The Burlingame Voice

Covid Tracking: One Year In

Rather than having to scroll through 50 comments to get to the weekend update on the last Covid post from early December, let's start a fresh thread.  We are about one year into this pandemic.  I'm reminded by the fact the Super Bowl is three weeks away, that the best thing to happen to the Bay Area in this ordeal was the Niners losing the game and not having a parade.  A million people lining Market St. shoulder-to-shoulder for several hours would have been devastating since we know the virus was already here.

So the weekend update from the County website is

Total Cases: 31,204 (+3,450 from last week, increasing more than a 1,000)

R-eff: 1.09 (down 0.19 from last week)

Positivity: 4.3% since last March. 6.5% for the last 30 days which is up .1% in the last seven days--stable.

Burlingame Cases: 799 (+89 similar to +82 and +88 the last two weeks--stable.)

The Burlingame numbers may be larger due to the count at the Burlingame Skilled Nursing facility.  The Daily Journal reported that "A recent COVID-19 outbreak resulting in the infection of 118 residents, 49 staff and one employee’s death at Burlingame Skilled Nursing...Burlingame Skilled Nursing management informed the Ombudsman and the county of the outbreak a week ago, said Bernie Mellott, and the National Guard was called in to assist the facility."

That would be 15% of our total case count.

Recycle Your Chronicle...Or Not

We can assign this to the I Told You So file, or the What Did You Expect? file or the Have You Learned Anything From This? file.  Today's SF Comicle editorial titled "What's wrong with recycling" in the print edition lists a comedy of errors that can be expanded upon in a number of directions.  But first, let's read some excerpts:

Back in 2012, the California Legislature declared it the policy of the state that by 2020, at least 75% of the state’s waste would be reduced, recycled or composted. It was a bold legislative goal that turns out to have been a waste of the paper it was printed on.  Since the target was set eight years ago, the state’s annual landfill disposal has grown steadily from about 40 million tons a year to nearly 50 million. The recycling, composting and reduction rate, meanwhile, fell from around 50% to 37%, or about half the rate lawmakers set out to achieve.

One of the heaviest blows to the effort in recent years came from China and other Asian nations that stopped accepting discarded plastic and other materials from wealthy countries such as the United States, much of which was unusable garbage falsely counted for domestic purposes as recycled.  (Imagine THAT!)  That forces officials to contend with more waste that is unrecyclable in general or at least within California’s borders, where state and local regulations can make it difficult to build and even maintain recycling facilities. (Imagine THAT!)

This is the Chonicle!  There's more about plastic bags with recycling triangles on them that aren't recyclable, lithium ion batteries (like Teslas) and propane tanks, but you will have to click through to read the tale of woe.  My point is to draw a direct line between the clowns who pass these laws and do nothing to facilitate meeting the goals.  Let's ban natural gas in new construction, ban gas powered cars by 2035, build 30 miles of high-cost rail instead of recycling plants in-state to recycle our own stuff, overload the electrical grid so we are at the mercy of adjacent states in a crunch, fine PG&E for not trimming enough trees after the fact and shovel taxpayer money at any number of misguided goals.  In the meantime, groups like the Sierra Club line up like lemmings on the approved agenda with no clue that any of it will actually help the environment.

Me?  I'd just like to know that my empty detergent bottle was going to be recycled nearby, I will have reliable power, someone is balancing development with the worst case scenario for water availability in our arid state and my taxes aren't being siphoned off by anyone other than prisoners scamming the EDD.  What is Newsom's approval rating again?

Looking for Silver Linings of 2020

As this annus horribilis winds its way to its midnight conclusion, I have been searching for whatever silver linings come to mind.  There aren't many and perhaps some of you will add a few more, but these are what I have come up with:

With schools going virtual and organized sports on hold, it was a rough year for kids.  On the bright side, it's gratifying to see how many kids rediscovered their bikes.  Bike sales skyrocketed (unfortunately so did bike thefts) and seeing so many B'game kids cruising the streets with or without their parents has been great.  Popping wheelies is also back and modern bikes allow for some impressive wheelie yardage.

Sales of puppies may even be outstripping that of bikes.  On my dog walks, I have seen more puppies in the last two months than I can ever recall.  Even better, new owners seem to have the time on their hands to do puppy training.  I took the puppy obedience classes at the SPCA at Coyote Point years ago and know the basics, but there must be some good YouTube instruction for these new owners to learn virtually since they are doing so well.  I bet there are a lot of dogs as happy as are mine with the extra walks.

Our restaurants have been at the epicenter of the business stress.  Many were temporarily closed even before the latest lockdown and some are not likely to make it.  But in speaking to the owner of one of my favorites on the Avenue, he noted that through all of this he has gotten to know his customers better than he ever has before.  People really wanted to talk when they were out, as we saw with the BAAZ, and owners and staff are happy to comply.

