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