The Burlingame Voice

Tudor Lights and Neighborhood Spirit

B'game is composed of a fantastic variety of neighborhoods with a wide variety of architectural styles -- or at least the original homes in the neighborhoods have compatible styles.  The Daily Journal is shining some light on the tiny Willborough neighborhood with this piece on Christmas and Hanukkah lights.  Here is an excerpt but do click through for the full B'game holiday spirit

More houses in the neighborhood formed by Willborough Road, Willborough Place and Neuchatel Avenue between Oak Grove Avenue and Palm Drive glow with more holiday lights than ever before, stopping and slowing cars passing through the narrow streets.

John Ward has lived in the neighborhood since 1975, and has decorated his house for as long as he can remember. His house was once the only source of light on the street during December, drawing the eyes of passersby with a glowing Santa, sleigh and reindeer in the middle of his front lawn.

This year, Ward has adorned his traditional, English-style Tudor house with white icicle lights hanging from the roof’s edges and colorful globe lights brightening the trees on his front lawn. Ward has placed his famous Santa sleigh and reindeer, as well as a bright star, on the roof of his house. They shine over the glistening Christmas tree that fills his front window.

But this year, Ward’s house is joined by several other houses whose residents have chosen to celebrate the holidays in similar fashion.

Ron Leavy bought his starter home in the neighborhood 40 years ago and never left. Initially drawn to the area by its proximity to downtown, Caltrain and freeways, he found it difficult to leave the close-knit community he found there.  “We watch out for each other,” he said.

Leavy is Jewish, and chose to decorate the trunk of the large evergreen outside his home with blue and white lights in celebration of Hanukkah. He also embellished the roofline and bushes outside his home with bright white lights. Leavy credits the neighborhood’s friendly attitude with the proliferation of decorations this year.

 

The Voice wishes you all a peaceful holiday and a Happy New Year.

UMC Mural

You may have noticed the nice mural that has been painted on the backside (parking lot side) of UMC. Saturday was the dedication event.  Check it out.

Nice job!

St. Francis' blessing

For a variety of Christians today is St. Francis of Assisi's feast day (October 4th).  My two pooches looked like they could use a blessing so we trotted over to St. Catherine's for the outdoor blessing of pets before school started.  Very fun with a wide variety of dogs and a few cats mixed in.  Here is Fr. John sprinkling a pooch or two.

Real Charity Begins at CALL

Long time Voice contributor Peter Garrison and I have been discussing the more frequent appearance of street panhandlers in B'game.  He has noticed them in front of churches, then on the Avenue and lately in front of Lunardi's.  We also notice a similarity between the signs they hold which may point to a coalition.  Pete knows Terri Boesch, the Exec Director at CALL Primrose, who provided this bit of advice for B'gamers

With the long, warm days of summer comes a noticeable increase in the number of panhandlers, especially at busy intersections and in front of heavy traffic areas such as storefronts, churches and gas stations.  

While it may feel good to provide spare change or a few dollars to “help” those who appear to be homeless or hungry, those dollars often go to buy alcohol or drugs, which may be the very vices that led to the homelessness in the first place.  In addition, there are a number of large scale scammers, who employ vulnerable women with young children (often infants) to beg for money, with a promise of part of the proceeds for their efforts. Providing money in these instances only perpetuates the problem.  

For those who are genuinely hungry or homeless, there are many resources in the area that offer legitimate assistance. The CALL Primrose center, located in downtown Burlingame, is one of those resources. Founded over 30 years ago as a joint project between the First Presbyterian and United Methodist churches of Burlingame, CALL Primrose is a direct aid and referral agency, offering immediate grocery/food support to individuals and families along the peninsula. Clients may visit weekly to pick up food, grocery and small toiletry items that are tailored to individual living situations. CALL has an array of non-perishable items, along with meat, dairy and fresh produce options, available on a drop in basis.  If the need goes beyond that of food, CALL has a wide network of service agencies that can be called upon to help.    

The next time you encounter someone asking for help, perhaps instead of a few dollars, you can provide them with information about CALL Primrose. For those truly in need, this may be their first step towards a path of self-sufficiency.

Pete also notes "I carry information cards from our local food pantry that I distribute when I encounter someone asking for money."  Good advice from both of them.  Terri is at 650 342-2255.  They are Gems of Burlingame.  I hope this doesn't get to the point of us needing a "Sit - Lie" ordinance.

50 Year Perspective; 58 Years Ago

I recently bought a pamphlet titled "Burlingame 50 years Golden Anniversary" on eBay.  It's "a short journey into history; 1908 to 1958".  The opening page after the obligatory mayoral Proclamation from Mayor Andrew C. Byrd was written by Dr. Frank Stanger and provides an interesting perspective on those times and ours.

Burlingame as a young city, like a self-conscious debutante, had subtle ways of impressing people with her special charms and her own importance.  There was a legend abroad to that effect that Burlingame, by comparison with other cities, was something special.  Or was it more than a legend?  Be it fancy or fact, the idea had wide acceptance, and the people of Burlingame, quite convinced that theirs was no ordinary town, were doing nothing to deny it.

