We have had the nickname “Boringame” in the past. I first heard it when I worked in town in 1983, but this past Thursday to Sunday we were alive with the sounds of music on the Ave. Four days, three bands per day. A dozen bands. That’s a lot of music and hundreds of people came out to hear it each day even with the oppressive heat on the weekend.
I had the pleasure of MC’ing Friday and Sunday as I did for one day at Burlingame on the Avenue back in August. Sometimes it feels like our city is growing fast, but other times you see a lot of familiar faces and it seems still small. Well, maybe not “small” but not big either. Kudos to the Burlingame/SFO Chamber of Commerce for managing all the details of the program that makes it all go smoothly.
The talk on the street all weekend was about the merchandise theft and subsequent tackle of a suspect by a “Burlingame man” on Wednesday. Here’s the NBC Bay Area report complete with video.
A Burlingame man was caught on camera tackling a person police were chasing after a reported retail theft on Wednesday. It all started with a man running full speed down Lorton Avenue. Camera footage showed when he was followed by another, who quickly closed the gap and took him to the ground. The two wrestle on the sidewalk before a passing car blocks the camera’s view. The video was recorded around 12:45 p.m. on Wednesday. Around 15 minutes earlier, police said they received a report of a theft from a business on Burlingame Avenue.
Not recommended, but gutsy, nonetheless. Here’s Mike Annuzzi’s band closing the festivities last night.
On Sunday afternoon, more than 80 local neighbors gathered at Pershing Park for cake and conversation. The event was sponsored by the Burlingame Public Library and the Burlingame Community Center as well as the City. Volunteers spread the word by flyers and shoe leather since relying on the City e-newsletter doesn’t work as well. You need a flyer to put on the fridge as a reminder. Luckily the Niners had things well in hand against the Dolphins by the 3pm start time which probably helped attendance. I met way more than six there and a few new neighborhood dogs.
Meet 6 Neighbors is a state initiative focusing on building connection and reducing isolation. Research shows that knowing at least six neighbors improves physical and mental health as well as overall individual and collective well-being.
A wag might say it depends on which six neighbors, but let’s leave that for another post!
The goals of M6N are to improve well-being, foster civic engagement, fight loneliness, build trust and support disaster resiliency–the later similar to the BNN meet-ups, drills and Zello radio practice sessions. The Meet 6 Neighbors ad-hoc Committee consists of Colleen Conefrey and Margaret Glomstad, Park & Rec Department; Cynthia Ryder, Burlingame Public Library; Stephanie Lee, former city council member, Brad McCulley, City Librarian; and Anne Hinckle, BNN (The last four are pictured L-R below at the event). The next Park Party is scheduled for Sunday, October 18th at Cuernavaca Park. More will be scheduled in 2027. Moving the start time to 5pm and swapping out the cake for some vino might enhance attendance even more!
While enjoying the bands at Burlingame on the Avenue this year I noticed that the long-awaited Old Post Office restaurant in the old post office is hiring. It also has the liquor license application filed so we must be getting close.
The little sign telling people to stay off the beautiful lawn was promptly and widely ignored all weekend.
I seldom do the “Feel Good Friday” type of posts, but this one from the new California Post plucked my choke cable. I’ve never had any Detroit muscle preferring my nimble Japanese sports car, but I love seeing them on ECR and at car shows like the one this Sunday on the Avenew.
A Northern California man whose prized muscle car was swiped more than three decades ago has finally been reunited with his beloved wheels, cops revealed this week. Police in Auburn recently discovered the black 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle through a vehicle-identification-number inspection, they said. California Highway Patrol cops did not say what prompted the VIN probe into the car, but noted that during it, they noticed something that “warranted a closer look,” CHP wrote on Facebook on Thursday. It turns out the classic had been stolen from San Mateo County more than 158 miles away in 1993.
“With assistance from the San Mateo Police Department, investigators were able to confirm the vehicle’s history and do something that probably seemed impossible after all these years – reunite the Chevelle with its original owner,” CHP said.
The car is reported to have been well taken care of and hopefully we will see it rolling down the roadway in San Mateo and B’game soon. The photo in the Post shows it to be a Chevelle SS, so here is a stock photo. The original owner didn’t want to be identified — probably to avoid have the ride boosted again! See you Sunday on the Ave.
KCSM Jazz 91.1 celebrated its summer concert festival on campus on Saturday. It was the 20th year of filling the area in front of the library with great jazz, blues, samba et al on the first Saturday of June. I always put it on my calendar right away. We had some wind and a chilly cloud cover for about an hour in the mid-afternoon, but otherwise bright sunny and fun.
Young Nathan Tokanaga from Belmont is back from his freshman year in NYC and has formed a new quartet for the summer. He’s a rising star– not just in Bay Area jazz– and has added the tenor sax to his talents. Long-timers Tuck & Patti followed. They’ve been playing for more than 40 years, and it showed. The Latin session followed with Roger Glenn’s Ensemble with Ray Obiedo sitting in. Roger claimed Ray taught Carlos Santana everything he knows and the guitar tone was familiar.
Things picked up steam with a tribute to Miles Davis on his 100th birthday from a group assembled for this show from top shelf musicians called “Miles Smiles” featuring Essiet Essiet, David Sanchez, Edward Simon, Eddie Henderson, and KCSM DJ and drummer Akira Tana. It doesn’t get much better than that, but the closer more than held her own. 35-year-old saxophonist Vanessa Collier is now out on her own after touring with Joe Louis Walker for years and she brought the event to a rousing, blues-driven close. Here she is.
