The Burlingame Voice

Tweaking The BAAZ, Creating The BRAZ

Tomorrow night the City Council will consider making some changes to the Burlingame Ave Autonomous Zone (the BAAZ).  We're just finishing the third weekend of the BAAZ so Council will be looking to extend it to the end of September and add parklets on the side streets.  Back in May when the original plan surfaced, I had several concerns: impact on non-restaurant businesses, non-BAAZ restaurants, parking, handicap access and the cost.  It appears I was prescient since the proposed tweaks start to address some of these, especially the fairness issue. Non-BAAZ restaurants that want a parklet on Primrose, Park, Lorton, Howard, and Chapin would get permanent ones (meaning seven days a week) since they are too expensive to put in and take out often.  The parklets would be created using heavy duty industrial plastic hydro-barriers -- the ugly orange blocks.  San Mateo went the parklet route but only uses the hydro-barriers on the on-coming traffic side as shown below (upper right).  I hope we do the same.

To further address fairness to our "other" downtown, the one that often feels under appreciated by the City, the BRAZ is under consideration -- the BRoadway Autonomous Zone.  It involves Saturday-Sunday closure of Broadway between Chula Vista and Capuchino -- the three middle blocks; attempting to leave some traffic circulation since, you know, it's a 101 exit.  Anecdotally, the Broadway restaurants took a bit of a beating the last two weekends--akin to the non-BAAZ restaurants.  One non-BAAZer used the word "disaster" when I asked how it went the first weekend.

As to parking, the Staff Report notes

In addition to the previously estimated loss of parking on Burlingame Avenue of approximately 150 to 160 parking spaces when the street is closed on the weekends, the creation of parklets will result in a parking loss of up to approximately 60 to 70 spaces on side streets in the downtown area on both weekdays and weekends.

Approximately 50 to 60 parking spaces would become unavailable on weekends if the City Council approves the temporary weekend closure of Broadway. As with the Burlingame Avenue commercial district, there are nearby parking facilities on either side of Broadway, but parking will become tight on busy weekends.

I might suggest putting a cover over most of the EV charging stations in Lot Y so GV's (gas vehicles) can use them because we know EV usage has been quite low. 

Now the costs:

Staff estimates the cost of setting up and removing the street closure on Broadway to be similar to Burlingame Avenue, which is estimated at approximately $10,000 to $12,000 per month. Additionally, staff estimates the cost of renting and setting up barriers to create parklets is $20,000 to $30,000 per month. Regarding loss of parking revenue, staff estimates the overall loss is approximately $20,000 to $30,000 per month. The overall total fiscal impact of the pilot program is estimated to range from $60,000 to $80,000 per month. The actual figure may vary and will be determined after the completion of the pilot program.

We may have our very own Summer of Love.  Like the original one in '67, it would be fun but comes with a price.

Arson at the Library, War Zone on the Ave.

Just as things were reverting to a highly-modified normal (an oxymoron if ever there was one) we get hit with the triple whammy of an arson event at the main library and a warning from BPD to shop owners to take necessary precautions against vandalism and looting.  Then a two-night county-wide curfew went into effect.  When the Ring Neighborhood alert came in yesterday about a fire in the 400 block of Primrose, I got worried.  Fortunately, as you see below, the fire appears to be just umbrellas in front of the library, not the library itself.  BPD made an arrest of a 45 year old, white male and I'm sure there will be more information to follow.

The scene on the Avenue is really disappointing.  Many shops were just reopening or announced that they will in the coming week.  The precautionary boarding up of windows certainly won't induce people to return soon and the restaurants that have been barely eking by on take-out will have to absorb even more stress.  Anyone who thinks this will somehow cure what ails our society is mistaken.

Close the Avenue? Not So Fast

I was hoping this idea of closing Burlingame Ave. to all cars would quietly disappear as things slowly re-open and people get used to mingling a bit.  But the City has apparently asked merchants for their opinions so it's an active idea and we have a Guest Perspective in today's Daily Journal that espouses the closure.  The author comes from a great B'game family and has done a stint on the Planning Commission, but he might have benefited from serving on Traffic, Safety and Parking instead.  I'm sort of glad he broached the topic.  Here's bit of that piece

With summer weather approaching and business attendance at an all-time low, now is an incredible, once-in-a-generation time to experiment with what  Burlingame Avenue could be like if it were more pedestrian-oriented, and less vehicle-dependent.

