The Burlingame Voice

Happy New Year: 2020 Vision

Every New Year's Eve and New Year's Day represents a new beginning.  I read an article today that sought to burst the idea that special days were all that special for resolutions.  The author thinks you can start anew on any given day.  That may be true especially if one has a strong sense of self-discipline to start, but special days are easier for reflection and renewal.  So let's do that--renew--sort of like your old library card.  I'll commit to celebrate all that makes our little burg special.  I'll also commit to fight all that tries to make it just another faceless, joyless patch of earth with no sense of history or livability or neighborliness.  It won't be easy because the joyless, faceless advocates can be desperate and often act desperate, but we have public opinion on our side as shown by elections and by the chats you have on your sidewalk, in the grocery store aisle, in the baseball stands or just reading the comments on the Voice.  Happy New Year.  No need for new glasses--we have 2020 vision.   

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.

Staffing Up Locally for the U.S. Census

After a recent conversation with an old B'game friend of mine, I got a real kick out of this Wall Street Journal article titled "Who Will Be the First American Counted in the Census":

TOKSOOK BAY, ALASKA — In this tiny coastal village, five leaders of the Nunakauyarmiut tribe huddled around a table one recent evening to make a decision: Who will be the first person counted in America for the 2020 census?  They wanted to pick the oldest resident of this 659-person fishing outpost. Two of them, Alois Lincoln and Lizzie Chimiugak, both seemed to be 89 years old—but the records aren’t exactly clear on their birthdates. 

In the coming decennial count, the government will ask most Americans to respond online for the first time, starting shortly before Census Day on April 1. The count really kicks off in January, however, in remote parts of Alaska—where internet is spotty and some homes lack addresses. There, census takers must count every household by hand.

Alaska starts early because residents are more likely to be home during winter’s peak, and frozen terrain is easier to cross than the mushy ground of spring. On Jan. 21, specially trained enumerators with paper and pencils (because ink can freeze) will start knocking on tens of thousands of doors.

Those conditions make helping out with the 2020 Census in San Mateo County look like a piece of cake.  My friend, Pat Belding, is also a recent retiree in search of ways to contribute and has taken a position as a Recruiter Assistant with the local census organization.  So I'm helping him out with some free advertising--the only kind we do here at the Voice.  There are several types of jobs available locally including clerks ($24/hr), enumerators like those described in the Alaska article ($30/hr) who verify addresses and help people fill out the forms and some supervisor jobs ($33/hr).  Paid training is included both on-line and two Saturday sessions conducted locally.

If you know someone who is over 18, a citizen with no criminal record who wants flexible work of between 25 and 40 hours per week for eight weeks at a time (renewable) and likes to get out in the neighborhoods, this is a great way to help out the Federal government.  It takes them awhile to process applications, so don't wait because you think the census is a long ways in the future.  In government time, February to June 2020 is just around the corner.  Apply on-line at 2020census.gov/jobs.

Kudos to Pat for taking on this important recruiting role in an economy with 2.3% unemployment!

The Other Burlingame....Kansas

I got a great trip report from local B'gamer Linda Yelnick about her recent visit to Burlingame, Kansas.  The other town named for Anson is about 28 miles southwest of Topeka.  Linda prepped for her visit by contacting the Burlingame (KS) Historical Preservation Society and letting them know she would be visiting so that when she arrived she got the classic friendly mid-western reception.  Linda and her son discovered a number of interesting things about this little town of 934 people from Carolyn Strohm of the BHPS.

The other Burlingame was originally a coal mining town named Council City and is one of the oldest communities in Kansas being founded in 1854 before Kansas was a state.  Anson Burlingame passed through four years later in 1858 and gave an anti-slavery speech that impressed the folks enough to rename the town after him.  Anson never lived in either town named for him.  B'game, KS is known as the place where "rail meets trail" as the Santa Fe rail and Santa Fe trail cross there.

Linda was impressed by the small-town feel where the main street is about two blocks long and everything is closed on Sundays unless the restaurant owner decides to open and make a meal for a visitor as he did for Linda and her son.  The street is quite wide so that the ox caravans of old could make a U-turn downtown.  As Carolyn Strohm told Linda "everybody knows everybody and we feel safe and secure".  Old timers in 94010 remember something similar.  The old Lincoln school building that dates from 1902 has been re-purposed into a impressive historical museum.  Oddly enough, the school mascot is the Burlingame Bearcat!  San Mateans cannot be happy about that.

The other Burlingame also has a prominent citizen named Jerry Hill who is most famous for award-winning kettle corn.  The two Jerry's have been in touch and kettle corn was exchanged.  The next time I see our Jerry I will ask him what he sent out to their Jerry.  Check out the entry sign to Burlingame, KS 66413.  Plenty of room to grow there.

