Business View Civil and Municipal | Volume 2, Issue 12

89 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 2, ISSUE 11 improve it with public art and wider sidewalks, but we’ve already got routes in place through Broadway Street, which has these iconic palm trees and beautiful lights. I would say that our downtown is mostly small storefronts and great, diverse restaurants. We also have a produce store and a really successful meat store that shares a retail space with a wine shop. We really want to serve our community so that they don’t have to leave and shop elsewhere. That’s one of our economic development goals, as well as just a sustainable community goal.” “We’ve got several buildings right now at the downtown’s north end that actually would be perfect for an incubator,” says City Mayor Ann Schneider. “We also have an antiquated post office that should come back as a multi- story corner building with a nice opening for business opportunities.” She adds that Millbrae is embracing what they’ve learned from the booms in Silicon Valley that ignored commuter- adjusted population estimates. “The multimodal transit station is where the bulk of our growth is happening. I think that as we grow, along El Camino and by the transit, we’ll be able to keep employees happy while building stronger community alliances.” With a younger population moving in and more families setting down roots in the community, the city is seeing its demographic shift and seizing all the opportunities that presents. As Schneider attests, “We have many families, and sometimes couples who just haven’t had kids yet, where one works in San Francisco and the other works at maybe Facebook in Menlo Park, or Adobe down in San Jose, or Google in Mountain View. So, we’re approving a healthy mix of 3-bedroom, 2-bedroom, and 1-bedroom studios with an emphasis on residents living in Millbrae being able to afford to stay living in Millbrae.” According to Smith, Millbrae’s layout is very sensible in that the city’s neighborhoods are predominantly situated west of El Camino Real, MI LLBRAE , CAL I FORNI A