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.

 

"Welcome Carpetbaggers"

I'm not sure there is much more to say about SB9 and SB10 than was said in the May post titled SB 9 and YIMBY Carpetbaggers except to note that Newsom only waited two days post-recall to sign them.  You can also go to the Comical's donation tracker and see that the CALIFORNIA REAL ESTATE POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (CREPAC) - CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS was Newsom's seventh largest donor for the recall race at $1.5 million.  Can you say "For Sale By Owner"? 

Design review?  Psshawh.  Street parking?  Nah, everyone will have an e-scooter and take Lyft.  Water?  Don't get me started. The last line of the Daily Post article says "Many cities have organized against SB9, including Palo Alto, Los Altos and San Carlos."  We shall see if any real organized opposition appears.  In the meantime, mark Sept. 16th as the day we said "Goodbye single-family zoning".

 

My Gubernatorial Pipe Dream

Today was the last day to file papers to replace Gavin Newsom as governor of California.  I did not get my paperwork in as planned.  Ever since Arnold bested a field of 135 candidates to replace Gray Davis in 2003, I have regretted not throwing my hat in the ring.  But I was busy back then.  What could be more fun than a "gadfly" run at the governor's mansion?  More importantly, for $4,200 anyone could have their candidate's statement printed in the voter guide and mailed to all 20.9 million registered voters in the state.  That is a bargain!

I didn't get around to filing today, but I did write my candidate's statement.  Here you go:

Day 1:  I will kill the High-speed rail project saving California taxpayers $100+ billion.  Newsom knows it is the right thing to do, but cannot buck Big Labor.

Day 2:  I will redirect all available infrastructure funding to our water systems and new storage.  We cannot address housing until we have sufficient water security for the population and businesses that are already here.  Our best defense against climate change is a lot more trees that need water.

Day 3:  I will quadruple our wildfire firefighting capabilities by redirecting much of our $105 billion budget surplus to personnel and equipment.  There is no excuse for being surprised 5 years in a row and we need those trees, not the pollution from the wildfires.  It's a no-brainer.

Day 4:  I will sign an executive order guaranteeing Californians easy, cost-effective access to all sources of energy including natural gas, gas for cars, propane and nuclear power without limitation.  Existing local restrictions will be invalidated, and the existing solar credits and net metering will continue.

Day 5:  I will clear the way for single-family residential zoning to stay single-family residential zoning.  These neighborhoods are the backbone of our communities and need to be safeguarded.  There is plenty of R2 and R3 zoning to meet our near term housing needs.

Day 6:  I will issue a series of RFPs to upgrade the primitive computer systems at the EDD, the DMV, the court system and the voter registration system while recouping the $30+ billion of EDD fraud that Newsom seems to have forgotten about.

Day 7:  I will issue an executive order that reinforces cities’ and town’s rights to have at-large city council and school board elections when they have less than 100,000 residents.  Postage stamp-sized governance is not good governance.

Then I will have dinner at the French Laundry. I will pay for my own dinner and no lobbyists will be invited.  Breakfast at Alana's the next morning and then back to work.  There is plenty more to be done.  When you read that voter's guide before September 14, you know what to look for!  I appreciate the people who previewed my agenda and offered to host a coffee for me.  That and $30 million would have done the trick :-)

Saving History One Building at a Time

The city is slowly working its way towards more protections and incentives for preserving local buildings and homes that add to the amazing character of our neighborhoods.  Recently I was talking to a PG&E guy from Menlo Park who came to fix the outage on our street.  He looked up and down the street and was amazed that it was so nice since "they're tearing everything down in Menlo Park".  I said "Yep" and left it at that while feeling sorry for him.  The Draft "Chapter 25.35 - Historic Resources" is winding its way through the process and would represent an upgrade to the existing, limited code just for the central downtown Ave area found on the City website here.

We definitely need this--now more than ever as various local and state-wide forces seek to shred local character with the mistaken idea that it would help "affordability" and would come with no unintended consequences.  Wrong.

The Historic Register has eleven criteria for inclusion and "shall only occur upon request of the property owner" and if officially designated "are eligible for incentives detailed in Section 25.35.080 Preservation Incentives."  Those are the "carrots".  The Planning Commission study session last week focused on the "sticks" as described by the Daily Journal

The Burlingame Planning Commission weighed Monday, June 14, proposals which would punish any homeowner who destroyed a structure identified on the city’s historic registry.  Forcing a property owner to rebuild a replica of the destroyed historic structure or feature then ban any further construction at the site for 20 years was among the repercussions considered. No decision was made at the meeting and the issue will return for more deliberation later.

