Category: Historical

  • ECR: The Axe man cometh

    I should not be surprised, but I still am regarding how few people realize nine out of every ten Eucalyptus trees on El Camino are on Caltrans' chopping block.  People see the survey team out and about up and down the state highway and wonder "What's that all about?"  When you tell them they go "NO, really?"  To which I say "Really".  It interesting to see where some of the stakes are landing–much further into the sidewalks and private property than you would think.  That may not mean what some think it means, but we shall see when property owner notices start going out.  Here's the theodolite–and yes, I did have to look that word up.

    ECR surveying project

  • History: Two new Washington Park plaques

    I'm a bit behind with this post as the unveiling of two new historical plaques in Washington Park was a couple weeks ago.  The plaques were made possible by donations from two BHS Class of '62 members, Bill Walsh and Fred Hawley, and the services of the B'game Historical Society for the content and Park & Rec staff for the installation.  One at the entrance to the high school driveway covers the history of the school.  The other is deep in the park near the rose garden and covers the history of the Gunst mansion that stood on the site.

    Mr. Walsh is on the left and Mr. Hawley is in the middle flanked by three Historical Society board members–from the left, Joanne Garrison, Jennifer Pfaff and my lovely wife Cathy.  Check out these new historical additions to our town when you are in the park.  Hopefully there are more to come.

    IMG_4905

  • H’Borough remembers Memorial Day with a parade

    The annual Hillsborough Memorial Day parade has a reliably small town feel that mixes civic pride with the sentiment of the day.  This year was pretty much just like last year described here.  The vintage cars, police cars (including the Atherton Mustang), fire trucks, vintage Recology truck, etc. were out in force in the sunshine.  We had the full complement of politicians looking a bit sheepish sitting on the backs of convertibles–Mullin, Becker, Papan, and Pine.  The vets in uniform looked much more at ease as they were driven along.

    Here is a bit of history of the day from the History Channel

    On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed.

    The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.

    On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Civil War soldiers buried there.

    I highlighted the BHS marching band in last year's post, so here is a shout out to the Bearcat band.

    Bearcat band_Memorial Day 2024

  • Working at the Burlingame Library is a Special Privilege

    We are one year removed from the post about the piece of toilet paper the library installed over the motto on the Living in Burlingame is a Special Privilege tapestry.  Refresh your memory with this post last April here:

    People have earned the special privilege of living here.  Some few may have inherited the privilege, but that just means their parents or grandparents earned it.  If we have city employees (employees we pay!) who think differently, we need some new employees.  Any library trustee who went along with this needs to rethink their responsibilities and priorities.

    As usual, the SF Comicle has unintentionally highlighted how right I was last year.  I'm thinking our B'game snowflakes need to take a rotational training program up to an EssEff library.  Six months should be sufficient.  OK, maybe we ship 'em up for a full year.  B'game can pay for their self-defense training if they complete a full year.  Sort of like the Peace Corps.

    SF Library security

    What say you Council and Trustees?  Is it time to "woke up" and remove the toilet paper ribbon?

    4/16 Update:  When I saw this meme today, I immediately thought about this post.  For the "Burlingame is for everyone" and the "Burlingame for all" people who were pushing for rent control, and for the YIMBY's with law degrees but who don't actually have backyards, this one's for y'all.

    Housing is a right meme

  • B’game Train Station ADU?

    I guess deputy directors at Caltrain struggle to find affordable living quarters on the Peninsula even though the payroll at Caltrain is very bloated IMHO.  But who knew it would get this weird?  Former deputy director for operations Joe Navarro and a contractor friend named Seth Worden have been charged with skimming public funds to create living spaces in the B'game and Millbrae train stations!  In small increments, Navarro is alleged to have paid Worden $42,000 for the secret apartment in the B'game station and another $8K for the Millbrae hideaway.

    As shown below, the B'game station has always had living space on the south side as that was the original station master's quarters (to the right of the arches).  Later on, it was the B'game Chamber of Commerce office and had a kitchenette and toilet already.  That was where an arsonist tried to burn the place down in 2016.  It must be tricked out pretty nicely for $42K.  According to the Merc

    Worden was caught first, in 2020, after employees discovered the converted space, authorities said. But the transit agency was reportedly unaware of Navarro’s place in Burlingame until getting an anonymous tip in 2022.  Navarro was fired after being confronted with the tip, and reportedly admitted to “occasionally using the station as his residence,” prosecutors said, though they allege that he was using the small apartment as his primary residence.

    I can't wait to find out why it took years to bring the felony embezzlement charges.

  • Postal Service upgrades to Dodge Rams

    I'm going to miss the little putt-putt right-hand drive USPS vehicles that have been around forever.  You may have noticed the new Dodge Ram vans driving around town–so new that they don't have plates yet–or is the Postal Service immune from the DMV?  The Rams are not getting rave reviews from the carriers.  They are designed more for Amazon or UPS package delivery than regular mail and are harder to enter and exit.  I'm sure the tailpipe emissions are better, but I'll miss that little putt-putt noise that told me my mail has arrived.

    Searching around for the background of the old trucks, I discovered the larger ones are known as Grumman LLVs.  LLV stands for long life vehicle.  They have a GM Iron Duke 4 cylinder.  They replaced some of the prior Jeep DJ's around 1987, but I have also seen some of the really old Jeeps around B'game recently.  If you want one the GSA auction site is here.

    New postal truck

    For nostalgic reasons five years from now, here is one of the "old" trucks spotted on ECR recently

    Old mail truck

  • B’game: Now and Then

    There was a great turnout yesterday for the quarterly B'game Historical Society meeting.  It was a beautiful Spring-like day which helped.  About 90-100 people were treated to a 145-photo montage carefully arranged in a Now-Then sequence to show how our little burg has changed over the years.  Some "Then" photos went back to c. 1911.  Society president Jen Pfaff went all in to get "Now" photos from the same angle and distance as the historical editions and the effort paid off.

