While Asians across America and San Mateo County are confronting a crisis of racism, slurs and violence, Burlingame boldly faced head-on its own existential crisis this week — somebody from the Asian-Pacific Islander community called the city the “NIMBYest” on the Peninsula.
Yes, as the going gets tough, the initial reaction of Burlingame Mayor Ann O’Brien Keighran, whose city, by U.S. Census data, is 25% Asian, was to fire off a sternly worded letter objecting to an offhand comment labeling her town a place that resists changes to its historic profile as an expensive, exclusive and exclusionary community.
Sometimes it is hard to know just where to start.
Ordinarily, I’d rather watch a haircut than a city council meeting. But you really ought to watch the video of the Burlingame City Council’s discussion of this whole matter at its meeting Monday. The discussion starts at about two hours and 44 minutes, and I invite you to do this because it simply is not possible to capture the full breadth of this discussion.
Let me sum up as best I can. Several days ago, the San Mateo County API Caucus, co-founded by Redwood City Councilman Jeff Gee, held a panel discussion and analysis about the 2020 elections.
One of the panelists, Nicole Fernandez, former chair of the county Democratic Party and now district director for state Sen. Josh Becker, noted that district elections had a significant impact on the election of nonwhites to local city councils. Fernandez eagerly anticipated the implementation of district elections in other cities, including Burlingame, which has begun that process, and which she described as one of the “NIMBYest cities” here in god’s country.
For all of you just joining us, NIMBY stands for Not In My Backyard and references the “residentialist” drive to stop development that changes the nature and character of a community. It’s not unique to Burlingame.
Mayor Keighran was not a participant in the API Caucus discussion, but someone who was scurried off to inform her of this assault on Burlingame’s reputation. Who that was and why suggests a whole different political crosscurrent that we will not get into today.
But she was in sufficiently high dudgeon to draft a letter to API Caucus Chair Wayne Lee detailing all the things Burlingame has done to build housing of all kinds.
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“We understand that this panel member singled out Burlingame as being one of the “NIMBY-est” cities in San Mateo County, implying that Burlingame residents and the City Council were obstructing housing development,” the letter states. “The unfortunate narrative that Burlingame residents and Council are not doing anything to build a welcoming and inclusive community is just NOT fact based.”
Of course, the term NIMBY encompasses much more than housing and a lengthy and vigorous debate can be held on the topic of inclusiveness in Burlingame, or any other city in the county.
When Keighran’s letter came up at the council meeting, there was a veritable festival of complaints that Burlingame is being unfairly labeled, that this is a personal affront to the council, that the statement was insulting, “a slap in the face” and “sad.”
To which I say, “Yeesh.” It’s rare to see such a combination of undue sensitivity and insensitivity in the same public discussion. One might even call it sad.
Councilwoman Emily Beach, who participated in the API political session, said the comment by Fernandez was brief and in passing. More to the point, Beach said, this might not be the best time to be calling out the Asian community over a comment that was brief and in passing, which really has its hands full with, ahem, other concerns. Beach asked that at its next meeting, the council consider a letter of support for the Asian community.
Keighran was adamant, however, saying the comment “undermines all the work we have done for the last few years. … If we didn’t send this letter, then we’re agreeing with that statement.”
Well, no. Either Fernandez has such clout that even her offhand opinions come thundering down like lightning from Olympus, or Burlingame’s “work” in inclusiveness and breaking down historic, racial barriers may not be all Keighran thinks it is.
It took a while, and some pointed comments from the public, for the council to vote 3-2 not to send the letter, with Donna Colson joining Keighran and Vice Mayor Ricardo Ortiz switching from yes to no.
The larger point, of course, is that there are profoundly disturbing attacks taking place on the Asian members of our community, who comprise nearly one-third of the residents of San Mateo County. This might be more urgent than Burlingame’s record of NIMBYism.
Mark Simon is a veteran journalist, whose career included 15 years as an executive at SamTrans and Caltrain. He can be reached at marksimon@smdailyjournal.com.
Burlingame residents, I say you should all band together and become the NIMBYest city on the Peninsula. I’m sure many of you bought houses and call Burlingame home because you liked your neighborhood. Why should you risk potentially devaluing your community and quality of life? Tell Ms. Fernandez to pound sand and bring her divisiveness to some other city. Or maybe she could plan on building in other locations – perhaps building over cemeteries, over the railroad, in parking lots near SFO, or on top of the existing SFO terminals. For federal permission, trade some beads and a thunder stick with bumbling Biden and permission will be granted.
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(4) comments
Well said, Mark! An utterly embarrassing display of white fragility, thoughtlessness, and political ineptitude all rolled into one.
Thanks, Jordan.
What do you expect from a city named for a man elected to Congress on the anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic Know Nothing ticket.
Burlingame residents, I say you should all band together and become the NIMBYest city on the Peninsula. I’m sure many of you bought houses and call Burlingame home because you liked your neighborhood. Why should you risk potentially devaluing your community and quality of life? Tell Ms. Fernandez to pound sand and bring her divisiveness to some other city. Or maybe she could plan on building in other locations – perhaps building over cemeteries, over the railroad, in parking lots near SFO, or on top of the existing SFO terminals. For federal permission, trade some beads and a thunder stick with bumbling Biden and permission will be granted.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.