The city needs to take strong actions to make sure the heart of its downtown, its restaurants and bars, are positioned as well as possible to succeed in a prolonged sure-to-be-tough environment. The best way the city can do this, in my opinion, is to allow them to operate at normal capacity (while adhering to strict distancing guidelines), through the expansion of temporary seating zones. Of course, the only way to accomplish this would be to follow the example set by Oakland and numerous other cities, and close Burlingame Avenue to cars.

There's an old debate tactic called the Straw Man argument that says you refute an argument that your opponent hasn't actually made.  A corollary to that is to refute one argument and omit the others.  That's what is going on in this piece:

Now, the obvious contrarian opinion is that there won’t be enough parking (a particularly Burlingame classic!). Well, my response would be: Good! Let’s finally put our environmental policy and action where our mouths are and create paths for people to safely travel, and park, via bicycle.

Allow me to note some better arguments against a full closure.  First, there are many other businesses on the Avenue besides restaurants.  All of them rely on out-of-towners and B'gamers who live far away and won't walk or bike to their stores.  Convenient parking may be over rated by some store owners, but it's not a non-issue.  Some of them sell (or would like to sell) more product than one can easily carry for blocks.  Second, what about the disabled customers?  We have handicap spaces for a reason and it's a good one.  No "TSPoon" commissioner would ever think of taking them all out, but a full closure does exactly that.  Third, it seems unfair to advantage some restaurants at the expense of others not on the Avenue.  Should Park & Howard, Narin, Coconut Bay, Stella Osteria, Il Fornaio, et al just figure it out themselves?  I don't think so.  How about Broadway?  I won't play Straw Man and suggest we close all of downtown, but fair would be fair.  Fourth, police and fire access is still required and required fast.  How do you do that with tables and diners in the street?  Lastly, the realpolitik of the City's situation is a major budget problem as noted here.  We are definitely better off than many cities, but with the hotel tax and sales taxes taking a major hit, the revenue from the meters should not be ignored.  As the City seems intent on giving away money, perhaps taking some in would be wise.

So what to do?  Doing nothing is anathema to government.  We've seen that across the board during the corona crisis.  Here's a middle position that might work for restaurants all over town.  The space in front of the restaurant can become a parklet.  I broached the idea eight years ago here.  As you can read from 2012 it got no attention--not one comment, but now might be the time.  Parklets are big in EssEff and a few sprouted in San Mateo.  One space (10' x 20' if memory serves) could hold 2 four tops.  Turned twice a night, that would be 16 more diners.  Added to sidewalk dining, it would help.  Closing the whole street is unfair, may be unsafe and likely costly.

Municipal Charity is Limited

The City-funded support for local businesses, residents and charities is coming into focus as the DJ reports today

The Burlingame City Council agreed to build a $500,000 grant program for local businesses, while setting aside $250,000 to purchase gift cards for struggling families and donating another $250,000 to service providers.  The program is to be administered by the San Mateo County Economic Development Association, or SAMCEDA, which is also operating a similar program through the county.

Noting the city’s contribution capacity is limited, Councilman Michael Brownrigg said the Burlingame Back in Business program would likely serve about 50 companies fitting a limited criteria with grants capped at about $10,000.

Officials also agreed to purchase about 1,000 gift cards from Visa or Mastercard worth $250 which would be distributed to families in Burlingame, with hopes the cards would be redeemed at local businesses.  Councilmembers had first discussed attempting to restrict spending to a specific zip code, but ultimately determined allowing flexibility for families who need assistance would be more valuable.  Those eligible for the program will be contacted by the city’s utility provider, which maintains a list of those who qualify for financial aid.