    My photo of the meeting below doesn't do the scene justice, but you can just make out the crowd gathered for a parade in 1953 when LIFE magazine came to B'game.  Many of the photos shown yesterday will appear on the Society website (technical issues are being resolved).  In the meantime, here's Jen and the LIFE piece.

    Hist Soc_022524

    LIFE comes to Bgame

  • Backhaus: Sweet introduction

    According to the show of hands local realtor Raziel Ungar asked for at Friday's hosted event at Backhaus, I am one of the last people to clue into our newest bakery.  That's probably because most people are having lunch around the time I am finishing breakfast and from what I hear, Backhaus can be sold out by then.  Raziel is one of the most active realtors in town and loves to bring his clients together for events like movies and pie giveaways.  His latest event brought about 100 people to Backhaus for a talk and tasting with co-owner Anne Moser.

    Anne gave us the story of how she and her husband Robert started baking at home, then moved to Kitchentown, onward to the B'game Farmer's Market and the CSM market, then to a space on 3rd Ave in San Mateo and now to a larger, more flexible space here at 261 California Dr.  The space was our first movie theater, George Roy's Photoplay that opened in 1913, according to Russ Cohen's article in this quarter's Burlingame Historical Society newsletter.

    After extensive, and I mean really extensive, Q&A that Anne handled with ease, Raziel asked for a show of hands as to who had bought bread and pastries from Backhaus at each step of the journey.  When he finally asked for a show of hands as to who was a first-timer on Friday, I was in the tiny minority that raised their hands.  Raziel is a big supporter of Copenhagen as well and his annual pie event at Thanksgiving is a B'game tradition.  Baking sounds like an arduous task since each day starts at 3am so that the goods are ready for the 7:30 opening.  After tasting the Country Bread at the event, I may have to get up early to snag some.  Here's Raziel and Anne making the pitch.

    Raziel and Ann

  • Preservation Gem: “Gee Gee” Bland Platt

    Let's end the year with something different in that it's not directly related to B'game.  We highlight the passing of special B'gamers on occasion, but I was struck by the obit of "Gee Gee" Bland Platt that ran in the Comicle this weekend.  You will quickly see why:

    On December 13th the world lost a superlative San Franciscan and a remarkable mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother.  In 1963, Gee Gee became Survey Chairman (and later, concurrently, San Francisco County Chairman) of the Junior League's architectural survey, eventually published as Here Today: San Francisco's Architectural Heritage (Chronicle Books, 1968).

    Her work on this book led Mayor Jack Shelley to appoint her in 1967 to the inaugural San Francisco Landmarks Advisory Board, on which she served for 13 years, seven as its president. Over 110 buildings and monuments received landmark status in this era, including Mission Dolores, Ghirardelli Square, and the rotunda of the City of Paris department store (still there in its glory at Neiman Marcus on 150 Stockton St). She was infamously fired in 1980 by then-mayor Dianne Feinstein, in what the San Francisco newspapers called at the time the "Black Friday Massacre."

    Later that year, Gee Gee went on to found G. Bland Platt Associates, and this firm provided "a wide variety of consulting services to owners and lessees of architectural and historically significant properties and to their architects." Owners and developers of important buildings, once her adversaries, became her clients.

    She served on the board of the California Preservation Foundation (CPF) for many years and twice was its president; served on the board of San Francisco Heritage; and helped to set up the California Preservation Alliance, the first preservation political action committee. In 2004-5, she was a leading force in a lawsuit against the developers of the now-defunct Westfield Centre, after the demolition of part of the old Emporium store's magnificent original office tower, which was supposed to have been preserved. The $2.5 million settlement led to the creation of the Historic Preservation Fund Committee, on which Gee Gee served from its inception until her death and which continues to support preservation projects in San Francisco. She was both the "Che Guevara" and the "Mother Superior" of architectural preservation in San Francisco.

    That is quite a legacy and one that has added a lot of value for a lot of people who may not even realize it.  Architecturally speaking, a lot of bad stuff happened in the '60's and '70s and on into the '80s.  It coulda been worse if not for Gee Gee.  Many of you will recognize her seminal book–I probably have at least three copies laying around!  RIP Gee Gee.

    Here Today_San Francisco's Architectural Heritage

  • Baywood: Chronicle “skirts” the truth

    There are a number of reasons why I call the SF Chronicle the "Comicle".  I might have plagiarized it from Herb Caen decades ago.  There is so much slanted "news" some days that it seems like the whole edition is a comic strip.  Last Thursday, some "reporter" named J.K. Dineen provided the latest example when he/she waded into the San Mateo Baywood happenings around getting historic district certification.  The headline screamed "Effort could skirt state housing laws".  Um, no.  The law (SB9) includes exceptions for historic districts and resources.  You aren't "skirting" a law by complying with what it says.

    Dineen kicks the piece off with "A stealth effort to have the state legislature designate one of San Mateo's wealthiest neighborhoods as a historic district could create a playbook for other Bay Area enclaves looking to avoid complying"…..blah, blah, blah.  It's only a "stealth effort" if one hasn't been paying attention to our local news.  The DJ must have run a dozen articles on the effort and published a couple of dozen LTTEs.  If one's world view generally stops around McLaren Park then it's "stealth".

    Note the coded language–"wealthiest neighborhood" and an "enclave" and "genteel subdivision".  Can "leafy suburb" be far behind?  For some reason, searching the Comicle site for a link does not bring up the piece, but here is the front page.  Can B'game be next?  How will they ratchet up the angst when it's H'borough's turn?

    SM Baywood

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