BHS Student Brings it Home

With the election in the rear view mirror, we can get back to regular issues.  The Daily Journal has a nice write-up on BHS student Jeffery Chen

The Burlingame High School senior won first place in the Breakthrough Junior Challenge, receiving a $250,000 college scholarship, $50,000 for his science teacher and $100,000 science lab for his school.  Chen, 17, won the international competition Sunday, Nov. 3, with a three-minute educational video he created about neutrino astronomy, which tracks cosmic events through the capture of galactic particles.

And with the new science learning space to be built at his school, Chen said he is hopeful to inspire other Burlingame High School students to push the boundaries of their imaginations too.

This is a welcome antidote to the recent disappointing news about graffiti at BHS and the subsequent arrest of a local young man.  Kudos to Chen.  You can click through to his video here and while you are there check out all of the local B'game background - the Bayfront, the BHS lawn, and the train station at sunset. 

B'game Fiscal Risk: Yellow!

There are several news pieces highlighting the California Auditor's release of a top-to-bottom ranking of California cities' financial risk using ten metrics that combine into an "overall risk" rating of red/yellow/green.  Most of them don't bother to include the website link so here you go.  Naturally, the first question I had was "Where does Burlingame rate?"  I was expecting bright green, but alas we are ranked #220 riskiest out of 471 cities earning us a yellow overall rating.  San Bruno, Millbrae and H'borough are green overall while San Mateo joins us in the yellow category.

You have to work at it on the site to see how each of the ten contributing factors play into the rating-- but that's what I'm here for:

Liquidity:  Green

Debt Burden:  Yellow  (And rising.  Will the Rec Center bonds move us to Red?)

General Fund Reserve:  Green

Revenue Trends:  Yellow  (Adding a lot of housing won't help this)

Pension Obligations:  Yellow

Pension Funding:  Yellow (But lots of red in the cities around us)

Pension Costs:  Green

Future Pension Costs:  Yellow  (But again, lots of red around us)

OPEB Obligations:  Green  (Other post-employment benefits like medical and dental)

OPEB  Funding:  Red

So overall we are in the middle of the pack and yellow.

Feeling Jealous of "Menlo Dark"

I had never heard Menlo Park referred to as "Menlo Dark" until an article in today's Chronicle quoted someone calling it that.  But I have heard our own little burg called "Boringame" since 1983.  So the Chron piece about three investors buying the Guild movie theater, doing a "substantial renovation" and reopening it as a live music venue operated by a non-profit just made me green with envy.  Here are a couple of bits of the article

When the theater opens, it will still be called the Guild and will have either the same or similar marquee to announce rock, jazz, country and comedy acts three to five nights a week in an open-floor configuration Drew Dunlevie said.  “It’s a Silicon Valley impetus. We need more culture here,” said Dunlevie. “We are doing this because we are all tired of having to go to the city to see shows.”

The sleepy downtown, which Mueller said has earned the nickname “Menlo Dark,” has never had a stand-alone music venue. The closest it came was in the 1960s when there was live music at Magoo’s Pizza on Santa Cruz Avenue. This is where an Atherton kid named Bobby Weir joined together with a Palo Alto guitar teacher named Jerry Garcia and a recruited bassist named Phil Lesh to first perform as the Warlocks on May 5, 1965, before later becoming the Grateful Dead.

Where else does that sound like?  Yep, Boringame.  And a little historical factoid is that Phil Lesh was living in Burlingame around that time while attending college nearby.  There are a few buildings in B'game that might work for this sort of thing and there are plenty of B'gamers who are also tired of going to the ever-dirtier city to see shows.  We just need the benefactors--and some city leaders with vision and willingness to encourage such a venue to come to be.  With all of the development going on one can hope that 10 or 15 thousand square feet could go for such a spot.

Update, Sunday 9/29:  At least Broadway was alive last night with a solo guitar player at Il Piccolo and council woman Emily Beach playing with some guest performers for her annual BCE charity show.  Sure felt nice to be able to hear music in two places on B'way.  Il Piccolo is planning for Friday and Saturday music to be a regular event!  Here is Rebbesoul playing last night.

Three Thoughts From Altitude

I had a lovely long stay in Tahoe this past week.  It's as good or better than in the winter even for an avid skier like me.  My wife and I hiked, golfed, friends have a boat that they shared and so one.  It's a great part of California.  As I rolled "down the hill" yesterday, three thoughts came to mind:

1.  Somehow a series of little towns and ski areas manage to put on more live music in a week than we see in B'game in a month or more.  It's sort of embarrassing.  I hear talk of "community" all the time in the Bay Area and yet Tahoe manages to quadruple the quality community time with seemingly little effort and great results.

