Jack Bart On Twitter: Currently Smoking A Nice Fat One For Mac

Dec 04, 2014  The 30 Best Sandwiches In San Francisco. And lots of grilled cheese variations they're playing with (with one that includes mac and cheese). Whole animal rotisserie / smoking.

1. Jack Bart On Twitter: Currently Smoking A Nice Fat One For Mac Free
2. Jack Bart On Twitter: Currently Smoking A Nice Fat One For Macbook Pro

Joe Brier, for USA TODAY Anthony Bourdain, the outspoken former chef and host of CNN's 'Parts Unknown,' has died at age 61, his employer, CNN, confirmed Friday morning. CNN reported that Bourdain's friend, chef Eric Ripert, had found him unresponsive in his hotel room in the northeastern French city of Strasbourg, where he had been working on 'Parts Unknown.' The outlet said the cause of death was an apparent suicide. 'It is with extraordinary sadness we can confirm the death of our friend and colleague, Anthony Bourdain,' the network said in a statement.

'His love of great adventure, new friends, fine food and drink and the remarkable stories of the world made him a unique storyteller. His talents never ceased to amaze us and we will miss him very much. Our thoughts and prayers are with his daughter and family at this incredibly difficult time.' Bourdain, who was born in New York and raised in New Jersey, graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and rose to nationwide prominence as executive chef at New York's Brasserie Les Halles. RELATED: Local chefs react to news He began transitioning into the second phase of his career, turning a 1999 New Yorker story called 'Don't Eat This' into the best-selling book 'Kitchen Confidential,' offering foodies a glimpse at what goes on behind the doors of their favorite restaurants and insider tips like why they should never order fish on a Monday.

He was also frank about his past heroin use and the prevalence of substance-abuse issues in the culinary world. 'Kitchen Confidential' spawned two TV series: a Food Network travelogue called 'A Cook's Tour' and a short-lived Fox sitcom based on his career and personal foibles, starring a then-up-and-coming Bradley Cooper. He became a household name with his next series, the Travel Channel's 'No Reservations,' which followed him as he traveled the world in search of life-changing culinary and cultural experiences beginning in 2005. It ran for nine seasons and won two Emmy Awards.

RELATED: Fans, friends mourn CNN picked it up in 2013 under the new name, 'Parts Unknown.' The shows also made him a witness to history, like in 2006 when he and his fixer found themselves trapped in Beirut as the Israel-Lebanese conflict broke out. A decade later Bourdain and President Barack Obama ate at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam, a meal that became known as the 'noodle summit.' Bourdain, known for his barbed tongue, didn't spare his fellow celebrity chefs from his scathing commentary. Whether high-brow or low, they were all fair game to him.

He slammed Food Network stars like Paula Deen, Rachael Ray and Guy Fieri and high-end chefs like Alice Waters and Alan Ducasse. Ray and Fieri later got their revenge at a raunchy roast in 2012. He was also outspoken on political and social-justice issues. When the immigration debate reached a full boil, he defended Mexican and Central American kitchen workers as 'the backbone of the industry.' Through his girlfriend, actress Asia Argento, who has accused Harvey Weinstein of assault, he became a prominent male activist in the Me Too movement.

In a Twitter statement posted Friday, Argento wrote, “Anthony gave all of himself in everything that he did. His brilliant, fearless spirit touched and inspired so many, and his generosity knew no bounds.

He was my love, my rock, my protector. I am beyond devastated.

My thoughts are with his family. I would ask that you would respect their privacy and mine.' Bourdain was married twice before beginning his relationship with Argento.

He became a father at 50 in 2007 when he and his second wife, Ottavia Busia, welcomed daughter Ariane. He wrote in a 2015 CNN piece that he considered naming her Beirut: 'She was, after all, conceived within two hours of returning from my first visit there.' Bourdain's death comes just three days after fashion designer Kate Spade committed suicide. Bourdain's assistant and book publisher did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.

If you know someone who is thinking about suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). MORE NEWS:.

'Soap' actor Robert Mandan dies. 'Cheyenne' star Clint Walker dies at 91. Actor John Gavin has died.