Spring cleaning started right on time and then continued for months and months.  It is still on-going if the "Donations Are Full" signs at Pick of the Litter are any indication.  I once saw the donation line at the Goodwill in San Mateo stretch into the street and bend back almost to El Camino.  20 cars.  People generally have good hearts and 2020 made it more visible.  Home improvements followed suit and local gardens certainly benefited.  Lowes, Home Depot and nurseries made it to "essential business" status.

All things on Zoom and virtual is a double-edged sword.  Hanging out with people is key to many, especially the extroverts, and web conferencing is a thin substitute.  But on the plus side, we can hangout with friends from far away or long ago easier than ever.  Having health care providers adapt to virtual sessions will be another long-term benefit.

The last silver lining I have is a prediction.  As things return to normal, we will all have a greater appreciation for a lot of heretofore less-noticed things.  Meetups for morning coffee, sitting at a ballgame at Bayside or Washington Park, the Lion's Car Show, Art on the Avenue, going to church in church, and family gatherings will all be sweeter than before.  Happy New Year!  Bring on 2021.    

Winter Solstice, Christmas Star

I like to take note of the Winter Solstice as I did in 2014 here.  It's the shortest day of the year, so it's all downhill from here to those glorious, long June nights in B'game when you can sit out in the dusk until 9:30.  I'm not too affected by the darkness being a nighthawk to begin with, but I know many people for whom it is a struggle and this year is probably the worst ever.  The shortest day means the longest night and tonight is special since it marks a Jupiter - Saturn Conjunction.  As this site notes  and shows a great time lapse rendering

The year 2020 will end with a special astronomical event: the closest great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 397 years. On December 21, the two planets will almost touch in the sky.  Since September 2020, Jupiter has been moving closer and closer to Saturn in the early evening sky. Wherever you are in the world—even in light-polluted urban environments—the two planets are an impressive sight, and easy to find after sunset. If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, look toward the southwest.

You can also use my new favorite app, Sky Guide, and easily locate stars, constellations and planets.  No more memorizing what is where like when I was a Boy Scout.

On December 21, the day of the conjunction, Jupiter and Saturn will be separated by a mere 0.1 degrees, and may appear as a single bright “star.” The two planets are completely merged together on our Night Sky Map for this date, although a careful observer should be able to separate them in the sky with the naked eye.   The pair of planets will become visible at twilight, close to the southwestern horizon in the Northern Hemisphere, or the western horizon in the Southern Hemisphere. They will set within a couple of hours or so, so it is important to have a clear view toward the horizon.

As Jupiter and Saturn will rendezvous just a few days before Christmas, forming what will look like a single bright object in the sky, the 2020 great conjunction is sometimes also called the “Christmas star” or “Bethlehem star.”  In fact, some scholars have theorized that the original Christmas star, known as the Star of Bethlehem, might also have been a great conjunction.

The December 21, 2020 conjunction will be the closest great conjunction since July 16, 1623. At the great conjunction of 1623, Jupiter and Saturn were slightly less than 0.1 degrees apart. However, this event would have been difficult—although not impossible—to observe since the two planets were near the Sun.  The last time that the two planets were easily observable when separated by less than 0.1 degrees was almost 800 years ago, during the great conjunction of 1226.

There is more on the site linked above, so check it out and get outside after sunset to see the Christmas Star.

Update:  A friend who lives on "Panoramic Heights" in San Carlos and is very capable with a telescope and camera sent me this picture (taken with a 1200 mm lens)!  Enjoy!

Exodus - Part 2 Elon Musk Departs

Back in July we asked "how big? and how long?" would be the exodus from the Bay Area?  We got one more view of just how big today when the Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk said at a WSJ CEO Summit council this week he has moved to Texas.

Taking up residence in Texas comes with personal benefits for Mr. Musk: The state doesn’t collect state income or capital-gains tax for individuals. The auto executive qualified this year for billions of dollars in stock-option compensation as part of a pay-package agreement, making him the second-richest person in the world.

During the spring, when Mr. Musk was sparring over coronavirus shelter-in-place orders that shut his factory near San Francisco, California Gov. Gavin Newsom told CNBC he was “not worried about Elon leaving any time soon” and the state was committed to the car maker’s success. “We may not be the cheapest place to do business but we are the best place to do business,” Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, said.

California’s taxes underlie many of the complaints. Its personal income tax tops out at 13.3% for amounts over $1 million a year, the highest in the nation. Capital gains are taxed at a similar rate.

In a separate piece this week, the WSJ also highlighted how mid-tier cities are gaining population at the expense of SF and NYC

For every person who moved to the Bay Area from Austin between April and October, 2.9 people moved in the other direction, according to an analysis from LinkedIn. That is a 39% increase from a year earlier.

Perhaps the Gavinor could make a phone call, apologize and get back Musk's tens of millions of dollars in annual California taxes.  He would also have to call the CEOs of HP Enterprise, Palantir and dozens of start-ups and sports stars.  But as the Journal noted "Many who call the Bay Area home have expressed relief at the departure of tech professionals who have been blamed for driving up the cost of living and congesting the freeways."  When I was an analyst, we called that a "going out of business strategy".  Nobody is less pleased with the over-development of the Peninsula than me, but if we are to fund the good stuff (schools, social services, infrastructure, pensions) and the bad stuff Newsom wants (high-cost rail, costly green policies, giveaways) then he might want to pick up the phone and start calling. 

