Featured - page 32

The Shoreway Environmental Center Transfer Station is set to reopen on Monday due to the San Mateo County Health Department’s revised shelter-in-place order.

The transfer station at 333 Shoreway Road in San Carlos will resume regular business hours to receive all regular, non-hazardous waste residential and commercial: solid waste materials, landscaping/organic materials, and construction and demolition materials, according to ReThinkWaste. Residents will also be able to obtain up to two bags of compost materials for their gardens at no charge.

Business hours are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the weekends.

While the transfer station will reopen, the recycling center will remain closed as it is a smaller space inadequate for to comply with health order social distancing requirements

All employees and visitors to the transfer station will be required to uses masks and face coverings and observe social distancing measures. Visitors will be subject to a non-contact, temperature screening test per the health order, which will be administered at the public scale house. Those with excessive temperatures will not be allowed to access the facility, according to ReThinkWaste.

“We recognize the urgent community need to reopen the facility as residents and businesses reactivate their construction projects, clean out their garages and yards, and lots of other low-risk, allowable activities during this time,” said Joe La Mariana, RethinkWaste Executive Director.

Broadway in Redwood City and Laurel Street in San Carlos could soon become spacious outdoor cafes as part of a proposal to support local businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Local officials and the business communities are considering plans to block off the central merchant corridors to traffic in order to allow restaurants to serve food and beverages outdoors. Ideas include providing rent-free outdoor spaces with tables to every local restaurant, and making sure to space them out to promote proper social distancing.

“Once restaurants re-open patrons will likely be required to distance within the restaurant,” said Redwood City Councilmember Giselle Hale. “This will make it difficult for these businesses to make enough revenue to stay open.”

A city in Lithuania has implemented a similar plan, according to CNN, using “outdoor cafes” on city plazas, squares and streets to boost economic activity for local businesses during the quarantine.

“We’re already part of the way there with Theater Way,” Hale said. “If they can do it in Lithuania, why not here?”

A proposal for Laurel Street is scheduled to appear on the May 13 San Carlos City Council agenda. The idea has received broad support across the city council and community feedback has been “overwhelmingly positive,” Councilmember Adam Rak said.

Council is trying to listen to residents and business owners to come up with solutions that best suits their needs, Rak added.

Meanwhile, San Carlos plans to implement a program similar to Redwood City’s recently approved Slow Streets program, which temporarily discourages traffic on certain streets with the aim of providing spaces for residents to be physically active while social distancing.

“As we go through this gradual lifting of restrictions and changes, we have to look at how we can take advantage of these opportunities to help our businesses and residents,” Rak said, adding, “Downtown San Carlos is a life blood to our community and makes San Carlos what it is.”

Climate Magazine’s monthly issue will not appear in print for a second consecutive month due to coronavirus restrictions on distribution. However, the May issue can be read in its entirety right here on Climate’s website.

The expanded 40-page issue, accessed by clicking here, includes all of the Redwood City-based publication’s staples. Additional guest contributions have been included, among them columns related to the pandemic.

San Mateo Mayor Joe Goethals reiterated this week that supporters of a November ballot measure on city height and density limits should consider postponing their efforts, saying public health should be the community’s top priority amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The mayor’s suggestion has faced criticism by the San Mateans for Responsive Government (SMRG), the group behind the November measure that, if passed, would extend the soon-to-expire Measure P. The measure was first approved by voters in 1991 and limits building heights throughout the city to 55 feet and housing density to no more than 50 units per acre. SMRG members accused the mayor of subverting the democratic process by suggesting the measure’s postponement and launched an email campaign to the City saying as much, and then some.

On Wednesday, the mayor held a Facebook Live Community Town Hall to clarify the city’s position. He noted he cannot nor had any intention of preventing the measure from going forward, but had hoped that such major decisions on the city’s future should incorporate the views of all community members, which will be difficult to accomplish amid the battle against the spread of the virus and the focus on recovering the economy. The mayor also noted signature gathering to qualify a competing ballot measure is impossible amid the ongoing shelter-in-place order.

A separate, competing effort by three San Mateo citizens has not yet qualified for the ballot. It aims to address the city’s housing needs by maintaining existing height and density limits for most of the City and all neighborhoods while carving out small areas for “smart growth” development around the city’s three Caltrain stations.

Only the three citizens sponsors of the Measure P extension can pull the measure off the November ballot. During Wednesday’s Town Hall, supporters of the measure criticized the mayor as “thwarting the democratic process” for suggesting that they do.

Goethels argued postponing the measure would, in fact, increase the democratic process, as the community will be given more time to debate the issue. Last year, City Council voted to keep current height-and-limit densities in place until the next General Plan Update is adopted in 2023. That allows ample time for a robust debate on the city’s future, according to the mayor.

“We want to hear from everyone,” Goethels said.

He said the discussion should attempt to address regional housing needs and related state laws.

“We agree on more than we disagree, we all want the betterment of our community,” Goethels said, adding, “It’s a difficult time and we should be supportive of one another.”

Samaritan House has been battling poverty in San Mateo County for 45 years, delivering a full slate of essential services and personalized support to the working poor. To learn more about the organization, go here.

A San Mateo County town hall on Friday, May 1, will focus on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and low-income residents. The Zoom event is scheduled to run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The discussion will feature representatives of the Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (BHRS) Office of Diversity & Equity (ODE), StarVista, Bay Area Community Health Advisory Council, Get Healthy San Mateo County and Catholic Charities. They will share resources and hear from impacted community members, with the aim of identifying the support mechanisms needed.

For more information, visit the San Mateo County LGBTQ Commission Facebook Page.

For those interested, you can register for the town hall here.