It was seemingly done quickly, relatively speaking, and it was indeed a quick short term fix. But the work was in fact done by Caltrans, not by Burlingame. Per Caltrans: “In regards to the pavement plans, the pavement repairs done in El Camino Real were not part of a plan, but rather a decision due to multiple service requests.”

If only this was more the approach: The best (municipal) investments – the ones with the highest financial rate of return – address a real and urgent need experienced by a human. Consider this simple 4 step approach: 1. Humbly observe where people in the community struggle. 2. Ask the question: What is the next smallest thing we can do right now to address that struggle? 3. Do that thing. Do it right now. 4. Repeat. The key to the first step is humility. Emptying our minds of as many pre-conceived notions about the problems and solutions in a place as possible, we humble ourselves to observe as a proxy for lived experience. We are trying to understand, from the perspective of those who struggle to use the city as it has been built, where the struggles are. A great way to observe is to walk with someone – literally treading the path with them – to understand how they struggle.” - Chuck Marohn

Straight from Caltrans funding document. Project budget and milestones. Anticipated start of construction is August 2024. Project 0K810 Scope In the cities of San Mateo and Burlingame, from East Santa Inez Avenue to Murchison Drive. Rehabilitate roadway, improve drainage, and upgrade existing curb ramps and sidewalks to ADA standards. Schedule/Milestones Complete prelim design/environmental 11/1/2021 Complete design/ROW certification 11/1/2023 Advertise Contract 2/1/2024 Begin Construction 8/1/2024 Budget Construction Cost: $86 M Total Project Cost: $121M (including design, right of way, environmental, construction engineering) Source - Caltrans 2018 SHOPP (p 381 of 409) https://dot.ca.gov/-/media/dot-media/programs/transportation-programming/documents/201803-2018-shopp-adopted-by-ctc.pdf

Driving thru the street It was once a straight old line What’s the point of that It was working all too fine ... “Tell you what we’ll do A circle we will sell” With plants, and signs and lights and stuff The results are LOL. Oh flashing beams, flashing red, What does all this mean Why not simple traffic lights With red yellow & gre-en Lots of signs, a ton of paint, Just four million bucks The town’s confused, no one’s amused Council couldn’t give two

In honor of yet another set of flashing lights on our Jingle Bells of a roundabout - red this time - and in the season: Flashing lights, twinkling lights Burlingame laid an egg Drivers speed, they don’t heed, Pedestrians have to be-eg Radar signs, diverging lines, Everyone has their doubt But that’s ok, city hall rules They love their roundabout

I agree with holly. When it comes to transportation on City streets, Pedestrians are a Hazard to themselves and others. Go to a playground (or a treadmill) for God’s sake. Or get out of the way. People driving got places to go. We don’t have 10 seconds to spare.

Holy cow. Went by last night. From now on I will wear my sunglasses at night.

The roundabout will also spell the end of Stacks outdoor seating. Maybe Stacks altogether. The roundabout will bring 10,000 vehicles a day of California Drive traffic right to its front door and next to its curb. Before it was buffered by being tucked away from the traffic. But now, it's part of the roundabout. So although the usable sidewalk there is now 1' wider, and it will have a wall (ok, steel slats) and some grass, who wants to eat with 1,000 vehicles an hour whizzing by so close to your omelet. Traffic calming my crepe.