I wonder if we still have that perspective of being special?  Sometimes I doubt it as I see people and agencies trying to homogenize us to be like every other city.  Stanger goes on to talk about him being 18 and interviewing for a teaching position in town.  He gets the job offer then writes

As I started my return journey with a promise of a contract, I found myself also trying to remember some of the statistics that had been casually dropped into my ears-- "x" percentage of the population received incomes above "y" dollars a year, "z" proportion were home owners, etc., etc.  A second more tangible impression was received when I came house-hunting and found that rents in Burlingame were ten dollars a month higher than in the East Bay.  And this news was imparted without apology--rather I though there was a little bragging involved.

Res ipsa loquitur

No. 8 Nationally

The Wall Street Journal is owned by News Corp. which also has dealing with the National Association of Realtors so I'm guessing their statistics are pretty solid.  If so, our very own Stanley Lo has once again placed high in the nation for individual agents volume--No. 8 to be exact!

The numbers show are in millions.  We had one of the top teams as well in Burlingame, I just forgot to take that photo before I recycled the papers.  Any remember who it was?  As I understand it, Mr. Lo takes a smaller commission and "makes it up in volume".  With real estate prices where they are at now, one wonders if more agencies will follow?

Futsal Starring in B'game

The Daily Journal is shining a spotlight on two local gems - Burlingamer located on Rollins Rd and it futsal evangelist, Jen Short

Much as San Jose became known for Silicon Valley, Burlingame is becoming the center of the women’s national futsal team.

Last month, Jen Short, general manager of Burlingamer Sports Center and president of Gamer Futsal School, and Roxy Kamal, the director of coaching for Gamer Futsal School and who played for the U.S. in a tournament in Colombia, were named to the coaching staff of the U.S. Women’s National Futsal Team for the upcoming Pacific Cup to be held at the San Jose Event Center July 14-17.

Short has turned Burlingamer into the de facto training center for the women’s national team. Having worked for the last couple of years with U.S. Futsal president Alex Para, who happens to live locally, Short was asked in May to build a team to take to the tournament in San Jose.

I've been to a futsal game over at Burlingamer and it is very fun.  It's fast moving due to the short field.  You can check out all the activities at their website.  Rookie City Councilwoman Donna Colson owns the business and is passionate about local sports for local kids (and adults).  If you want to burn off some kid energy as school lets out, this is one option.

Deep Roots in the Community

Each year the B'game Lions Club selects a Citizen of the Year.  The Lions do a number of great things around town that involve a great number of people so when they select an honoree, you know they have done their homework.  For example, back in 2010 they selected Dan Andersen whom the Lions knew well as one of their own.  Yesterday, Lions President Kevin Osborne told the assembled Lions and guests that the honoree was widely known around town for her activities that benefit B'game in preserving history, garnering nationally recognized trees for B'game, supporting art and street intersections with "inconveniently located trees" along with fighting certain dangerous encroachments like High Speed rail.

This year's Lions Citizen of the Year is Jennifer Pfaff.  Jen is no stranger to the Voice community as our Queen of Trees and provider of many other valuable contributions on a variety of topics.  Here is Kevin making the announcement that caught Jen completely by surprise!  Kudos!!

Artful Weekends

This weekend is the first of three weekends of the Silicon Valley Open Studios show (www.svos.org).  It is the 30th annual happening so the list of artists is long and often illustrious.  The event spans from El Granada to B'game to Morgan Hill and we are queued up for next weekend (the 14-15th) when Kevyn Warnock's work will be at the Peninsula Museum of Art at 1777 California and Rebecca Lambing's studio at 1333 Bernal will be open.  If you visit Amir Salamat at 801 Mahler #D4, Marie Monaco and Sally Rayn at Crocker School and the six artists at 432 Midway in San Mateo Park, you will have covered the local scene.

If you haven't visited the museum on California, I highly recommend it!  Hit the website for many more to the south of us.

SF Overlords Deign to Let B'gamers In?

Admit it.  When you are driving down 280 looking at the gorgeous foothills off to the right, you have wondered "can I actually hike through those woods?".  The answer is moving towards "maybe" as the News-Times is reporting here

A proposal to open the 23,000-acre Peninsula Watershed to greater public access is gaining broad support, with the notable exception of environmental groups, who criticize the plan for its potential to damage sensitive animal and plant species. 

Elected officials in San Francisco and San Mateo County, government agencies, hikers and mountain bikers have lined up behind the project, unveiled in February by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which owns and manages the vast refuge that runs from San Bruno to Woodside above the Crystal Springs reservoirs.

The watershed has been mostly off-limits since the SFPUC bought the property in 1930. The agency long claimed that allowing more people onto the land could threaten wildlife, such as the endangered marbled murrelet, and risk contaminating reservoirs that are key elements of the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System, which serves 2.4 million people in the Bay Area.

Walking on our side along Sawyer Camp Trail is fun and healthy, but the other side looks totally cool.  For once it appears the political animals in EssEff are in line with our local wild life variety pols!