Category: Downtown Specific Plan

  • Paying for City Hall: Selling Parking Lot H

    Long time B'gamers will recall Rosalie O'Mahony's long tenure on city council and many of her fervently held positions.  I can clearly recall her somewhat high.jpgtched voice and slight, but hard to decipher accent.  I can also recall one of her favorite sayings, "Never sell schools or parking lots".  When the school district sold–and then had to repurchase—Hoover school, they learned Rosalie's lesson.

    It appears our current city council is about to contravene Rosalie's wisdom in order to pay for the pricy new city hall plan at 1440 Chapin Lane.  Parking Lot H is across El Camino from Walgreen's and is 39,922 ft2 according to the staff report.  It's composed of two lots:  8,500 ft2 zoned R-1 and 24,422 ft2 zoned R-3.  The city has declared both "surplus land" which probably has Rosalie turning over in her resting place.  The staff report notes

    The City owns several parking lots in and around Downtown Burlingame. While Parking Lot H is utilized by residents as well as customers and employees of local businesses, it is not frequently as full as other City owned parking lots. Further, while other City owned parking lots are surrounded by commercial properties, Parking Lot H is surrounded by single and multi-family residential properties.

    Notice the report doesn't actually say how full H is on a typical day.  I pass by it on a daily basis and it gets a decent amount of use.  My guess is Avenew employees are regular users so we should not discount its value as a long-stay overflow lot.  Customers want to park in front of the business they intend to patronize so having employees leave the close spaces open has value.  It is also convenient to a couple of SamTrans bus stops for people looking to make a hybrid car/bus trip.

    The lot directly between Walgreen's and Safeway is quite full as are the one next to the AT&T building.  The library lot is usually quite full.  The new parking garage is too far away to be considered by anyone using Lot H.  This train has probably left the station, but I would listen to Rosalie and not sell–especially when you feel like you have to and interest rates are up.  Any developer will also have to consider how long and disruptive the Little Big Dig will be on El Camino.  Here's view from the roof of Safeway.

    Parking Lot H

  • Filling “The Village” should be a breeze

    The Village was in the early planning stages back in January 2018 as noted here.  The public parking lot was turned into the subsidized housing project that now towers over the south side of the Avenew and Howard Ave.  The question I have when I see the sign below is why advertising is needed to fill the building?  If the "housing crisis" is so bad, wouldn't there be a long waiting list to get in? As units turn over, the next name is called.  And yet, yesterday this sign pops up again.

    Village sign 070225

  • B Street Books comes to the Avenew

    B'game continues to have two vibrant downtowns.  Broadway and the Avenue retail spaces aren't "full", but both districts appear healthy to me.  In another sign of how attractive the Ave is, San Mateo's B Street Books is moving to the west end of the Ave into the space of the former piano store.  I have wondered how a shop like Joe and the Juice could survive in a pretty big space on coffee sales, but I think B Street is quite capable of bringing bookselling back to the Ave.

    They had a sixteen-year run in San Mateo, on B Street of course, so there is a built-in customer base that will like the Ave as much as B Street — or more.  I hope I'm right and welcome to B'game.  Now the B in B Street Books can stand for B'game.

    B St books

     

  • Avenew update: Bye bye pavers

    We haven't addressed any changes on The Avenue recently although there has been bits of news and commentary.  So here goes.  Burlingame native turned San Franciscan, Peter Hartlaub of the SF Chronicle, did a piece this week titled "Nostalgia and progress are a tough balance. This Bay Area downtown gets it right." that was highly complementary of the San Mateo downtown.  He likes the B Street closure and all of the restaurant choices down there.  Regarding his hometown Avenue, not so much:

    The Peninsula has changed so much since I grew up in Burlingame in the 1970s and ’80s that I sometimes wonder whether I imagined the whole thing.

    All of my favorite South Bay movie theaters, comic book stores and sandwich shops are long gone. Marine World Africa USA’s dolphin shows and waterslides were replaced by Oracle headquarters. Main drag Burlingame Avenue turned from a haven of small businesses catering to the middle class to a Boulevard of Things I Can’t Afford.

    On that "boulevard" the city has finally thrown in the towel on some of the pavers that are cute, almost nostalgic in a faux cobblestone sort of way, but a maintenance headache.  The replacement project was scheduled to be complete last night:

    Several downtown Burlingame Avenue intersections will be under construction from March 24 through March 27. At the intersection of Burlingame Avenue and Primrose Road and the intersection of Burlingame Avenue and Lorton Avenue, the City will remove existing pavers and install new asphalt concrete, which will reduce the maintenance required for the pavers. At the intersection of Burlingame Avenue and Park Road, pavers will be replaced both in the intersection and in the crosswalks.

