The Burlingame Voice

Build, Build, Build...Then What?

As I looked at the latest overly large building rise on Howard Ave. across from the Caltrain station while waiting for the train, I had to wonder (again) how much growth the mid-Peninsula can withstand?  Travelling by train down to Palo Alto, the question became even more pressing.  It's quite stunning to see how much real estate is "in the dirt" on huge new projects right next to the Caltrain right of way.  Blocks and blocks of additional building doesn't bode well for our traffic, school capacity or water security.  To all the people saying we need a "Regional Housing Authority" to address the "housing crisis", I say we need a "Regional Infrastructure Authority" first.

Another Time, This Place

I don't want to push the misplaced Stop Sign post down from the top, but the Voice needs to stay fresh so here is a little "thought piece" that starts 69 years ago.  If you find it boring, just scroll down to comment on stop signs, scooters, wildfires, SFO runway noise, our lack of water security, BHS woes, empty stores on the Avenew, etc, etc.

I always loved Herb Caen's take on EssEff life.  In the '80s and '90s, I read him every day and twice on Sundays.  I also read and reread his books.  His 1949 classic, Baghdad by the Bay, starts off chapter 28 with this paragraph

San Francisco, brought to life by the lusty, gusty roars of the gold seekers, has never taken itself too seriously.  From the very start there has been life and laughter in Baghdad-by-the-Bay, with every citizen a potential comedian, every stuffed shirt the inevitable butt of a joke, every facet of the city's life wide open to the snide observation.

Herb would be so disappointed by the EssEff of 2018.  There are so many stuffed shirts strutting around SF that it is positively regressive--in a progressive sort of way.  The City is a mess and I am afraid the effluent will taint B'game even more than it already has.  It's bad enough that they control our water supply, let their airport disrupt our sleep and keep trying to make socialist rent control seem mainstream.  The November ballot will be packed with sneakily written propositions and innocent claims about dangerous initiatives.  Let's hope we can channel Herb Caen and keep our sense of humor and whatever the noun is that goes with "snide".

Hall of Famer: "Stats" Jamieson

We have some real personalities in town one of whom is being honored for his long stint as the announcer for Bgame Panther baseball.  The Daily Journal noted that Tyler Jamieson is being inducted into the Bgame Athletics HoF at next year's LIttle Big Game.  I know Tyler as "Stats" Jamieson--because he keeps the stats as well as doing the announcing.  He's also the memory of the team in many ways having announced for almost 20 years--last Friday was his 500th game at the mic.

Jamieson has shown the Peninsula that a first-class production can go a long way to making high school players feel special. From announcing the starting lineups for both teams, to between-inning music and even providing the walk-up music for Panthers batters at home games, Jamieson makes sure the players get a taste of big-time baseball.

Tony Brunicardi, a 2003 Burlingame graduate and a current assistant baseball coach at Skyline College, remembers Jamieson as simply a part of the team. Brunicardi said the best was when Jamieson handed out his own postseason awards for the baseball team.

“He had the ‘Tyler Jamieson awards.’ He had his own rookie of the year, his own Cy Young award,” Brunicardi said. “I appreciated it as much back then as I do now.”

Having heard the selections for the Tyler Jamieson awards for several years, including one that was given to my son, I can tell you Stats pays close attention and has a sly sense of humor that makes it all so much more fun.  Congrats, Stats!

BHS Drug Article

We think this comment by PO'ed Mom that was entered on another BHS thread merits its own post because it is an important topic and should not be buried three pages down in the comment section.

Why is the BHS student newspaper allowed to print an article about drug use ON the campus?  I'm all for freedom of speech but this is a high school newspaper that is doing the advertisement work for the drug dealer.

"According to the aforementioned student seller, people that buy Adderall from him are typically “either stressed out with exams or [people] who need to pass a class to play sports. All types of people buy, even gamers who want to play better.”

Is the student reporter required to "give up" the on campus dealers since student reporters don't have the ability to "protect a source" These are public tax dollars at work.

Who allowed this to get published and have the BPD interviewed this reporter or the Newspaper advisor? At least make the dealer pay for an advertisement.

https://theburlingameb.org/feature/2017/11/26/adderall-dealing-on-campus-reflects-increasing-academic-pressures

The paper even states "became one of many teen Adderall dealers in the Burlingame community".  "One student, who asked to remain anonymous, became one of many teen Adderall dealers in the Burlingame community shortly after he was prescribed the medication for Attention Deficit Disorder.

“I was super happy but I felt I was cheating a bit, so I started giving to people I know who were not doing so well when they had tests,” he said, emphasizing the academic pressure involved in buying the medication from peers. “I don’t turn a profit, I just do it to help the people around me.”

Thank you POM for the pointer.  We know the Voice readers will find this important.

"Housing Advocates" Please Go Away

I am thoroughly sick and tired of the so-called housing advocates trying to pressure every City decision to add more housing.  In yesterday's Daily Journal we get two more examples.  First, the piece on redeveloping a piece of Bayfront land that is sitting mostly idle is on the docket for a meeting tonight with the State Lands Commission and the city and residents

State officials received an application from H&Q Asia Pacific in 2016 to develop a new hotel and park at the site, prompting a neighbor of the property to offer an alternative proposal to preserve the land as open space.

