Opinion: Tom McEnery, Lewis Wolff call San Jose BART extension ‘municipal madness’
The five miles of tunneling for the BART extension from the Berryessa station through San Jose to Santa Clara will begin soon.
A boring machine will tunnel 80 feet, roughly eight stories, beneath our streets. It’s part of a quixotic decision by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority to continue pursuing the 1960s goal of ringing the Bay Area with rail transportation — an idea as old as the Edsel.
This is fiscal foolishness that, if completed, will likely leave us with an obsolete system in a brave new world. Having worked for decades to improve and support the best for our city of San Jose and its citizens, we are bound by a feeling to speak out.
The planned BART extension should be stopped now, and a committee of independent experts should review whether this project still serves San Jose or only those leading it.
The cost has increased from $5.6 billion to $12.8 billion, and the completion date has been delayed from 2026 to 2037. When it’s completed, few of the architects of the plan will be here to answer for mistakes.
This is the most important yet most financially and reputationally irresponsible project in San Jose’s history. Our emphasis should instead be on weaving the Silicon Valley together and serving our citizens better.
A new examination might result in a fleet of clean-energy buses or other transportation ideas to serve key destinations such as San Jose Mineta International Airport, Santana Row and Westfield Mall, as well as key residential spots such as East San Jose, Willow Glen and Almaden Valley.
A bus-system expansion could be completed in a fraction of the time — years, not decades — and we have the money to do it now.
To begin a project as big as the BART extension, which is so full of dangers, you must trust the people leading it. The Valley Transportation Authority’s last rail project in San Jose resulted in carnage for the merchants and residents.
Then, for the BART extension, VTA leaders have cavalierly given incorrect numbers to their own board and to the public. A principled auditor laid this bare. Yet, the board of elected officials could not summon feelings of outrage, so they formed a committee to investigate.
If the extension is completed, it will be operated under contract by BART, a transit agency that yearly sets new heights of poor planning and unfunded new services. And, if it is completed, will it be needed in 2037 and beyond given the current unmistakable trend of reduced office needs, new worker habits and collapsed transit ridership?
Rushing ahead despite such clear danger signs is tantamount to municipal madness. It’s time for a clear and honest analysis. We must apply common sense and stop this danger to our city by commissioning that independent review.
Otherwise, the potential damage to our credibility and well-being far into the future is clear. This, indeed, has the feel of a financial disaster akin to the state’s bullet train — a disaster of our own making.
We must have the truth. Our city has traveled a long and admirable road, providing homes and jobs for so many throughout our history, never striving to become a “great” city, that much-overused description, but to be a “good” city, always improving — a place we can proudly leave to our kids and grandkids.
We can make that goal a forever, ongoing deed if we pursue difficult decisions to arrive at the truth.
Tom McEnery is the former mayor of San Jose. Lewis Wolff is a developer and former co-owner of the Oakland A’s. Both played key roles in the redevelopment of downtown San Jose.