I like reading San Francisco magazine. I especially like that for some reason they mail it to me for free while Mollie Stone's sells it on the rack and they offer annual subscriptions for $24, but a gift horse is always welcome. The January issue is especially welcome since it has a cover article titled "Project Utopia" where they "polled 200 Bay Areans about the qualities that define their dream neighborhood and selected 10 precincts that match those criteria–no Craigslist trolling required." And guess what? Two "precincts" were not in EssEff and one of those is "Burlingame Terrace"! The description on page 79 reads
Because…maybe Pleasantville isn't lame after all. Was it the combination of $72 parking tickets and having three bikes swiped in two years? Or was it the warm summer night you visited friends in Burlingame Terrace and noted, when you pulled up to their sitcom-ready clapboard, that their kid's Trek was just lying in teh driveway, decidedly unstolen?
A decade after the first portents shimmered into view, Burlingame is calling out to disenchanted urbanites. (I guess they missed the '06 earthquake and B'game's subsequent growth spurt) Its main avenue is proving to be more than a suburban sweet spot, and not with any old coffee-shop tuna melt, either, we're talking tuna conserva with cannellini beans.
Pizzeria Delfina, Blue Line pizza, Sephora and La Boulange get mentions, along with our "smallish lots–a legacy of its roots as a summer colony–pay a nice divident: human-scaled streets with neighborly houses." Well at least that aspect of B'game looks greener from the other side of the monster house divide.
Here are our "grades": Affordability B-, Walkability B, Public transportation B, Weather A, Safety A- …and "the bummer: It's a far cry from being culturally diverse".
Recent arrival Soni Obinger notes "The one downside is that there is no nightlife" and I can agree on that one. All I want for Christmas are a downtown jazz/folk club and a pocket movie theater (with one or two screens). Heck they could even be in the same establishment on different nights of the week.
Thanks San Francisco magazine. You pretty much nailed it!


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