on June 5th in San Pedro Valley Park, Pacifica.  He taught physical education McKinley, Lincoln, Washington, Roosevelt, Hoover, Franklin and many more schools as well. And of course he had his local Burlingame TV show "Moving with Rudy Benton".

The full SF Chronicle obituary is here and notes

"Mr B" has moved on to the big multi-purpose room in heaven from which he will continue to inspire all, no matter their abilities, to keep moving, to never smoke or do drugs, and always put everything back neater than you found it!  (Ed: and the admonition to "go to college")

For 46 years Rudy taught his own unique version of Physical Education. First, for ten years in Brisbane, CA, and then for 36 years in Burlingame where the emphasis would be on non-competitive sports and no activity where a student would have to wait their turn.  Rudy would spend many an evening planning activities for his classes. He was particularly famous for designing obstacle courses themed around movies, geography, holidays, Olympics etc.

RIP Rudy -  March 22,1937 - July 30,2021