You can check current BART and on the. Stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit, in case you did not know. While writing this article I realized I am way more upset at BART than I knew so I’ll start there. As someone who rides BART every day Monday through Friday I must say I am getting very fed up with the poor public transportation system. Update: I should probably state that I and a huge reason was BART.

Riding to SF for work every day was a major stress on me and I’m sure you know if you are a daily commuter. I quit my job in SF and moved to Portland because Oakland sucks and all the real jobs were across the water. I left there after nearly 3 years and am now trying out Las Vegas. BART is overpriced! For one, it’s way over priced.

It seems like BART is increasing the fares every single year. To go from 12th ST BART City Center Oakland to Civic Center BART in San Francisco and back it is costing me $6.30 a day. That’s $31.50 a week or $126 a month! If I’m going to pay that much I expect seats I can at least sit on, trains that are going to be on time and a ride to work that doesn’t require me being delayed under the Transbay Tube for up to 30 minutes at a time. BART Employees are overpaid!

BART has gone on strike and threatens to strike again even though they have a reported. The employees who get paid very good for sitting in a box all day think that they should get paid more. I think BART should lower the fares and do something about overcrowded trains. The unions contend BART has a $125 million operating surplus, and that their members deserve some of it for increased ridership and high service reliability rates.

Employees want a 5 percent annual raise over the next three years. Train operators and station agents are currently paid in the low $60,000 range, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Employees average $16,590 in overtime pay. It seems to me they are making a LOT more on overtime and these guys are balling out of control for doing nothing. $75,000 plus? What exactly DOES a station agent do?

As far as I know they talk all day, read, and adjust a fare from time to time. Train operators? It’s all automatic. They stick their head out, make sure no one is in the door and press the button to close it.

If I’m wrong someone please correct me so I can understand why they deserve $75,000 a year for doing nothing. Free Food Delivery!

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About that, the trains are disgusting. I would never sit on those seats because I see some of the dirtiest people on earth sitting on them. I have even seen a guy piss and or crap himself on the seat, get up, leave a wet spot and someone else a few stops later unknowingly sit in that seat. You just have no idea who was there before you. If you’re wondering why I didn’t say anything it’s because I wasn’t near enough and there were about 10 people in the vicinity that could have said something. As we all know, people don’t talk to each other on BART, even to help one another out.

Oh well, just watch your BART seats! Incurable bacterias have been found on the seats! Sure one can say BART is trying to replace the seats with the new vinyl like material for easier cleaning. But how often are those even cleaned? Just don’t sit on BART. BART is overcrowded!

I couldn’t sit if I wanted to anyways. My trains are so crowded in the morning that it is shoulder to shoulder standing room only. These trains are so over packed it’s ridiculous and uncomfortable. People smell, sick people spreading SARS everywhere and of course the jerk or two who snuck their bike on the car and took up 4 or 5 spaces worth of standing room. Don’t get me wrong, I wish I could bring my bike on BART but until BART accommodates to us and makes a bike only car in back it is rude for just YOU to break the rules while I suffer.

When leaving San Francisco in the evening, it’s a madhouse. People line up in front of the yellow lines waiting for the next train to arrive, but when it does not all of them are getting on that train so they sort of just stand there in your way. It’s rather annoying, I get structure and needing to get on and off fast, but blocking others doesn’t help and when there are 4 possible trains that can come through the station at any given time, it doesn’t work to well.

These people are just lining up to try and get on first so they can sit down and play Candy Crush or play some game on their laptop. And even worse, when getting off the train in the morning and trying to get up the escalator, there are a ton of people who just don’t understand escalator etiquette. If you are standing still like a fat lazy American, you must stay to the right. Do not block the left side! People like me want to not only walk up these escalators, but double step while running!

Get me out of here, I gotta get to work, I’m already running late and a Starbucks triple espresso is a must. BART hates bikes! BART can easily fix this. If they gutted the last car of every train so that it was seatless and just had a bunch of bike hooks, racks, nothing, whatever, we could all ride our bikes to BART and to the office.

