The Burlingame Voice

Hating...Well, Just Disliking Propaganda

You have to wonder who comes up with some of the stuff in city government and who especially approves it to go out in the city e-newsletter?  I hate dislike propaganda of all kinds.  Propagandizing about "hate" is just another form of propaganda.  So this week's e-newsletter brings us

As the dangers of hate, racism, and bigotry grow more apparent every day, the need for local action to counter hate is urgent. Our City Council and Burlingame's United Against Hate (UAH) Committee invite you to join us for a week of civic action to stop hate and build inclusion.

Do we have an urgent need to address hate in town?  I must have missed that somehow.  I can only recall a couple--and I mean two--instances of hate in town. Both at BHS in the form of hateful graffiti and both committed by misguided teenagers.  One was dealt with efficiently by the police and I'm not sure where the other one stands.  Is hate "growing more apparent every day in town"?  I doubt it.  It's not a category in the daily crimegraphics report, but maybe it should be.

This seems eerily reminiscent of the police use-of-force hubbub we had that led to a townhall in July.  We learned that we didn't have anything close to a use-of-force problem in town.  Let's be thankful for that.  We were told there was a public outcry about it and we need to DO SOMETHING.  Here's what I did.  I submitted a Public Records Act request for city communications related to several aspects of police use-of-force, training, etc.  So far I have gotten back hundreds, maybe more than a thousand, electronic communications with city officials mostly around the weeks of the townhall.

Here is what I found.  As I worked through the “real” emails from people in Burlingame, I found 65 -- after attempting to account for reply-all’s etc.  Of those, 43 made some attempt to write something original or at least customize something from the e-mail mills that are active around the country.  Even more insightful was that 24 of the 43 showed unequivocal support for our police or concerns about looting!  There were dozens of cut-and-paste emails from Fremont, Berkeley, Santa Rosa and as far away as the East Coast; many suggesting we do what we have already done.

Do 19 residents expressing a general, but uninformed concern about police use-of-force justify all of the staff and police time and effort that went into that string of events?  Maybe, but in the end it was a non-event.  Will the movement against hate be the same or just more propaganda?

Cruising El Camino Real: San Mateo

Although I am a member of the Bay Area Cruise Night Facebook group, I did not realize last night was on the event schedule.  We happened to go to All Spice for dinner (highly recommended) and could hear plenty of muscle cars on ECR as we ate in the back parking lot.  After dinner we joined the parade for one circuit and it was fabulous!  It felt like about 1972.  Bel Airs, El Caminos, GTOs, Falcons, vintage pick-ups and a gorgeous California Special Mustang.  I couldn't get a pic of the Special, but I did capture this sparkly ride.  Could not help but think there were more than a few people out last night who would like to show the Gavinor where their tail pipes are.

The Facebook page sponsor thanked SMPD for being out there and helpful.  They set up shop in front of the Safeway and drew a supportive crowd.  Maybe B'game's stretch of ECR will be next.

The BAAZ is Dead. Long Live Parklets!

The two-month-old experiment I dubbed the Burlingame Avenue Autonomous Zone (the BAAZ) came to a screeching halt Monday night.  I noted a number of reservations on the original post here.  The Daily Journal piece today highlights some of the same issues that I was concerned about as well as a few noted later by people venturing into the BAAZ-- like speeding skateboarders and bikers.

Burlingame’s outdoor dining scene proved too popular for its own good, according to frustrated officials who pulled the plug on a program promoting inappropriate partying during the pandemic.  “It just kind of turned into a festival out there with people not doing what they need to do,” said City Manager Lisa Goldman, in advance of councilmembers voting 4-1 to reopen Burlingame Avenue to traffic.

Furthermore, critics pointed to a recent survey of local businesses which offered mixed perspectives on the success of the closure program, with some merchants claiming it made their lives more difficult.  So rather than provide a forum for unhealthy behavior, Ortiz said he favored a proposal for establishing a network of parklets where restaurants and eateries could set up tables in a more controlled environment.

I'll just file that away in the I Told You So folder.  The piece doesn't mention the Broadway BRAZ but a quick look at Monday's agenda shows the BRAZ was also up for discussion and most likely met the same fate as the BAAZ.  If you are able to access the DJ piece as a subscriber, you will read about some council members suggesting more police enforcement of masks and distance while others think they have more to do than enforce such rules.  I didn't note any discussion of the much ballyhooed "community social worker" idea-- a la Berkeley's idiotic approach to handing out traffic tickets.

