My typical Friday routine began, as it always has for a couple of years now, with a trip to Mademoiselle Colette for something to eat before my wife and I head to Menlo Park to drive our weekly Meals on Wheels route. Today, though, after I crossed the tracks, I was prevented from turning right onto Broadway: the block where Mademoiselle Colette (in Redwood City) is located was blocked off for some kind of work. When I eventually found a place to park and walked to the front of the store (which, thankfully, was open) I saw that a work crew was pruning the trees along Broadway:

They had two cherry-pickers, a chipper, and a small tracked contraption with a claw on the front and a place for an operator to stand on the back that enabled them to pick up the large bundles of cuttings and stuff them into the chipper. The crews were working swiftly; by the time we left with our breakfast they were pretty much done, at least as far as the curve.

It’s always nice to see things being cleaned up and repaired like this; I take it as a very good sign that the city continues to (mostly) keep things spruced up. Later, I spent some time along Woodside Road, examining another project along these same lines:

At the moment Redwood City is updating a number of curb corners along Woodside Road, presumably adding ramps to allow wheelchairs and strollers and such to more easily navigate the transition between the street and the sidewalk. This particular curb cut is being installed at Nueva Avenue, on the east (or south, as most people would think of it) side of Woodside Road, and there were half a dozen or so nearby curb cuts in the process of being installed nearby.

This particular corner may not be familiar to you by name, but it is the corner where the McDonald’s restaurant once stood — the McDonald’s that burned back in late 2022. That restaurant building was deemed unrepairable, and so it was torn down in early 2023, with the lot being completely cleared by around May. Back then they promised to build a new store on the site, and at long last it seems as if the project is about to get underway:

According to the sign, they anticipate completion sometime this summer. If that’s true, the construction will proceed at a record pace indeed. It kind of makes me wonder if they prefab the restaurants somewhere offsite, and then bring them to the site in pieces and assemble them quickly. Otherwise, I have to wonder how they’ll get this thing built by, what, the end of September? After all, it is already May, and not only has no on-site work been done, their building permit has yet to be granted. Indeed, as far as I can tell the project has not even been reviewed by the Zoning Administrator or the Planning Commission, one of which would likely be the approving body for this project.

More likely, they’ll start relatively soon (in a month or three) and complete the project either late this year or early next year. Either way, though, after  almost a year of no activity on this site, finally there are signs (literally!) that we really, truly will be getting a new McDonald’s restaurant along Woodside Road.

As for what they’ll be building, you can probably tell from the picture that the building will be fairly small. According to their building permit application, it’ll be 1,670 square feet in size. But given that they may be putting in a double drive-thru, as is the case with the McDonald’s on Chestnut Street, serving drive-thru customers will undoubtedly be their primary focus, so they need space for little more than a kitchen and for food storage. I would not at all be surprised to see no indoor seating at all, although I do expect there to be a walk-up counter, at least.

On the subject of restaurants, don’t let the lack of visible progress on the outside of Redwood City’s upcoming Ocean Oyster Bar & Grill fool you. I went by just today and heard plenty of construction noises coming from the inside. Although it can be difficult to see into the place (unless I get lucky and the front door is open), by peering into the upper windows I could see that the ceiling, which used to be open, with exposed framing, wires and pipes, is now drywalled and, I believe, painted. Really, the exterior is only missing a couple of windows (or will they be doors?) along the Broadway side of the building; otherwise the exterior looks complete (as it has for quite some time now, admittedly):

But they’ve given us a sign (again, literally) that lets me know that once those windows (or doors) go in, they may quickly throw them open:

Yes, as the sign says, they’ve begun the process of hiring staff. Which means that the opening cannot be long now (although given our current climate, finding enough interested and able staff for an entirely new restaurant may take longer than in the past).

Just across Broadway, and a couple of doors down, the Indian restaurant that will soon be operating from the space where the Dragon Theatre once entertained many is also making great progress. While taking the above photos I noticed that the doors were open across the street, so I hurried over to snap a very quick picture of the interior of what will be Brundavan Indian Cuisine:

Given the name, I’m assuming that this new restaurant will be a second outlet for these folks, who currently are operating a restaurant in Santa Clara — but we’ll likely know soon enough.

I’ve written a lot about the county’s new office building (on Marshall Street, between Hamilton Street and Middlefield Road), but less about another nearby project they’ve been working on for some time now. I’m referring to the new Sheriff’s Office Headquarters building, which will soon occupy a transformed part of the Maguire Correctional Facility. It has taken a while (the groundbreaking was held in April of 2022), but at least from the outside this new headquarters facility looks to be just about done:

Down at Broadway and Chestnut Street, the Broadway Plaza project has finally installed, and is using, a tower crane:

I’ll have a more complete update on the Broadway Plaza project in a week or two, but I just wanted to note that this crane joins the three tower cranes and one large mobile crane being used on the ELCO Yards project, bringing the total number of large cranes in central Redwood City to five (in case anyone is counting…).

Lastly, the siding is rapidly being applied to the exterior of the Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center, in Red Morton Park:

With all of the windows installed, once the siding is on the exterior only will lack some metal panels that will cover some smaller portions of the building’s outer surfaces. The building is really looking good, and yet another example of how the city is working hard to make itself an even better place for all of its residents.

On Wednesday, May 8, Redwood City is holding its Sea Level Rise Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Planning Study workshop, from 1 – 3 p.m. at the Redwood City Public Works office at 1400 Broadway. You can attend online via Zoom, but the city is encouraging people to attend in person (the presentation portion of the meeting will also be recorded, and presumably posted to the city’s website). In person or via Zoom, you will need to register. Use this link to register for in-person attendance, or this link to register to attend via Zoom (Webinar ID 956 9625 7164 / Webinar Passcode: 986860).

The following Wednesday, May 15, the city will be holding another community workshop, this one on the proposed Redwood LIFE project’s precise plan. Redwood LIFE aims to construct 15 new buildings totaling some 3.31 million square feet of Research and Development office and life sciences space, plus a 104-room hotel, a 46,000 square foot community amenity center, parks and open space, and sea level rise protection out in Redwood Shores. The workshop is scheduled to run from 5:30 – 7:15 p.m., and will be held at the Redwood Shores Branch Library at 399 Marine Parkway. For more information and a link to RSVP (which is not absolutely necessary, but for planning purposes they’d really like to know ahead of time how many people will attend), go here.

As a reminder, tomorrow (Saturday, May 4, 2024) is Redwood City’s Annual Spring Cleanup. It begins at 8:30 a.m. with a free breakfast, and ends at noon, when a free lunch will be served. In between, volunteers will be organized into groups and sent out to prescribed areas to pick up trash and such. You don’t need to register in advance for this one: just show up at the Public Works office, at 1400 Broadway, by 8:30 a.m. (wearing appropriate clothing, and perhaps work gloves, if you have them). Although I cannot participate this year — I have a conflicting engagement — I’ve done so in the past, and I can attest to it being a fun and fulfilling experience. And the work is not at all difficult. The city is doing what it can to keep things in good shape; giving less than four hours of our time once or twice a year to help keep the city clean is the least we residents can do…