But now a lot of us are forced to take buses to BART stations and leave our metal horses at home. Get on it noobs. Simple fix, you’re way behind the times. How can you promote public transportation, saving the environment and all that but then seem so against bikes, the best form of green transportation.

BART loves cars! Because of the bike problem, you are encouraged to bus or even drive your car to the station and find and pay for parking. Yes, that’s right, pay for parking, just another fee. Most of these stations you have to get there at the crack of dawn to even find a parking spot. But if you do, you pay the parking fee and then leave your car all day. There have been many car break in and thefts in BART parking lots. I myself had my car broken into, in broad daylight at the MacArthur Station.

I had only left it there from about noon til 2pm. The whole ordeal cost me a lot of money. BART Police may just very well be worthless. BART Security Sucks BART gives you a false sense of security with its fake video cameras in every train car. I’ve always told people they are fake yet they did not believe me. However, came out after someone was shot and murdered on BART. BART delay, every day?

So now here we are shoulder to shoulder from the East Bay to San Francisco after leaving our bike at home and over paying for a ride, the train stops in the Transbay Tube! Almost every morning it seems and sometimes it’s only 5 to 10 minutes while other times it’s up to a half hour or more delay. Now a days it’s becoming even more common to be stuck in a delay for over an hour. It’s like there is always a “medical emergency” at Embarcadero, an “equipment failure” or “a few trains ahead of us”. Most of the time you don’t even know why you’re stopped because you can’t hear a word of what the conductor is saying over busted speakers or they are too loud and distorted or they just don’t say anything at all.

It’s very rare that you can hear and understand the announcement and when it is there is little to no helpful information given. If there is one thing they are not, it’s clear and transparent. You keep cramping me under water there talking about medical emergencies and I’m gonna have a panic attack and you’ll be dealing with me next! But come on get it together. I hear you have medics on stand by at Embarcadero or at least I read this.

Somehow this has to be more efficient. Maybe they should be down on the platform waiting and you can get said person off the train in a matter of seconds and keep trains running on schedule.

I don’t know why this always takes so long. BART trains are so loud! Speaking of the Transbay Tube and all, why are BART trains so loud? Is it possible that we have the loudest most deafening public transit in the country? They are loud because of imperfections in the track and they do have rail grinding machines but hesitate to do this often cause it causes them to have to replace the tracks more often. I say, because we pay such high BART fares, our ears should be the bigger priority and they should work on reducing the noise levels as much as possible. In the TransBay Tube the noise can reach over 100 decibels according to.

They claim that the trains average a noise level of 70 to 90 decibels, which can indeed cause hearing loss at sustained levels. I feel as if my hearing has suffered directly as a consequence of using BART to get to work.

If there is ever any sort of class action lawsuit, I would like in because of my hearing loss from BART. Living next to a BART track does indeed bother a lot of people but many are used to the. I myself, no matter where I have lived in Oakland could hear the trains.

Even when I was a mile away from the Fruitvale Station down 35th. I’ll admit, I sort of like it and at my last place on East 14th and 6th I could hear the trains often, it wasn’t loud enough to bother me. BART is behind the times! I understand another thing is boarding time. And I hear we’re lucky enough to get new 3 door cars in 5 years for a faster more efficient boarding procedure but come on. Why did that take so long and why do we still have to wait this long? It seems like this would speed things up a little but also something you shouldn’t have slept on.

You say your budget is so slim but with the amount of money you are charging 370,000 plus weekday passengers, I can’t imagine how there would be a budget problem. Where is this money going? How much do you pay that guy that says please stand clear of the doors again? Here BART gets honest on their own Twitter about this harsh reality. And this is just about what ever day is like. BART is a homeless shelter?

Exiting BART, the relief of not being crowded and stuck underground. That moment when you know it is no longer possible to die in an earthquake under the Bay. What could ruin that feeling of freedom? I’ll tell you what! I get off at Civic Center and I have to deal with the accordion playing dog guy(who’s not that bad), the whining cowboy with his terrible voice(WHY?) and then a homeless encampment. Every morning! The foul stench off piss and crap all down the hall in the BART station.