SPHERE Institute, a public policy research firm headquartered in the area east of Highway 101 along the city’s Bayfront, expressed an interest in leading the financing campaign to preserve the wetlands which exist on the property.

Housing advocates have also called for the site to be built into a residential development.

Really?  These clowns have no idea what it would take in city time, energy and expense to support ANY housing on the Bayfront.  There is no school, no police patrol to speak of (I know, I've done a drive-along with BPD), fire/ambulance coverage takes a lot of effort and will never be great without a new station that will never happen, and the weather sucks for the most part.  Just stop already!  Then this little gem of an idea pops up in the Rec Center article in the same edition

Under the direction from councilmembers, the architect will craft new designs and bring the issue back for further consideration in June.

While design revisions were considered, housing advocates suggested developing some residential units on top of the facility as a means of combating the city’s affordability crisis.

Stop already.  It's a Rec Center, not public housing.  The whole community is wondering where the heck the parking is going to come from for the recreation part and these clowns want to add housing?  Unbelievable.  We have a huge amount of housing already "in the dirt".  That's enough until all the other support services figure out how to handle the influx that has already been approved.   Oh, and just for good measure, we are back in a drought situation regardless of how much rain we get this week. 

Parents Uniting for Nelson - Part 3

Scrolling through five or six pages of comments to get to the most recent ones on the issue of Mr. Nelson's transfer is tedious, so those who are interested in the history of this BHS issue can find the original post here and Part 2 here.  I have captured the essence of the current state from the comment stream in Part 2.  This will save us all a lot of scrolling and continue to give Mr. Nelson a venue to share important information.  As I read it the situation is

Oct. 7, 2017:

The United States Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) is currently conducting its third (3rd) investigation of the SMUHSD surrounding the actions taken in retaliation against me.

The SMUHSD is refusing to produce ANY Public Record Requests surrounding this case.  BHS Principal Di Yim, SMUHSD Director of Special Education/504 Director Gloria Dirkmaat were "retired" over these issues.

The members of the SMUHSD Board promised an investigation of the issues at BHS. They never fulfilled this promise.  This "cover up"is getting expensive. The price tag was already over $100,000 in legal and investigation fees before this current investigation.

And from Jan. 8, 2017: 

The SMUHSD hired a Special Investigator, Chris Reynolds to interview teachers regarding issues at Burlingame High School.  Mr. Reynolds was paid over $10,000 for his services.

Despite the fact that the SMUHSD Administration explained to these teachers that the interviews were private and confidential, the BHS teachers collaborated with one another and coordinated stories to deflect guilt for their actions.

And from May 22, 2017:

The Burlingame English Department sits at the center of this fiasco as it became a "gossip pit," targeted students, and backstabbing those who spoke out against them. There are teachers who know nothing... but those who listened and did nothing are just as guilty. 

Lastly, the assertion was made that upon another teacher's retirement, Mr. Nelson qualifies for a return to BHS.  That is the central issue in my mind.  I manage a lot of people in my day job and I find value in having a few that are not afraid to speak up and point out problems.  One wonders if SMUSHD and the BHS administration feel the same?

 

An "Affordable Village"?

The Daily Journal gave an update to the on-going "affordable" housing saga in B'game late last week.  We've discussed how B'game has been expensive since its very founding here and I'm more convinced than ever that nothing the City tries will make much of a dent in that.  I've had several conversations with SF refugees and Silicon Valley people hoping to move north to follow the companies moving north that cause me to believe we will always be a prime destination.  And if we do something big enough (i.e. more than the 132 units being discussed now) it will have even more of a deleterious effect on the quality of life and education in B'game.

The Burlingame City Council discussed a joint effort with San Mateo County’s Home for All initiative aiming to kick-start community conversations this year regarding ways to make the city more affordable.

The pilot program is slated to launch Saturday, Feb. 10, with an initial discussion regarding affordable housing plans and policies standing to impact Burlingame.

“We will be getting a pulse of the community and seeing what people are thinking about,” Planning Director Kevin Gardiner said of the event to be coordinated by community engagement consulting firm Common Knowledge Plus and Home for All, which is a county program aiming to close the local imbalance of available jobs and homes.

Central to the initial talks will be the city’s vision to build the Village at Burlingame affordable development, slated to include 78 workforce housing units and 54 units set aside for seniors on a surface parking lot at Park Road and Lorton Avenue, south of Howard Avenue.

I'm reminded a bit of the old Boutique & Villager when I hear the working name for this "village", but I'll bet the ethos that existed when the B&V existed would not have looked kindly on this sort of thing.  Those were days when the small scale feel of the town was embedded in the press' mindset.  The results of the rent control vote would seem to say the general public still has some of that ethos, so I hope the Council really does listen to more than the squeaky wheels.  You would think with the building boom that is already going, the Peninsula Ave. overpass and B'way underpass concerns, the drive-in and PAMF projects under full steam and no new Rec Center in sight, there would be enough things to worry about without reducing downtown parking......

