I had a chance to recycle a bit of e-waste at the Green Fair on Sunday. As someone who has some experience in how to run successful events, I can verify that having the e-waste center at the same time and in the same place as last year is a good plan. I passed on the Fair itself–a bit of the same ole, same ole–but the recycling aspect was very worthwhile. Here is the e.jpgle at mid-afternoon.
The B'game Community Garden at Bayside Park had its Grand Opening yesterday. I couldn't make it, but local John McQuaide was kind enough to forward a great shot he took of the planter beds so we can all see how beautiful the set-up is. John's wife, Leslie, has been the driving force behind this accomplishment for the past six years. I predict some good eats for all involved!
Since campaign season is in full swing, allow me to remind all the candidates and their supporters about proper lawn sign placement. The median strip next to the street is actually city property so you need to keep lawn signs on your lawn. I chose a non-B'game example to illustrate the wrong placement, but there are plenty of B'game examples out there.
We get to have a little fun here at the Voice once in awhile. Today's Journal notes that teams that lose their first game have only won eight Super Bowls in NFL history. Opening Day winners are 38-8-1 in Super Bowl stats. The 9ers will have to get past Green Bay and Seattle to go to the Show. One down, one to go. Beating the Seahawks this weekend would be Huge!
Over the past week, I have had two in-depth conversations with long-time locals about the future of the Post Office. One conversation was at a gathering of B'gamer parents, some of whom had not seen each for awhile. When the topic of putting 120 residential units on top of retail on the Post Office lot came up the reaction ranged from incredulous to "postal". One long-time couple even said that might be the final straw that would cause them to leave town…….
The other conversation was with someone who is much more of an insider and very versed on the issue. We discussed the need for more city revenue (mostly to support pensions), the range of locations that could support this type of development, whether residential ever covers its costs and how a developer could respect the historic nature of the building (or not). This insider and I have a fundamental disagreement about whether residential ever covers its costs, but there was an interesting twist. This person admitted that they were not including school costs.
I grew up in Massachusetts where the school budget was part of the city budget and the city had a lot more control and responsibility than we do here in California. I am constantly surprised by people who think the city has any control over school funding and such here. (BTW, Keep that in mind as City Council candidates talk about "supporting the schools). We ended up agreeing to disagree, but I still wonder how many people have thought through where 120 units' kids would go to school. I doubt Washington and McKinley can handle anywhere near that many children. Are we looking at a major bond issue to buy and build from scratch? And if so, where? You can see how even reopening Hoover School has more issues than at first appearance.
My conclusions: the City elders have seriously underestimated John Q. Burlingamer's negative reaction to the Grosvenor proposal and the Law of Unintended Consequences will not be voided on this issue.
The Daily Post has a front page piece today titled "Rate city's uglliest buildings" that describes a new website that a guy named Doug Smith has launched in Palo Alto. He's fed up with ugly buildings being approved and built including another one that is in the wings for 240 Hamilton Ave.
He takes the approach of comparing pairs of buildings. You can see how and take the survey here.
This is a fun idea from a guy I don't know but would consider to be a kindred spirit. He calls out their City Hall and compares it to Pasadena–a city I often use as a comparison for what we should be doing! Pasadena has a world famous preservation district and Apple figured out how to make an existing building in Old Pasadena work just fine. I happened to take a photo of it the last time I was down there. It was just as crowded as ours!
Today's Daily Journal has a piece about the Council vote on applying for study money on the B'way "interchange". I use that term cautiously since there is more to the driver confusion and delays than just the rail crossing. The piece notes
The San Mateo County Transportation Authority called for grade separation projects and there is about $200 million available for the countywide program. The cost for Burlingame to perform a preliminary engineering, environmental documentation and final engineering design is estimated to be $1 million and, if the city’s grant application is successful, it will receive this entirely from Measure A, a half-cent transportation sales tax.
The cost of the overall grade separation project depends on what the study reveals, Murtuza said previously. The study should take 12 to 18 months, Murtuza said.
It goes on to note that the B'way Caltrain station is only open on weekends but may reopen in the future. I'm not holding my breadth on that one much as we would love to see it happen. The big question is if the grade separation happens does it lay the groundwork for an above ground high-cost rail incursion through B'game? Plenty of informed people fear that. Here's the feeder part of the story–the Caltrans controlled overpass.
With the Bay front development that is in planning, this gets to be an even hotter button.
Buried at the bottom of the Daily Journal article about the B'way grade separation study (above) is a little notation that
The council unanimously voted to authorized (Mayor) Keighran to send a letter to the District Lines Advisory Committee expressing the city's concerns about Burlingame being split up in the draft of the supervisorial district map.
This is an odd one. You have to wonder why the Lines committee wants to lump us–and just us on the Peninsula–with the coastal towns. Did Dave get under someone's skin? (Not that that is a bad thing). Are they tired of B'game candidates winning the seat (e.g. Mark Church before Dave Pine)? Something smells in RWC. There are some astute Supe watchers who are regular Voice readers, perhaps one of them will enlighten us.
Back in the day one marked a momentous occasion with a first-day postmark. Now it's more like a first day post. I happened to cross over the new Bay bridge today (on it's first day) along with a bunch of Burning Man returnees–I wasn't one of them. Here is the view looking towards Treasure Island.
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