Showers early, then cloudy in the afternoon. High near 60F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%..
Showers early, becoming a steady rain overnight. Windy. Low around 55F. Winds SSE at 25 to 35 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a half an inch. Winds could occasionally gust over 50 mph.
Updated: December 23, 2025 @ 9:29 am
Editor,
I appreciate Mike Swire’s call for the city of San Mateo to use its dollars wisely. But the subject of his letter — the Humboldt Street bike lanes — is a case of closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. Mr. Swire should have stood up when the city decided to fund a program that the residents (remember them?) firmly opposed.
Walter Crompton’s actual use observations are spot on: the bike lanes — certainly, adjacent to my block — are not being used. And now that we have exacerbated a well-known residential parking shortage in North Central, we also have bizarre bulbouts forcing bikes into the traffic lanes, a liability that will ultimately make the lawyers rich.
I’ll leave the bike lane fairy tales to others. The mistake was made, and it’s not tolerable. The appropriated North Central residential parking needs to be restored — the city needs to own up and get it done.
Henry Riggs
San Mateo
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(2) comments
Well written, Mr. Riggs. My take… San Mateo “leaders” at that time wanted to take advantage of use-it-or-lose-it federal grants to reward union labor. And now, after that decision has gone sideways, existing “leaders” are dragging their feet because they’re worried they may have to repay the grant (although this isn’t a sure thing). What is a sure thing is that removing parking in the first place was a mistake and as you’ve stated, the city needs to own up and fix their mistake. Union labor will be happy because after they've "dug a hole" they can now fill it. In the meantime, let’s vote out the folks are not acting in the interests of the neighborhood. For those who do not live in the neighborhood, you should beware because if this debacle occurred in Humboldt, it can occur in your neighborhood.
Thank you, Henry, I completely agree with you. I was stunned to see how the Bike Coalition has fully taken over this narrative and City Staff’s report to the Sustainability and Infrastructure Commission lost all sight of what residents have been asking since February 2022 when City Council ignored resident voices and removed parking to put in the bike lanes. The City should have never dragged out this discussion for a year so the Bike Coalition could hijack the discussion and taint surveys. Restore the parking on the Humboldt unused bike lanes now!
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