Tom Radulovich

Body Politic: Scott Wiener Strips Down City Bureaucracy

BART Says It's Cleaned Poop and Pee From Most Broken Escalators

It's been challenging to walk up and down the broken BART escalators as of late without thinking of how much poop and pee is caked inside the broken stairs. Fortunately, BART has been hard at work, cleaning up and fixing those public escalators that had become the dumping ground -- literally -- for ... More >>

Inefficient by Design: San Francisco's Commissions Are Uncountable — and Unaccountable

Nat Ford's Legacy

Jim HerdDid you know that missed runs don't count in Muni's on-time rate? Nat Ford did. ​Muni transports 700,000 riders a day, and every one of them's a critic. Local passengers -- and journalists -- come to bury Muni, not praise it. But it warrants mentioning that the journeys locals see fit to c ... More >>

Most BART Riders Escape Tickets for Eating and Drinking

BART Considers Cleaner, but Less Comfortable Seats

You are supposed to sit, not shit on the seat​We all know how utterly disgusting a trip on BART is -- the seats are coated in years of grease and grime and the carpet is as sanitary as a Porta Potti.But alas, BART trains are nearing the end of their life expectancy, and the transit agency will nee ... More >>

BART Oakland Airport Connector Gets More Expensive

Pretty -- and pretty costly​A controller's memo sent to BART officials yesterday warned that constructing the controversial $484 million Oakland Airport Connector will drain millions more away from the system's general fund than previously believed. BART's failure to secure a $105 million Transpor ... More >>

BART Votes To Change Station's Name -- But Not Pay For It

Cheers! Now let's go to the Centre...​Legions of future BART riders will misspell the name of the forthcoming Contra Costa Centre -- yes, Centre --  station following a vote by the transit agency's board of directors yesterday. The board voted 7-1, with only Carole Ward Allen objecting, to re ... More >>

Will BART Spend Big Bucks To Change Station's Name?

Take us to the 'Centre'! Tally-ho!​BART's board of directors is scheduled today to vote on whether the name of one of its stations should be made longer, more complicated -- and more expensive. At the behest of both municipal and corporate interests, BART may today opt to change the name of Pleasa ... More >>

Oakland Airport Connector Project Wins Funding

BARTHere it comes, whether you like it or not...​The Oakland Airport Connector project is not unlike a zombie -- it's terrible and it stinks, but you just can't kill it. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission today approved applying $20 million in state funds toward the projected $484 million ... More >>

BART Approves Oakland Airport Connector, Punts on Unpopular Fare Rollback

The project that just won't die ... won't die​BART's board today tabled the vote on the fare rollback no one wants and approved the Oakland Airport Connector no one needs. By an 8-1 vote, the board approved the revamped $483 million connector project, which was dealt a staggering blow when ... More >>

BART Riders Not Thrilled With Bogus Fare Reduction

BART riders: Cleanliness is next to Godliness​Those embittered with the state of society invariably mutter that, in a democracy, the people always get the government they deserve. But if that's the case -- and it is -- then BART riders deserve both credit, and excellent transportation. We've writt ... More >>

How Does BART Manage to Spend $15,000 Per Car on 'Deep Cleaning'?

​This morning, the Chronicle ran an eye-catching little story about BART. Its synopsis: Half of the $4.5 million allotted for temporary fare rollbacks has been siphoned off into BART directors' "pet projects" -- including an astounding $750,000 to "deep clean" 50 train cars. That's $15,000 a car, ... More >>

It's No Secret Why Muni Abandoned Bus Stop Consolidation

Not going anywhere, it would seem...​The San Francisco Examiner today had a story noting that the idea of bus and train stop consolidation, pushed as a remedy that could save Muni millions by speeding up vehicles, has just as speedily fallen off the radar. The Ex does a downright public service by ... More >>

The Muni Death Spiral

Your transit system is terribly inefficient, extremely slow, and wildly expensive. Here’s how you can fix it.

