The Burlingame Voice

El Camino "Renewal"

You probably got the glossy mailer announcing the El Camino Real Renewal meeting next Tuesday and it just arrived in the e-newsletter as well.  I can't make it, but I did get a chance to sit down with Mayor Emily Beach and our resident tree expert, Jennifer Pfaff, recently to discuss the project at length.  Here is the official announcement:

Caltrans is hosting an open house to discuss the El Camino Real Roadway Renewal Project on Tuesday, January 28, at the Burlingame Recreation Center from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

The project area stretches three miles, between East Santa Inez Avenue and Millbrae Avenue, and encompasses some of the most challenging pavement, vegetation, sidewalk, utility, drainage, and safety issues. This stretch of El Camino Real is also lined with heritage tree rows that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Caltrans will share information about potential improvements to drainage, landscaping, sidewalk safety, ADA compliance, and rehabilitation of pavement. Learn more about the project by visiting www.elcaminorealproject.com.

During my meeting with the mayor we discussed things like the amount of money held in reserve for this major project ($110 million), the downward trend in the replacement rate of the trees (there were 750 in the 1970's and we are down to about 500 now) and the various CalTrans construction standards that may or may not be required for this project.  There are some trade-offs that will have to be made since full-CalTrans specifications can be in conflict with the Blue Gum Euc grove's historic status.  Things like the distance from street corners and poles, the distance between trees and the irrigation plans have to be negotiable.  The types of trees that would replace the Eucs is also on the table.

I'll leave the details to the experts like Jennifer and to those who conduct this first public meeting.  Let's just say it will be a controversial and yet hopefully collegial meeting. 

Fall Treehugger Post: Pear's Best Year

For my Fall treehugger post, let's revisit my pear tree to see how it is finishing the best pear season in memory.  You will recall the crop photo here.  The tree yielded at least two dozen pears this year net of what the squirrels got to before me.  And after a couple of days of ripening in a brown paper bag, they were delicious.  Oddly enough the pear leaves have held on longer than a lot of other species this year and turned a lovely yellow.  For the Fall post, we usually enjoy our ginkos, Japanese maples and Chinese pistaches that are all over town, but the 2019 post goes to the pear.

Tree-hugger Update: Great Pear Season

My natural inclination of being a tree-hugger is always reinforced at this time of year as I watch my pears and Gravenstein apples start to get big.  The pears are a particular joy since they are very inconsistent from year to year, but this year appears to be a great one for both the pears and the apples-- as long as I get to them before the squirrels get them.  Here are just a few of perhaps two dozen on my really old tree.

I'm even more joyful about the pears because 20+ years ago an arborist told me I should just cut it down since it wouldn't bear any fruit due to its age and its trunk being in bad shape.  A little wire supporting the weight and voila-- pears for decades!

Spring Treehugger post: Superbloom

You may have read about the California Superbloom that is happening in SoCal around Lake Elsinore and drawing huge crowds.  Well no need to go that far, we have our own little superbloom right here in H'borough up by 280.  I snapped these just before the rains returned this afternoon.  There are some good trees blossoming, but this is the Spring tree hugger post for 2019.  Enjoy!

Fall Treehugger Foliage 2018

With all of the smoke and dry weather, it has not been easy finding a suitable Fall foliage picture.  The Spring picture was pretty easy (here), but the Fall one had very few great options.  Even the normally brilliant Ginkos are subdued and uneven this year.  So here is an old standby that is looking as good as ever--a Japanese Maple shot at around sunset last night.

H2O: Perhaps There is Hope

Members of the SM County Historical Society are being treated to a fantastic quarterly newsletter in the Spring issue focusing on "Water for San Francisco" which also means water for the rest of us on the Peninsula.  Two lengthy articles cover the history of the companies developing the dams, reservoirs and pipelines that form the complex system that ends at our faucets.  Society President Mitch Postell leads off with the early history noting that water was a concern as far back as 1850; causing competing companies to dam rivers, flood towns like Searsville and buy land around reservoirs to safeguard the surrounding watersheds.

Our local historical scribe, Joanne Garrison, follows with an article that delves into the contributions of William Bowers Bourn II who became the president and controlling shareholder of the Spring Valley Water Company in 1908.  Bourn was already wealthy and was able to upgrade facilities while simultaneously trying to sell the company to the City of EssEff; instead of the city building the Hetch Hetchy system.  SF bought the company in 1929 and built Hetch Hetchy--and has done very little since.

But today's SF Comicle article describes the partial funding for some long overdue upgrades to our water storage systems across the state.  Eight projects are listed as getting about half of what they need from Proposition 1 bond money.