As they do every year since the ’30s, the Lion’s Club selected their Citizen of the Year this week. At a fun-filled luncheon at the joint Lion’s and Rotary get together at the historic Lion’s Club Hall, Sapore’s very own Elio D’Urzo received the honor. He also catered his own event! The list of thoughtful and charitable efforts Elio provides to local churches, schools, seniors and others is long and distinguished. In November, Sapore will be celebrating its 25th year in B’game. During his typically modest short acceptance speech, Elio described Sapore as a “home”, not a “restaurant”. That’s how I feel when I walk in.
He also noted that he has now spent half of his life here and half in Italy but is finding English comes to him easier here than Italian does there! He’s working with previous CoY Mark Lucchesi on his accent. Good luck with that. Everyone has seen him talk with his hands like the picture below. Congrats, Elio.
The first of what I hope will be many bands played at our new Town Square last night. They were greeted by the Burlingame Breeze which unfortunately is not an umbrella drink. Bert’s Brew, featuring local bassist and former city councilmember Stephanie Lee, ran through a very fun variety of classic rock covers, some Calypso and some Reggae, mon. “Suntan Man”, who many would recognize from his busking on his tenor sax on the Avenew (along with his persona tanning sessions all over downtown), joined in from the audience on Girl from Ipanema.
The Burlingame Breeze made for two distinct experiences. In the sunny section in front of the Old Post Office things were quite pleasant. In the shade where the band was set up and nearby seating, things were less toasty. Future bands should note that the Breeze means they should bring their full PA set-up and layers of clothing. The weather and some confusion over the starting time made for a smaller audience than I expected. The sandwich sign with all of the upcoming shows listed a 5pm start, but the band started at 5:30 despite having set up early. I’ll try to get some clarity from Park & Rec on the start times which are variable (today’s start is listed as 4pm). There are worse places to while away a half hour.
I noticed the lack of an actual stage/bandstand during the Grand Opening but did not mention it in that post. Now that live music has started the lack of any staging is noticeable (even 10-12 inches makes a difference). It just doesn’t feel the same without a bit of a lift. Perhaps there is some budget left over to rectify this before Burlingame on the Avenue arrives on August 15-16 and the Square gets its real debut. All in all, we are off to a great start on a much-needed addition to the downtown scene.
About 300 community members came together under a clear blue sky last week for the ribbon-cutting at our new Town Square. It’s a long story which you can revisit via the Post Office category here from the groundbreaking in 2021 all the way back to 2012. I thought Mayor Michael Brownrigg delivered an outstanding speech and Michael kindly gave me his detailed notes to excerpt here. Here are some very lightly edited highlights of that speech.
The history of Burlingame last 50 years is history of parking lots: buying and leveling our bowling alley, the old City Hall, and others to build parking lots to compete with malls. 15 years ago, with our downtown sagging, we realized it was not parking, it was vitality and activity that mattered. And those parking lots – bought as a way to enhance Burlingame — now looked a lot like underutilized assets.
In 2008/9, in the heart of the Great Recession, our city leaders challenged our community, let’s reimagine our downtown. Over the course of a couple of years and many, many meetings, a vision arose. It was the product of robust input from groups like Citizens for a Better Burlingame and the downtown BID, Planning Commission, community leaders, etc.
We now see so many fruits from that 2010 Downtown Plan: affordable housing, creative and efficient parking, expanding energy and retail over to Howard, enhancing Burlingame Avenue with wide sidewalks and more pedestrian amenities. And today, the cherry on top, our new Town Square.
There are so many people to thank. Neighbors like the Salmas and the Karps and the owners of Yves De Lorme, who have consistently leaned in. Other business owners like Janet and Carl Martin who worked hard to make Safeway a better project way back when and who care deeply about the entire fabric of our downtown. Safeway was the first salvo by Burlingame in terms of imagining a more pedestrian friendly, community oriented and vital downtown. And a shout out to Stanley Lo, who helped control the Post Office site after it was put on the market and then helped sell the site to a group of people who could honor the history and imagine the future, and to Dave Hopkins, a co-conspirator at Sares Regis without whose courage this project might never have materialized.
Michael Brownrigg
Burlingame Mayor (2026)
On the occasion of the opening of the Town Square, April 2, 2026
As I said, this is just an excerpt, and he thanked many more people before turning the podium over several other speakers. Hopefully this Instagram video will load properly for a taste of the proceedings. The story about moving the Post Office over the downtown culvert and then back is one for the ages and I can’t wait for the restaurant that is the last remaining bit of the project.
Michael told me last week that he would use last night’s city council meeting to publicly affirm what we have been hearing for a sometime–that he would not seek re-election this time around. He leaves quite a service legacy having been appointed to the Planning Commission in 2001 and joining the city council in 2009. As we have seen with other long-serving commissioners and council members, their institutional knowledge is incredibly valuable in subsequent projects. And they still get button-holed in the grocery aisle long after they are out of office. Congrats, sir.
Yesterday was the second of four consecutive days of music on the Avenue with three bands each day. I stumbled upon the stage yesterday morning and that lead me to figure out what was happening later in the day. I wasn’t alone in my serendipitous listening as I watched Sheryl and the Pretenders and Red Hot and the Saltines perform. About a dozen friends stopped by to say hi and most of them also stumbled into the event either that day or the prior day. So here’s your PSA about today and tomorrow. The event is hosted by the City and the Chamber of Commerce whose Event calendar is here.
In chatting with Mayor Peter Stevenson, we agreed that by next year the “town square” should be complete and we can move the stage off the street and get better acoustics than the solid wall of the Apple store. Both bands were very good. Red Hot is a female singer from Millbrae and she and the Saltines covered everything from Seals & Croft to The Who. Here’s them near the end of their set as dusk set in.
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