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BART ignores issues
to spend on TOD
BART’s fiscal crisis could force its shutdown.
Despite the existential threat, they are planning a billion-dollar transit-oriented development (TOD) at North Berkeley BART without having conducted any fiscal analysis. The North Berkeley BART TOD project could worsen BART´s fiscal problems and further jeopardize Bay Area transit.
People don’t like riding BART because it is unreliable, dangerous and expensive. Instead of fixing these core problems, BART is spending thousands of hours of staff time on TOD.
BART has offered the developers huge discounts to build on the property. BART will get just a small fraction of the market value if they get anything.
If the development is a financial disaster, and the developers walk away, BART will inherit a billion-dollar boondoggle filled with hundreds of angry tenants.
David Lerman
Berkeley
BART must stop
rolling over for unions
Re: “Before new taxes, Bay Area’s transit must first reform” (Page A12, Feb. 26).
I absolutely agree with the opinion piece.
My personal opinion is BART agreed to high wages for staff because it was the easiest way out. I still think that it was a travesty the last time BART operators struck and the way the agency caved in, particularly not using the consultant BART paid for because the unions complained and whined.
I think BART is over-bloated and way too dependent on consultants. The transit agency I worked for used consultants sparingly. BART’s perception is they have money to burn.
Stephanie Wilson-Goure
Livermore
Fixed rate is best
in face of high bills
Re: “PG&E bills are shocking for customers amid state’s soaring natural gas prices” (Page A1, Feb. 27).
A hidden reason for the “state’s soaring natural gas prices” is that you may be on a variable rate plan.
Prior to the pandemic, it was better to be on a variable rate plan with rates as low as $0.90 per therm. Today, I called Peak Six Power and Gas, the company that provides gas listed on my PG&E statement. I am on a variable rate plan and because gas prices are soaring, so have the variable rates. I am paying $5.216 per therm versus if I was on a fixed rate plan, I would have been paying $1.29 per therm.
I switched today and after my next meter read, I will be on the fixed rate for the next 12 months. You can only change once every 12 months and of course, no one tells the customer they should switch as this is a massive windfall to energy companies.
Andrea Bloom
Pleasanton
Outlandish letter feeds
our national divide
Re: “Would Trump indictment spur further violence” (Page A6, Feb. 24).
I do not believe it is in the public’s best interest to publish a letter to the editor that states Trump’s “goal may be to incite a civil war so that he can be reinstated as the totalitarian president.”
Besides nonsense, it encourages others to believe such rhetoric, thereby continuing to foster an unnecessary political divide and polarization in our country. You may consider it free speech, and so it is, but it is harmful to choose to publish such an outlandish letter.
Douglas Abbott
Union City
Source: www.mercurynews.com