We cannot ignore that we desperately need housing here in the Bay Area, and every city including San Bruno must do its part to add units and address the problem. I do believe that it is possible to encourage development that adds units while minimizing the impact on our existing neighborhoods. While on the Planning Commission, I advocated for a reduction in scope for the Mills Park development to address congestion issues for the surrounding neighborhood, and our Commission sent a unanimous resolution to City Council to ask them to work with the developer to achieve this. Unfortunately this proposal Read More
In 2019, the Planning Commission recommended, and the City Council approved, a new Streetscape program for downtown. The result was a plan to revitalize the streets, sidewalks, lighting and public fixtures along San Mateo Avenue to make the area more attractive for customers and for new businesses. This plan was necessary for us to understand exactly what we want and how much it will cost, which will enable the City to pursue grants or other forms of funding to start making changes. While enacting the entire Streetscape plan will be costly and is currently out of reach, we can’t just Read More
I supported Measure G, the half-cent Sales Tax that voters approved in 2019. The measure allowed the funds to be used for General Fund purposes, but be tracked separately and subject to oversight by an appointed committee of citizens. The $8.3 million budget deficit cannot be ignored, and it’s tempting to apply all of the Measure G funds against the deficit. But we also cannot ignore that the Measure G campaign was sold to us as a means of funding desperately needed street repairs that have been repeatedly deferred for many years. I advocate for a balanced approach, where we spend Read More
I am in favor of allowing cannabis dispensaries to operate in San Bruno, subject to strict oversight regarding where they may operate within our City. I spoke on this topic at the City Council Meeting on June 9, 2020 (clip below). “We have an $8 million budget shortfall that we’ll be dealing with for years to come, and an opportunity to attract a recession-proof, heavily regulated business to our city, an opportunity that won’t come up again for two more years. Now is exactly the time to move forward with a ballot measure. “If you’re against cannabis, vote no on Read More
San Bruno currently operates under General Law, meaning that we have not adopted our own municipal charter and instead default to the general laws of the State of California. These general laws specify that a city of our size must utilize District Elections wherein we would divide the city into a number of districts, with each represented by a City Council member who resides in that district and is elected by the voters in that district. A group of lawyers is currently moving up and down the state to force cities like ours to move to district elections or face Read More
I believe our local transportation options in San Bruno to be extremely inadequate, specifically our ability to move residents from our neighborhoods to the transit corridor (first-mile commute options) and to our business districts. A local shuttle option would be the best way to deal with this gap, however as with most things, funding for such a program is lacking. I advocate with partnering with organizations like Commute.org and seeking grants to design and implement a local shuttle program. This would help us get residents out of their cars both for commuting as well as for visiting our downtown and other business Read More
Some of our advisory commissions, boards and committees, made up of appointed volunteers from our community, have seen their influence slowly wane over the past several years. The Traffic, Safety and Parking Committee, on which I served for 12 years, has seen the number of items brought before them drop dramatically, to the point where the December 2019 meeting had no actual items to discuss or vote upon. At the same time, citizens report that issues they reported three or more years ago have received no acknowledgement, let alone any action. On the Planning Commission, where I serve today, our Read More
I believe the City must do everything in their power to support our local businesses, including adopting a “Buy Local” policy to ensure that businesses based in San Bruno are given appropriate consideration when the City needs to purchase goods and services. If the San Bruno option is competitive and appropriate, the City should go with the San Bruno option, simple as that. Read More
We can and must do more to keep our citizens and business owners informed of what’s happening in San Bruno. The City has a policy of sending mailed notices to residents/business owners within 500 feet of a subject property, but this is antiquated and inadequate. I advocate for allowing residents to create an account on the City website (this is already in place) and then be able to choose from a menu of current and upcoming issues on which they would like to be informed. Our various city departments can then use that information to send out mass email announcements Read More
San Bruno is one of the last communities in the country to maintain their own cable TV and internet provider services. There are definite advantages to not dealing with a large corporation and the council has advocated for keeping it and focusing on providing new services like fiber. However it’s hard to ignore that the services provided currently by San Bruno CityNet Services are inadequate when compared to services provided in neighboring communities. If we are to keep this service, we must be creative in finding adequate funding to make upgrades. First, we must immediately end the practice of diverting Read More