While the Planning Commission and ultimately the City Council will weigh the sticks, I like to focus on the carrots; like more flexible parking requirements when adding floor space and an extra 25% lot coverage allowance.  In addition, the 1972 Mills Act, named for former state senator James Mills of San Diego who passed away in March, offers the real carrot for regular homeowners looking to save a bit of property tax.  Realty Times notes that it "provides a way whereby owners of designated historic properties may receive significant property tax relief in return for restoring and maintaining their property."  You can click through for some of the details, but the bottom line is it is an incentive that the draft B'game code says "is often a benefit to the community as a whole and the owners of surrounding properties".  We've been in short supply of that kind of thinking lately with the onslaught of ADUs, SB 9, short-term rentals, etc. 

Going Solar: And hoping it ends up worth it

Some so-called environmentalists talk the talk, but when it comes to walking the walk they are mostly hot air.  I fall into the category of doing what you can as it makes practical sense.  I've been gauging the practicality of going to rooftop solar on my house for a couple of years and finally decided to get an expert opinion to strengthen the analysis.  By word of mouth, I learned about local Burlingame solar guy Steve Pariani.  He's really local; born and raised here and lives in town.  His company is Solar Pro Energy Systems.  After giving him my electricity usage and having him use satellite imagery to assess my roof's solar capacity, it appears to be a reasonable investment--not great like buying some Reddit-hyped stock, but OK.  Unless the "equity police" in Sacramento and the monopoly utilities misguidedly screw things up.

I have a clear southern exposure--very few trees on that side--and a decent amount of square footage.  There is room for 25 panels that would generate 8.5 KW for a one-year total of 12,871 kWh--the equivalent of driving 10,000 fewer miles per year!  As with any big investment--and this is definitely a big one--there are risks.  Steve has walked me through the technology and I don't find that to be much of a risk.  But with hacks like Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego pushing bills like AB 1139 to make the investment LESS attractive, you never know.  You would think with all of the growing pains on the California grid and the pressure to move to even more electricity usage (banning natural gas, EVs, etc) nobody would mind some Californians putting up major capital investments to generate additional juice, but you would be wrong.  Here is one example that Calmatters published.  AB 1139 died last week at the deadline, but you can bet the woman behind the idea to make Uber and Lyft drivers full-time employees (which many of them didn't even want) will be back next session.  The tougher battle may be with the CPUC.  As the California Solar & Storage Association (CALSSA) writes about the threat to Net Energy Metering

Whether we are talking AB 1139 or the IOU NEM-3 proposals, the utilities are trying to outright kill rooftop solar and storage in California, protect their monopoly, and grab more profits for themselves. It doesn’t matter the forum; the impact of the attack are the same: kill rooftop solar in the country's number one market.
 
The CPUC NEM fight is going to be harder to win politically for several reasons. First, it takes place at a little-known state agency with limited opportunity for public engagement. Second, there are only five decision makers at the CPUC, all political appointees, and, unlike in the state legislature, none have stepped forward (yet) to champion distributed generation. And third, if the utilities "own" the legislature, getting the Speaker, the Chair of Energy Committee, and the Chair of Appropriations Committee to back AB 1139, just think of how much they have captured the CPUC.

I'm going for it and hoping the sun shines brightly and the Legislature and/or the CPUC don't screw it up.  Common sense is in short supply these days which makes my decision much more of a gamble than I would prefer.  So much for real environmentalism.  Here's local small businessman Steve Pariani.

 

Housing Prices: By the Numbers

Just in case you thought the Bay Area real estate appreciation was different from the rest of the country, Zillow is here to share the data.  As always, data needs to be taken with some salt as concepts like YoY percentages and medians this or that can hide anomalies.  But the data is still the data as reported by the Comicle

The U.S. is in the middle of a record-setting boom in home values and a massive squeeze in supply. But the Bay Area has been somewhat cushioned from these effects, according to a recent Zillow report.  The report found that in the metropolitan area of San Francisco — which includes Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Marin counties — home values increased by 7.4% in April 2021 compared to the previous year.  By comparison, home values in the U.S. overall rose 11.6% over the past year. And in some regions, including Phoenix and Austin, Texas, home values soared by more than 20%.

The S.F. and San Jose metropolitan areas actually rank at the very bottom of all major metropolitan areas for home value appreciation, noted Jeff Tucker, a senior economist at Zillow.  But, he said, these trends look very different at the county level.  “The big takeaway that I’m seeing here is, the most expensive parts of the Bay and the most urban parts of the Bay have had the slowest growth rates,” Tucker said.

A lot of that has to do with The Exodus that is a year old now.  The same goes for rentals where the flood of For Rent signs around B'game has abated in months.  But prices are stable according to Zumper

Burlingame ranked as the 7th most expensive city to rent (in the Bay Area).  The price of one bedroom units remained flat at a median of $2,190, while two bedrooms also stayed stable at $3,120.