The escalators are almost always out of service because you let these guys live down there and they! I am constantly stepping over streams of pee. You recently removed the garbage can, which is good because I have seen people pissing on it many times. Maybe if you didn’t shut down all the bathrooms underground this wouldn’t be as bad? You know me, the paying commuter has to use the bathroom too!

I know you say it’s to prevent terrorism but what terrorist needs a bathroom to blow themselves up? You’re ridiculous. So what else are you going to do to stop this? Why do you let these people sleep in there, beg me for money every single morning and use the bathroom on the floor of my public transportation system that I pay so much for? BART is a Corporate Tax Shelter! So I do not fully understand this concept but here is my attempt at explaining it as short and simple as possible. BART takes part in Lease-In Lease-Out agreements(aka LILO’s) where BART leases it’s own trains and service equipment to corporations like General Electric and then immediately leases the same exact equipment back from General Electric costing the tax payers money and shielding General Electric from paying Federal Taxes.

So the physical inventory never leaves BART’s hands and they shuffle paper and money around back and forth to game the system. Apparently the IRS is trying to put a stop to this. I think that is how it works but please do read the full article that goes into depth.

Robbery on BART is way high now. It’s been happening in small number for years on end going mostly unreported, but recently has turn into an epidemic. There was even a full on train heist takeover in Oakland at the Coliseum station where a of mostly black teens took over a train car and robbed every person on the car and escaped. BART is a death trap! Maybe a little bit? Actually, it’s bound to happen. I want to talk about recent safety on BART.

There has been a train fire(thankfully at a station), multiple deaths, brake failures, various breakdowns, system failures and more lately. BART blamed the equipment failures on aging systems such as 40 year old cars and what not. The problem here is everyone is so overpaid that none of our ridership money is going towards the immediate upgrades needed. BART needs to prioritize, make massive pay cuts on the management side and some pretty big pay cuts on the train operator and station agent side.

The only employees at BART that actually deserve a good salary are the mechanics, maintenance, system engineers and so on who actually have trade skills specifically geared towards keeping BART running safe and at full capacity. The people who clean the trains deserve more than the agents and operators if you ask me. However based on how damn gross the BART cars are, I would say they haven’t hired anyone to clean the trains yet. Do I even like BART? Ok, so you know why I hate BART and now I’m just frustrated because I’ll be walking down into Civic Center soon to go back to Oakland. I can’t even think of reasons I like it anymore other than it gets me from A to B. The system is so old and out of date that you can’t even run trains 24 hours on weekends.

What good is BART from SF to Oakland if I have to run to a station at midnight like Cinderella? TURN OF THE DAMN HEATER! It’s 80 degrees out and this car is hot and stanky! Facts about BART: 104 total miles of track expanding 4 counties. 44 stations total with 16 on the surface at ground level, 13 elevated above the ground and 15 underground subway stations. 669 BART cars total running at a max of 80mph and an average of 33mph.

300 ticket machines, 579 entry fare gates, and 168 add fare machines inside of stations. As 2013 BART has about 400,000 weekday passengers(per day).

Construction began June 19th, 1964. The Transbay Tube is 135 feet beneath the surface at it’s deepest point. Crime On BART BART has become a real target for criminals, especially in Oakland.

Jack Bart On Twitter: Currently Smoking A Nice Fat One For Mac Free

Young black youth are running wild, attacking people, fighting on trains, breaking into cars, even pulling Wild West style train heist of entire cars and robbing all the people of their cell pohnes, laptops and wallets. But BART is too scared to tell you the truth because you may stop riding BART or they may be labeled racist for telling you the facts about the race of the criminals. BART says African Americans make up 53% of arrest, but only 12% of riders. So we know where the problem is, but no one wants to address it because “racism”. One good thing about BART is the random performers instead of the beggars. But the beggars are still there.

I change my mind, this is no longer a good thing because it has become way too frequent and is an invasion of our commute. It was cute the first few times but you beggars have to understand we just got done with a very long day of work and many of us are listening to our own music, reading books, the news, working on our laptops, etc etc. You get on the car with your loud crappy boombox and assault our commute with the same stuff every day and then ask for money. Go do that outside of the station where we have the option of just walking by and ignoring you if we please. Do not get in our face and force it upon us where we have no choice.