Parklets live on as they should have from the beginning.  I saw a couple new ones just sprouting, like Five Guys', and no doubt there will be more now.  Recall the estimate back in July that "the creation of parklets will result in a parking loss of up to approximately 60 to 70 spaces on side streets in the downtown area on both weekdays and weekends."  I'm thinking that will be more like 100-120 now that parklets are the only alternative.  The new parking structure is coming along (the second story is up) so perhaps by the rainy season, we will have more spaces.  Here's hoping our parklets designers have the resources to build nice ones like Truckee.

Here's an update photo.  I have to say, it's a little weird walking by the pedicure stand, but they were full so I guess it's just me.

BPD Use of Force Townhall Questions

Next week the City and the B'game Police Department will be holding a Zoom Townhall meeting on the "use of force" and will be responding to questions from the public.  While it's tempting to question if this topic should be our first priority for BPD community outreach, I decided to go ahead and submit my questions.  Here they are:

• What are BPD’s responsibilities for mutual aid to neighboring cities that “defund” their police when we are fully funding ours?  Have we notified those city councils of the potential for reduced aid?
• If the city allocated 10% more funding to BPD today, how would it utilize the funds?
• What evidence exists to support Councilman Brownrigg’s public assertion that “so many of our neighbors and friends and residents fear the police”? (Daily Journal, June 19, 2020)
• Please describe in detail what the City Council would like to see happen when:

    -A 6’2” 220 lb. male reacts physically to a 5’6” 145 lb. female BPD officer?

    -A driver with fully opaque windows refuses to lower all windows?

• What is the risk of senior, tenured officers taking early retirement or filing for disability due to the demonization of police nationally, in the Bay Area, and in Burlingame?
• How many slots will there be in the training program for new officers in the next three years?
• What are our current capabilities to repel a violent outbreak in Burlingame?  What Police PPE, vehicles, canine support, etc. is fully operational?
• In the event of a natural disaster or violent outbreak, how many hours or days will it take to have at least 80% of the entire police force in town and on duty?
• How many of Burlingame’s 23,000 adult residents have been issued active concealed permits (CCW) today?  What are the requirements for a Burlingame resident to obtain a concealed carry permit today?  Does the city offer training classes to provide the skills required to be granted a concealed carry permit?

The meeting is on July 23 at 6:30 pm and the City is requesting questions by 4 pm the day before at [email protected].  We'll see how many questions can be addressed in the 90 minutes allocated.  If you want to ask the council why they sold the Measure I sales tax as a new BPD funding source for two more uniformed officers if they were unhappy with the force, now would be a good time to do so.  The times they are a'changing especially for those with short memories.

Tweaking The BAAZ, Creating The BRAZ

Tomorrow night the City Council will consider making some changes to the Burlingame Ave Autonomous Zone (the BAAZ).  We're just finishing the third weekend of the BAAZ so Council will be looking to extend it to the end of September and add parklets on the side streets.  Back in May when the original plan surfaced, I had several concerns: impact on non-restaurant businesses, non-BAAZ restaurants, parking, handicap access and the cost.  It appears I was prescient since the proposed tweaks start to address some of these, especially the fairness issue. Non-BAAZ restaurants that want a parklet on Primrose, Park, Lorton, Howard, and Chapin would get permanent ones (meaning seven days a week) since they are too expensive to put in and take out often.  The parklets would be created using heavy duty industrial plastic hydro-barriers -- the ugly orange blocks.  San Mateo went the parklet route but only uses the hydro-barriers on the on-coming traffic side as shown below (upper right).  I hope we do the same.

To further address fairness to our "other" downtown, the one that often feels under appreciated by the City, the BRAZ is under consideration -- the BRoadway Autonomous Zone.  It involves Saturday-Sunday closure of Broadway between Chula Vista and Capuchino -- the three middle blocks; attempting to leave some traffic circulation since, you know, it's a 101 exit.  Anecdotally, the Broadway restaurants took a bit of a beating the last two weekends--akin to the non-BAAZ restaurants.  One non-BAAZer used the word "disaster" when I asked how it went the first weekend.

As to parking, the Staff Report notes

In addition to the previously estimated loss of parking on Burlingame Avenue of approximately 150 to 160 parking spaces when the street is closed on the weekends, the creation of parklets will result in a parking loss of up to approximately 60 to 70 spaces on side streets in the downtown area on both weekdays and weekends.

