25th Ave. business group dies

[Steve]

:mad: The 25th Avenue Business Improvement District should remain.The businesses need to be helped. What needs to be done is to have the “San Mateo City Council” and the “25th Avenue Merchants’ Association” schedule an “outside” day & night field visit. Get out of the office and council chambers and visit Burlingame and San Carlos downtown areas. The answer for success and new future of 25th avenue can easily be seen.
I have been a long time resident of San Mateo for over 25 years. I left Burlingame where I worked and lived in the early 70’s to buy a home for my family in San Mateo. I remember Burlingame Ave. being virtually a ghost town after 5:00pm!
:) Now it’s time for 25th avenue to do something. Stop opening up used clothing stores, small grocery stores, coffee shops etc. and start thinking of something new. A “magnet” store of some kind along with even an ice-cream store would perhaps be enticing. There have been plenty additions & changes throughout the years and now it’s time for 25th avenue to do something more.

Steve

[jonvn]

I live a block away, and when I see stores that are consignment places (no offense to the owner) and other junky shops, it really doesn't look great.

There is a lot of potential. But not if the stores are going to be random and downscale.

Most of the buildings on the street look very 1960s, which was fine 45 years ago, but probably not so good today.

There are some very good places to eat there. But not much in the way of parking, and not much else to visit while there.

One reason we don't actually need the Bay Meadows new shopping area, is because places like 25th avenue will utterly collapse.

[Spare the Air]

Don't hold your breath waiting for the San Mateo City Council to actually DO ANYTHING help the 25th Ave merchants. They just don’t care.


Under the "flawed" leadership of Mayor Jack Matthews and former Mayor Lee, this City Council only seems to care about “LARGE” development projects that bring new, "BIG" business to San Mateo. It’s the Wal-Mart mentality. If you are a small business owner, forget getting any help...


This is NOT the type of City Council San Mateo needs. San Mateo's shopping district’s "could" look like Burlingame Ave, but that does not fit with the Mayor's vision of Mega Malls and huge, multi-story housing...


By their actions it's VERY CLEAR that they DON'T CARE care about SMALL BUISINESS. They DON'T CARE about YOU as a resident. And they DON'T CARE about the local environment or YOUR quality of life in San Mateo.


Of course, we all have a chance to CHANGE this in November. VOTE THEM OUT! Anyone would be better... Let's give small business a chance to thrive in San Mateo. Get Rid of Jack Matthews and John Lee. You and our local, small business and San Mateo will be better for it…


(no, I'm not a small business owner, and definitely am not running for office. As a long-time resident, I just care about improving San Mateo).

[Diamond Dog]

First off, it's funny that you wrote "don't hold your breath" and your online name is Spare the Air.

Secondly, what does your post have to do with the 25th ave losing its merchant association? Sounds to me like you just don't like Lee and Matthews.

Thirdly, Burlingame Ave is not exactly a shining example of "small business" on the peninsula. Every other business or more is a national chain store like the Gap, Apply, MAC, Panda Express, etc.


Don't hold your breath waiting for the San Mateo City Council to actually DO ANYTHING help the 25th Ave merchants. They just don’t care.


Under the "flawed" leadership of Mayor Jack Matthews and former Mayor Lee, this City Council only seems to care about “LARGE” development projects that bring new, "BIG" business to San Mateo. It’s the Wal-Mart mentality. If you are a small business owner, forget getting any help...


This is NOT the type of City Council San Mateo needs. San Mateo's shopping district’s "could" look like Burlingame Ave, but that does not fit with the Mayor's vision of Mega Malls and huge, multi-story housing...


By their actions it's VERY CLEAR that they DON'T CARE care about SMALL BUISINESS. They DON'T CARE about YOU as a resident. And they DON'T CARE about the local environment or YOUR quality of life in San Mateo.


Of course, we all have a chance to CHANGE this in November. VOTE THEM OUT! Anyone would be better... Let's give small business a chance to thrive in San Mateo. Get Rid of Jack Matthews and John Lee. You and our local, small business and San Mateo will be better for it…


(no, I'm not a small business owner, and definitely am not running for office. As a long-time resident, I just care about improving San Mateo).

[Linda Slocum Lara]

I understand and agree with Spare the Air's comments, and believe Spare the Air is on the right track.

Yes, Diamond Dog, Burl. Ave. has a lot of chain / big business type stores, however, intermingled with that are small independents, and a good variety of other interests (including a library and a city hall) to keep people walking up and down the street, doing business, eating, drinking, browsing and hopefully spending money. I don't see that in San Mateo, downtown or anywhere else........except the MALL maybe. And I believe that is Spare the Air's point exactly.

Our city council is pretty much run by the Bohannon's and other big business and developers. I agree with the points made about getting them out of office and I hope that Matthews and Lee become unseated in November. The next 2 that need to go are Carole Groom and Jan Epstein.

This council seems bound and determined to turn San Mateo into a city that you can't see, with walls all along the freeway, and behind those walls, boring, cookie cutter, "mall" type looking stores and generic housing, kind of like what I-80 looks like heading east. Undistinguishable.

I think San Carlos and Palo Alto are good examples of what our downtown could aspire to.

Pretty soon San Mateo will be one of those towns that have "old" and "new" (like Fairfield on I-80) with very little "old" starting with the loss of Bay Meadows race track. When people come to San Mateo they won't know anything about San Mateo anymore, and then they'll happen upon a ghost downtown and the signs will read "Old San Mateo" and it will be empty and boring with just a few old stores, restaurants or bars left over. The same will happen to 25th Avenue and other local neighborhood shopping areas because we are being sold out folks!

Linda SLocum Lara

[Spare the Air]

Yes, DD, you are correct that I do have an issue with our Mayor & City Council.

This city councils' apparent lack of support for the 25th Ave businesses is just one more indicator of thier flawed stewardship of our tax dollars. Time & time again they have demonstrated that they really don't care about small business, or about maintaining "quality of life" for the residents of San Mateo.

I FULLY AGREE that San Carlos and Palo Alto are good examples of what our downtown could aspire to become. That's part of the reason property values in those cities are HIGHER.

When I moved here 15 years ago, San Mateo had a better downtown area, mostly filled with smaller, independant businesses. 25th Ave was still thriving, though beginning to show it's age. At that time, San Mateo DID feel more like Palo Alto, Burlingame or San Carlos.

We had much more diversity in shopping choices. Money was spent to attract small businesses, and various types of urban blight were being actively addressed by the city. Overall quality of life in San Mateo was significantly better than it is today.

That all started changing about ten years ago, when most of the current city council took office.

The current city council DOES seem bound and determined to turn San Mateo into an ugly "Gotham City", filled with highrise, high-density housing and non-descript "Wally-World" stores.

Five more years of under our current city leadership and San Mateo will NOT be a an attractive place to live. I'm considering leaving when I retire. Either that or perhaps running for City Council...