In 1894, only a couple of months before the city’s incorporation, San Mateo’s first bank was established. Philip Rondel, originally from Michigan, joined with longtime San Mateo business leader Robert Wisnom in creating the Bank of San Mateo on Main Street.
In 1902, Rondel built a grand Tudor Revival home for himself and his wife, known as Seven Oaks. After Roedel’s death in 1905, both the bank and Seven Oaks were bought by A.P. Giannini, who later established the Bank of Italy that became what we know as Bank of America.
Seven Oaks still stands on El Cerrito Avenue in San Mateo. It is one of the great estate houses to survive in San Mateo. Alas it is in the perfect location for a large apartment since it is close to El Camino Real.
In several earlier columns I have written about how Mitch Postel, president of the San Mateo County Historical Association, and I worked together to save the Giannini House when I was on the San Mateo City Council. That is why I had a special visit from Postel, Italian professor Fabio Reali, and Maria Pignati, director of the Italian American Club in San Mateo.
Reali is writing a biography of Amadeo Pietro Giannini for Italian audiences. It seems while he is an Italian American hero, little is known of our famous banker in Italy. Reali was in California to do research on Giannini whose papers reside at the University of California, Berkeley.
The fireplace in Seven Oaks is famous. It is where Giannini hid $80,000 in gold in the ashes as he and his family rushed to escape San Francisco in the 1906 earthquake.
According to Reali, A.P. gave loans to farmers when few other banks would.
Ro Bianchi, who was a Bank of America manager for many years, would regale the San Mateo Rotary with stories about Giannini and the bank. He would give loans to farmers and fisherman when they were scorned by well-established lenders. It was OK to do bank business in your overalls. Giannini was born in San Jose and established the Bank of Pescadero. He saved many farming communities.
“Amadeo loved God. His mother’s sister was a nun.” Reali also said A.P. was a visionary and would use social media today if he were alive.
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James Coleman, South San Francisco councilman, recently led a webinar by the Environmental Defense Fund about the negative effects of highway widening. According to Coleman, highway widening only induces demand (places more cars on the road). This means the extra lane quickly fills up, and traffic/congestion is just as bad as it was before the highway was widened.
With public transit systems facing a fiscal cliff, it's important now more than ever we encourage people to get back into the habit of using BART/Caltrain to get from place to place. Investing hundreds of millions of dollars into putting more cars on the road (with no long-term improvement in congestion) will just mean less people taking public transit, and thus a harder time dealing with the fiscal cliff.
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San Mateo County’s new headquarters will be designed "Net Zero" energy. The COB3 facility, which is designed to house 600+ employees, will produce 100% of the energy to keep the building functioning and operational. The energy production comes from numerous PV panels located on the roof of COB3 and on the adjacent parking garage. The building incorporates automated roller shades and windows which increase the overall energy efficiency. The goal is to achieve LEED Platinum Certification.
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Popular past state Sen. Jerry Hill is being asked by many in the San Mateo community to challenge current Supervisor Noelia Corzo whose term ends in 2026.
Corzo at a public Democratic Party endorsement meeting verbally attacked her former friend and mentor Nicole Fernandez who is running for San Mateo City Council. Hill would be tough to beat.
Editor’s note: Corzo sent us a copy of her remarks.
"Thank you. I want to share that as a native of North Central, I grew up there my entire life.
It's a historically redlined community. There has only ever been one African-American person on the city council of San Mateo.
North Central should decide for itself. I want to support a no endorsement in this race as recommended.
I really think it's important that we reflect who is missing from this room, who is missing in political leadership in our community. It shouldn't be about who is your friend. It should be about who is best to represent that community. I've lived in North Central longer than Nicole has, I still consider her a friend, and I think she will continue to be involved in politics, as she should.
But, I have been doing neighborhood cleanups in North Central for years and l've never seen Nicole there. So, let me tell you, Charles is running a campaign that is Grassroots. He is also someone that's worked for Peninsula Family Service for years. Literally dedicates his life to supporting communities of color and our most vulnerable in our community. That is what North Central needs.
The little kids in North Central deserve a leader like him."
Sue Lempert is the former mayor of San Mateo. Her column runs Mondays. She can be reached at sue@smdailyjournal.com.
I fail to see how Noelia Corzo's remarks constitute a verbal attack; to describe it as such is hyperbole. If Nicole Hernandez hasn't shown up at events to serve her community, then why should she represent it? That's totally on her, not on Noelia. Also, if people are urging Jerry Hill to enter the race because Nicole got her feelings hurt, they all need to grow thicker skins if they're going to be in politics. I like Jerry Hill, but if he runs against Noelia because she has the guts to state the obvious, then Jerry's nothing more than a party tool.
Residents of North Central would benefit by talking to their friends in the Hillsdale/Beresford area on how Amo Lee’s plant of Adam Loraine for City Council District 5 is working out. They may find that having a candidate move to a district under Amo’s direction, like she has done with Dr. Charles Hansen in the North Central District 2, and previously, Adam Loraine, does not result in truly representing the residents. Nicole Fernandez is a long time resident of North Central and has shown her commitment to truly represent residents. I think voters in North Central will agree and elect Nicole, not a candidate placed there by a city official with a long rap sheet of dirty tricks and agendas. And hopefully Dr. Hansen will unhook himself from Amo and find another opportunity to help San Mateo and its residents.
