WHAT TO DO ON VALENTINE'S DAY?
We are grateful that San Mateo escaped the brunt of the Pineapple Express last weekend and hope our family and friends in Southern California are recovering safely!
There are a lot of opinions about Valentine's Day. Is it a wonderful day for lovers? A time for women to celebrate "Galentine's Day"? A commercial gimmick designed only to make money?
Our hearts lie with the first two opinions (we are perennial romantics!), so we wanted to give you some options for celebrating Valentine's Day this Wednesday, February 14th:
Stop by Downtown on B Street between 5pm and 8pm with your family, your friends, that "special someone" and make a memory in the Valentine's Day Photo Booth. Silly, romantic, the mood is up to you...but the fun is provided by our Downtown San Mateo Association (DSMA).
After your photo, grab dinner at one of the many delicious restaurants in Downtown San Mateo (maybe one you've been meaning to try?), but make your reservation now! Check out the DSMA's list of restaurants to get you thinking (hint: filter by "restaurant" as the list includes every Downtown business).
Or catch a movie at the Cinemark Century San Mateo 12 theater for a "real cinematic experience" (when were you last in a movie theater?). Lots of movies about passion, from a thriller, to a biopic about Bob Marley, to a "coming of RAGE love story" to the latest from Peppa Pig...something for everyone!
Or order take out and let your creative juices flow by creating homemade Valentine's cards and costumes (see our Baywood Holiday elephant dressed up in her Valentine's glamour). Kids, old and young, will love this.
Whatever you do, stay safe and dry and keep a smile in your heart. Your Baywood Neighborhood Association wishes you and yours a Happy Valentine's Day!
THIS THURSDAY IS THE BNA ANNUAL MEETING...
SIGN UP TODAY
Your Baywood Neighborhood Association (BNA)'s Feb. 15 Annual Meeting is this Thursday! Please RSVP today at https://www.baywoodneighborhood.org/annualmeeting.
The wine social will begin at 5:30 pm with snacks and wine (who says meetings have to be dull!) and a chance to catch up with neighbors and friends in the Oak Room of the Main San Mateo Library Branch on 3rd Avenue.
The meeting begins at 6pm. We will follow the agenda we have used for the past several Annual Meetings. President Michael Nash will share a 2023 overview of BNA activities and how your dues are being used to better our community. San Mateo’s new City Manager, Alex Khojikian, will share the City’s 2023 accomplishments. Mayor Lisa Diaz Nash will share 2024 priorities from her 2024 State of the City address, and San Mateo Police Department Captain Matt Lethin will give a public safety update about Baywood and the City. We will distribute question cards and collect them prior to a Q and A on all topics at the end. We have to end the meeting by 7:30 as the Library closes at 8pm. Any questions not answered will be answered in a follow up email to all attendees and posted on the BNA website.
We also will be honoring our neighbor, John Sutti, for his tireless support in helping BNA turn two of our Baywood islands (Kentucky and Nevada; Third and Parrott) into havens for native flowers, bees and butterflies.
Please RSVP now at https://www.baywoodneighborhood.org/annualmeeting so we have enough chairs and refreshments. Baywood residents will receive priority seating.
Thank you, and we look forward to another great Annual Meeting with our Baywood neighbors!
P.S. As with last year, all attendees will be given a ticket and be eligible to win a case of Rutherford Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon, so make sure to be there!
AN IMPORTANT NOTE:
Your Baywood Neighborhood Association's strives to beautify our neighborhood, build community, and support the schools and San Mateo Public Library we are so fortunate to have in our midst. We do not take sides on issues where strong opinions may differ. We are NOT an advocacy group.
Many of our neighbors are engaged in a discussion about a potential Baywood Historic District. While we love the historic beauty of our Baywood neighborhood, BNA is neutral on the idea of a Baywood Historic District.
Given the community interest, the City of San Mateo recently hosted a well-attended webinar that clarified how a building or district is designated as historic, what protections are afforded to historic resources, how historic resources can be modified, and how the community can become involved in next steps of the City’s related policy work.
This virtual workshop was moderated by a neutral facilitator and included a presentation by the City’s historic resources consultant, Architectural Resources Group, followed by a question-and-answer period. We highly recommend that you watch the webinar and review the historic resources presentation given. Similar factual information can be found on the BNA website and has been shared regularly via Baywood Bulletin emails.
This week, a postcard was mailed to Baywood residents by a group opposed to historic districts. We support the right of every individual to express their opinions, but we wish to correct the incorrect statements made in the Less Red Tape postcard about BNA:
1) We use member dues to support events at our Baywood schools, the San Mateo Public Library and other Baywood educational efforts; community events during the year (Baywood Social, Annual Meeting, Yard Sale, etc.); and Baywood beautification through the transformation of our unique islands into havens for native plants, bees and butterflies.
2) We do NOT use member dues to:
"fight projects adjacent to board member's (sic) personal homes";
"pay for attorney fees to fight projects";
"pay for [our] own architectural historians, when not happy with the City's own historians; or "rally board members and others to fight your projects"; or
"help bootstrap the [historic district] application process by bringing and publicizing only the benefits of historic districting."
3) BNA also has not "claim[ed] remodeling challenges will be minimal."
4) BNA does agree that we do not have deep experience with remodeling of historic resources, another reason why we leave that discussion to historic resource consultants and the City's Building Department.
5) Any attorney or consultant fees paid to advance the historic district application currently being reviewed at the State level have been paid by the San Mateo Heritage Alliance, NOT by BNA.
We appreciate that people are passionate about this topic, but we cannot allow mistruths to be made about your Baywood Neighborhood Association and how your member dues are spent.
We don't want to clutter up your mailboxes, but we do want you, our members and neighbors, to understand that your BNA Board members are all volunteers, doing our best to make our wonderful Baywood neighborhood even better for everyone, not to represent the "interests [of] a select few."
We have so much important and useful information about Baywood and San Mateo to share with you this Thursday at our Annual Meeting, some of which will be announced for the first time. We hope we all can respect each other, be courteous with listening and responding, and tolerant of different opinions and perspectives. Let's remember that the ability to disagree without being disagreeable is part of the "San Mateo way."
Many thanks and we hope to see everyone this Thursday!