10 responses to “Design Time for Downtown”

1. arco

   October 1, 2006

   The design meeting was very good yesterday. I heard one person say that they would never look at Howard Ave the same again. I heard another person say that the Hatch Ln idea was also great but would need some kind of a zoning change. People had tried to put offices on Hatch before and it was not allowed. The same spot on Hatch is now empty because its not good enough for a store and an office is not allowed so it sits empty. Overall a good day. Thanks to the City for putting it on. Oh, and I heard lots of comments that said this council is much better than the ones in the past.

2. Anonymous

   October 1, 2006

   I thought the charrette was pretty exciting. I could find great ideas in each of the four plans, and wish that more people could see the outcomes. I hope the boards will be displayed somewhere, like the library or city hall.

3. Angela

   October 2, 2006

   I really enjoyed the entire day. All four groups did well my favorite was the last group.

   I liked the idea of closing the street by Sam’s sandwiches.

   Thank you Terry Nagel and for all of the hard work that went into the Charrette.

4. Anonymous

   October 2, 2006

   The last one was my favoite, too, with the open creek running through town., lots of green. I hope these will be displayed around town. There are certainly enough empty businesses; perhaps one of the landlords would allow them to be displayed in the vitrines until the space is rented.

5. fred

   October 2, 2006

   no press on charette
   wanted to know who showed up
   see the four designs

   were the landlords there
   big elephant in the room
   I’m talking safeway

6. Anonymous

   October 2, 2006

   Good questions! Isn’t there anything in the paper this morning??
   Safeway was supposed to be there, but they (he/she?) didn’t announce themselves. It’s better that way, I think, otherwise the focus would have become entirely that first block. It was nice to see the street approached as a whole unit. Too bad you didn’t join us, Fred. (We don’t bite!)

   I do think some landlords were there, but I wouldn’t have recognized them, in any case. The crowd consisted of several city staffmembers, who put on a great spread for our visiting designers, councilmembers, CBBers, other interested residents of Burlingame and Hillsborough.

   I do hope that these will be shown (off) , preferably somewhere on Howard. Maybe they could be made laminated and made into kiosks!

   By the way, if anyone from the city reads this, the street light at Lorton and Howard is (still!!) unlit. Please fix!

7. Anonymous

   October 2, 2006

   Howard at sunset
   Darkness fall fast upon street
   Hasty step not wise

   Cobra not asleep
   Why City cannot fix beast?
   Man fall sue city

8. Anonymous

   October 2, 2006

   I’m not sure I can say it in Haiku, but both David Bowlby and Mark Hudak were there representing Safeway. They came during the morning session, but David said he came to “listen” and not influence the process. He spent a lot of time talking to people in the crowd and was there for the final presentations Saturday night. Councilwoman Ann Keighran and I have a follow-up appointment with Mr. Bowlby next week and we will give an update on this particular meeting at our October 16th City Council meeting.

9. Angela

   October 2, 2006

   Mr. Bowlby seemed to listen to what we had to say. It seemed funny that the four groups skipped over the Safeway project.

   One of the best and most fun was presented by a young boy. He put some good thought into it. I hope it also gets displayed.

10. Anonymous

    October 3, 2006

    I see there is a summary of the charrette posted on the city website. It’s not in haiku though!