The Burlingame Voice

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.

Hall of Famer: "Stats" Jamieson

We have some real personalities in town one of whom is being honored for his long stint as the announcer for Bgame Panther baseball.  The Daily Journal noted that Tyler Jamieson is being inducted into the Bgame Athletics HoF at next year's LIttle Big Game.  I know Tyler as "Stats" Jamieson--because he keeps the stats as well as doing the announcing.  He's also the memory of the team in many ways having announced for almost 20 years--last Friday was his 500th game at the mic.

Jamieson has shown the Peninsula that a first-class production can go a long way to making high school players feel special. From announcing the starting lineups for both teams, to between-inning music and even providing the walk-up music for Panthers batters at home games, Jamieson makes sure the players get a taste of big-time baseball.

Tony Brunicardi, a 2003 Burlingame graduate and a current assistant baseball coach at Skyline College, remembers Jamieson as simply a part of the team. Brunicardi said the best was when Jamieson handed out his own postseason awards for the baseball team.

“He had the ‘Tyler Jamieson awards.’ He had his own rookie of the year, his own Cy Young award,” Brunicardi said. “I appreciated it as much back then as I do now.”

Having heard the selections for the Tyler Jamieson awards for several years, including one that was given to my son, I can tell you Stats pays close attention and has a sly sense of humor that makes it all so much more fun.  Congrats, Stats!

Art Weekend in B'game

The yellow signs are up around town to highlight that this is the Open Studio weekend for our area (the first weekend of three throughout the Bay Area).  The big site is the Peninsula Museum of Art up on California Dr. where 28 artists are holding court.  There is another B'gamer open at 1108 Palm Dr. and several in San Mateo.  Hillsborough and Millbrae appear to be unrepresented!  Check the listings of addresses and artists here:  https://svos.org/

Honoring a Mentor

The City Council honored local activist and frequent mentor to other activists, Charles Voltz, last Monday night at the council meeting.  The list of Charles' notable contributions in the Proclamation are long and deep--from co-founding the Washington Park Society with Dan Anderson to the Citizens for a Better Burlingame (CBB of Safeway fame--read the 74 posts here) to High-speed Boondoggle and several groups in between.  As an active Rotarian and man-about-town, Charles has epitomized the type of civic engagement that helped Burlingame through some very tough issues--and he will continue to do so because that is the kind of guy he is.  Several people, including several council members, noted that Charles is generous with his time and knowledge when mentoring people.  It was great to see him and his significant other Mary Hunt honored at a council meeting.  You can watch the accolades on the City website here.  And here is Charles with Mayor Michael Brownrigg who put the ceremony together and ran it with panache.

Charles Voltz and Michael Brownrigg