Candidate for
City Council member; City of Burlingame

Burlingame is at a crossroads. Our city needs to provide reasonably priced housing so that our teachers, police officers, firefighters and our children can afford to live here. We need better facilities for seniors who want to downsize from large homes to housing close to shopping and transportation. We want to encourage new businesses to locate here and prosper. And yet we don't want to lose the charming, small-town ambiance that is the reason many of us moved here.

My record shows that I support balanced growth that works for Burlingame as well as for developers. I advocate creating vibrant areas that combine retail stores and offices with middle-range housing and public spaces where people can congregate.

Burlingame has begun designing a new Downtown Specific Plan for the greater area around Burlingame Avenue. It will replace a plan that dates back to the 1960s with a roadmap for the future. Once we agree on a vision for this area, we can begin to attract the kind of businesses and amenities we want + not just what comes to us by chance. Preliminary designs generated at an all-day workshop called a "charrette" last fall by dozens of architects and citizens produced exciting concepts, including ribbons of greenery between blocks, a creek walk, pocket parks, ample parking at well-marked centers, a historic square similar to Carmel and much more.

I invite you to take part in this important process by participating in the community workshops scheduled in coming months for input on the Downtown Specific Plan. To get involved, please take a survey about downtown Burlingame and attend upcoming meetings. You deserve to have a voice in the future planning of your city.