Category: Parking

  • 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

  • “Compact” parking spaces: Nobody is watching

    We love parking anomalies here at the Voice.  The more difficult the maneuver the better as we saw here on Broadway.  Or headscratchers like this wrong way, parallel in an angled spot trick.  And then there are the imaginary spaces that get taken like here.  But the myth of the "compact" space is the most common parking irritant.  Safeway is aptly doing some random parking enforcement against people poaching spaces to shop elsewhere.  In a perfect world, the agents would also be able to ticket full-sized (or even bigger) vehicles in the little spaces.  Safeway put in plenty of them to slip through the full parking requirement back in 2011.  Check out this special "compact edition" of a RAM 2500 Powermaster.  The rear view camera must be pretty good as he has about 5 inches to spare on either side.  You better be pretty skinny to park in either adjacent space.

    RAM 2500 Powermaster

  • Broadway headscratcher

    We haven't had a crazy parking post in a while.  The last one that was photo worthy was in the Safeway lot in November 2023.  Today's headscratcher beats that by a mile.  On Broadway, in broad daylight, someone decided to somehow back into the angled spot on the other side of the street!  Imagine.  You would pull past the open spot, check for on-coming cars then back across the lane into the space.  Then to top it all off, you don't actually back all the way into the space causing eastbound drivers to have to pull into the westbound lane to get around your car.

    Broadway was jammed as usual because everyone hates Carmelita now, but I hear the TSP Commission is considering which stupid rubber speed humps to remove at this week's meeting.  Fingers crossed.  I saw parking enforcement walking B'way on my way back 20 minutes later, but not sure if a ticket was issued.  I'm not even sure what said ticket would read?  If I had taken video instead of this still photo, you would have heard Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in the background since it was playing on my radio.  Uncanny.

    Bass Ackwards parking

      

  • 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

  • EV Charging: Fixing the Lot Y chargers

    The Lot Y parking lot on Chula Vista near B'way has had a shaky history of EV charging reliability.  We reported on the initial low usage four years ago here.  It may have gotten more usage in the intervening four years, but back then one and a half charging sessions per day per unit was not a good use of city parking slots.  Part of the problem has been that the chargers themselves are wonky.  Sometimes it's the credit card readers.  Sometimes other things, but the owners, EVGo, have thrown in the towel on their first-generation units and torn all of them out.

    Replacements are on their way and reportedly will be re-installed by the end of the month.  Let's hope at least some parts of the dead units are recyclable.  In the meantime, the gas guzzler meters that are behind the construction fencing are offering free parking in those spaces (since you can't get to the meter).  Park on!  Let's hope the new chargers last more than five years and we get the upgraded ones at the Walgreen's installation.

    New chargers coming

  • 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

  • EV Chargers: On the blink in Lot Y

    The bloom is off the EV market for a variety of reasons.  Unit growth is slowing dramatically.  Now that early adopters have made their purchases, the mainstream buyers' reluctance to go all-electric is hitting home hard with car companies, parts suppliers, battery factories and infrastructure players.  A number of EV start-ups will likely go bankrupt by summer according to the WSJ analysis and the big manufacturers are losing their rear bumpers on every sale.  Some to the tune of more than a $100,000 loss per sale!  Ironically, sales of high-end gas pickups and SUVs are propping up companies' EV divisions!

    Range anxiety is one of the key causes of EV reluctance–and it is helping the hybrid market accordingly.  My only experience with a Tesla rental drove that anxiety home as I got about half of what the range gauge estimated.  Paying the supercharger rate wasn't dramatically cheaper than gas in the state I rented in.  Heightening range anxiety is charger malfunctions and vandalism (stealing the copper filler wire for scrap value).  Malfunctions are a national problem (estimated to be one in five) and very much a local issue as reported by the DJ this weekend:

    In Burlingame’s Broadway District, continued issues with its electric vehicle charging stations are inconveniencing businesses and residents alike, Broadway Burlingame Business Improvement District president John Kevranian said.   A representative for EVgo, which owns and operates the six fast-charging electric vehicle stations located at 1133 Chula Vista Ave., confirmed that five of the six stations have likely been out of operation at times for a couple of months. One has been out of operation for weeks, she said.

    Now, however, eight parking spots in the tightly packed Broadway District have become largely nonfunctional.   “This is the holiday season, too. It’s crucial these work during the holiday season. If EVgo is not going to repair them, maybe they can cover the stations, and use them as public parking,” Kevranian said.

    John is on-the-money with the idea of covering a charger if it is broken so everyone could see that they can use the space.  Given they don't have meters, it would be a freebie, too. The sad part is that EVgo cannot keep chargers working that only went live in 2019, as we noted here.  The DJ piece notes that EVgo may not be complying with the city contract.  I'd say that is a safe bet, but did we negotiate any performance penalties?  Usage in Lot Y ramped up pretty slowly as we noted here, but random outages are likely to stunt future usage.  Anxiety is bad for business.

  • “EV Phobia” – Battery anxiety

    This story from the WSJ on Wednesday came to mind as I was sitting in front of shiny, new 220 Park building listening to the band at Burlingame on the Ave. this weekend.  Aside from realizing that the Carr McClellan building needs a paint job and something to cover the grimy HVAC system on the roof that we never saw before, I thought back to the big hole for the multi-level parking below 220.  

    SEOUL—The uproar over a Mercedes-Benz electric vehicle that burst into flames in South Korea this month wasn’t only about fire safety. Outrage emerged over the lesser-known Chinese battery maker, Farasis Energy.  Now South Korea has a fresh proposal to ease public anxiety: advising carmakers to voluntarily divulge what brand of battery sits inside their EVs.

    Such information isn’t generally public knowledge globally, despite the importance EV users place on battery life and driving range. At the same time, lithium-ion batteries—should they catch fire—burn at far higher temperatures than fires in conventional gas-powered cars and are uniquely challenging for firefighters to tackle.

    The Aug. 1 blaze unfolded in an underground parking lot, which are common in the densely populated country. It incinerated around 40 nearby cars and scorched around 100 others. Some apartment complexes have considered barring EVs from underground lots. Local governments are exploring whether public charging stations shouldn’t charge EV batteries beyond 80% capacity, to reduce the risk of fires. Local media described the country as undergoing a sudden “EV-phobia.”

    The stories about e-bikes bursting into flames are pretty common mostly due to using way off-brand batteries.  But when a $67K Mercedes lights up 140 nearby cars, that is a different problem.  I hope someone is looking at this–whether it's 80% charges or no charging or some other idea.  And one hopes Central County Fire is aware although from what I read there isn't much they can do at the scene besides let it burn out.

  • ECR: How is this maneuver legal?

    Change is afoot for our beloved El Camino Real as the Axe man cometh for the Eucs.  The city e-newsletter notes that pothole repair on a systemic level (as opposed to when someone calls) as "Caltrans is currently completing pothole repair work on El Camino Real, between Howard Avenue and Sanchez Avenue. Work will take place daily, between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. One lane will remain open in both directions, but drivers should expect delays."

    One thing that will have to change as 91% of the Eucs get cut down, huge swaths of pavement get dug up at one time, trenches get dug for power/phone lines and drainage piping is the commercial parking habits of various truck drivers.  It's not just Amazon, UPS, FedEx, et al.  Check this guy out resupplying Walgreens!  There's a city lot right there, but hey, let's just shut down half of northbound ECR for half an hour or more.  How is that legal?

    ECR illegal loading

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