Month: October 2018

  • SFO Runway Noise: Speier Townhall Update

    Jackie Speier hosted a two-hour Townhall meeting at Skyline College on Tuesday night to address the issue of SFO airport noise.  It was very well-attended by about 500 people from around her district with a variety of concerns.  Panelists included a former United 747 captain currently on Speier's staff, airport director Ivar Satero and Peter Kirsch, an attorney known for successfully suing airports over noise issues.  For those of us who are embroiled in this issue, much of the agenda was review except for Kirsch's bit that gave a great 20 minute tutorial on the laws about noise.

    One challenge with such meetings is one's concerns vary based on where one sits.  Pacifica residents have issues with overhead noise being more concentrated due to NextGen flight paths.  My assessment of their prospects for change/improvement is not hopeful.  Kirsch's legal review and insight left me with the impression that they just have to deal with it.  Similarly, the San Carlos and Menlo Park residents' issues with the San Carlos airport and Surf Air were a little out of scope for the meeting and shunted off to San Mateo County officials.

    Finally, after about 90 minutes, during the Q&A, B'gamer Lynn Israelit from SFORunwayNoise.com was able to ask the burning question on behalf of the large Burlingame/Hillsborough contingent present– "What about the noise from engine run-up and take-off?"  This should have been the main focus of the meeting since on-the-ground noise is solely the responsibility of the airport–not the FAA who were not present and have total authority over airborne noise.  We got some insight from Satero about two kinds of ground noise:  initial start-up noise and "start of roll" reflected noise.  Noise from the maintenance bays was not mentioned.  He also mentioned a study of ground noise from 2000 that was done.  The big news was that a new study has been commissioned to update the 18 year old study, but no timing was given.

    The most encouraging part of the evening was the impression Jackie Speier left of being engaged on the runway noise concerns.  She was home (in Hillsborough) recovering from surgery over the summer and that meant she finally felt our pain.  Windows rattling, low frequency noise, loud noise, 3 am departures–the whole panoply of problems.  Now it remains to be seen if mustering her political pressure and legal pressure can result in some improvements in our quality of life and sleep.

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  • Pipe Bomb at Rollins Rd. USPS

    In the spirit of covering all things Burlingame, I'll just note that we made the national news yesterday when the Postal Service located a pipe bomb in the mail addressed to activist Tom Steyer.  The mail sorting facility on Rollins Rd. went into shutdown and this message went out at 11:50 am

    Burlingame Police responded to assist the FBI on a report of a suspicious package located at our mail facility on Rollins Rd. The package is consistent with the mailings throughout the nation. The package has been removed from that facility and the area has been rendered safe. This incident poses no danger to the community of Burlingame.

    Later in the day, a guy with a long criminal record was arrested in Florida and accused of being the perp who mailed about a dozen such packages.  If you want the full details, the Daily Journal has it here.

     

  • Election 2018 – Some Thoughts

    I'm not sure anyone but commenter J. Mir cares what I think about the items on the ballot this time around and those who read the Voice regularly probably already know where I stand, but because I promised J. Mir I would post my thoughts, here they are:

    Governor:  If you want to save $100 billion or more of taxpayer money just on HSR (see post directly below), Cox is your guy.  The most hopeful thing to say is perhaps Newsome will kill HSR as well, but he will spend all of that and more elsewhere.

    Superintendent of Public Education:  Marshall Tuck all the way.  See here.

    Prop. 1 – "Affordable Housing":  Nope.  $4 billion down the drain to build unaffordable housing that we have no school capacity, infrastructure or water to service anyway.

    Prop. 2 – Housing for those with Mental Illness:  Nope.  Takes from the left pocket (existing services) to put in the right pocket (housing).

    Prop. 3 -  If you thought I was going to recommend against all the bond measures, you were wrong.  We are in Big Trouble up and down the state with regards to water security.  There hasn't been any additional storage capacity in generations.  Existing dams like Oroville are aging.  Rules for protecting fish (which I support) mean the water needs to come from somewhere, so while the goals of this Prop. should be met with existing revenues, they ain't.  Read the tale of woe here and vote Yes.