    I just walked through the busy core intersection of Primrose and The Avenew where a few loose pavers are hanging on.  Maybe they stay for historic reasons?  Or the project is just going slower than planned.  Be on the asphalt alert.  Right at that crossroad, Joe and the Juice is closing "for maintenance".  The windows were being papered over this morning.  I admit being surprised a coffee and juice place of that spacious size can survive on the Ave with all the coffee competition.  It never looks even half full, but they say they will be back.  Maybe Hartlaub will stop by Broadway on his next journey down the Peninsula?

    Joe Juice temporary closure

  • City Hall Moving Around the Corner?

    We covered the shortcomings of the historic City Hall here last September when the search for alternatives started.  As we noted then, a central downtown location is an intangible that is hard to value and harder to replace. Right on cue, staff is recommending a move around the corner to 1440 Chapin Ave–across the street from Mollie Stone's.  The move would involve two phases–a leased period followed by a purchase of the building and inheriting some of the existing tenants.  Per the Staff Report

    Pursuant to the Lease and Purchase Agreements, the City is required to purchase the building by June 30, 2027, for a price of $34,500,000. After the building is purchased, the City plans to retain existing tenants in office suites not occupied by the City, which will serve as a source of revenue for the City and offset some or all of the costs associated with purchasing 1440 Chapin. Revenue is estimated to be $1,656,000 per year from rental income.

    The city as a landlord could also extend to "the opportunity to collaborate with other public agencies, if they would like to lease space in the new City Hall."  The plan is up for discussion at tomorrow night's city council meeting and as these things go, I would think the deal is basically done.  Enough ground has been laid and there are enough short-tenured councilmembers that staff's say-so will suffice.  We don't have a Rosalie O'Mahony to issue a caution that would prevail.

    The real question is what of the current City Hall property?  The DJ piece raised the question, but the answer is "we'll figure that out later"

    Nearly 10 years ago, Burlingame had weighed the possibility of developing housing at the current City Hall site, though (Mayor Peter) Stevenson said conversation around the fate of the old building would be held at a future date.

    Engaged locals are already worried about the open space in front of city hall.  The holiday tree lighting is a classic B'game community event.  The pressure to flip it to a developer who would "stack and pack" it with a mix of "affordable housing" will be high.  Is there enough backbone to resist it and make the best use of the aging facility possible?  Are there potential tenants who don't need Class A space?  What about those "other public agencies"?  There is also a decent amount of parking on the site so if a Return to Office move is afoot for city staff, those spaces are a short, healthy walk to 1440 Chapin.  We shall see.  An eagle-eyed reader sent me the Instagram post about tomorrow's meeting.  I didn't know the city was posting there.

    City Hall purchase Instagram post

     

  • Crosswalk Daylighting: Minus 100 spaces and counting

    We covered the new "daylighting" law that went into effect last January but is only now starting to be enforced here in B'game and elsewhere.  You can refresh your memory here regarding the 20-foot clearance around all crosswalks.  I have been having email discussions with Public Works and BPD on what the effects will be in our commercial districts, the areas around schools and the Rec Center as well as plain old residential areas.

    2024 was the "educational" year when marginal violations would only earn a warning, but BPD does not show that it issued any warnings in town.  I say "educational" because the city is only marking red curb areas in the high traffic-high pedestrian areas.  Both of our commercial districts and the school zones qualify for new or refreshed paint.  Public Works notes "The City has already completed red curbing in the Burlingame Avenue downtown area and is now focusing on Broadway as the next priority" and estimates this will eventually result in a net loss of about 100 spaces city wide.  Some of our existing red zones will have to be extended to 20' like the one shown below in front of Ike's, so I think there maybe a few more than the initial 100 estimate.

    Things get more interesting in residential neighborhoods.  There are crosswalks all over the place and plenty of people are accustomed to parking in front of their houses within 20' of such intersections.  I can go for a 15-minute walk in Burlingame Park and regularly count a half dozen.  There are two pocket parks on my walk, one that used to be Pershing School, so that may account for some of the legacy crosswalks.  Very few of these have any red curbing.  Thus, BPD has indicated:

    The fine for daylighting is $40.00, the same as most of the City's parking fines. Parking Enforcement Officers won't be actively patrolling residential neighborhoods specifically looking for these violations. However, if they happen to observe one, they are encouraged to take appropriate action, which could be a warning or a citation.