There isn't really a lot of variation from the fifth highest (Menlo Park) to the 23rd (Concord).  A ton of new units are in progress in B'game so the For Rent signage is likely here for awhile.

SB9 and YIMBY Carpetbaggers

The irony of the YIMBY movement is that for the most part YIMBY's don't actually have backyards--they're just jealous of other people's backyards.  Couple financial jealousy with a tinge of misplaced racism--what I have termed neo-racism--and you get political pressure to destroy single-family zoning as noted here.  A letter to the Comicle today decries this "home shaming".  I'll add it to the comment section.  But people are waking up to the threat posed by Senate Bill 9 and the YIMBY carpetbaggers.  Regular Voice reader Laura has crafted a call to action for us and asked me to share it:

Please be aware of what Sacramento is doing and how it affects our town.  Burlingame is under siege by Sacramento, large Construction Developers, and affordable housing advocates that seek to disrupt the successful balance of single family and multi-family housing that we have in our town today!  They are showing up in numbers for the Zoom City Council meetings and they are advocating for SB-9. 

SB-9 has the potential to change our town forever. In a nutshell, SB-9 rezones all parcels within single-family residential zones, to allow for the creation of up to 10 units on one residential lot, no matter how small the lot size, with NO parking requirement.  That means that your neighbor's home, could become a 10 unit building and neither you, nor your local Council could do anything about it.  SB-9 is one of dozens of similar bills, all designed to erode local control over land-use. 

Our Burlingame Community supported a General Plan revision in 2019 that allows for reasonable growth that our schools, roads, and water infrastructure can accommodate. This plan meets our State mandated housing goals. Burlingame presently has more multi-family residential units as a percentage of housing (53% compared to 47% for single family) than any other city in San Mateo County except East Palo Alto.  We are doing our part and have accomplished this with local control and balance!  Don’t let the outsiders say otherwise.  It is just not true.  

Please let your representatives know that you support your Council's local control over our city’s zoning and do not want interference from Large developers and outside housing advocates that care nothing for your quality of life, or your town.

Please voice your concern to Burlingame City Council at Council@Burlingame.org 

 

Assembly member Kevin  Mullin                                                 Senator Josh Becker

assemblymember.mullin@assembly.ca.gov 

                                                                          https://sd13.senate.ca.gov/contact

916-319-2022                                                                              (916) 651-4013

650-349-2200                                                                                (650) 212-3313

State Senior Scott Weiner 

 Senator.weiner@senate.ca.gov

916-651-4013

650-212-3313

Bayfront: Hotels or Life Sciences...just not housing

You could argue that the Covid pandemic is drawing to a close as we approach herd immunity and with it we will see a return to business and leisure travel.  With that a return of the hotel TOT that has been one of the Golden Geese keeping B'game flush would be in the cards.  Or not.  Maybe Zoom and work at home will take a serious dent out of travel.  For now though at least one erstwhile hotel developer on the Bayfront wants the freedom to build differently to attract life sciences tenants.  As this piece in the DJ notes, the Planning Commission is somewhat amenable as are some city councilors.

With the pandemic interrupting the travel and hospitality industries, Burlingame officials are considering introducing the life sciences industry into an area historically preserved for hotels and light industry.  But they balanced those perspectives against an expectation that developers proposing life science buildings would be obligated to supplement their plans with an attractive package of community benefits.

Under the proposal, buildings reserved for tenants in the life sciences industries could be allowed to build a floor-area ratio up to 3.0 — a significant spike from the current standard of 0.75 floor-area ratio for every building in the area other than hotels.

And while support for the vision was broad during a challenging time in the travel and hospitality industry, officials also made clear they continued to prefer development of hotels along the Bayshore.

Noting that hotel tax has been one of the city’s primary sources of income when the economy was thriving, Councilman Michael Brownrigg said he favored preserving incentives for future hotel construction.

TOT has traditionally been about 38% of total city revenues in normal times as noted here back in 2016.  Nobody is suggesting tearing down existing hotels to change the usage, meaning that revenue stream should rebound, but may not reach the percentages of the past.  But the most interesting aspect of the proposal didn't make it into the DJ article.  I have it on good authority that life sciences companies need.....wait for it.....natural gas for their labs.  One source at Genentech called it a "deal killer".  Can the green councilors put aside their one-year old ban and grant a variance?   If one gets it, then the next one is entitled as well.  And if a company can get a variance for a big installation, will you be able to get one for a small installation?