    Prop. 6 -  The Gas Tax repeal:  Yes.  This is like giving heroin to an addict in a dirty needle.  Road quality stinks and is getting worse, but we already are #2 in gas taxes (behind Hawaii who at least has an excuse and hardly any roads to begin with).  Force the Legislature and the new Gov to Do Their Job without more taxes.

    Prop. 10 -  Rent Control:  Not only No, but heck No.  This Prop is even worse than the one we defeated two years ago in B'game.  That one went after some landlords–this one goes after everyone who may ever decide to rent out anything and removes some pretty fundamental limits on rent control.  Besides rent control is a failure anywhere it is tried, so why enable more of it?

    Measure W – 30 year 1/2 cent sales tax in San Mateo County ostensibly for roads:  Nope.  We just did Measure K which raised sales taxes a 1/2 cent and that money could and should go to the roads, but that ain't where our Supes' priorities are.  More heroin in a dirty needle.  This measure shows the hypocrisy of people who decry the cost of living in the county.

    The rest of the ballot is left to the reader to decide over the next two weeks.  Have at it.

  • High-Cost Rail – Part 144 Revolving Door, Reduced Expectations

    The revolving door at the High Speed Rail Authority continues to spin.  As a member of the Community Working Group (courtesy of the city of B'game), I got an update from the Northern California HSR Authority team last night.  There were a lot of new faces from a year ago including a new Regional Director (Boris Lipkin) and a new Project Manager (James Tung).  But the working group attendance was sparse to say the least.  I am using the term "update" loosely, since there is not a lot of news and very little of it is good for the Peninsula, taxpayers or people looking to go somewhere at high speed.  There were some other attendees who appeared interested in handouts for of all things, "affordable housing" from the HSR money train.

    Decisions that are still pending include whether to have passing tracks from 9th Ave in San Mateo south to Whipple with all that implies for taking property and whether to build a viaduct in the South Bay to get to Diridon Station more easily.  The big kicker was an apparent lack of progress on how to get through Pacheco Pass via tunnel.  It's estimated to cost from $6-9 billion, but the engineering studies have yet to start.  And the extension to the Transbay Terminal is totally in limbo as SF Supe Aaron Peskin considers withholding funds until project management improves.  And anything south of the metropolis of Bakersfield just doesn't get mentioned.  But the gravy train continues to ladle out money at least until the election in two weeks.  Even if Newsome wins the governor ship as expected, he may have to flip-flip a third (or is it fourth?) time and kill HSR in hopes of paying for even 10% of what else he says he wants to do.  Here is the new team for Norcal.

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    And here is the timeline that still shows "Valley to Valley", i.e. Silicon Valley to the Central Valley up and running by 2029.

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    The only good news of late is that the Western U.S. earthquake warning system is plodding along so that by 2029 when a high-speed train goes off the tracks it will do so at a slower speed.

  • Kicking the Can Down Broadway

    City council meetings can be tedious to watch especially when the issue is pretty well split down the middle as it is with increasing the parking meter time limits to two hours on Broadway (from one hour).  But that is democracy in action.  Last night the city elders spent an hour hashing out the issues of space turn-over rates, pricing (B'way is CHEAP to park), doing a parking study and way-finding (that's traffic talk for having more intuitive signs).  Ancillary issues like the decline of pure retail as a percent of the businesses, giving the off-B'way lots real addresses so GPS can locate them for out-of-towners, updating the Access Burlingame app, and the validity of a "poll" or petition that originates with one merchant on behalf of the BID also took up a substantial part of the slow-moving hour.

    A few things are pretty clear.  B'way has plenty of parking, it's just not all on the main street.  What is not on the main street is even more plentiful and longer-term and people who need more than an hour can get it cheaply.  I do that several times a week myself and can vouch for its availability.  We are apparently going down the route of adding EV charging stations somewhere on B'way, but hopefully that will only be one or two spots for the special few.  We also have not had a parking study done in more than 20 years on B'way and no one really knows how they are conducted these days or what would be learned for the $50K it costs (!!!).  About 40 minutes in, Mayor Brownrigg finally asked the obvious question that I asked myself five minutes into the discussion: "How many parking tickets are issued on B'way and is that number up/down/same as it has been historically?"  It would have been helpful to prep the BPD chief a week before so he could answer it during the meeting, but that critical question was left hanging.