Approximately 50 to 60 parking spaces would become unavailable on weekends if the City Council approves the temporary weekend closure of Broadway. As with the Burlingame Avenue commercial district, there are nearby parking facilities on either side of Broadway, but parking will become tight on busy weekends.

I might suggest putting a cover over most of the EV charging stations in Lot Y so GV's (gas vehicles) can use them because we know EV usage has been quite low. 

Now the costs:

Staff estimates the cost of setting up and removing the street closure on Broadway to be similar to Burlingame Avenue, which is estimated at approximately $10,000 to $12,000 per month. Additionally, staff estimates the cost of renting and setting up barriers to create parklets is $20,000 to $30,000 per month. Regarding loss of parking revenue, staff estimates the overall loss is approximately $20,000 to $30,000 per month. The overall total fiscal impact of the pilot program is estimated to range from $60,000 to $80,000 per month. The actual figure may vary and will be determined after the completion of the pilot program.

We may have our very own Summer of Love.  Like the original one in '67, it would be fun but comes with a price.

Covid-19 Tracking and Planning

It's time to start a new thread on our tracking of the coronavirus.  You can see the prior post from March 24th and the path of the virus' growth in the County here.  Today's County report at SMChealth.org shows 16 new cases in the County for a total of 767.  67 cases are currently in hospital and 7,295 total tests have been done with a 10% positive ratio.  Recall there are about 769,000 people in the County so the testing rate is still minuscule.

There was a great human interest story in the Daily Journal yesterday about Officer Steve Vega.  I've chatted with the officer on the street before (the last time was in front of the Apple store during the on-going patrol there) and I'm thrilled to hear he is better.  He may be down at Stanford right now donating

After recovering from COVID-19, Burlingame police Officer Steve Vega is hoping the antibodies in his blood can be used to treat others infected with the disease.  Vega, 55, is among the first participants in a new effort by Stanford Blood Center to treat COVID-19 patients while the world waits for a vaccine to be developed.

The 22-year Burlingame officer is set to donate his plasma, the liquid in blood, at Stanford this Thursday and however many times is needed after that.

Also in the news is some data on how the work-at-home trend for self-isolating plays out across the economy.  Having worked full-time from home for more than a decade one article about the trials the newbies are discovering was gratifying to read.  On the data side, the Wall Street Journal has a piece titled "The Lucky Stay-at-home 37%"

A newly released study called “How Many Jobs Can Be Done at Home?” reckons that 37% of all U.S. jobs can plausibly be done at home, meaning that nearly two-thirds cannot. The study’s authors, from the University of Chicago’s Becker-Friedman Institute, add that their 37% estimate is at the “upper bound of what might be feasible.”  Along with other studies, this one also finds that those in jobs that can be done from home “typically earn more.” By their calculations, for example, 37% of jobs that can be done at home account for 46% of all wages.

Those who have stressed the need to get our economy up and running again are sometimes criticized for favoring profits over people. But the Becker-Friedman paper underscores that those lower down on the socio-economic scale are most in need of a re-opening for their livelihoods.

That's an important point that can be missed during the high-anxiety zeitgeist we are in.  Here is the Avenew showing that zeitgeist.

 

B'game Town Hall - COVID-19 local updates

The City Council and City staff ran an hour-long Zoom webinar tonight to update about 175 residents on the status of various actions to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.  I thought it was very well done with kudos to the mayor and especially City Manager Lisa Goldman.  The link to the recording is up on the city website here.

If you don't have an hour, here are a few of my takeaways.  The County website SMChealth.org is "information central" for the most current counts of cases and for the status of shelter-in-place restrictions.  It is usually updated mostly in the morning but the FAQs are continuously updated.  The County is taking a number of steps to prepare for the anticipated uptick in cases.  It has rented a number of B'game hotel rooms for non-hospitalization-needed cases; as well as first responders who may not have the ability to do their regular commutes.  The County is also accepting volunteers' contact info and has about 1,000 volunteers already, but there is not yet a clear direction on what they might do.  The same goes for our favorite local preparedness group BNN and its CERT-trained teams.  More info to follow as recommended actions are decided upon.

The County has set up 211 phone service for those that may not know how or where to look on-line.  I have to imagine that is more of a last resort for more complicated questions.

