Category: Rec Center

  • Rec Center – Same Story, Different Day

    At Fred's insistence, here is a fresh post on the Rec Center design plan from the latest Daily Journal article.  I still don't see anything new except the conceptual drawing (click through to see it) and the off-hand comments from four council members — two of whom choose to ignore all the community input to date that the architects used.  For example

    Councilman Michael Brownrigg said he felt the proposed designs were uninspired, and encouraged the architect to take a more creative approach.  Brownrigg suggested the building styles looked dull, which is likley a byproduct of crowdsourcing design suggestions.

    “When you have a bunch of people it always comes down to the lowest common denominator. You can’t expect something really interesting to come out of the democratic process” he said. “I just find this boring.”

    He said the building in many ways looked too similar to some school buildings in Burlingame, and suggested the planners draw inspiration from the architecture found on Burlingame Avenue for a more creative and interesting vision.

    I guess the concept of neighborhood consistency goes out the window.  I also wonder where the desire for an interesting vision was when the Soviet-style "The Trousdale" was in front of the council–and had funding?

    The bottom line is still the same as it was back in September or January 2013.  And I'm still pondering which model of Ferrari to not buy.  Will B'gamers go for a parcel tax for this?  Maybe the community outreach should first answer that question to the tune of $15, $20, $25 or the original $30 million estimate.

  • Bayfront Idea$ and $nag$

    Adding park land and perhaps even more sports facilities on the bay front has been a long-term B'game dream of may past councils.  This one is no different this piece from today's DJ tells us

    Burlingame is pushing ahead with an interest to develop a new park on a large slice of Bayfront property, despite uncertainty regarding the design of the public space and potential difficulties with seasonal wetlands on the site.

    Parks and Recreation Director Margaret Glomstad will continue working toward turning the 8.81 acres of land on two parcels around 450 Airport Blvd. into park land, under direction given by City Council at the Monday, March 2 meeting.

    The city would need to enter into a long-term lease with the California State Lands Commission with intent to construct a park on the land, that is currently a vacant, overgrown lot, abutting the Bayshore, near Kincaid’s Restaurant and the former drive-in theater site.

    Click through to read up on the regulatory snag the puddles are creating!  There are some great quotes there!  It does make me wonder where the Rec Center went as a "top priority"?

  • Our changing landscape

    Photo

    From the 101 freeway its hard not to notice it—the skeleton of a building in the making. This is the newest addition to our Burlingame landscape. According to the folks in the Planning Dept. it is going to be an indoor tennis center. So, it looks like, as we have discussed before, the Rollins Rd area is slowly changing from light indusrial to recreational. Today we have a number of recreational options along the corridor, from this latest tennis effort to Burlingame Sports Center, Sky High Sports( indoor trampolnes) to Nothing But Hoops, Future Pro ( indoor batting cages), The Burlingamer (indoor Futsol) and ofcourse PrimeTime Athletic Club and there are probably a few more that I haven't mentioned. Will this trend continue?

    Maybe this is the area the city should be considering for a new Rec Center as opposed to bulding a new one where the old one is along the residential section of Burlingame Avenue? 

     

  • Swimming in Expenses

    The issue of sharing use and costs for the swimming pool at BHS goes back as far as the current deal (1999).  The Daily Journal piece recaps some of the history and gets to the essence of the issue here

    Still, the city could continue its current contract with the district, which it has accused of poor upkeep of the pool and “nickel-and-diming” the city. The district, on the other hand, has said the city is overusing the pool and the Burlingame Aquatic Club, or BAC, that operates the pool, is not doing a good job. The crux of the issue most recently, and $32,000 cost, was heaters that had gone out on the pool. The heater was replaced in February 2013, with the district installing state-of-the-art, energy-efficient Lochinvar heaters, according to the district.

    “Close to day one, this pool has had a lot of problems,” said Parks and Recreation Director Margaret Glomstad. “There’s going to be a sizable commitment to fix some of the problems (deck, equipment and updates to changing rooms).”

    Another possibility is changing the terms of the contract. Currently, the city and district divide capital costs 50/50. The district’s use of the pool is minimal, with it using the pool about 10 percent of the time, according to an independent audit by the district.

    They are going to have to work out the cost-sharing or stop some programs because my sense of the community resolve is that there isn't enough support to go buy land and build another, all-city-owned pool anywhere in town.  There might be an option to get a similar sharing ageement built into one of the big projects that are floating around town, but a 100% city-owned project wasn't on the overstuffed priority list to begin with and won't cut it with the voters.