We are in the fourth quarter of the city's fiscal year which ends on June 30th.  Using last year's financial report as a rosy baseline,  page 34 shows the $84.5M of revenue had major components of property taxes (25.7%), sales and use taxes (21.1%) and the biggie that is also the most at risk, hotel tax (34.8%).  When Michael Brownrigg says that the city's contribution capacity is "limited", he ain't kidding.  We could easily see the hotel tax get cut in half for the year--which would be a $15M hit to the budget.

Even at the end of June when the next report arrives, we won't really see the complete picture since the pain arrived at the end of the third quarter.  Another DJ piece on the San Mateo budget shortfall lays out the timing issue

“There’s a challenge we have on sales tax in that the data we get is essentially six months in arrears. The most recent sales tax data we have is for the third quarter of 2019,” said Finance Director Richard Lee. “We won’t see the true impact of COVID-19 for another six months. … It’s a similar concept for [hotel] tax.”

San Mateo's predicting a $7M "structural imbalance" next year which seems small to me.  It's total projected budget is $251M but only 14.3% in sales and hotel tax, so we shall see.

Apple Heists: What is to be done?

Almost exactly a year ago, we posted about the Apple store heists getting out of control.  There were some unarmed sort-of-security guards standing around outside on the Avenue for awhile, but that mostly ceased about six months ago and was a for-show-only response anyway.  As the local multi-person, grab and go thefts continue, other merchants on the Avenue are growing concerned as are many local residents.  It seems like just a matter of time before someone gets hurt--most likely not in the store itself, but on the street as the getaway car or cars zoom off down the Avenue.  BPD has placed a decoy cruiser outside on occasion and I would guess some patrol has been upped, but it seems incumbent on Apple to do more.  Here's the decoy in place a couple nights ago.

Segno dei Tempi

It is a sign of the times (segno dei tempi) that the Fiat dealership in town has moved across the street to a lesser location to make way for a Maserati dealership.  For those who prefer Ferrari, like Bruce Dickenson, this is no big deal, but it does bode well for B'game sales tax revenues to welcome another upper-end dealership to town.  For the second fiscal quarter of 2018, Autos and Transportation held its No. 1 position in B'game, topping $1 million for the quarter--double that of the Restaurants and Hotels sector per this city report.  I say benvenuto Maserati!

Bad B'game Branding

Here at the Voice we celebrate the good, and call out the bad and the ugly of B'game.  Now that Black Friday is over, let me be the first to hope that NOBODY bought this piece of trash that is for sale on the Avenew.  I won't deign to mention the shop because it doesn't deserve the attention.  If you are a retail enthusiast and happen to go in there, tell them to get their act together and behave like they belong here, not like they are doing now.

B'game Rating: #38

The wizards at the San Francisco magazine have rated all 101 cities and towns in the Bay Area and we came out at number 38.  By combining scores for Education, Diversity, Health, Transit, Affordability, Public Safety, Culture and their own fudge factor "Editors' Rank", they arrive at Albany being the best place to live in the Bay Area.  Six years ago we were labelled as a sort of Utopia by the same magazine, so let's dig in a bit deeper.  Here are the scores

I get the good scores for Education and Transit.  Our public schools are quite good in spite of occasional issues with administrators at BIS and BHS and there are a lot of residents with bachelor's degrees or higher.  I also get how we land near the bottom in Affordability since we have always been an expensive place to live--it is more a result of the other criteria than an input on its own.  But how is B'game in the bottom half on Health?  They use physicians per capita, air quality scores and percentage of residents without health insurance.  With a major hospital in town and doctor's offices surrounding it, we must rate pretty high on the first one.  I hear at the meetings on the SFO runway noise that some residents also smell jet fuel fumes, but I doubt our air quality is below the median.

The real head-scratchers are Public Safety on the downside and Culture on the upside.  B'game has recently returned to "full strength" with 40 sworn officers and crime rates (aside from car break-ins mostly at Bayfront hotels) are pretty low.  Oakland ranked just ahead of us at 57!  And they do mean Oakland, California!!  There must be some spreadsheet error somewhere at the magazine.