Here is what we know about the 101 highway widening:
- Only car poolers and buses can reduce congestion, GHG emissions, and provide 'Equity' at the same time
- Only 40% of cars on the HOT lanes are car poolers [SFGATE]
- An estimated 50% of those are car pool cheaters [SFGATE]
- As predicted, we now have more cars on the road, fewer people on public transit, bigger 'fiscal cliff'
- Carpool lanes have never induced carpooling, the percentage of car poolers has been going down in America for decades
- Car poolers are mostly 'natural car poolers', basically counting family members and babies on the backseat. Those don't reduce trips nor GHG and might actually incentivize more trips
- Any revenue is basically eaten up by adding law enforcement to catch the car pool cheaters.
- To make the car pool lanes look more useful they moved SamTrans buses from local routes to regional routes. Therefore making SamTrans compete directly with Caltrain.
So why were Rico Medina (SamTrans), David Canepa (Caltrain), both Papans, Davina Hurt (BAQMMD) celebrating these Express Lanes?
There is no sane explanation there and yet they will continue with the 101/92 nonsense and more 'express lanes' north of 380.
Hey eGerd, TBot here. Should this comment be copy/pasted in response to the “101 express lanes” LTE from Sep 26, 2024 (https://www.smdailyjournal.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/101-express-lanes/article_9857e99e-7ba2-11ef-bd5d-3f9bff6eee1c.html)? It’d have greater impact over there and other folks might gain additional insight. Any thoughts on the FasTrak Flex pass and whether those who purposefully set the switch to a carpool setting are ever caught? Do they get caught as often or does law enforcement assume everyone follows the honor system?
Thanks TBot, solid advice there. I copy and pasted it there as well.
There is currently no real good way to catch carpool cheaters and you could double or triple the enforcement, the CHP has no chance catching them.
Carpools are supposed to convince two coworkers to share a car together therefore taking one car of the road. But in reality a "carpool" is also if a parent drives their children around. So now you have these parents - that could just take their kids to the preschool next door - driving their children for 1h each day on polluted highways to another preschool - just so these parents can use the carpool lanes.
So if we see all these speeders driving in the carpool lanes looking like they cheat, they might just have a child seat in the back. How is a police officer supposed to see and enforce that through blacked-out windows? And if they stopped every car and checked, now you have even more congestion.
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(8) comments
Anything that causes the Democratic Party to be divided is good.
Rinse and repeat.
I fail to see how Noelia Corzo's remarks constitute a verbal attack; to describe it as such is hyperbole. If Nicole Hernandez hasn't shown up at events to serve her community, then why should she represent it? That's totally on her, not on Noelia. Also, if people are urging Jerry Hill to enter the race because Nicole got her feelings hurt, they all need to grow thicker skins if they're going to be in politics. I like Jerry Hill, but if he runs against Noelia because she has the guts to state the obvious, then Jerry's nothing more than a party tool.
Residents of North Central would benefit by talking to their friends in the Hillsdale/Beresford area on how Amo Lee’s plant of Adam Loraine for City Council District 5 is working out. They may find that having a candidate move to a district under Amo’s direction, like she has done with Dr. Charles Hansen in the North Central District 2, and previously, Adam Loraine, does not result in truly representing the residents. Nicole Fernandez is a long time resident of North Central and has shown her commitment to truly represent residents. I think voters in North Central will agree and elect Nicole, not a candidate placed there by a city official with a long rap sheet of dirty tricks and agendas. And hopefully Dr. Hansen will unhook himself from Amo and find another opportunity to help San Mateo and its residents.
What leads you to believe that Councilmember Loraine is not representing the residents of his district?
Here is what we know about the 101 highway widening:
- Only car poolers and buses can reduce congestion, GHG emissions, and provide 'Equity' at the same time
- Only 40% of cars on the HOT lanes are car poolers [SFGATE]
- An estimated 50% of those are car pool cheaters [SFGATE]
- As predicted, we now have more cars on the road, fewer people on public transit, bigger 'fiscal cliff'
- Carpool lanes have never induced carpooling, the percentage of car poolers has been going down in America for decades
- Car poolers are mostly 'natural car poolers', basically counting family members and babies on the backseat. Those don't reduce trips nor GHG and might actually incentivize more trips
- Any revenue is basically eaten up by adding law enforcement to catch the car pool cheaters.
- To make the car pool lanes look more useful they moved SamTrans buses from local routes to regional routes. Therefore making SamTrans compete directly with Caltrain.
So why were Rico Medina (SamTrans), David Canepa (Caltrain), both Papans, Davina Hurt (BAQMMD) celebrating these Express Lanes?
There is no sane explanation there and yet they will continue with the 101/92 nonsense and more 'express lanes' north of 380.
Hey eGerd, TBot here. Should this comment be copy/pasted in response to the “101 express lanes” LTE from Sep 26, 2024 (https://www.smdailyjournal.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/101-express-lanes/article_9857e99e-7ba2-11ef-bd5d-3f9bff6eee1c.html)? It’d have greater impact over there and other folks might gain additional insight. Any thoughts on the FasTrak Flex pass and whether those who purposefully set the switch to a carpool setting are ever caught? Do they get caught as often or does law enforcement assume everyone follows the honor system?
Thanks TBot, solid advice there. I copy and pasted it there as well.
There is currently no real good way to catch carpool cheaters and you could double or triple the enforcement, the CHP has no chance catching them.
Carpools are supposed to convince two coworkers to share a car together therefore taking one car of the road. But in reality a "carpool" is also if a parent drives their children around. So now you have these parents - that could just take their kids to the preschool next door - driving their children for 1h each day on polluted highways to another preschool - just so these parents can use the carpool lanes.
So if we see all these speeders driving in the carpool lanes looking like they cheat, they might just have a child seat in the back. How is a police officer supposed to see and enforce that through blacked-out windows? And if they stopped every car and checked, now you have even more congestion.
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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.