Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading.
Thank you for visiting the Daily Journal. We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
Your current subscription does not provide access to this content.
Support the Peninsula’s only locally-owned newspaper. Subscribe!
Subscribing annually brings you big savings. We also offer monthly and weekly subscriptions.
Premium Subscription
As low as $8.25 per week
Premium Includes:
-- Access to the Daily Journal’s e-Edition: a digital replica of our daily newspaper including crossword puzzles, games, comics, classifieds and ads. You can download a digital replica of the Daily Journal for offline reading. You can also clip & download articles or images from the e-edition to share with others The most recent 90 issues are available at any given time.
-- Unlimited access to our award-winning online content
-- Commenting access on all stories as a valued member of the DJ community
-- NEW! Access to our online-only digital crossword puzzle. A new puzzle every day, seven days a week!
| Rate | Price | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Year | $99.00 | for 365 days |
| 1 Month | $20.00 | for 30 days |
| 1 Week | $8.25 | for 7 days |
Support the Peninsula’s only locally-owned newspaper. Subscribe!
Subscribing annually brings you big savings. We also offer monthly and weekly subscriptions.
DJ Basic Subscription
As low as $5 per month
Basic includes:
-- Unlimited access to our award-winning online content
-- Commenting access on all stories as a valued member of the DJ community
What you're missing -- Additional features available only with the Premium level:
-- Access to the Daily Journal’s e-Edition: a digital replica of our daily newspaper including crossword puzzles, games, comics, classifieds and ads. You can download a digital replica of the Daily Journal for offline reading. You can also clip & download articles or images from the e-edition to share with others The most recent 90 issues are available at any given time.
-- NEW! Access to our online-only digital crossword puzzle. A new puzzle every day, seven days a week!
All for as low as $5.00 per month.
| Rate | Price | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Year | $60.00 | for 365 days |
| 1 Month | $12.00 | for 30 days |
| 1 Week | $5.00 | for 7 days |
| Rate | Price | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Home Delivery - Year | $120.00 | for 365 days |
| Mail Delivery - Year | $480.00 | for 365 days |
Editor,
The public’s surprise and disappointment at the closure of Draeger’s market in downtown San Mateo is understandable. Both the city’s mayor, Rob Newsom, in a recent story, and the Daily Journal’s editor, Jon Mays, in his recent column, expressed their dismay.
I share their dismay but believe the city did no rezoning during the recent housing element update that would have led to more housing. If it did, then perhaps the retail environment would be more hospitable for stores such as Draeger’s.
Downtown San Mateo is zoned commercial with a residential overlay. This zoning hierarchy prioritizes commercial buildings at the expense of residential ones as a developer will always choose commercial over residential.
During the housing element update, the public, state, housing advocates, affordable housing proponents and the Planning Commission consistently encouraged rezoning to provide a path to build more housing downtown. A more balanced zoning is key to the success of a vibrant downtown. High-density residency is imperative to ensure full-size grocery stores are economically feasible.
Mays noted the city’s stated goal of putting housing downtown has a flaw without a full-service grocery store, tantamount to a broken promise. To me, the flaw is the city knew all along a vibrant city core cannot be realized without proper rezoning. That is the broken promise.
Mayor Newsom lamented his concerns about the closures and hopes legacy businesses being forced to close will reach out for city assistance. The hypocrisy of that is Newsom had ample opportunities to improve the housing element and chose silence instead. Broken promises and uninformed leaders deliver highly flawed public policy.
John Ebneter
San Mateo
The letter writer is a member of the San Mateo Planning Commission. Views his own.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
Only subscribers can view and post comments on articles.
Already a subscriber? Login Here
(1) comment
Couldn't agree more more.
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
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.