    In the end, the council decided to kick the can down the road.  They directed staff to work with John Kevranian (of Nuts for Candy and the BID president, pictured below) on better signage, assigning addresses to the lots and whatever other improvements can be made without going to two hour limits.  Council will revisit the issue in the spring after the holiday rush is over.  So for now, the one-hour limits stay in place and if you need more you just slyly refeed the meter or park where you are supposed to (off-B'way).

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    P.S.   Before the city spends $50K on a parking study, let's upgrade the chambers' video feed to HD, please.
      

  • Disaster Preparedness – Practice, Practice

    Today was the city-wide disaster preparedness drill sponsored by the Burlingame Neighborhood Network.  22 "blocks" or neighborhoods in B'game took part and B'game police, fire and city officials toured the gathering sites to get a feel for how residents participated and learned about preparing.  This was my second year participating and I can verify that the more you do it, the more engaged and informed you become.  Step 0 is knowing where your block meets which is the most fundamental thing to know.  We had many new faces this year as people have moved into the neighborhood or just decided to come to the event.  That interaction alone makes it worthwhile.

    I'll just tell you three things about being prepared.  Neighborhoods that plan and practice do far better, in the aggregate welfare, than those that don't.  That may seem obvious, but it bears repeating so that participation can get above 3-4% of everyone in the neighborhood.  Second, B'game has about 100 first responders in total but only about 25 are on duty at any given time, so figuring out what has happened, how serious it is and getting the most dire issues up the "chain of command" is essential.  The rest will be up to us.  Lastly, the city is doing a good job of assisting this grass roots efforts.  My neighborhood qualified for one of the 22 "caches" of emergency supplies that the city has funded based on our history of engagement in the process.  We also got one of the decommissioned radios to enable a communications lead to talk to ham operators at the elementary schools (who then relay the most critical info to police and fire).  We cannot count on 911 and cell phones for everything when all is chaos.

    All in all it was a worthwhile morning and kudos to BNN for the planning, documentation and coaching needed to make it a success.  Here is the cache spread out for the drill.

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  • SpaceX: We Live in Cool Times

    I was in the backyard tonight barbecuing a nice rack of lamb and drinking a nice Napa cab when I looked up in the sky and saw something that I had never seen before.  I watch the planets and the constellations and sometimes make the effort to see "blood moons" and such (as you know from this post).  I called Cathy over to see the thing and we joked about it being a UFO, but the rack was done and it was time to eat.  Here is the answer to the spatial mystery

    Elon Musk’s rocket company launched a commercial satellite for Argentina on Sunday evening, marking SpaceX’s 17th mission of 2018 in the type of steady success that so far has eluded his electric-car maker Tesla Inc.

    The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base on California’s central coast about 7:21 p.m. local time. About 8 minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s first stage returned and landed at Vandenberg in a first for a California-based SpaceX launch. The second stage deployed SAOCOM 1A, an Argentine Earth-imaging satellite, roughly 12 minutes after the launch.

    When I was a cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy I had a chance to tour a missile silo at Vandenberg AFB in 1977.  That was cool but the fact that Musk's team can launch and retrieve a rocket from/to Vandenberg is….well, cooler.  Did anyone else in B'game see it?

  • Caltrain: The Good, The Bad and The Idiotic

    The Daily Journal piece on the expansion of Caltrain has something for everyone.  It paints a picture of a much larger Caltrain system

    Caltrain has unveiled an exceedingly ambitious vision for the future and electrification is only the beginning.  That vision entails an up to 300 percent increase in ridership by 2040, expanded all-day service, trains arriving every 10 minutes and service extending to Monterey, to name just a few proposals.