I also cannot fathom how we got to number 15 in the whole Bay Area on Culture when the critieria are artistic venues per capita (we've got none other than the tiny art museum on the north end), the number of residents who list their occupation as "artist" (on Open Studio weekends we have a couple), and liquor licenses per capita.  I guess if one considers drinking with muzak playing "culture" we do OK.  While #38 isn't bad, I can't take much heart in the overall subjective nature of it all.  You won't catch many B'gamers moving to Colma (#18) or Pacifica (#22) or Belmont (#24).  I bet we just stay put.   
 

Kicking the Can Down Broadway

City council meetings can be tedious to watch especially when the issue is pretty well split down the middle as it is with increasing the parking meter time limits to two hours on Broadway (from one hour).  But that is democracy in action.  Last night the city elders spent an hour hashing out the issues of space turn-over rates, pricing (B'way is CHEAP to park), doing a parking study and way-finding (that's traffic talk for having more intuitive signs).  Ancillary issues like the decline of pure retail as a percent of the businesses, giving the off-B'way lots real addresses so GPS can locate them for out-of-towners, updating the Access Burlingame app, and the validity of a "poll" or petition that originates with one merchant on behalf of the BID also took up a substantial part of the slow-moving hour.

A few things are pretty clear.  B'way has plenty of parking, it's just not all on the main street.  What is not on the main street is even more plentiful and longer-term and people who need more than an hour can get it cheaply.  I do that several times a week myself and can vouch for its availability.  We are apparently going down the route of adding EV charging stations somewhere on B'way, but hopefully that will only be one or two spots for the special few.  We also have not had a parking study done in more than 20 years on B'way and no one really knows how they are conducted these days or what would be learned for the $50K it costs (!!!).  About 40 minutes in, Mayor Brownrigg finally asked the obvious question that I asked myself five minutes into the discussion: "How many parking tickets are issued on B'way and is that number up/down/same as it has been historically?"  It would have been helpful to prep the BPD chief a week before so he could answer it during the meeting, but that critical question was left hanging.

In the end, the council decided to kick the can down the road.  They directed staff to work with John Kevranian (of Nuts for Candy and the BID president, pictured below) on better signage, assigning addresses to the lots and whatever other improvements can be made without going to two hour limits.  Council will revisit the issue in the spring after the holiday rush is over.  So for now, the one-hour limits stay in place and if you need more you just slyly refeed the meter or park where you are supposed to (off-B'way).

P.S.   Before the city spends $50K on a parking study, let's upgrade the chambers' video feed to HD, please.
  

More Avenue Woes: Books Inc. Closing

You can't chat with any local B'gamer for very long before you hear two things:  "I'm going to miss Orchard Supply in Millbrae" and "I wish the Avenue would stay more local" or words to that effect like "it's just an outdoor mall" or "why can't we have more non-chain stores" or "how many hair and nail salons does this town need"?  Here is news from the DJ about the closing of another chapter in the Avenue's story

After almost two decades of enduring a changing industry and local marketplace, independent bookstore Books Inc. announced it will be shuttering its location on Burlingame Avenue.   Though the parent company continues to thrive despite the threat to retailers posed by the trend toward online sales, (President Michael) Tucker said the decision to close had more to do with the transition taking place in downtown Burlingame.  “It’s just the reality of what goes on, that a low-margin business like books cannot compete for occupancy with the big boys, the national brands,” said Tucker, nodding to the corporations such as Apple, Lululemon or Pottery Barn which also occupy nearby storefronts.

You can click through to read the full story including kind words about Karim Salma (the landlord) and more of the DBID president's thoughts

Juan Loredo, president of the downtown business improvement district, said the company’s decision to leave is similar to the other tough choices faced by other local retailers.  “The internet kind of paved the way for these smaller places and retail shops to leave because everyone is online shopping,” he said.

And this is welcome news also

Tucker took time to note though that the company plans to preserve its connection with local schools and organizations in Burlingame which the company has partnered with over the years.

Maybe this is an opening for some bookseller to find space in a less expensive part of B'game to make another run at it.  I still miss the Feldman's that was a block north of B'way before consolidating down to the Menlo Park main store.