One possible solution to this is for BART to have an “entertainment car” where people can perform, BART could sell food, drinks and more. This car would of course be a very busy popular attraction and many problems could arise from it, but it would raise money and keep the beggars out of my face unless I choose to visit that car. Which I would for drinks! I hate riding BART right now because I pay too much. I live all the way past Antioch and have to show up for work in San Leandro.

It costs me 15 bucks to park and round trip. During the weekdays at Antioch Bart station, the parking is always full by 5-6am. Only has 1k parking! Plus I’m deaf. I went to apply for RTC card to help save money on the rides. I got all the paperwork submitted and they told me it would take 21 days to process the paperwork. WHAT THE HELL TAKES SO LONG TO JUST PROCESS PAPERWORK??!!!!!

I understand at least one week but 21 days?! That’s just insane!!!

A few times I have noticed that some homeless people would ride and sleep on the seats. It stinks like toxic skunk ass in there. I noticed many people who don’t pay the fare. BART needs to get off their lazy fat asses and do something about it! There are so many problems with bart and there is nothing being done about it.

I have been a psychiatric nurse for 35 years. Last Saturday I entered the Civic Center station and commented to my friend Civic Center reminded me of an old fashioned insane asylum. People were peeing, pooping, fixing their hair using metal surfaces as mirrors.

On the way to the train we were approached by four people wanting money. A couple of weeks ago at Civic Center I stepped off the train to witness a junkie shooting up whatever right in front of the train doors.

That same evening on the train 5 people got on, talking about their latest drug deal, using up the reserved for handicapped and multiple use seats. This all occurred on two Saturdays in May. Note I am not a regular commuter, just someone who goes to entertainment events once in a while. So BART board members, please listen. BART is a public health hazard just about to explode.

Any time an IV drug user pees, poops, spits, it’s a dangerous public health issue. They carry blood borne pathogens, including hepatitis and std’s which can make you sick if you touch their secretions!!!! Blood borne hepatitis infection can lead to acute liver failure and liver cancer later on. In the hospital we would be using infection control precautions to take care of these folks. Why don’t people realize this is serious!!!!! Ask any health care professional you know. Yet I have never seen once BART police try to intervene with these desperately sick folks who need medical help a lot more than money.

Not all BART stations are like this but please do something to stop this public exposure to dangerous bio hazards. The science fiction tale of the fatal supergerm is born out of these environments. Keep newspaper to put on the seats, use hand sanitizer frequently and stay well away from infected individuals.

Let them hog up 10 seats and avoid getting sick There’s also the issue of crime but that’s a whole other topic.and rude people. If I worked for BART I would take this seriously and develop an immediate plan for correcting. People think about this One last comment to thank those who give up their seats to the elderly and handicapped while having to stand on their trip home BART police please show yourselves in these drug infested insane asylum stations and do something to make the public safe. Bart is not safe, I’ve been riding it for about 5 years now on a commute from Concord to SF, and there’s always packed trains past Walnut Creek. Riding Bart, at the gate you’re greeted by homeless people, drug addicts and the station agent who’s watching a baseball game inside the office/box. They complain about their job when the riders are the real ones suffering here, the fares just go up year by year without any explanation and the service is gradually declining. Get rid of the homeless people, beggars and dancers who invade riders’ commute daily with the same terrible loud music and “moves” which we have seen 100 times because they go on Bart everyday at the same time.

The trains are overly loud, noise pollution fills the surrounding areas, and daily delays over police activity/medical emergency/mechanical problems can’t be an excuse anymore! Where is all of our money going to? The station agent that does nothing inside their office? When you ask them a question nicely or tell them about something suspicious on Bart, they just roll their eyes right in front of your face and tell you to tell the operator instead. Also suggest they should learn from Japanese trains which are far superior, fast, efficient, clean and friendlier; they even have an all-female train which I suggest adding to Bart’s trains. How can they control the crazy people and SF Bart be the train where crazy people reside daily? Bart is a terrible service which riders are forced to take with no other option if we don’t have a car.