BART has 'Stockholm Syndrome,' Board Member Says

Wait, that's not Stockholm...​Let's not mince words here: The BART board's asinine idea of using one-time state funds to temporarily save riders a few pennies for every ride is pandering to the electorate at its most blatant. It's bad transit policy. Hell, it's bad fiscal policy. The only thing it ... More >>

If BART reopens its public restrooms, then the terrorists win

BART Still Pondering Why Virtually New Coupling Device Fell Apart

​In the wake of this morning's incident in the BART transbay tube -- in which a coupling device fractured, splitting a nine-car train into five- and four-car segments -- the agency and its riders were left with three unsettling possibilities: This was due to a lack of maintenance on BART's aging f ... More >>

It's Your Friday Morning News Quiz -- Incentivized Via a Prize!

It's fun! It's educational! All right -- you win free shit! Send us your perfect score here and win a prize! And now...Whose car is this? ​1. Did you know the winner of NASCAR's Daytona 500 was given a hero's welcome in San Francisco this week? Of course you didn't. By the way -- who won the Dayto ... More >>

BART Board Member Describes BART as 'Pyramid Scheme'

...Step three: Profit!​Like many transit advocates SF Weekly contacted this week, BART board member Tom Radulovich was relieved that the feds yanked $70 million from the controversial Oakland Airport Connector project, with the funds instead heading to Muni, BART and the Bay Area's other cash-stra ... More >>

Transit Advocates Rejoice as $70M Shunted From Airport Connector to Muni, BART, Others

Celebrate good times -- BART and Muni won the lottery!​Public transit advocates are all but dancing in the aisles of public transit following a ruling that yanked $70 million in federal funding away from the controversial Oakland Airport Connector and led to moribund local transit agencies being s ... More >>

Board Members Predict Even Feds' Threats Can't Derail Oakland Airport Connector

​What will it take to derail BART's half-billion dillar planned extension to Oakland Airport? How about the price quadrupling while the anticipated ridership dropped by two-thirds? Nope. How about the predicted commute time actually being slower than the existing shuttle system? Nope. Well, how ab ... More >>

Transit Advocates Wait For MTA Board to Knuckle Under to Mayor

Jim Herd​When you're watching Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, there's always a fleeting thought, part-way through, that this time Shylock is going to prevail and humble those feckless, bigoted aristocrats who consider him a subhuman. Never happens. Can't happen. It's not in the script. In a ... More >>

BART Contract With Controversial Builder May Result in Loss of $800K in State Funds

​In a definite candidate for the ironic hall of fame, the BART board last week awarded part of a multi-million dollar contract to Nedar Bey -- who had earlier accused that very board of being "servants of the devil." Fittingly, hundreds of thousands of dollars in government money may be going stra ... More >>

Bay Area Flush With Exciting Plans to Blow Money on Useless Transit Projects

The ongoing slow motion debacle that is San Francisco's Central Subway just got a little competition from across the Bay -- last night the BART board approved a $550 million version of the Disney monorail to connect the Coliseum station and airport. While we're outspending our East Bay neighbors by ... More >>

Subway Daze

BART fears city subway project poses danger to busy downtown S.F. station.

SF Supervisor Aaron Peskin's Message to Newsom: Quit Attacking Me!

Halloween Headlines: Cops, BART, Parking, Protests, Funerals

Porkmistress Pelosi

Madam Speaker says she wants to tame pork-barrel spenders. Takes one to know one.

They Put Up a Parking Lot

Chris Daly made his rep getting arrested at a garage protest that somehow ended up creating a coffee kiosk

Hard to Be Really Green

Let's scrap the city's weak, pale-green environmental standards and actually take the total environment into account

Clang, Clang, Clang Went the New Subway

The billion-dollar Central Subway transportation plan may collapse under its own expanding weight

Pretty Rowdy in Pink

How some ladies from S.F. will harass Hillary Clinton into being the tipping point against the Iraq War

Tower Inferno

Mayor Newsom aids a developer at the apparent expense of the Transbay Terminal project, raising a question: Is the new boss just like the old boss?

Subwaylaid

Why the new mayor should spend his political honeymoon taking the doggle out of a boondoggle known as the Central Subway

Taking Back the Plaza

Neighbors of BART's seedy 16th and Mission station hope a new look will give it new life

No More Free Ride?

Sierra Club wants BART parkers to pay

State and National Candidates

The Grid