Heather's article in th Daily Journal today:
Broadway focus of forum
Visions of a walking downtown area and restoring public transportation were the focus of the first Burlingame City Council candidates' forum Thursday. The council has four of its five seats up for grabs and eight of the nine candidates shared their thoughts with the city in the first of three forums to be held before the Nov. 8 election. Don Lembi and Russ Cohen are both running for the two-year seat vacated by Mike Coffey, who resigned this summer, while the other seven candidates are vying for the three open four-year seats. Lembi was not at the forum because of a family emergency.
Last month, Caltrain service through the Broadway station was cut back to weekend-only service. Almost all of the candidates said they had spoken up against the reduction of the Broadway Caltrain station schedule. The station was closed because of low ridership. Incumbent Rosalie O'Mahony said the current council worked valiantly to keep the station open and passed money in the June budget earmarked for the restoration of the Broadway station platforms. Many candidates, like Cohen, John Root, Gene Condon and Dan Andersen, said the fight to reopen the station would be a difficult one. This is a time where we as a community need to come together. This is the sort of thing you don't see coming and is slowly creeping up,? Condon said. While most the candidates agreed the reopening of the Broadway station should be a priority, how to handle the Broadway retail area brought up some different ideas.
Planning Commissioner Ann Keighran said the key to making it work is a balance between the small independent stores and national stores. Keighran would like to see the various boards overseeing planning within the city and downtown areas to come together and work toward a common goal. Vice Mayor Cathy Baylock brought up property tax abatements made available to owners of historical buildings. We need to think outside the box. I think there should be a balance of stores but mom and pop stores need to have a fighting chance,? Baylock said.
Paul Prendiville said the city should think about subdividing buildings and putting in businesses that followed more of the current market trends. Root said the main problem occurs because the city has an old overall plan. We've got to get with the program and get ahead of these things instead of always reacting,? Root said.
Sticking with the plan idea, Cohen said looking at what other cities have done would be a way to figure out how to get the Burlingame downtown plan right. He suggested it would be better to have national stores on the outskirts of downtown, giving prime location to the smaller stores. But since the set up downtown already doesn't accommodate this idea, Cohen suggested limiting store sizes. O'Mahony, however, said she would be against forcing property owners to a set given area.
Discussion of downtown brought up ideas on making better use of the side streets like Howard Avenue in downtown and create a walking environment on Broadway. We need to find ways to move pedestrians down the side streets. When more residents will walk to shops we can address the economic feasibility,? Andersen said
– Written by Fiona


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