 

Alternative High School in B'game?

Today's Daily Journal has a piece on where 

Peninsula Alternative High School is on track to move to Burlingame, following San Mateo Union High School District officials initially approving the continuation school relocating from its remote San Bruno setting.

The San Mateo Union High School District Board of Trustees unanimously approved Wednesday, Dec. 13, going ahead with a proposal to purchase 860 Hinckley Road in Burlingame for development of a new continuation school campus.

The proposal stands to end a yearslong search by officials to find a new site closer to the homes of most students than the school’s current isolation on the former Crestmoor High School campus.

With the board’s approval to move ahead, officials will begin negotiating with the Burlingame property owner to offer $5.6 million for the currently vacant commercial building. The district has set aside $20 million for property acquisition and construction of a school accommodating more than 200 students. Trustees also approved officials beginning environmental testing on the land.

Local Linda Lees Dwyer is now the Board prez and local Greg Land continues in his role as a Trustee of SMUHSD ("Smushed").  200 students going to school in the mostly light industrial district will add some complexity to police and fire coverage.  The last time I looked at the top addresses for dispatch of police, BHS was at or near the top of the list.  But all in all, it's a way better location than the old Crestmoor site which may still be in play for teacher housing as we noted here.  And is it the camel's nose under the tent for housing on the Bayfront as discussed here?

Endangered Burlingame Species

The writing is probably on the wall for every close-in Burlingame bungalow given the economics of tearing down a single-family home and going to condos near the core.  It's really quite sad.  With the monster growing on California Ave. and the number of already-approved projects plus what is in the works, we are on the precipice of a major change in the face of B'game.  That won't come as a surprise to any regular Voice reader, but knowing it's coming and seeing the scraped lot are two different things in my experience.

I was saddened to see this little gem of a very close-in bungalow that, like many others, had been carved into apartments over the years get the death sentence a few weeks back.  It's seriously cute, looks to be fairly well-maintained, and will be replaced by a big box.  I'm too much of a realist to think much can be done about the trend, but I can say I will miss it when it's gone.

Adios 21 Park Ave.  You are about a century old, if not more, and many people have crossed your threshold for the walk downtown and back.  You will be missed.

The location is in the Washington School zone so add the increased density to the Bayswater Ave. proposed project.  I'm not sure where all those kids are going to end up.

Nov 30 Update

An Lo and Behold, driving down Oak Grove yesterday morning I see the remains of two more bungalows.  When I saw the prices of the luxury condos two doors down from here (across from McKinley) a year ago, I knew these two were history--just did not know when.  Now I know....now

Kendall for School Board

I got my Sample Ballot in the mail today so "game on".  Let's face it:  the City Council race is a snooze.  Steve Duncan hasn't built the network of supporters needed to knock off an incumbent.  I should know since my wife knocked off three of them in succession, but it took several tries to get it right.  On the other hand, the B'game School District  (BSD for short) is shaping up to be a real race.  There has not been an actual election in 12 years for BSD Trustee but this year we have four candidates for three seats.  Even if you don't have kids or they are out of the elementary system, you should still care.  I won't bother to go into why here.

I don't endorse new candidates that I don't already know without sitting down for a talk.  Elizabeth Kendall came highly recommended and agreed to a sit down chat last week after several mutual friends assured her I don't bite--at least on first meeting.  We had a far ranging conversation with some mutual ground around our engineering backgrounds (hers is more in depth than mine) and how things work on the ground at Washington School where she has three kids enrolled.  That fact alone is a differentiator.

You can read her short statement in the Sample Ballot or you can go here.  I think she understates her level of commitment and ideas for improvement in the statement--sort of a rookie error.  She left out the use of Measure M funds that should mostly benefit the south end of town at this point.  The south end has seen under-investment even with the McKinley addition and with the City Council's move to add way too much "affordable housing" on public parking lots downtown, things could get urgent sooner than later.

I particularly liked her commitment (made public here since it is not in her statement) to meet with each school's PTA and site council every year.  That's just 12 meetings a year, but have the incumbents been doing it?  I don't know, but I like the initiative.  Kendall is also technically capable.  Getting the Member Hub going at Washington was good.  Spreading it to the rest of the schools is not complicated but someone has to push it.

Lastly, speaking of incumbents.  I had a short chat with Davina Drabkin yesterday in my front yard.  (School board candidates walking precincts--how great is that?)  She told me she encouraged Elizabeth Kendall to run.  And she is running on a slate with Kay Coskey, so where does that leave Doug Luftman?   He may be the odd-man out in more ways than one.  Note to Luftman who I don't know and have not met--you cannot run for "reelection" when you were not elected in the first place.  As an appointed incumbent, you have to run for election not reelection.  All of the candidates are rookies at running and he isn't the first one to make that mistake and probably won't be the last.

Bottom Line:  I think Elizabeth Kendall deserves a shot at B'game School Board trustee.