Collectively, the projects would add about 4.3 million acre feet of water storage across the state, the equivalent of about a dozen of San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy reservoirs.  “Getting the money is a greater step toward water reliability for the Bay Area region,” said Oliver Symonds, a spokesman for the Contra Costa Water District, which was allocated $459 million for the proposed $980 million expansion of Los Vaqueros Reservoir.  With its allocation, the Contra Costa Water District hopes to break ground in two years on raising the dam at Los Vaqueros Reservoir in the East Bay hills by 55 feet.  The district intends to share its additional supplies with other Bay Area providers, including the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Those agencies are expected to help foot the balance of the project’s cost.

The Prop. 1 funding for water storage is the most the state has allocated since construction of the State Water Project, which consists of 21 dams and hundreds of miles of canals, built largely in the 1960s.

So it is a start, but just as it is wise to index things like wage increases or tax brackets to inflation, any water supply plans need to be indexed for population growth (as well as ensuring that agriculture and trees are not starved for water).  As Yosemite is being closed for the first time since 1990 due to a 37,000 acre wildfire and memories of the Santa Rosa fires are disturbingly fresh, we need to ask the question of whether or not Sacramento, San Mateo County and the City of B'game are really doing enough?  I think not.  In the meantime, do you have at least 15 gallons of water tucked away at your house?

  

Spring Treehugger Pic

Here is the 2018 Spring treehugger post with an awesome flowering tree-- I think it is a cherry, but not totally sure.  Hopefully the inbound atmospheric river won't decimate all of the flowering trees around town.

El Camino Task Force

The Daily Journal covered a task for meeting this week about El Camino with an overall theme of "we are working better with Caltrans".  I certainly hope so because things have not really been improving since well before this October post.

Officials and residents are working alongside the state Department of Transportation to draft a new vision for Burlingame’s stretch of El Camino Real, while balancing safety concerns against the desire to preserve a historic tree grove.

A task force comprised of residents seeking improvements to the main thoroughfare met Monday, Feb. 26, to discuss their recommendations for El Camino Real’s future.

Assuring pedestrian safety, fixing badly damaged sidewalks, suggesting placing utilities underground and preventing flooding were among the infrastructure projects identified by the task force.

The "FLOODING" signs were sort of a cruel joke until this week's rainfall since February was the 16th driest February in the last 169 years.  More importantly, there hasn't been a lick of work to fix the flooding in years.  I regularly walk by two drains on ECR that have been plugged for at least three years and Caltrans knows exactly where to put the signs even before it rains.

I also hope the task force does not confuse "pedestrian safety" with "let's get rid of the eucalyptus trees that pull up the sidewalks" since the eucs are the #1 pedestrian safety feature on ECR.  Try walking on a section of the road that does not have eucs or elms in the median strip.  It's dangerous and you can get soaked as well.

H2O - Plenty of Restrictions

It could not be clearer to those who can see-- we Californians will never have enough water.  What is completely muddy to me is why our politicians and leaders don't see that and thus decline to do anything about it EXCEPT add more usage restrictions.  Yesterday's Chronicle notes

Recognizing California’s increasing propensity for parched weather — this winter being no exception — state water officials are planning to resurrect many of the temporary water restrictions that were enacted during the recent five-year dry spell and make them permanent.  “These rules are about a larger suite of actions designed to build resilience to future droughts and climate change,” said Max Gomberg, a senior environmental scientist for the state water board.

Translation:  Get ready for even more draconian restrictions.  Here are the proposed restrictions:

• Watering lawns in a manner that causes runoff
• Using a hose without a shut-off valve to wash a car
• Hosing down driveways and sidewalks with potable water (like any of us have much access to any other kind of water!)
• Using potable water in a fountain or decorative water feature (like I said.....)
• Watering within 48 hours of rain (So you all stay home and manage your sprinkler timers)
• Irrigation of median strips by cities and counties (Nice for a City of Trees...NOT!)
• Laundering of towels and linens at hotels without first asking guests (Waste of time, it happens all the time)
• Residents being punished by homeowner associations, cities or counties for practicing water conservation

And in the meantime, leaders cannot figure out how to restrain over-development even when they know it's the right thing to do for the community even aside from a lack of future water as noted here.   Creating mock affordable housing to squeeze even more people into the Bay Area makes even less sense.

Drought Fears Again....Duh!

Sometimes you have to laugh at the Mercury News otherwise you will just cry.  Today's above the fold headline: Dry spell raises drought fear.  The piece goes on to note that if the dry forecast for the next two weeks holds true it will be the driest December in San Jose history since records began in 1893.

Did any rational person think that we would ever be free of drought fears in California?  Has the state done even one thing to capture more rainfall when it does occur?  Answer: no.

I'm still processing the new laws that take development approval away from local agencies as reported here.  Once I get a handle on the breadth of the theft, I'll write it up here at the Voice, but in the meantime none of our Sacramento-based leaders seem to be able to focus on anything but overbuilding and #metoo.

It's all very sad for the trees, the fish, the reservoirs, our lawns and everything else watery.  Here's the Merc headline and to ease the pain a second Fall tree hugger picture of a Japanese maple that is in mid-foliage change following our recent cold snaps.