The Burlingame Voice

Tom Jr Reaching Adolescence

The replacement eucalyptus tree in front of the Easton Addition library is growing in slowly.  We last checked in on him five years ago here.  He is fondly referred to as Tommy Jr. by friends of his dad who was known far and wide as Tom the Tree and met his demise about ten years ago.  Here is his slender profile today.

Historic on Drake

Every once in awhile things do work out well for those of us who care about recognizing and preserving B'game's history, especially its historic homes.  Finally, after a lot of effort by the homeowners, B'game has it first National Historic Registered residence.  The Daily Journal has this piece along with some nice interior photos that were not in the print edition, noting

The only person architect William Whifler intended to impress when he designed the unique and stylish home tucked away at the end of a quiet Burlingame street was his mother.  But through the tireless efforts of his son Graeme Whifler, the family’s property on Drake Avenue received widespread recognition after recently being added to the National Register of Historic Places.

William Whifler, who designed homes across the Peninsula between 1950 and 1970, was honored by the federal agency for his creative approach to the mid-century modern home template featuring expansive windows and ranging, open interiors.  Despite his reluctance to seek attention, William Whifler’s work established a long legacy in his native community, as he designed Burlingame City Hall and co-founded the College of San Mateo’s department of architecture.

Many kudos to Graeme who noted that "his father deserved accolades similar to colleagues of his era such as developer Joseph Eichler, despite never seeking out such attention while working."  My wife, Cathy Baylock, recalls speaking to Graeme's sister about how to go about getting started back in about 2013 while Cathy was advocating for historic preservation as a city councilwoman.

This so gratifying to see and a great addition to Kohl Mansion's status.  I have now added a photo taken from the sidewalk.  My guess is the plaque is the Historic Landmark marker, but didn't want to just walk in to look.  Very serene setting at the end of the street.

 

B'game Plaza Parking

I had high hopes that the update to the parking lot at Burlingame Plaza would include some trees.  It wasn't a big thing back in the '50's (or was it the '40's?) when the plaza was built, but these days trees are admired as a welcome addition in parking lots.  Barring any trees, some shade arbors with or without solar panels would be welcome as well.  But perusing the work in progress, it doesn't appear that we will get any trees that shade cars.  The ends of the aisles might get a tree, but I did not see irrigation lines being laid when I was up there this week.  The longer fenced off area was just for storing equipment.  Missed opportunity?

New Mills Canyon

There has been some good upgrades and maintenance recently in Mills Canyon.  The DJ is reporting the story here and notes

Weeks of work refining the secluded and narrow trail culminated Tuesday, April 19, as workers with the California Conservation Corps cleared brush from the path which spans a little over a mile in the Burlingame hills east of Skyline Boulevard, near Arguello Drive.

The final day of trimming put a finishing touch on the work which began last month that included building new stairs, regrading the trail for storm drainage, adding more steps, reducing erosion threats, widening the trail, implementing new retaining walls and more.

This part was interesting to me also since kids are sometimes in there at night partying

The dirt trail is open daily for free to members of the public to enjoy, along with their leashed dogs. No camping is allowed on the property, which closes at nightfall.

Outside of the recent beautification efforts, Holtz said volunteers are often responsible for clearing non-native species which may grow along the trail, as well as cleaning out the rare occurrence of litter being left behind.

I thought I would take a look at the Crime Map (that you can find here) for the last two weeks and see how it's been going.  It's been quiet in the canyon so we will see how it goes as the school year comes to an end.

 

 

Hoover Traffic Planning (and Paying)

School capacity - really the lack of school capacity - is a hot button in town.  The District estimated the available capacity in the five existing schools to be 102 seats back in the summer.  Development in town - really over-development in town - will exacerbate this even with the re-opening of Hoover School.  That saga can be reviewed here and here for newcomers (of which there are some).  Today's Daily Journal notes that tonight is when the money meets the road on traffic/pedestrian improvements that need to be made to

Officials are expecting a crush of cars and students flocking to the area near the campus at 2200 Summit Drive when 200 kindergartners through fifth-graders start classes at the school in August.

In advance of the school reopening its doors, officials will collaborate on developing an agreement over how the cost of building new sidewalks, painting crosswalks, making the site compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act standards and other improvements will be financed.

Officials project the variety of improvements are slated to cost as much as $3.5 million, when considering long-term projects such as building new sidewalks along Summit and Easton drives, as well as widening the roads and other efforts, according to a city report.

This is the first meeting of the full bodies (new Council and School Board) and they need to collaborate since

...school officials and neighborhood residents arrived at a settlement in February, after the district committed to installing a variety of alterations along Summit Drive, such as designating student drop-off and pick-up areas and realigning the school driveway, among other improvements.

This incremental capacity of 200 kids is a start, but I believe there will be more demand coming soon so the two bodies might as well get to know each other's concerns.

Easton Additions History Lesson

The quarterly meeting of the Burlingame Historical Society was standing room only--even though no current City Council members attended.  The presentation on the history of the Easton Additions  (plural since there were actually seven different additions) was meticulously assembled by Mary Packard and received with rave reviews by about 125 people in the Lane Room at the downtown library.

