Letters: Inefficient BART must cut service, OT before asking for cash

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Inefficient BART must cut service and OT

Re: “Rail future on shaky ground” (Page A1, Feb. 23).

It is amazingly hard to understand why BART can’t run more efficiently. The pay rates, especially when you include overtime, are ludicrous.

From public information, it appears that many employees and police officers have benefits and pay in the $300,000 range. Well, could the BART deficit be due to this crazy amount of pay and overtime? The ridership is down, and the frequency of trains is up. Why? To keep the gravy train going?

The simple solution is to cut the train frequency back in order to cut the overtime rates way back. The problem? The board has a vested interest in keeping the employees with such lucrative contracts in place. Don’t get me wrong, I love the BART system and use it all the time. The trains and the stations are cleaner than they have been in recent years, and I feel safe using the system.

Scot Granger
Fremont

Tax measure is to support all transit

Re: “Rail future on shaky ground” (Page A1, Feb. 23).

ConnectBayArea/SB 63 is a citizens’ initiative. With sufficient signatures to get it on the November ballot, there’s a chance it could bring a temporary source of revenue for public transportation across five Bay Area Counties.

Fares are not enough to keep public transportation running effectively. We need new revenue sources to keep all of our Bay Area public transit running — public money for public transit.

It is not a BART bailout.

Gigi Gamble
Alameda

Fewer flights are a boon to environment

Re: “Traffic down at San Jose and Oakland airports” (Page A1, Feb. 24).

Regarding the report bemoaning the recent decline in flights out of Oakland and San Jose airports, there is one extremely important omission: The decline of airplane trips is a huge win for the environment.

Transportation is the largest sector for greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Air travel is particularly hard to decarbonize since electric planes will only be able to make short trips; hydrogen is a nonstarter and sustainable aviation fuel is anything but. A decline in flights is our best chance to make substantial headway in our climate goals. In addition, the reduction of ground pollutants such as ultra-fine particles, organic compounds and nitrogen oxides is a huge win for the neighborhoods around Oakland and San Jose airports.

These should be important considerations for vacationers and business travelers. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if news agencies offered this critical perspective in addition to business interests?

Jeffrey Beeman
El Cerrito

District should slow plan to end bilingual program

On Jan. 28, families at Bancroft Elementary in Mount Diablo Unified School District were abruptly told the school’s Two-Way Spanish Dual Immersion program, the district’s longest-running and highest-performing, would be eliminated. The notice came nine days before kindergarten enrollment, with no parent consultations, no ELAC or DELAC input, and no School Site Council discussion.

The district’s justifications have shifted: low performance (despite data showing strong results), a teacher shortage (later retracted), capacity concerns that the district confirmed aren’t an issue currently, and vague financial pressures. Meanwhile, 500 community members have signed a petition to keep the program.

Parents are left asking: Why was this decision made abruptly, without stakeholder input, and why does it need to be implemented this year? We are asking for transparency, lawful process, and at least one Spanish classroom to remain at Bancroft.

Elizabeth Silva
Walnut Creek

Congress must speak up for environment

Re: “Appeals court questions shifting reasons for Trump’s EPA killing clean energy contracts” (Feb. 24).

Michael Phillis’ report on the Trump administration’s arbitrary termination of “Green Bank” contracts is one more example of the threat this administration poses to substantive responses to the climate crisis. The EPA’s rescinding of the “endangerment finding” about greenhouse gases (“Trump revokes climate finding,” Page A1, Feb. 13) is another.

Now more than ever, we need our members of Congress to speak up for the EPA.

I commend Reps. Lateefah Simon, Eric Swalwell and Ro Khanna for voting yes on H.R. 6938 and protecting the EPA from massive cuts. (I haven’t heard back from Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff about why they voted no.) Now it’s time for all of them to raise their voices for an EPA that addresses the climate crisis as part of fulfilling its mission of protecting the environment and public health.

Jeffrey Spencer
Fremont