    The good news is that electrification is humming along even if the money to do it is the "fruit of a poisonous tree" like high-speed rail.

    The expansion being contemplated applies to both the system and service, and it’s all predicated on electrification, the $2 billion project that will replace 80 percent of Caltrain’s current diesel fleet with electric trains traveling between San Jose and San Francisco by 2022.

    I'm not sure why only 80% of the fleet will be replaced, but perhaps that will become clear over time.  The bad part of the story is that the Broadway station is still a whisper of its previous self.  It's been that way for 13 years.  I found this quote interesting in that regard

    “Right now we take the philosophical viewpoint that ridership drives where we employ service, we don’t forget stations for the most part even if they don’t have vigorous ridership,” Board Member Charles Stone said. “My point is as we go forward let’s keep in mind that the demand we see may not be all the demand, that there’s pent-up demand that’s been created by the system we use right now.”

    Let's hope Charles Stone is correct and perhaps one good thing to come out of the huge Anson Apartments on Carolan will be more frequent B'way service.  Now for the idiotic.  Redwood City council member Jeff Gee was not on my radar screen until this article appeared.  Here's Gee's thoughts on Caltrain expansion

    “Why are we limiting our physical constraints? In other words, if we are only, in many places, limited to two tracks, what would it take to get to four tracks on the corridor?” he asked.  Gee went on to suggest the “constant tension” between the interests of 20 cities along the corridor and service will be the major sticking point moving forward. 

    “What’s right for a quaint little city on the Peninsula may not be the right answer for the region and so at what point does the agency say ‘thank you very much quaint little city but this has got greater benefits to the corridor’ and how do we bridge that and how do we deal with that as an organization?” he asked.

    Gee sounds like the kind of myopic "leader" who has presided over the ruination of downtown Redwood City with block after block of Soviet-style overstuffed buildings creating a soulless wasteland.  Thankfully this guy's term is up next month and he does not appear to be running for re-election.  Hopefully that means he will be leaving the Joint Powers Board as well.  If not, we may have to look to facilitate that before he does more damage to the "quaint little cities" he seems to dislike so much.  Kudos to Zachary Clark of the DJ for getting this kind of destructive thinking by a public official on the record.

     

  • Caught Red-handed

    I caught this little fellow red-handed munching away on our pumpkin.  It has become an annual feast for the squirrels. The photo was taken two days ago and this morning, the pumpkin is completely gone–he and his buddies ate the whole thing!

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  • More Avenue Woes: Books Inc. Closing

    You can't chat with any local B'gamer for very long before you hear two things:  "I'm going to miss Orchard Supply in Millbrae" and "I wish the Avenue would stay more local" or words to that effect like "it's just an outdoor mall" or "why can't we have more non-chain stores" or "how many hair and nail salons does this town need"?  Here is news from the DJ about the closing of another chapter in the Avenue's story

    After almost two decades of enduring a changing industry and local marketplace, independent bookstore Books Inc. announced it will be shuttering its location on Burlingame Avenue.   Though the parent company continues to thrive despite the threat to retailers posed by the trend toward online sales, (President Michael) Tucker said the decision to close had more to do with the transition taking place in downtown Burlingame.  “It’s just the reality of what goes on, that a low-margin business like books cannot compete for occupancy with the big boys, the national brands,” said Tucker, nodding to the corporations such as Apple, Lululemon or Pottery Barn which also occupy nearby storefronts.

    You can click through to read the full story including kind words about Karim Salma (the landlord) and more of the DBID president's thoughts

    Juan Loredo, president of the downtown business improvement district, said the company’s decision to leave is similar to the other tough choices faced by other local retailers.  “The internet kind of paved the way for these smaller places and retail shops to leave because everyone is online shopping,” he said.

    And this is welcome news also

    Tucker took time to note though that the company plans to preserve its connection with local schools and organizations in Burlingame which the company has partnered with over the years.

    Maybe this is an opening for some bookseller to find space in a less expensive part of B'game to make another run at it.  I still miss the Feldman's that was a block north of B'way before consolidating down to the Menlo Park main store.

     

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