Month: May 2011

  • Damned Spam

    As a reaction to recent spam attacks, the Voice is reactivating "moderated comments" for a short period.  Please feel free to post comments, but be aware that they will not appear as quickly as usual.

  • Bad Tree

    Nothing sparks emotions in B'game like trees.  The Mercury Times has another in the long running tree saga around town that notes

    Despite Burlingame's pro-tree stance, it is not necessarily illegal to cut down a tree in the city, and the black acacias that met their doom were not protected by the urban reforestation ordinance of Burlingame's municipal code, a city official said.

    And goes on to note

    The new property owner notified Disco in advance about the building project on the lot, which included the tree removal, and was issued a permit.

    "Everything was done properly," Disco said. "The landscape project for the new site includes replacement trees."  Disco noted that black acacias are "not considered great trees. They fall apart when they are not maintained."

    No mention was made of what the replacement species will be.

  • Getting Greener

    After a 10am cloud burst cleared the air, the 4th Annual Green Fair proceeded as planned.  Located next to the Farmer's Market, the Green Fair drew in plenty of B'gamers with exhibits on solar power, recycling, electric cars, green building principles, etc, etc.  It was a nice way to kick-off the summer's events

    Green Fair 2011 

  • Our Greenest Citizen? Probably

    I had a chance to meet the founder and CEO of our locally-based e-waste company, Green Citizen, at the Green Fair today.  James Kao is a B'game resident and member our our Green Ribbon Taskforce who is building a business recycling residential and commercial e-waste.

    James and his team took my old electronics and he gave me an overview of his operation located at 801 Mahler Rd, Suite 1 here in B'game.  The firm has other centers in Palo Alto, Berkeley and SF with plans for San Jose, but everything we need is right here in B'game.  They're accepting items six days a week.  Most items are accepted for free and there are some other services offered like PC and cell phone repair for a fee.  We'll add some more detail after we tour the Mahler facility.  Here's James and a hard disk drive they destroyed (another of their services).

    James Kau_Green Citizen CEO 

  • High Cost Rail – Part 52 Still getting the word out

    Today's Mercury News has a local letter to the editor on High Cost Rail that we help with

    High-speed rail not a priority

    Please tell me where I can sign a petition to put an end to this insane high-speed rail idea.  It will cost too much now, lose to much once it is built, and serve far too few.  Our state has greater needs.

    Laurie De Field

    Burlingame

    Ms. De Field is right on the money and can stay informed by watching this space as well as visiting www.highspeedboondoggle.com.  She can also add her name to the email list at highspeedboondoggle@gmail.com, get a lawn sign there and donate to the on-going effort to stop the insanity!

    There goes $ for schools 

  • Hospital Open for Business — Finally

    We've tracked the progress of the new Mills-Peninsula hospital for sometime here.  The Mercury Times is reporting on today's opening with a piece that highlights the seismic and high-tech features

    At a cost of $618 million and 11 years in the making, the 450,000-square-foot structure is opening with a flourish after several false starts. Opening time is 7 a.m. Sunday, and the original, earthquake-threatened Peninsula Medical Center will then close down.

    And goes on to note

    Patients can order meals from room service using a pop-up menu on the 40-inch televisions in their rooms or by dialing "F-O-O-D" on the landlines. Every one of the 241 rooms is private, and many have a sleeper couch so family members can bed down in the room.

    I had the chance to talk to a Mills ER doc this week who was less enthusiastic about the move.  The doc was concerned that the ER is much, much larger, but the staffing is the same and, in fact, due to the building's layout one technician is going to be pulled away from the floor to watch the waiting room.  We'll keep our ears open to see how it goes.

  • County Underwater?

    The SF Examiner has a comprehensive piece on County foreclosure rates that paints an interesting picture of seven cities' rates declining and six increasing.  It notes

    The percentage of “underwater” homes worth less than they are mortgaged for rose sharply in San Mateo County in the first quarter of this year, more than in any other Bay Area county.

    San Mateo County homes suffering from what is known as negative equity rose to 17.5 percent in the first quarter of this year as compared to 11 percent last year, Zillow.com reported.

    B'game is in the category of decreasing forclosure rates.  The chart from Adrienne Tissier's office isn't very clear, but we had 75 foreclosures as of Jan. 2011 vs 86 as of Feb. 2010.  I'm not sure I believe those are one month figures especially when you look at cities like Daly City where the figure is 791 for January.  Perhaps some local realtor or mortgage broker can verify or correct these numbers?

  • New Supe – Welcome Maggie

    The Daily Journal has the piece on the new school superintendent

    Dr. Maggie MacIsaac, assistant superintendent of the Castro Valley Unified School District, was unanimously named the new superintendent of Burlingame schools Tuesday evening.

    MacIsaac, who will officially take the helm as superintendent July 1, will fill the vacancy left by Superintendent Dianne Talarico who announced her retirement in January for medical reasons. Judson Kempson, assistant superintendent of educational services, was named as the interim for the remainder of the school year.

    Lot's going on to work on.  Here is the baseline API test scores  that were just released by the State.  And the enrollment rebound is discussed here. 

    Bgame School Dist building 

  • BPD Log Website

    For the curious among you, here is the announcement and link from the Police on their day-to-day activities.

    The Burlingame Police Department has recently launched a daily patrol activity log on the City’s website that is available to the public. The purpose of the daily log is to provide information about calls and other significant incidents occurring in the City of Burlingame. The daily log  can be found on the City of Burlingame’s web site under the police department tab.

    I like it better than reading the newspapers' summaries, but I would suggest it be listed in reverse chronological order so the newest stuff is on top rather than at the bottom.  Free web design advice from the Voice!

  • 203 Primrose Update

    The Daily Journal is describing the latest applicants for the new building on the corner where Walgreens used to be.  The building is moving right along and

    Five Guys Burgers & Fries is applying for a conditional use permit for 203 Primrose Road, making it the second business planning to open in the yet-to-be-completed retail/office building adjacent to the new Safeway. On Monday, the Planning Commission will study the proposal.

    That should give the Burger Joint quite a bit of competition and one wonders how it will hold up.  In the middle of the block

    The old Wells Fargo building also has a tenant lined up. Pizza My Heart plans to open at 235 Primrose Road. The commission will study its conditional use permit Monday also. In June, the Burlingame City Council changed the municipal code to allow five additional food establishments — which could be anything from a bar to a full-service restaurant — in portions of the Burlingame Avenue commercial area. If approved, Pizza My Heart would be the fourth application within the boundaries.

    For everyone wondering what the corner building will eventually look like, here is a reminder from the original architects' rendering

    Rendering Corner Bldg 
    You can see the stairwell already on the site and the rooftop space could make for a nice little bandstand to help with the "Boring game" problem!

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