Let me say this. This is not my experience of BART, by a long shot. I am an 11 year old who regularly commutes on BART from Castro Valley to Powell for school, and has done this recreationally with my father many times before too, and this is not my experience. I have had a mostly positive experience with BART. Never been robbed, never pickpocketed, didn’t find it particularly disgusting, (Powell is the worst) Also, if you are judging BART by just the Oakland stations, you are quite limited in saying that, look at the PB/Richmond/DP stations, and say that again.

I can certainly see why you would dislike it. I suppose we shall agree to disagree. Not necessarily.

Jack Bart On Twitter: Currently Smoking A Nice Fat One For Macbook Pro

I mean, there is a large amount of people that don’t also. The disgusting stations are Oakland/San Leandro/Fremont/North SF Stations. However, PBP, DP, Peninsula and Richmond stations are quite clean compared to the former ones. So, no, the majority of riders exit on them, but don’t board on them.

Also, BART is actually much cleaner than, say, the New York subway, 483 CFUs per square inch on pole surfaces, that’s barely worse than your computer keyboard. Of course, BART is much worse than the Boston T, but it could be a lot worse. They are enough. I do not know the exact decimal count, however I have seen them in person, and I can confirm they are quiet. Also, you are leaving out the greater amount of standing room. How is that not enough? I am loving BART, and this would be an amazing addition to the transit system.

I don’t understand what more you could ask for. “More Strain”? Ok, I do agree, but we will have 775 train cars, not 600 to police the system. Plus, I take it that you don’t disagree with my germ comment, right?. Larry Davis says.

It is the communist-leftist Democrats of the Bay Area’s fault. They file lawsuits to keep housing projects from ever housing so limited housing means high housing costs – supply and demand. It is exactly like labor, high supply of lowly skilled labor means their wages won’t go up, but California needs slaves to service the rich so keep the lowly skilled and uneducated coming. The weather was no longer so great that I wanted to continue living there so here I am on the East Coast where the ocean water is warm and the beaches fantastic. The nanny state ran me out, but the leftist love laws that limit their freedom. Freedom is on the outside of California just over the border. Those migrants working in the 100 degree hot summer picking crops are same as blacks picking cotton more than a century ago.

They work without any rights so farm owners, the rich slave owners basically, don’t have to concern themselves with worker safety or even minimum wage since those slaves can’t report their horrible work conditions to anyone for fear they’ll be black listed among all of the slave owners in all of California. California the land of serfdom where the peasants slave for the techies and those lucky enough to have a union job. This thread is like therapy. BART is traumatizing.

I feel very unsafe on BART, still pissed that those security cameras were FAKE! Sent my poor little mom off on BART one time and she got robbed. I know robberies happen all over the world, but this was just the icing on the cake. As a cyclist, my commute is hell. I have to wait until rush hour is over, which thankfully my job understands.

On days I have to be in early however, I need to BART then Lyft to work which is starting to add up $$. BART is already expensive as it is. I used to take the bus but then I got mugged by at the bus stop. I am sick of this crime ridden expensive shit.

NYC subway as old as it is, is superior to BART and cheaper, more convenient. They even have wifi now. (which I’m not sure is great, but at least they are trying!) Fuck even the Paris Metro which started operating in the 1900’s works better than BART. I understand transit gets crowded during rush hours, I’ve dealt with packed trains in London, Tokyo, Seoul and yes NYC and Paris. However the difference with BART for whatever reason is that people in SF do not seem to understand crowded train courtesy.

Let passengers off the train BEFORE you try to get in. If you are in front of the door and the train is crowded, please step out and let people out instead of blocking the exit. And what is up with fare evaders going through emergency door IN FRONT of BART agent and them doing nothing? Anyhow I am so glad this thread exists. Here’s what I just posed on my Facebook account of my experience after 1 week as a new Bart rider: OMG. Why does BART suck so much?!