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Covid Fine

I'm poaching the Five Man Electrical Band's sole hit song "Signs" for this post about Covid violation fines

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?

And the sign said anybody caught trespassin' would be shot on sight
So I jumped on the fence and-a yelled at the house, "Hey! What gives you the right?"

The Daily Post is leading the way on reporting what SM County Manager Mike Callagy said Wednesday about businesses getting fined for not filing plans with the county or posting signs about social distancing or wearing masks.  He said he "didn't have the exact number of tickets that have been handed out but 747 complaints have come into the county about businesses.  The county's Board of Supervisors on Aug. 4 approved a set of Covid-related fines for businesses, ranging from $250 to $3,000.  He said of the complaints, 24% are from San Mateo, 16% from Redwood City and 10% in Burlingame.  The businesses commonly cited are gyms and "tend to operate at night".

Pretty amazing since long time B'gamers are aware of another business that "tends to operate at night" and yet seldom gets cited.  Some of these businesses are on the Bayfront and others on the side streets of B'way.  We are leading the way here though since San Mateo is 3 1/2 times our size but only has 2 1/2 times as many complaints.  OK.  Now I'll retract my tongue from my cheek and suggest a) this may not be the best way to go about it, b) does anyone really need a sign to know about wearing a mask and c) can we just leave the gyms to exercise good judgement as the main purveyors of good health in town?

 

Covid Updates: "Model Better Behavior"

Our four earlier Covid-19 tracking posts start here, then go here with the most recent ones here and here. Before I get to this week's Saturday update on the County numbers, let's examine current Covid events.  Today's SF Comicle is reporting

Gov. Gavin Newsom attended a birthday party for a political adviser last week that included people from several households, the type of gathering his administration has discouraged during the coronavirus pandemic.  The dinner the night of Nov. 6 at the famed French Laundry in Yountville in Napa County brought together at least 12 people...Representatives for Kinney and Newsom declined to specify how many households the diners represented, but did not dispute that it was more than three...On Monday, he pointed to private gatherings, such as extended families getting together, as a driving factor of the increase in new cases in the state...“While our family followed the restaurant’s health protocols and took safety precautions, we should have modeled better behavior and not joined the dinner,” the governor said.

I think we can all agree with his assertion that he should do better.  Perhaps as penance, Newsom should put up a webcam at his family's Thanksgiving dinner so we know he's learned his lesson?  Here are the main rules plus one that was shown on the next screen that demanded No Singing or Shouting at T-day dinner.  Got that?

Now back to our weekly update.  Several counties are locking down indoor dining again, but no word from San Mateo County yet.  Here are the week's numbers from the County site:

Total Cases: 12,465 (+655, climbing again by about another 200)

R-eff: 1.03 (the same as last week)

Positivity: 5.4% (the same as last week)

Burlingame Cases: 279 (+19 for the week, so climbing.  Don't let your guard down now.  And no shouting.)

All Gave Some, Some Gave All

I'm relieved that Veterans Day is still a valid holiday of remembrance in the U.S.   During my professional career I often happened to be in Europe on November 11th and always found the wearing of poppies on lapels to be a visible sign of remembrance that we don't see as often here.  Wikipedia offers some background

Veterans Day (originally known as Armistice Day) is a federal holiday in the United States observed annually on November 11, for honoring military veterans, that is, persons who have served in the United States Armed Forces (and were discharged under conditions other than dishonorable).^[1][2] It coincides with other holidays including Armistice Day and Remembrance Day which are celebrated in other countries that mark the anniversary of the end of World War I. Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, when the Armistice with Germany went into effect. At the urging of major U.S. veteran organizations, Armistice Day was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.

The remembrance poppy is an artificial flower worn to commemorate those who died for their country. Veteran's associations exchange poppies for charitable donations used to give financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the armed forces.

Let's take some time to remember our vets.  All gave some, some gave all.

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?

Good Thing Our Town is Named Burlingame

From everything we know now, Anson Burlingame has an exceptional reputation even by 2020's slippery standards.  We noted much of his story here when his bust was unveiled in the library and here when we described how Burlingame, Kansas came to be.  But if we are to listen to the revisionist social justice warriors from SF, our elementary schools need to be changed--lots of them.  It's not clear if the SJWs have spent much time on old Ben Franklin who might be iffy, but Washington, Lincoln, Hoover, McKinley and Roosevelt have to go!  Good thing we don't have a Feinstein Elementary because it too would have to go.

I do wonder who will be the first B'game based SJW to broach the subject and how long it will take.  We have a bit of a breather after SF Mayor London Breed called the idea "offensive" yesterday.  Not the idea of changing, just the idea of changing in the middle of the pandemic.  I give it til the end of the year here in B'game.  So much for the idea of "teachable moments".  Better to cancel than educate.