2.  The livability problems in San Francisco are doing serious, probably permanent harm to its reputation as a world-class city.  The Wall Street Journal is one name-brand news source talking about the problems.  For example, this weekend it noted

The website RealtyHop.com dubs San Francisco “the doo-doo capital of the U.S.” They noted that the city’s poop reports almost tripled between 2011 and 2017.  The problem draws attention because the poop increasingly comes not from dogs but from humans.  There are myriad causes at work, no doubt. But there was no “defecation crisis”—a term usually associated with rural India—in the 1930s, even with unemployment at 25%, vagabonds roaming the country, and shantytowns and “Hoovervilles” springing up everywhere. Today’s homeless and the hobos of the Great Depression are different in many ways. 

In California at least, one is struck by the contrast between the fastidious attention paid to the social duty of scooping up and disposing of dog feces, and the rather more paralyzed and guilty reaction to the plague of human feces. The former is treated as a moral imperative among the enlightened—and the thin plastic bags used as the means to this moral end have so far escaped the fate of plastic straws, well on their way to being outlawed as an environmental outrage. Even social-justice warriors don’t consider it their personal duty, however, to tidy up after their fellow human beings on the streets.

For us locals that is hardly news, but what is news is that elsewhere in California (like Tahoe) long time nearby visitors to EssEff have stopped visiting.  We were paired up with a lovely older woman on the golf course who only waited until the second hole to note that she and her husband used to come to SF every month for 40 years for "dinner and a show" or museums and such.  No more.  One wonders how bad it has to get before the laissez-faire mindset gets whacked on the side of the head?

3.  Who's in charge of infrastructure?  It took three hours to drive from Tahoe City (on the North shore) to Berkeley-- about 190 miles.  That's pretty much the usual time without winter weather.  Then it takes more than an hour to go the last 37 miles to Burlingame on a sunny weekend afternoon with the Giants out of town.  Where are the environmentalists decrying the air pollution of thousands of cars idling in traffic?  Where are the transit officials with new ideas?  Where are the housing advocates smart enough to see the cart might be in front of the horse?  Did all of the urban planner decamp for Boise or Spokane?  Just wondering.  

  

Berserkley: Natural Gas and Gasbags

I could create a new Voice category called "Berkeley Insanity" and it would easily merit a dozen posts per year.  Ridiculing Berserkley is so easy that it can get addictive, but I'll just take this one hit and then stop for awhile.  Today's Chronicle front page piece says "Berkeley: City first in U.S. to bar gas lines in home construction".

Berkeley has become the first city in the nation to ban the installation of natural gas lines in new homes.  The City Council on Tuesday night unanimously voted to ban gas from new low-rise residential buildings starting Jan. 1.  The natural gas ordinance, introduced by Councilwoman Kate Harrison, requires all new single-family homes, town homes and small apartment buildings to have electric infrastructure.

California Energy Commission Chairman David Hochschild, a Berkeley resident, also spoke at the meeting and said that 50 cities across the state, including San Francisco, are considering similar action and Berkeley would pave the way for future legislation.

What makes this so stupid is that just last week the big headlines were about PG&E's plans to shut off electricity during high fire danger situations.  Anyone remember the Oakland hills fire?  Anyone think it couldn't happen again?  And to top it all off, the U.S. has been a net exporter of natural gas for more than a year and has driven the price of natural gas down 87% from its peak in 2005.  In the meantime, hardly anyone thinks electricity prices are going anywhere but up.  So much for "affordable housing" from that bastion of East Bay wisdom.  I'm grateful these sorts of ideas don't infect Burlingame too often although we must be vigilant every two years at election time (which is fast approaching again).

Herb Caen: Memorial Day 1949

Herb Caen's column helped introduce me to the Bay Area in 1981.  I loved his daily columns and later his book Baghdad-By-The-Bay from 1949.  Here is a excerpt of Chapter 13 for Memorial Day

You think about things like this today.  About the kids who bought a one-way passage to North Africa and Tinian, Normandy and Attu.  Especially the kids from San Francisco, because you're back and they're not, you were lucky, they weren't--and who knows why it was like that?

You can't help thinking about the guy from the Sunset who stopped a sniper's bullet at Saint Lo, and the paisano from North Beach who cashed in at Guam, and the boy from Pacific Heights whose last C-47 mission over the Hump ended in a question mark.

I was thrilled to read about the C-47 that led the D-Day invasion being found, restored and flown to Normandy for the 75th anniversary.  Check it out here.

Nearly 75 years ago, on June 6, 1944, That’s All, Brother led the main airborne invasion of Normandy. Piloted by Lt. Col John Donalson, the plane led over 800 C-47s that dropped over 13,000 paratroopers into a battle that changed the course of mankind. Our mission is to bring this great airplane back to the skies over Normandy for the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

My Dad flew C-47's during the war and pulled gliders full of paratroopers behind.  Here's remembering all of our vets and the other loved ones who have passed on to the other side.