2026-27 San Mateo priorities?

I say that, for cities like San Mateo, at least equally as important is carefully managing each fiscal year’s budget and paying attention to details of proposed or renewed contracts with private contractors expected to implement city priorities in lieu of city staff.

And both skills need to be carefully practiced by our City Council and mayor, as they review the city of San Mateo staff’s recommendations for 2026-27.

Prior councils and now-departed city management have failed in policy implementation.  

Will San Mateo’s new council goals and priorities successfully improve the health and safety of neighborhoods like ours in North Central?

Each day, residents witness jockeying for the few poorly-delineated parking spaces on our two blocks of homes, located one block from MLK Park and Community Center and also one block from the city’s failed bike lane implementation on North Humboldt Street.

Routinely, the city’s privatized parking enforcers ticket prior to scheduled street sweeping, but respond to residents that their company is not authorized to tow vehicles that never move.

Neither does the city ticket and tow vehicles with expired registrations, even those more than two years delinquent in payment of DMV fees.

Good news from San Jose, though. More than 500 vehicles towed in crackdown, it’s reported.

San Jose’s 2025 program targeting expired registrations improves safety and keeps neighborhoods clean.

Doug Handerson

San Mateo