Similarly, if you see things in town that merit some intervention or seem non-essential--like groups of teens congregating in public or gardeners gardening-- you can call the Non-Emergency BPD phone at 650 777-4100.  Officers will educate them and disperse where necessary and they have a flyer to hand out--so you should not do it yourself if you are not comfortable--and who would be?  Note that housing construction and repair has been deemed an "essential service" by the county, so don't call about contractors.

The County has allocated $3M of Measure K funds to "help out" and is soliciting donations to a 501c3 named SMC Strong--more to follow when details emerge but I'm guessing you have several ideas on who needs support directly.  CallPrimrose is accepting monetary donations, but no food, clothing, etc at this time.

Those are my key findings from the one-hour webcast and I believe we will be seeing more of these.  In the future, we need to incorporate slides (graphics/text) so that items like phone numbers and websites don't have to be repeated verbally--people still don't reliably get them that way.  This is standard stuff in the corporate world and can easily scale to meet municipal communication needs.  All in all, good show.  It's worth you going to view it--you probably have the time ;-(

Coping With Quarantine

I really don't want to add to the concerns that people already have about the Covid-19 virus, the actions we all must take or the longer-term effects on society.  But I do think it would be helpful to local businesses if the word got out on what was open, partially open (e.g. take-out only, curbside delivery sorts of things) and any other tips for coping.  So here is sort of an "open thread".  If you have any helpful tips, please feel free to add them.  I wish Safeway had a webcam upfront so I could check the lines before I walk over.  The shortened hours shown below should help the staff keep up.  Molly Stone's was pacing customers' entry yesterday and I have not been up to the North End yet.

El Camino "Renewal"

You probably got the glossy mailer announcing the El Camino Real Renewal meeting next Tuesday and it just arrived in the e-newsletter as well.  I can't make it, but I did get a chance to sit down with Mayor Emily Beach and our resident tree expert, Jennifer Pfaff, recently to discuss the project at length.  Here is the official announcement:

Caltrans is hosting an open house to discuss the El Camino Real Roadway Renewal Project on Tuesday, January 28, at the Burlingame Recreation Center from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

The project area stretches three miles, between East Santa Inez Avenue and Millbrae Avenue, and encompasses some of the most challenging pavement, vegetation, sidewalk, utility, drainage, and safety issues. This stretch of El Camino Real is also lined with heritage tree rows that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Caltrans will share information about potential improvements to drainage, landscaping, sidewalk safety, ADA compliance, and rehabilitation of pavement. Learn more about the project by visiting www.elcaminorealproject.com.

During my meeting with the mayor we discussed things like the amount of money held in reserve for this major project ($110 million), the downward trend in the replacement rate of the trees (there were 750 in the 1970's and we are down to about 500 now) and the various CalTrans construction standards that may or may not be required for this project.  There are some trade-offs that will have to be made since full-CalTrans specifications can be in conflict with the Blue Gum Euc grove's historic status.  Things like the distance from street corners and poles, the distance between trees and the irrigation plans have to be negotiable.  The types of trees that would replace the Eucs is also on the table.

I'll leave the details to the experts like Jennifer and to those who conduct this first public meeting.  Let's just say it will be a controversial and yet hopefully collegial meeting. 

Local News: East Bay Decline

Let's go a bit afield of our usual turf to examine an interesting piece from the AP.  Commenting on the state of local newspapers in the "tech capital" of the the East Bay, it notes

Gone is the Oakland Tribune, the Contra Costa Times, The Daily Review of Hayward, The Argus of Fremont and the Tri-Valley Herald, among others. All had tens of thousands of readers during their heyday and served communities populous enough to be among the largest cities in many other states.  Ownership changes and consolidations have left the region known as the East Bay with just a single daily newspaper. The East Bay Times, based in Walnut Creek, attempts to cover a region nearly the size of Delaware with a fraction of the staff of the former dailies.

“It is really shocking that the place with the demographics and the business and the universities and the progressiveness, that this is a news desert ... ” said U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, a Democrat who represents a significant part of the East Bay.

Perhaps DeSaulnier should question whether the echo chamber of "progressiveness" across so many papers-- and the AP itself--might not account for a wide swath of the reading public choosing to get its news elsewhere.  As we approach 2020, I'm thankful that our two local papers, the Daily Journal and the Daily Post (when you can get one at the Broadway post office or the market on Oak Grove) are at least somewhat balanced.  The columnists span the spectrum and they use more than just the AP and the New York Times as sources for news pieces.  Here's hoping they stay financially healthy for a long time to come.