Posts Tagged ‘BART’

Just outside the Rockridge BART station, the only obstacle barring commuters from enjoying a beautifully manicured plaza is a chain-link fence. Nearly six months ago, ground was broken on the Rockridge BART Plaza, giving life to a project ten years in the making. The completion date is now set for early October, so commuters will have a wait a bit longer to enjoy the renovations.

After years of planning, renovations to the Rockridge BART plaza’s exterior began last week. According to the Rockridge Community Planning Council’s website, the new configuration created by landscape designer Greer Alley was inspired by the community’s desire for improved seating and better lighting in the space. The goal of the renovation is to take a now-unusable area and create a community gathering space where community members may sit and talk or enjoy a cup of coffee.

If you live in the Bay Area, there’s one question you’ve probably asked at some point: why on earth doesn’t BART run past midnight? Over Presidents’ Day Weekend, it did.

One year after construction began, has the controversial, $484 million Oakland Airport Connector project created the jobs it promised? “It requires a lot of physical strength and it wears on the body,” said Tiffany West, 31, of her work as a carpenter’s apprentice. Every Monday through Friday, from 7 am to 3:30 pm, West is somewhere along Hegenberger Road between the Oakland Coliseum and the airport shoveling debris, fine-grading sites for paving or building the footings for the connector’s elevated guideway.

It’s nearly Thanksgiving, and that means quality time … at the airport. But what’s the fastest way to get there? Last year Oakland North put this eternal question to the (semi-scientific) test by racing reporters on bus, bike, BART and car from Bakesale Betty to OAK. Who got there first, and who made it there with the most intact pie?

On Thursday night, a cast of about 40 characters gathered under the lights of the Rockridge BART parking lot for the annual pre-Halloween version of FourSquare East Bay, dubbed “Costume Square.”

A jubilant crowd of Occupy Oakland supporters poured into the city’s downtown streets late last night, after their “general assembly” approved supporting a citywide strike Nov. 2. But the crowd’s efforts to cross the bay to join the Occupy S.F. group were thwarted by BART officers, who shut down the 12th Street BART entrance amid cries of “Police brutality!” and “This is what democracy looks like!”

Amidst pleas by city officials to remain in Oakland, the Bay Area Toll Authority voted 8-6 to purchase a new building in San Francisco, where the agency will locate its new headquarters.

Community members and city officials met Monday night at an open house held at the Laney College Student Center for the redevelopment of the Lake Merritt BART station neighborhood.

Thousands of Bay Area commuters will forego their solo morning drive in September and October after the 2011 Great Race for Clean Air kicks off this Thursday. For the next two months, employees will be encouraged to use bicycles, take public transit and carpool to get to work.

On Tuesday, BART settled a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by the mother of Oscar Grant for $1.3 million. Grant was shot and killed by former BART officer Johannes Mehserle on a train platform New Year’s Day 2009.

On Thursday BART directors postponed the discussion of a demonstration project that would allow trains to run one hour later on Friday nights. Under the proposed six-month tryout plan, which was presented to the BART board of directors on April 28, the last trains on Friday night would depart at 1 a.m. instead of 12 a.m., extending the service for all 44 stations for one hour.

Oakland activists organized a peaceful march from the Fruitvale BART station to Frank Ogawa Plaza on Sunday night to protest the upcoming release of ex-BART police officer Johannes Mehserle from jail. Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter last July for the 2009 shooting death of Oscar Grant, and sentenced that November to two years in prison.

A giant excavator was parked in the yard of a motel near the MacArthur BART station on Monday afternoon, where dozens of people were taking pictures with the machine that may soon start tearing down the motel rooms. The MacArthur Transit Village project will eventually transform a 7.76-acre site near the MacArthur BART station into a mixed-use area with new housing units and retail shops, along with restaurants and possibly a day care center.

A 43-year-old man survived a collision with a Pittsburgh/Bay Point-bound BART train pulling into the Rockridge BART station Tuesday. The investigating officer does not believe he was trying to commit suicide, but it is too early for definite answers.

On an otherwise uneventful commute across the bay, passengers riding BART from Rockridge to San Francisco on Thursday afternoon were faced with an unusual sight: two pro basketball stars handing out free passes for the train.