Local politics goes high-tech

The campaign to fix a broken Burlingame sign on Highway 101 did not begin in traditional political fashion with a petition or rally; it started in part in cyberspace with city residents taking a poll.

The upstart publication and Web site "Burlingame Voice" asked readers to log on and vote for the most shameful signs in the city last year. About 100 votes later, the sign was the second-highest votegetter, and some feel the poll was a factor in the city's decision to repair it a few months ago.

Instead of pounding the podium at a city council meeting or dashing off a letter-to-the-editor, San Mateo County neighborhood activists are increasingly punching keys and building Web sites to change their communities. And they are seeing results.

"I think (the Burlingame Voice Web site) has given a platform to residents to discuss issues among themselves that we never had before," said Terry Nagel, a Burlingame city councilwoman.

Beyond just a platform, the Voice, like other Web sites, is functioning as a cyber-town square. Residents can vent their feelings about Burlingame issues on the site's Web log -- or blog -- post events on a city calendar, read articles produced by the Voice's staff and vote on polls. The site has been up for nine months, and it receives 50 to 100 unique visitors each day.

Stephen Hamilton, an editor of the Voice, said the Web site is important because it allows residents to comment on an issue as it unfolds in the city.

"The blog is very effective at putting out immediate responses and commentary," Hamilton said. "In the past, the only other forum we had was letters-to-the-editor."

That immediacy was important during November's heated City Council election, when candidates used the blog to instantly counter charges made by opponents. For instance, Nagel said she was able to post information about her PTA experience when residents questioned her record on education.

Hamilton said interest in the Voice Web site has spread far beyond the borders of Burlingame. Activists around the country linked to the Web site's information about the city's controversial Safeway project as they grappled with their own "big box" retail store projects.

Perhaps the longest continually updated activist Web site in the County is the irreverently named San Bruno B.A.R.T. (Bell Aire Residents for Truth). The site will mark its fifth anniversary in July.

San Bruno activist Alice Barnes started the site with her son as a way to document safety issues with the construction of the BART-San Francisco Airport extension as it ground through San Bruno.

She began by posting a handful of photos of cracks in a Tanforan Shopping Center parking garage she believed were caused by work on the new line. She went on to take pictures of flooded construction sites, missing curbs and broken fences.

Today, the site features more than 14,000 images ranging from liquefaction susceptibility maps for a local power plant to pictures of San Bruno's annual Posy Parade. The site also includes an archive of more than 3,000 news stories that cover San Bruno issues. The site has received more than 2 million hits since it was launched in 1999, Barnes said.

"I don't think there are many people that read eight papers a day, but we do," Barnes said.

The pictures of alleged safety violations on the Web site and constant calls from Barnes prompted the transit agency to give her a number for a foreman on the BART project so she could pass on the concerns she found and have them corrected almost immediately.

Appropriately enough the site's home page features an orange cat coming out of a brown paper bag. The site has become mandatory reading for San Bruno resident Harry Costa.

"For local news, I rely on Alice Barnes," Costa said. "I get upset when she doesn't update the site."