Brisbane feeling threatened by San Francisco
Hands off Brisbane. That town’s status as a separate, incorporated municipality is being threatened by the blustering bully to the north, the self-important and haughty city of San Francisco.
The issue involves Brisbane’s desire to develop several hundred acres of vacant land once utilized by the Southern Pacific Railroad without regard for housing.
A number of presumptuous San Francisco officials object to that plan (as though they had any authority in the matter whatsoever) and continue to make noises about somehow reannexing the village of 4,400 souls and taking control of it in order to suit their own particular needs.
If that sounds just a bit like a minor league version of Russia’s retaking of Crimea from Ukraine not all that long ago, well, you get the picture. Some things never change. It’s almost as though the election of 1856 never occurred here.
None of us was around for that historic moment when San Mateo County was formed. Originally the rural, southern portion of San Francisco County, the Peninsula was trimmed away and created as a distinct entity 160 years ago.
The election to govern the territory, however, was fraught with fraud and corruption on a grand scale, thanks to the assorted crooks and mountebanks were found to be bogus and most wound up being overturned. But the process was a harbinger of things to come as San Mateo County authorities struggled to maintain their independence from their larger (by population) and intimidating neighbor to the north.
Whether it’s matters involving open land surrounding the Crystal Springs lakes (used to store Hetch Hetchy water), growth at San Francisco International Airport, BART, Caltrain subsidies or the city’s jail in San Bruno, to name just a few, there is no shortage of back-and-forth between San Mateo County and San Francisco.
The current situation involving Brisbane is just the latest example of S.F.’s typically brazen behavior. Don’t expect it to change anytime soon. History, sadly, is our reliable guide in that regard.
Guittard aroma
A former Burlingame resident, quoted in this space not long ago, recalled that, in her memory, the aroma of chocolate sometimes emanates from a Ghirardelli facility in that town.
An alert reader, Charlene Schmitz, however, rightly pointed out that it’s actually a plant operated by the Guittard Chocolate Company. It is located east of El Camino Real not far from a Caltrain/BART station on the BurlingameMillbrae border.
The firm has been on that sweet-smelling site since the mid-1950s.
Dining landmarks
Speaking of gastronomic landmarks in these parts, how about some kudos for a pair of Menlo Park establishments— the Dutch Goose and Lutticken’s Deli, located virtually next door to one another along Alameda de las Pulgas in Menlo Park, not far from the Palo Alto border. The Goose is 50; its neighbor is 35. There’s a reason both have been around for so long: good eats.
John Horgan’s column appears weekly. You can contact him by email at johnhorganmedia@gmail.com.or by regular mail at P.O. Box 117083, Burlingame, CA 94011.