    I think good judgement will prevail at least for some educational period.  Six months?  9?  We shall see.  I'll be on the lookout for new red paint and whether or not it improves visibility of pedestrians.  Drivers should remember it is no longer illegal to jaywalk per The Freedom to Walk Act, which was signed into law in January 2023.

    Ike's curb

  • Lot Why: Some parking spots are busier than others

    The Broadway business district was humming this afternoon in spite of the overcast and drizzle.  Four days before Christmas and Hanukkah is "peak shopping time".  I made four stops that took about an hour including two trips back to my car, so the scene below wasn't just a single instance anomaly.  The gas guzzler spaces were packed.  You remember how tight the Lot Y lane is between the two parking rows next to Pick of the Litter when both sides are full.  Even in a mid-size sedan, backing out of a space is a two or three-cut process.  Maybe it is the rain, but my meter took my coins, flashed green, but failed to display how much time I just bought.  It's ticket roulette.

    Many people were looking longingly at the EV spaces.  I didn't have the heart to look at each charger to see if they were operational–I sort of know the answer already based on this post two weeks ago.  As the "Daylighting" ordinance goes into effect with fines starting Jan 1, parking spots will get incrementally rarer.  Just wait until 19 spaces go EV-only in Lot K between Safeway and Walgreen's.  Perhaps Santa will bring the city a few shrouds to cover broken chargers that read "Open to all vehicles for free".  It's on my list.

    Lot Why

  • Fall Fest: Trains, Ponies and the Cybertruck

    I strolled through the Howard Ave. Fall Festival yesterday.  I hadn't been in years, but when I saw the horse trailer parked near Isobune I decided to check it out.  The hurricane out in the Pacific made for a humid, partly cloudy stroll, but that didn't seem to diminish the crowd.  It felt as busy as Art on the Ave.  The little train was giving kids rides reminiscent of Rudy Horak's Holiday tree-lighting train.  It's nice to see that tradition continue.  The demonstration Cybertruck was also there like at Art on the Ave, and as if it isn't scary enough already, add skeletons.  But the biggest draw by far was the pony rides.  No need to go all the way over to Lemos Farm when the ponies come to B'game.  The line had to have at least 50 kids waiting patiently.  Kudos to the DBID for keeping tradition alive downtown.

    Ponies!
    Ponies!

  • The New Old Post Office is coming along

    Now that the construction fencing is down around the new old Post Office, the renovations are starting to sparkle, especially at night.  I have it from a reliable source that the interior polishing is a good as what we see on the exterior.  It's been about two and a half years since groundbreaking which seems quick given how other project bog down.  Here's the old new door into what will be the new restaurant.

    New old post office door

  • ลาก่อน Narin Thai: 30 years of excellence

    ลาก่อน is Thai for "goodbye".  As of tomorrow, that is what we will be saying to Martin and Crystal, owners of Narin Thai on Park Rd.  After thirty-plus years of excellent food, excellent service and excellent prices, they are retiring.  Narin is the quintessential Mom & Pop business.  Martin cooks and Crystal handles the front.  That's it–just the two of them for lunch and dinner six days a week for more than thirty years.

    I can try to tally the number of Spicy Basil Chicken and Yellow Curry Prawn dishes I have had.  Thirty years is 1,500+ weeks–with weekly ordering, it's probably about 2,000 Spicy Basil Chickens, since I ordered two at a time.  I generally called ahead to see if the fantastic brown rice was available that day and if not; Crystal would whip it up for me.

    ขอบคุณ Crystal and Martin–Thank you.  Truly a "Best of Burlingame" business.Narin night

    Narin night

The Burlingame Voice

Dedicated to Empowering and Informing the Burlingame Community

RECENT COMMENTS

RECENT POSTS

CATEGORIES

ABOUT THE VOICE

The Burlingame Voice is dedicated to informing and empowering the Burlingame community.  Our blog is a public forum for the discussion of issues that relate to Burlingame, California.  Opinions posted on the Burlingame Voice are those of the poster and commenter and not necessarily the opinion of the Editorial Board.  Comments are subject to the Terms of Use.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

All content subject to Copyright 2003-2026