I’ve never seen such a dysfunctional transportation system in all my life. Started a new job in the city and have spent the last two weeks trying, unsuccessfully, to get to work. If I’m victorious, and can figure it out, the reward is me paying ultra-premium fares to stand in someone’s armpit for an hour each way, clutching my purse, or (if I’m lucky) sit in urine and fecal coliform, all the while losing my hearing because their 1980’s equipment squeals at deafening noise levels. But wait, I can’t even figure out how to pay for my damn parking spot at the BART parking lot. After reading their website for a week, I still haven’t figured out how to create a seamless experience that allows me to pay for parking and my ticket. They expect riders to remember their parking spot #, repeating it over and over in theirs heads while they walk the quarter mile to the station and then go to a separate kiosk to pay for parking? Thankfully, the website is very clear in saying that one of the ways to pay for parking is by buying a blue paper Bart ticket, the same one you buy for the train fare.

Great, so I buy a blue paper ticket at the kiosk, having no clue how much to load onto it to ensure round trips to my destination and parking. Don’t want to do that math, so I load a flat $20 on there. I enter the fare gates with my new blue ticket and then go to another kiosk to pay for parking. I insert the blue ticket that I just loaded a bunch of $$ onto. I have to pay $3 CASH?! Awesome, because I have exactly $2 in my wallet.

I look around for the attendant, but she’s not in her booth. I guess I’m not paying for parking today and can look forward to a big, fat ticket upon my return.

After reading the website for a week, I see that I can buy a Clipper card that will solve all my problems and increase efficiency if I hook it up to my bank account. But first I need to set up a Bart account? Ok, username and password set up. Now, off to create a Clipper account with another username and password. But if I want it today, I have to run down to the Walgreen’s to buy the Clipper card itself?

Then, I need to register it online and pre-load it with funds. But it will take 10 days for funds to appear, so if I want to ride Bart anytime today, I need to load the card at a Bart kiosk. Time to go home, so I whip out the Clipper card. “See attendant”. Need to find a BART employee, who’s missing from his kiosk, even though he’s being paid a higher salary than I’m currently collecting with a Master’s degree. I miss my train to track him down to magically activate my new card.

I can finally board a train that is 1/6 of my daily commute journey. But wait, I still haven’t figure out how to pay for parking without needing $3 in cash every day. The Bart website says that I can create a third account with something called EZ Rider, and hook it up to my Clipper card. I will need to pre-load funds on both Clipper and EZ Rider, but at least I can use the same card for parking and my train ride.

I need to wait for my parking hangtag to come snail mail before I can activate anything? I’ve now been trapped 5 times inside the Bart corral, without the ability to exit. I’ve been denied entrance into the Bart corral for lack of sufficient funds. Somehow, I overpaid for parking twice on my first day, while also skipping out on today’s parking payment for lack of $3 in cash. I’ve boarded the wrong train for lack of any directional signs on the platform. And, I’ve needed to speak to 5 attendants, 3 of whom weren’t in their booths.

I have a blue paper ticket with $16.75 on it that can’t be used to pay for parking, and I have $160 loaded on a Clipper card that also can’t be used to pay for parking yet. And this is just to dial in 1/3 of my new commute. My commute starts with driving 20 minutes to the Bart station, where the parking lot will be full by 7:15am. I then board a Bart train that I have no hope of getting a seat on, unless I can position myself to stalk someone that looks like they might exit soon. Need to stand for an hour.

I then arrive in SF, but I work clear on the other side of the city, so must wait for a shuttle – that I need another card for. Standing room only on that bus, and I’m pretty sure it has no shocks, so it’s like standing on one of those fat shaker machines while clutching my purse, clutching my lunch bag and trying not to slam coffee into my face as I desperately try to take a sip. Elon Musk had better get on my damn jetpack. My friend, you need something stronger to ride this disgusting system than a coffee.

Where shall I begin? Overpriced, filthy and mis-managed first come to mind. We are being held hostage by this dysfunctional system because driving (although hygienic and private) can become quite costly.

May I suggest casual car pooling? Station agents.hahahah! If you find one, good luck! Now, let’s talk about crime. Recent gang-related muggings and crime have prompted BART to announce warnings about using cell phones while riding the trains. Yeah, that should help.

