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The SF Examiner did a two-page layout on the Downtown Specific Area Plan that is wending its way through the approval process. Some of the 20-year cost estimates are eye-popping:
But it has had a lot of smart locals working on it:
I alaways thought closing Park Rd and Lorton would do wonders in developjng a “cafe culture” in downtown Bgame. I also think making the remaing streets one-way; yes, including Bgame ave. There’s plenty of under used parking lots along the periphery. Currently, the sidewalks are full of double-strollers, toddlers, and dogs. Not complaining but where am I suppose to walk? ;~)
I was just on Park Road around Tuttimelon and the Apple store this evening. MAN, the sidewalks are so dirty. They are disgusting. It is really sad.
I suggest before all the planners start thinking about the grand future they figure out why the city can’t wash the sidewalks. Burlingame is getting pretty shabby.
In most of Europe, the store owners wash their sidewalks. That way they know it gets done. Of course that means you have to have a hose bib nearby.
Especially on Sundays
Okay. Here are two solutions:
1) If a storefront HAS a bib (which is the minority) the STORE OWNER is responsible for maintaining the cleaniness of the pavement to his property, using some intelligent and practical subset of the standards that are used in Europe. If the storefront DOES NOT HAVE a bib the responsibility is placed on the OWNER of the property. This would encourage the owner to retrofit his/her property with the bib. To aid the owner, relax the building code to allow this to be done cost effectively and not make it trigger a long list of other changes that would be required.
2) Keep the responsibility with the business owner and make do with current technology – buckets, soap, mops, or hoses daily and temporarily connected to the wash basins that probably exist in most of the bathrooms in the shops.
If it takes relaxing the code restrictions to make sure the city sidewalks are kept clean, fine.
These disgusting sidewalks are shameful. No amount of city planning for the future is going to fix this current problem and it will fester.
The required hose-bib is an idea embraced by most everyone, but as far as I can tell, either it was never made into a requirement or it has not been strictly enforced. It was first discussed at city level by probably about four years ago. It got brought up again during development of the downtown plan.
In most cases, the businesses are upgrading their exterior faces and thus far, if there is a requirement for a hosebib, it is not met by refacing a business front.
However, for a brand new structure, such as the Walgreens building, it should have been included. I was unable to locate a hosebib when I looked for it on several occasions around the time the building was reaching completion. (Maybe they put one in somewhere, but I didn’t see it). Beautiful building, but it should have had a hosebib to make it perfect.
Somewhere along the way, it was suggested that washing sidewalks such as the way they do in some cities in Europe, is not good for the Bay because of the stuff that ends up going down the drain directly into the Bay. I suppose it could also be argued that it is also a waste of water, unless the water is gray water. ‘ Could be, but I don’t picture many people using brooms and dustpans, either.
Regarding what you find to be disgusting sidewalks, I think that the 1970s era aggregate has held up much better than colored concrete poured in the last five years. It may be a bit slippery when wet, but for the most part, I don’t see that it is cracked, and best of all, it hides all stains wonderfully.
It would be enormously expensive and disruptive to businesses to rip out everything and repour the entire downtown, including Howard, to make all the parts visually match. Is that really necessary?
If you look at a place like Carmel, and look very closely, you will notice that their sidewalks are a mish mash of all various eras, and most of them far more cracked and uneven than ours. They get many more visitors each year than we. I don’t see them ripping out everything. But what catches the eye are the many trees and flowers that are very well cared for by the businesses (I assume it is the businesses, but maybe it is the city). So, somewhere there is water available.
I have wondered if we could create bulb-outs in strategic areas like cross walks, cut in lines for plumbing, and get rid of the raised planters that were never ideal ways to plant trees. Then with maybe just one well thought-out material (stone, brick, or a neutral colored concrete) these areas could be “filled in” and visually pulled together.
We are not a new city, we have structures of all different eras, which is the way authentic cities evolve, so I wonder why is it necessary to rip up all of the sidewalks to have it all match if it is not a physical and obvious trip hazard.
Trees alone with some new irrigation would do wonders almost overnight. Maybe I’m wrong, but I would think that would be a fraction of the cost of a total rip out and start over……..
Just a thought…….
The addition of a nice new Wallmart will fillout the nice big-box store feel Burlingame has now with the addition of BevMo, Wallgreesn at entry, Safeway, etc….VERY CLASSY
Do you think a defunct gas station was better? In the 1970s, there was another one, just across the street where the public parking lot is now. I’d say a beautiful brick building that looks as if it has always been there, is a huge improvement. Walgreens does not own the building, so maybe in another era, it will be occupied by something less offensive to you.
BevMo isn’t my favorite haunt, either, but if they manage to stay in business, they probably have plenty customers who feel otherwise. Besides, the businesses up on that end of the block like all the activity and maybe because of BevMo, a tiny store selling olive oil nearby might be able to make it :).
For a space as large as the BevMo space, I personally would have prefered a Trader Joe, though certainly that store would have been offensive to some, also. Menlo Park turned away Bev Mo, but not Trader Joe.
Frequent the businesses you want to foster and stay away from the rest–that’s about all you can do.
I remember that Shell gas station, had a metal standing sign out front that said “Best Hand Job in Town $2.50” referring to their car wash. Members of the Stanford band stole it and hung it in their rehearsal hall.
Now that was classy!
Now, that’s a good one!
I am back!
Go down to the Bev Mo at Hillsdale and you will appreciate how nice ours is. So much bitching about nothing especially the guy whose only claim to fame is having a lousy overcooked beef dish named after him.
What happened to the beautiful tree that was chopped down in front of Crepe Vine on Burlingame Ave.today?
The entire street looks different-horrible.
You really can see the value that a single tree can bring.
So Sad..
Yes, trees are definitely ‘the’ defining feature of our city. I haven’t seen the tree you are talking about, was it one of the large pittosporum? Typically this city really is protective of its trees, far more than most.
When one looks across the border at what happened in SM to the Safeway complex off of Delaware, the difference is quite startling. Nearly every single mature tree on the parcel, every street tree on both sides of the block, and a few large pines, including one that was surely original to the College before the Woodlake housing complex, were chopped down a few weeks ago for a reconfigured parking lot and building reface. Oddly, they left a dead pine standing –probably part of the adjacent gas station parcel. (Yes they will replant, but the saplings will take decades to fill in)….
Actually they will be planting 76 new trees at the Woodlake Shopping Center.
Can’t figure out why they won’t take out the dead pine at the gas station??
I cringed when they took out the beautiful old oak tree over by Starbucks.
Speaking of trees has anyone noticed all the tree being planted around the Peninsula overpass??
Twenty Kwanza cherry trees around the perimeter of the overpass and 15 Washington Hawthorne trees were planted by the City of San Mateo.
This was requested by the neighborhoods surrounding the overpass.
I am looking forward to next Spring!!
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Wash your own car is not difficult. You must prepare the tools and materials such as cotton cloth or a soft, clean gloves to wash the car. Special shampoo for cars as well prepared and of course clean water to wash your car. The first step, your car mu…
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