Economic Lesson for Rent Controllers

I was having a chat with a friend who owns two rental units last week and has been doing some regular maintenance.  He told me generally the same thing that the Wall Street Journal has crisply quantified

Prices are surging for the raw materials used to build American homes.  Lumber, one of the biggest costs in home-building after land and labor, has never been more expensive and is more than twice the typical price for this time of year. Crude oil, a starting point for paint, drain pipe, roof shingles and flooring, has shot up more than 80% since October. Copper, which carries water and electricity throughout houses, costs about a third more than it did in the autumn.

Prices for granite, insulation, concrete blocks and common brick have all pushed to records in 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s producer-price index, which measures the change in prices that producers receive for their output. Drywall and ceramic tiles are short of records but have also climbed.

Building supply chains weren’t prepared when Americans began swarming model homes and Home Depots in April. Sawmills and factories shut down like most other workplaces early in the lockdown.  Suppliers never caught up. Now building permits for residential construction are being issued at their highest rate since 2006.

Can you imagine if B'game had passed rent control?  There would be deferred maintenance all over town.  You have to wonder how the neighboring towns that did (looking at you, Mountain View) will view the creeping neglect that has to occur when prices go up 80%, double, or a third on key materials.  The Law of Unintended Consequences isn't an economic law, but it should be.  I'm unclear on how the Fed can say they don't expect inflation to hit soon.  Oh, and gas is right behind.  "In California, the most expensive market, average prices stand at $3.88, according to AAA."

Are Neo-racists Attacking Burlingame?

I’m coming around to the idea that there may well be some racists in Burlingame and elsewhere on the Peninsula.  I know it’s hard to believe.  But when you see people judging other people’s motivations, actions or, in the case of city council members, their votes; based on the color of their skin it is hard to avoid the conclusion that they are racists.  This is not the commonly held view of what it is to be a racist.  But when one uses false charges of racism as a cudgel to get one’s way on things that have nothing to do with race one is, well…..a racist.  Let’s call them “neo-racists”.

Cue Daily Journal columnist Mark Simon who felt the need to take the B’game city council and particularly the mayor to task for reacting negatively to a comment at a county Asian Pacific Islander Caucus panel discussion:

One of the panelists, Nicole Fernandez, former chair of the county Democratic Party and now district director for state Sen. Josh Becker, noted that district elections had a significant impact on the election of nonwhites to local city councils. Fernandez eagerly anticipated the implementation of district elections in other cities, including Burlingame, which has begun that process, and which she described as one of the “NIMBYest cities” here in god’s country.

Blending charges of racism and NIMBYism is well…. neo-racist.   Hearing it from a staffer’s mouth for our own state senator (newly elected to replace Jerry Hill) is not a good sign at the start of Becker’s term.  I expect B’game should get an apology from his office for Fernandez' fact-free and neo-racist accusation.  Maybe it’s even time for a new district director that isn’t a neo-racist and doesn’t denigrate whole towns in her boss’ district.

In his Daily Journal column, Mark Simon goes on with this confused bit of rhetoric

Of course, the term NIMBY encompasses much more than housing and a lengthy and vigorous debate can be held on the topic of inclusiveness in Burlingame, or any other city in the county.

Really?  Do tell.  I though NIMBYism was about local development.  Regular readers know that I believe Burlingame, the mid-Peninsula and, in fact, the whole core of the Bay Area are already over-built for our current infrastructure.  Call me a NIMBY, I don’t care.  I haven't exactly been in the majority in town.  I am one although I consider the whole core Bay Area as “my backyard” and so should you.  With more than 1,000 units of housing in B’game approved and in the works over the last couple of years, I would like B’game to take a breather.  Let’s see how this much growth plays out.  There are a bunch of good reasons for a pause if anyone cares to look past the end of their nose.  But why bring race and “inclusiveness” into the discussion unless one is, well…. a neo-racist busy judging whole towns full of people one doesn’t know by their skin colors?

For the Glass House File:  It is easy to toss around the NIMBY label when one lives up in the winding backstreets of Emerald Hills or Farm Hills in Redwood City in a single-family zoned neighborhood on a 9,000 square foot lot like Mark Simon.  “NIMBY” comes easily to your keyboard when you live nowhere near where a spec builder is likely to buy the small house next door and jam in a four-plex or two.  The people on 5,000 square foot lots in Lyon-Hoag, Burlingame Terrace or Burlingame Village near commercial districts and transit feel very differently and it has nothing to do with race. 

Checklist:  How to tell if you are this new strain of NEO-RACIST:

--You think single-family residential zoning is racist.

--You think local parcel taxes to fund local schools are racist.

--You think voting for each of your city council members is racist.

--You think “leafy suburb” is a code word for a racist neighborhood.

--Heck, you think “suburb” is code for a racist neighborhood.

Look in the mirror.  “Crisis nearly of its own making” indeed.