San Mateo, California
This is a place where a variety of information from and about the city of San Mateo can be found... brought to you by a citizen of San Mateo (Glenn Tenney) and not by any government agency. Of course, you can go to the City of San Mateo's own home page too...
This page will likely always be under development... it will change from time to time.
City Council
Council meetings are regularly on Mondays twice a month, but are sometimes held on other days depending on holiday schedules and there's only one meeting each month during the summer.
As an experiment we used to post the agenda for the City Council meetings here thanks to the cooperation of the City Clerk's office. It just became too much work... But the City finally got their act together (the CIty Clerk had wanted to do this for a long time -- now it's finally done!) and they now put the agenda online:
The Current City Council Agenda
You can also check out this year's calendar for the City Council and the City's Boards and Commissions.
We've left some previous agendas that we put online during the experimental phase: 6 October, 11 August, 16 June 1997, 2 June 1997, 19 May 1997, 5 May 1997, 22 April 1997, and 17 March 1997 just for curiosity sake...
BHNA
The Beresford Hillsdale Neighborhood Association is one of the neighborhood associations in San Mateo. The BHNA meets the fourth Tuesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. at the Beresford Rec Center.
Citizens Services Academy
The city of San Mateo conducts a "services academy" where they teach people about the city. I've posted some notes and pictures throughout the "course" I attended quite a while ago -- which concluded 28 May 1997.
Cable TV
This author has long been a critic of cable TV in San Mateo -- especially the fact that the City Council has refused to have a citizen's review committee involved. So, I'll post some things related to cable TV here from time to time. Right now, you can see the channel lineup here in San Mateo.
Restaurant Reviews
Check out our restaurant reviews and other food related personal notes and opinions.
Used Bookstore experience
I had a strange experience at Avalon Books on 25th Ave (a used-book store). I happened to find a book there that interested me, but wondered if the price was fair. They would only hold it a day if I paid a 20% non-refundable fee. Well, I bought it then checked... The book was available elsewhere for HALF what Avalon was charging.
I went back in to let them know that perhaps they weren't getting the right information when pricing their books (not to complain, and not to ask for a refund or anything). They said they priced their books on the Internet and that's it. I said that it made me feel much more cautious about their prices in the future. The owner then said "then don't shop here".
Sorry, folks, but that was an unjustified rudeness to a polite customer. Maybe, if I'd been asking for a refund it might have been warranted, but I said that I was just letting her know how much the book was actually selling for from other retail outlets...
Sigh...
Go to the City of San Mateo's own home page