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Blue Sky Goal Setting Offsite One of my favorite Council meetings is in February when we hold our annual Blue Sky Goal Setting session at College of San Mateo.  We review current Council priorities that City staff is working on, and debate new priorities that each Council Member proposes.  Current priorities are far-ranging, from implementing our General Plan 2040 to enacting a comprehensive stormwater safety plan, to reconstructing failed streets and more. My priorities for

Upcoming Study Sessions (5:30pm) Community Survey - 3.3.  Presentation of results of a citywide, statistically significant resident survey to measure attitudes towards a host of San Mateo attributes and how resident sentiment is changing over time.  This drives the prioritization of the City’s work. General Fund Reserve Policy - 3.17.  Examine the City’s current General Fund Reserve Policy and discuss if there should be changes to the current 25% reserve level requirement.

Wildfire Prevention Given the recent LA fires, it was timely that San Mateo Consolidated Fire (SMC Fire) gave a presentation at the recent Baywood Neighborhood Association 2025 Annual Meeting on what you can do to protect your home against wildfire and how you can prepare your family for natural disasters.  You can review this presentation in the BNA Annual Meeting deck . SMC Fire is available to give presentations to community groups, and I strongly encourage you to take th

Reimagine Hillsdale Earlier this month, the owners of the Hillsdale Shopping Center submitted preliminary plans to the City for the site’s redevelopment, which includes demolition of the inside mall (the “South Block”), while adding a mix of commercial buildings, retail and 1,392 new housing units. These plans will take many years to complete, and come after 6 years of planning and community discussion, as well as the continuing downturn of in-person shopping. The high leve

February Coffee Thanks to Cliff Robbins and Margie Shafer for hosting my latest Neighborhood Coffee.  We shared conversation with San Mateo Park neighbors about traffic and speeding, the closure of Draegers, Central Park, the City’s public outreach and volunteer opportunities, gas leaf blowers, and more.  I will be following up on all the questions raised and am so grateful to my neighbors for keeping me grounded in what’s important to you! Readers, please reach out if you’d

Small cell tower applications in San Mateo Park was the hot topic at January’s Community Coffee. Several neighbors joined me to protest the proposed small cell tower application by Crown Castle at 124 Warren Road. As noted, we passed a much stricter small cell ordinance late last year, but there are several applications that came in under the old ordinance. 124 Warren was one of them.   There was an appeal hearing of this application. The Sustainability & Infrastructure Commi