Ms. Packard started with the first city water records from 1913 and has been researching 110 houses in the Easton Additions that got water service near inception.  Comparing those records with real estate maps, Historical Society archive information, Sanborn fire underwriting maps and good ole-fashioned walks around the neighborhood led to a fascinating view of a dozen houses that could easily be recognized from about 100 years ago.

In addition, the crowd was treated to photos of the B'way train station when it was on the other side of the tracks, a view of the original North B'game Women's Club that became the Easton library extension and a number of commercial buildings on B'way.  This was all peppered with notes on the former residents and owners.  It also led a representative of the San Mateo County Historic Resources Advisory Board who happened to be in the audience to plead with the crowd to push for an Historical Resources Inventory in B'game as 14 of 20 other cities in the county have done.

I particularly liked the discussion of how San Mateo Dr. originally stopped at Oak Grove and resumed a view blocks north of the parcels we see below with the water tower on one.  Getting that right of way to complete what we call California Dr. was an early example of B'game deal-making.

Historical Footnote - 1933

I love finding B'game memorabilia on eBay.  I've had some amazing finds of postcards, pamphlets, automobilia (from our historic Auto Row) and the like.  I thought I would share the latest one with you since it counters the idea that B'game was such a genteel place back in the day.  The photo is dated August 8, 1933 from a newspaper file.

The caption on the back reads "A gay barbecue party at a fashionable Burlingame, California home ended in tragedy when Fortune Nelson Burson, 33, San Francisco orchestra leader, we found dead after an asserted fight with Richard Chilcott, 21, San Mateo College football star.  The party was held at the home of Burson's fiancee, Miss Frances Biddeson, 23, daughter of Mrs. Georgia Biddeson, divorced wife of of a New York broker.  Miss Biddeson witnessed the fight, and is shown here in the Biddeson garden, with Chilcott, standing at the spot where Burson died."

The 1933 City Directory puts the Biddesons at 1520 Hoover which is across from Mercy's property, but the photo seems to be looking towards Columbus and shows a lot of open space.  Interesting to ponder not just the event as described but the social and geographic environment. 

Adding a Crossing Guard

Long time Voice readers will recall the huge controversy over school crossing guards that erupted five-plus years ago and was eventually resolved with some key donations from civic and business groups.  There is probably no appetite for reopening that especially when a parent can get 185 signature on a petition as the Daily Journal reported yesterday.

Concern over a busy intersection at Ray Drive/Rosedale Avenue and El Camino Real has sparked Burlingame’s school district and the city to add a crossing guard to the area to reduce potential dangers.

The intersection is frequently used by students traveling from the Burlingame Village neighborhood to both Lincoln Elementary and Burlingame Intermediate schools, but traffic at that intersection is very fast and congested. A $10,000 a year crossing guard will increase safety for the Burlingame Elementary School District students and potentially reduce the number of cars traveling to and from the schools, according to a staff report. The cost will be split equally between the city of Burlingame and the district, and the city has already approved the guard as well, said City Manager Lisa Goldman.

The facts and figures that drove this decision are

At that particular intersection, there have been 12 accidents, eight injuries and zero fatalities between Jan. 1, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2012, said Caltrans spokeswoman Gidget Navarro. The total accident rate is 0.86 compared to statewide average of 0.27. The total average is based on similar intersections for the whole state of California. Caltrans takes similar intersections with the same amount of lanes together and do comparisons, she said.

Sounds like a plan!

Hoover School's New Wing - cont'd

I'm exhausted from clicking through all of the pages of comments on the original "Hoover School's New Wing post" from March and I'll bet you are too.  So I have a new approach.  I am taking the last two comments from Get Real! and EPC and reposting them here, so you guys can have at it without clicking through three (or soon four) pages of prior comments.  Typos are original to the comments -- go for it.

Get Real! wrote:

The neighbors' motivation is at the center of this whole thing. If they wanted a safe school where they accepted a certain level of disruption, a negotiation may have sufficed. If, as I think I heard them say, their motivation is to stop the school at any cost, then they would sue and ask for an injunction which is exactly what they did.

Once the EIR is complete, their motivation will once again play a crucial role. My guess is they will find other legal avenues to delay the project.

As to the number of cars, it is reasonable to assume that 250 children will not cause 250 cars. That between carpooling (particularly of siblings) and walking this number will be substantially reduced. That and estimate of about 2 kids for one car seems reasonable. Then 100 cars is not off the mark but the opponents don't want that number thrown around because it trivializes their cause. Once again, the motivation.

And EPC responded

What people don't seem to realize is that BSD increased the size of the annex building by 3 times and elimated a huge portion of the blacktop that was formerly used for parking and drop off. In fact, one of their initial options was to simple rehas the existing annex building so that they could keep the blacktop as is. Had they done that, there would have been room on the site itself for parking and drop off. This option, along with some other similiar ones were presented to them by the town of hillsborough before they even approves the project and started construction, which would have greatly mitigated the impact to the neighborhood. This is truly a design issue. An EIR would have exposed this design flaw and that's why BSD chose not to do one in the first place.

I will also draw your attention to the comment from Where Are The Parents on the next post "Affordable Myth" since it is pertinent.

 

Hoover School's New Wing

I haven't heard much about the lawsuit concerning the construction and reopening of Hoover School since our last post back in November, but this photo from today indicates construction has progressed quite a bit.