The Burlingame Voice

Say Goodbye to an Old Friend

I haven't railed about any home demolitions lately since it doesn't seem to do much good.  My little patch of B'game at least requires a home historical evaluation before the claw arrives.  There is a bit of movement in that direction elsewhere in town as noted here.  And there has been at least one successful move (on Oak Grove).

Long-timers in town will recall the ruckus years ago over a nice old house on Carmelita on a big lot that was going to be demo'ed.  There was enough space on one side of the lot to add a new house and that calmed folks down.  Now a resident in the Easton Addition has passed along this photo of its demise.  Say goodbye to an old friend.

 

RIP: Rosalie O'Mahony (1930-2021)

Word of Rosalie O'Mahony's passing last Saturday filtered out to the insiders this week and made it to the Daily Journal front page yesterday.  In the DJ piece Rosalie was remembered as:

More than two decades after beginning her teaching career in the county, O’Mahony set her eyes on city policy, running for a seat on the Burlingame City Council. She won her race in 1989 and went on to serve as mayor five times before exiting the council in 2009.  Those who knew and worked with O’Mahony said she was always a fair and thoughtful policymaker who stood firmly by her decisions.

Current Burlingame Mayor Ann Keighran called O’Mahony the “queen of infrastructure,” and a “trailblazer.”  “She’s one of the few politicians that really made her decisions based on her principles rather than political expediency,” Keighran said. “She would rather fix sewers and balance finances than make any headlines.”

As I pondered her legacy over the last week, a few memories came to mind.  As Mayor Keighran noted, Rosalie paid close attention to the fixed assets of the city which I strongly supported.  She appreciated that the infrastructure was one of the core missions of the city and understood it deeply.  The quote, in her accent, was something like "You need to understand how much of the city is underground."  Her focus on the finances could sometimes cause me to disagree with her such as when she favored merging our police department with nearby cities' to save money.  That idea missed some of the nuance of local control and good local presence.  There were other areas as well and the history makes for interesting reading here.

The most vivid memory was the night of the Council vote on the original Safeway design.  Newcomers to town won't remember the long saga but they can always trip down 74 steps of memory lane in the Safeway category here.  It was a long meeting and each councilmember had invested plenty of time and energy understanding the plans.  Prior comments seemed to indicate 2 for and 2 against; it was anybody's guess how Rosalie would vote.  In the end, she voted against the poorly designed, big box, solid-blank-wall-on-Primrose proposal and Safeway went back to the drawing board with the exceptionally fine results that reflect well on the downtown to this day.

Lastly, there was always something comforting about seeing Rosalie's pale yellow Camaro toodling around town.  I'm guessing it was a '68 or '69 and it hinted of the Rosalie book being a bit different than the cover.  RIP.

A funeral mass, honoring the life of O’Mahony, will be held at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 28, at St. Catherine’s Church. Rather than flowers, her loved ones ask that those interested in giving make donations to the St. Vincent DePaul Society or a charity of choice.

Here she is in 2006 at the annual Christmas tree lighting and parade.

B'game Jazz Mecca

The full moon bracketed by Saturn and Jupiter was not the only awesome sight in B'game last night.  One of the coolest dudes in B'game did it again last night.  Andrew Speight had his House of Bop swinging in a tribute concert to Cannonball Adderley and Nancy Wilson who recorded a seminal LP together back in 1961.  Andrew is "chief cook and bottle washer" at his events--he's promoting them, setting up the sound and video for streaming on his Facebook page, delivering in-depth backgrounds on the songs and artists and.....and playing the alto sax like a pro.  He let everyone know that the LP being featured was the first female vocalist fronting a small combo that made it to vinyl.  Just awesome to see and there were a couple of B'game restaurant owners in the small audience last night which might lead to some public gigs.  One can only hope.

As Andrew noted last night, a great way to build a great jazz combo is to start with the drummer.  It's the loudest instrument and if the drummer doesn't like you he can drown you out!  We were graced with a true legend on drums last night.  As Roy McCurdy's web page notes

McCurdy worked with the Mangione Brothers group (Chuck and Gap Mangione) in the early 60’s and later joined the Art Farmer Jazztet and then went with Sonny Rollins. Following Sonny Rollins he became a full time member of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet from the mid-60’s, traveling internationally with the group, including a particularly successful tour of South America in 1972.

Who better to set the beat for two hours of Cannonball's music?  With David Wong as the other half of the rhythm section and  Terrell Stafford blowing hard on trumpet, and Matthew Clark on the piano all that was needed was the vocalist who could deliver the Nancy Wilson feel.  Tiffany Austin was on it and added the fine feel and tone that was needed.  Here's McCurdy and Stafford.

  

It's-It Goes East

The Chronicle picked up a story about our very own ITS-IT ice cream confection starting to be sold on the East Coast.  Here's their take with the key correction

It’s-It, the San Francisco Burlingame ice cream treat little known outside the Bay Area, is invading the East Coast for the first time.  “A taste of the West Coast is making ITS way to the East Coast,” It’s-It Ice Cream announced in a post on its Facebook page earlier this month. The company likes to spell the name of its most-popular product in all capital letters, as if screaming for ice cream.

Since It’s-Its are just starting their assault on the East Coast, it’s unclear how many enthusiasts will be won over. But judging from the reception on Facebook, former Bay Area residents are clamoring for a frozen taste of the region. Dozens of people — from Alabama, Iowa , North and South Carolina and other states — posted requests to sell It’s-Its in their vicinities.