    Pool_nighttime

  • Priorities vs. Preconceptions

    How to spend money we don't have is an on-going discussion in B'game.  It's sort of like my on-going discussion with my buddies about which model of Ferrari I want.  The Daily Journal captured the latest pecking order as follows

    The downtown parking garage was ranked number one by the council and would cost $10 million to $20 million. The Community Center was ranked number two and would cost $35 million to $40 million. City Hall safety improvement ranked third and would cost $11.5 million. Number four was the $4 million Bayview Park, while a $1.6 million police station improvement ranked fifth. Sixth was the $25 million downtown streetscape that would expand the streetscape of Burlingame Avenue to the rest of downtown. 

    The bolded text is my addition.  What say you educated Voice bloggers?  I say nay to #1, 3, 4 and 6 and I would need more info on #5.  It might be a new record as it touches on 10 of our categories!

  • Thinking of Dan

    When I think of the people in B'game who created the highly-engaged community we have here, Dan Anderson certainly comes to mind.  This piece in the Friday Daily Journal paints part of the picture about Dan by noting his time in B'game and his Lions work

    Erik Winkler, Burlingame Lions Club president, was nominated for the challenge of dumping a bucket of ice water on his head by member Marie Woods. He decided to dedicate his challenge to former president Dan Andersen, who is suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis himself.

    “I’m doing this for my dear friend Dan who is suffering from this awful affliction,” he said before the challenge Thursday.

    Kudos to Angela Swartz of the DJ for highlighting this.  Allow me to add some of the historical context.  Back in the day the Rec Center was as much of an issue as it is now.  Plans were floated to demolish the Lion's Club hall and the tennis courts in Washington Park for a new 40,000 square foot structure.  Dan Anderson was the prime mover in forming the Washington Park Society to oppose that plan.  Those of us who call ourselves preservationists took heart from that move.  Dan also was very active in the hospital redevelopment project.  You could even say that Dan's willingness to speak out against City Hall gave impetus to the formation of the original print version of the Burlingame Voice.  Here's to ya, Dan.  You have my best wishes and gratitude!

  • Unleashing the Dog Discussion, Again

    At the risk of starting another catfight, I am going to link to the Daily Journal piece about off-leash pooch privileges.  It notes

    In the recent past, the city has heard from the dog community that it’d like more options on city-owned land for dogs. Pilot programs at Washington Park field on Burlingame Avenue and Cuernavaca Park field for off-leash dogs hours were approved by the council for the school year only, 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday through Friday and launched at the beginning of April. 

    “The pilots are great,” said Recreation Supervisor Nicole Acquisti, who is in charge of the pilot programs. “We recently reached out to all the neighbors, so far nobody has had any complaints, which is nice.”

    I hope the Rec Dept. keeps an eye on this post because I will bet you we hear some complaints.  I'm not weighing in pro- or con- but I believe plenty of folks will.  They certainly have in the past.  The sports teams that use the same patches of ground have had problems with lack of clean-up, but who knows maybe people have gotten more responsible.

  • Rec Center Studies Continue

    The Daily Journal has a piece about the on-going Rec Center scoping sessions that notes

    The city has said the current building is not seismically sound. It is looking at a variety of options, including three possible locations for a new building, all of which would still be east of the Burlingame Avenue Caltrain Station on the residential stretch of Burlingame Avenue. The first would be a 30,200-square-foot building closer to Caltrain, the second would be the popular 35,500-square-foot building located where the current community center is and the last would be a 41,900-square-foot structure a little farther down the street. The current structure is 25,000 square feet.

    Eagle-eye blogger Lorne notes on our post from last October that

    I didn't realize one possibility is a new rec center combined with a new city hall building (i.e., civic center)- with an estimated price tag of $56 million, per this list on the city's website:

    http://www.burlingame.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=913

    And sure enough on the top of page 4 that idea is broached.  If I recall, the idea would be to sell the current City Hall site to raise part of the nut.  It will be interesting to see how any of this pencils out financially with or without underground parking.

    Rec Center1

  • St. Catherine’s Center Blossoms

    The new St. Catherine's parish center/gymnasium jumped above grade with the arrival of steel beams this week.  Bioswale walls, a retaining wall and grade beam have been the focus recently, but the superstructure popped up this week.  Check out a video on the center here under "Current Events and News."

    St C comm center steel frame

     

    You can read up on the original deal regarding parking lots here.

  • Rec Center Request

    By request I have created a category for the Rec Center since the topic will continue to be of interest.  I've been knocking on a few B'game doors the last few weekends and I can tell you it comes up way more often than a few of the Council challengers' pet topics.

    Here is an older post on the topic for some context.  And here is the Master Plan for a po$$ible new center from the City's web site.  By the way, I believe there are openings on the Park & Rec Commission if you are interested in getting more involved.  The current commissioners are here.

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