Foster City: For the Birds

A statue of T. Jack Foster,
the city's founder, stands
next to the clocktower.

Early Sunday morning is a good time to take the bike out for a spin. Temperatures are cool and the traffic is light. We passed by the new City Hall building.

Our city is not as cash-strapped as others, because the high prices and high volume of home sales have triggered the mark-to-market mechanism of Proposition 13 and resulted in a property tax windfall.

(Come to think of it, why isn’t this true of other Bay Area cities, all of whom have experienced a similar real estate boom?)

The birds are congregating, an idyllic time for nature-lovers but bothersome for home-owners who have to hose off decks and roofs. Birds are prettier from a distance. During the week, when I see an avaricious pigeon eyeing my hamburger, I glare back, but it is not intimidated. I think of Alfred Hitchcock’s cautionary movie, the Birds, which was filmed a few miles north of San Francisco, and look up warily.