It’s-Its have been around since 1928, when George Whitney scooped some vanilla ice cream between two freshly baked oatmeal cookies, squished them together and dipped the ice cream sandwich in dark chocolate, It’s-It says on its website.  It’s-Its have developed an enthusiastic group of followers that not only buys the sandwiches in bulk (at factory stores now closed by the coronavirus) but buys merchandise including hoodies, caps, T-shirts and onesies and turns the labels into crafty light-switch plates.

I stopped by the Factory Store on Burlway Rd. just north of the Hyatt and directly abutting 101 to snap this photo.  Note the sandwich on the rooftop (upper right).

"The Problem With Spending Time in Burlingame is....

....you just don't want to go anywhere else."

So says Nate Pfaff who has created the best video tribute to life in our little burg you are likely to ever see.  Find it here on YouTube.  Exceptional work!

Historical Reference: The Corner Smoke Shop

There are days when I really miss certain B'game establishments.  La Pinata.  Route 66.  The record store on Hatch Ln.  Yianni's--but we have a new Greek restaurant moving in where the Nachoria was!!  Of course, the Bit of England.  Towle's.  The Burlingame Drive-in--don't we need that now instead of a big office building that might never get occupied?  Like 220 California--a dead weight on our downtown.

Today I am really missing the Smoke Shop on the Avenew.  I miss Fred telling me what the real name of the place was, but I just have to stick with the Smoke Shop.  I know the remaining partners run the cigar shop, and I thank them for that, but you could walk into the Smoke Shop and buy newspapers from around the world.  You want the three main London papers?  They had 'em.  Safeway has the pink FT somedays, but not the others.  You want the Singapore Straits Times, they had it.  Yesterday I wanted the New York Post, but did not know where to buy it.  If the twits at Twitter and the fakes at Facebook don't want me to read something, well, that just makes me want to read it even more.  Good luck with the censorship.  It hasn't worked since Ben Franklin bought his first printing press and it won't work now.

The Changing Face of B'game

Today's Daily Post front page headline is "Neighborhoods under pressure".  It discusses the impending doom facing single-family housing in the state if Scott Weiner and others in Sacramento get their way with our neighborhoods.  It's almost too depressing to ponder.  But one of the things we do here at the Voice is capture B'game history as it is being made.  Here it won't drift off into forgotten oblivion like many social media sites.

The two classic B'game "cottages" at the corner of California and Oak Grove have been in the news over the years as the long-time tenants got support from national personality Tony Robbins in an effort to stay put.  They're both gone and yet the little bungalows from a time gone by are still here--for awhile.  Right next door is where the action is since another big development has been approved as a "live/work" space.  The Daily Journal initially had the site listed incorrectly as the site of the two cottages, but has corrected the piece and noted the correction here.

The Burlingame Planning Commission unanimously approved Monday, Sept. 28, plans to build 25 units in a live-work development at 601 California Drive.  For the development on California Drive, officials praised the five-story building intended to grant people a place to live and work under the same roof — a departure from the previous discussion, in which officials were unimpressed.  Live/work developments are designed to offer tenants a place to both run a business and make their home in the same unit. Burlingame officials have promoted the development of such projects since updating the general plan to encourage creative land use.

When you look at the proposal, it's not obvious why this is a "live/work" development.  It's got a conference room and a gym, but other than that it just looks like a stack of multi-bedroom units.  You might think there would be ground floor professional space, art gallery space or even room for yet another nail salon, but nope.  That's probably OK since it is a street ripe for higher density.  We will just have to wait and see what happens to the two little houses that have stood on that corner for so long.  Here they are; so they aren't forgotten.

 

Rare Historic Success in Bgame

Saving historic buildings in Burlingame is a tough row to hoe.  We have lost so many and saved so few that when one is saved we should rejoice.  And so we shall regarding the Murphy house.  The Daily Journal did a piece on the house a week ago, but I wanted to wait for photos of the actual move until posting about it.

One of Burlingame’s oldest houses is about to get a new home — again.  The Murphy House at 1128 Douglas Ave. is slated next week to be moved about a half a mile away to a location on Oak Grove Avenue as part of a team effort to preserve a piece of the city’s history.

The house is slated to begin being moved Thursday, Sept. 17, to make way for the construction of a five-story apartment complex, which officials approved in 2017. But noting the historic relevance of the site’s current structure, the development team agreed to relocate and preserve it elsewhere....it will mark the second time that the house has been moved. It was first relocated in 1914 from its original location on Burlingame Avenue, when it was displaced to make space for the downtown business district to bloom.

Note the DJ article has the address off by one--it's really across the street at 524 Oak Grove which was an empty lot.  We'll all enjoy seeing the house put back together as it was cut in half for the move.  Here are a couple pics of it crossing the Caltrain tracks last night around 10 pm.  It was a tight fit getting under the tree branch too.  Nice work all around!

Chocolate History in B'game

Monday night a jam-packed Lane Room audience, drawn in by the promise of a chocolate tasting, heard Amy Guittard talk about the history and quality of her family's business.  Amy is a fifth-generation Guittard and current Director of Marketing at the long-time Burlingame business that provides the sweet smells that often waft through our little burg.  Amy started the history lesson with her great-great grandfather Etienne who realized there was opportunity amongst the gold miners for something other than picks, shovels and whiskey.  She then walked the Historical Society membership through the early days in EssEff and the eventual move to B'game in 1955.  As their website notes

Guittard remained on Main Street until selling the property to the city to make room for the Embarcadero Freeway. It was at that time, that Horace A. moved the company to Burlingame, California

The audience got an education in the growing of cocoa around the world and the stringent quality control and product development that is on-going at Guittard.  The public only sees a small portion of the company's output since a lot goes to other consumer brands like See's and to chefs around the world.  I was struck by how similar a rigorous tasting of chocolate is to wine tasting.  Here's Amy with the step-by-step Chocolate 101 lesson

 

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!