Building Community... and Property Values

Pets ruled Burlingame last Saturday, the day of the annual Burlingame Pet Parade. Dusty the Klepto Kitty was there, taking time out from his primary occupation, stealing stuff from his neighbors. He wore prison garb and rode in a portable “jail” before making himself available for photos with fans. Diggs, a half-Labrador whose owner recently returned from a stint in Afghanistan, was the Grand Marshall. Baer, a German Shepherd employed by the Burlingame PD, was there, as was an army of Burlingame pets, some in costume, who marched down Broadway, their humans in tow, competing for ribbons in categories like “Best Pet Trick,” “Most Unusual Pet” and “Best-Dressed Pet.” The Burlingame High School band was on hand, as was the San Mateo Elks Concert Band.

If you’re like me, a pet owner – sorry, “human companion” – who finds the prospect of a dog dressed up like a clown as distasteful as a bowl of jalapeno and liver soup, last Saturday you put yourself as far from Broadway as possible. I spent the day walking up and down Fillmore Street in San Francisco, with my dog. I wore shorts. He wore his usual fur coat and a collar; nothing else.

As silly as I might find a bunch of dressed-up dogs parading through the middle of town, I am firmly behind the Burlingame Pet Parade. It is exactly the kind of community-building event that confirms Burlingame’s reputation as a great place to live.

As Ferris Bueller said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.” Our citizens spend every workweek grinding away, commuting up and down 101 and dealing with the stress of mortgages, utility bills and looming college tuition. If they want to go downtown and have their picture taken with a cat dressed like an inmate once a year to remind themselves that there’re things in Burlingame you can’t find anywhere else, more power to them.

One of the primary purposes of this column is to study the factors that determine property values. There are the obvious – size and condition of a property, amenities like swimming pools and home theaters, location and schools – but there are also intangibles, components more difficult to quantify. Can I point to a study proving that holding pet parades increases property values? As powerful a tool as Google is, I hope not. I’d hate to think of some poor academic completing the research necessary to prove such a thing.

If you spend some time on the Burlingame Historical Society “Memories” page (www.burlingamehistoricalsociety.org/main/Memories/page236.htm) you’ll find treasured memories not of Sub-Zero refrigerators and surround sound but of schools, parks, businesses and, perhaps most significantly, people. Who would you put into a Burlingame Sports Hall of Fame? Local product and one-time Babe Ruth teammate Mark Koenig? J.J. Kiernan, who had “the nastiest fastball in Burlingame Little League History? Boxer Carl “Bobo” Olson? Who remembers Vic and Rogers Restaurant on California Drive? How about Mannion’s, the pool hall of Lorton? It’s not at all far-fetched to imagine some future Historical Society message board mentioning wistful memories of seeing Dusty the Klepto Kitty at the 2011 Pet Parade.

My dog will never wear a costume, a cape, Gore-Tex booties or even a sweater, but I understand that the people, places and events that cement a community’s bond are the things – especially in a place as family- and community-friendly as Burlingame – that make people want to live there, and that can’t be bad for property values.