Just like announcing that seats near the train doors are for seniors, disabled and pregnant women. Good luck with that too. I wish you all the best. The best time you can have with parking is when you get to add the experience of explaining to the professional in the kiosk why you are having issues with parking.

It happens every day many times but they always act like it is a new situation. The next best part is if the only open turnstyle is not really working and you get to explain to the kiosk person who acts like that has never happened before and clearly it is my fault while 4 dudes avoid paying, as you argue over $4.50 on a clipped card with $100 on it. I was a BART rider for 20 years and then I stopped.

I drive to work and LOVE IT. Bart is not only way too expensive, it is downright unhygienic and disgusting. The homeless people are a big nuisance. Why can’t the station agents stop the homeless from entering? The trains are way too overcrowded and there are no seats till the last stop.

50 years ago when Bart first started, they ran trains every 15 mins and even now have the same schedule. It is highly mismanaged. Did you see the janitor make close to $300k per year including over time. Who is watching?

And the escalators are perennially broken. I find it unbelievable that Bart performance is so bad in the rain. These are TRAINS, good god! But this might be yet another convenient excuse that management peddles to excuse much deeper systemic problems.

I want to love BART and it seems it COULD BE a wonderful transit system, but, boy, is it failing big time! For the last 3 weeks it has been late nearly every day, one excuse after another. What is this constant nonsense about medical emergencies?? Is this the only transit system in the world that has medical emergencies??? Disappointing, terribly disappointingly.

Ultimately it is the Board of Directors for BART that has failed us miserably; it is their duty to deliver us a reasonable system and they have NOT! So you tell us it takes a long time to replace cars? Why wasn’t this process started at least 6 years ago? You’re going to tell me there aren’t companies out there who would love to have a contract to build new modern trains and deliver them in less than a year? Come on, folks, don’t patronize us with your excuses. To be honest, the people running or planning BART are idiots. Why is LA subway so cheap and way better?

As far as I see, those planning BART routes, schedule, and others lack of vision and intelligence. They should be fired. A better subway system means better commuting experience, which could alleviate free-way burden and eventually keep and attract more people into Bay Area. It would eventually boost the economy, and then it would be tax for the public transportation. As for the BART budget, it’s just stupid to mainly rely on commuters.

There are so many ways of raising funds. Tax from government, Advertisements income in the BART stations, and so on so on. It’s not the equipment or funding, it’s always the people, the lack of management, and the lack of visionary. I do the commute the other way around. Daly City to Embarcadero. The homeless problem is really bad on our side because they get on the train and they literally just sleep there. I call the Morning Commute train coming from Milbrae the “homeless train” because there is a sleeping bum in EVERY car.

I am not kidding. Sometimes 3 in one taking two seat and stinking the place up. Sometimes they camp that space with the 2 pairs of seats facing each other. Oh, and did I mention they STINK. Couple this with delays and you are stuck with them for hours.

I agree with several of the other points. We have some Operator comments, but I love how they show little highlights and not what they do on an everyday, and god forbid they say how much they get paid. It’s basically a step up from a store retail job: deal with the occasional piss off customer, punch some buttons in a computer, and kick the Bum out. Get paid $75k! The only reason commuters are pissed is because of the system. Happy customers have little to complain. We’d be more than happy to see everyone get paid fairly if it wasn’t because it hurts us, the riders, and we see no change.

So you haven’t seen a raise in 3 years, gee, it sure sucks how you can’t hit the 80-85k mark! Here let me pay that off my damn pocket. Yep I ride the same we had a dirtbag passed out crapped his pants a few weeks ago. Then he gets off on embarcadero and skips the fare- I work 14 hour days I pay my way but am sick of the excuses. The reason BART sucks is they mismanage the funds, they waste the revenue that comes in. I can guarantee their books are a nightmare and if this state wasnt about these politicians taking care of each other we’d all be better off- now BART wants more money, wants to charge paying customers more for taking up space while ignoring the bums.

I try to help by not driving in to the city. But no more going to use my commuter benefits to drive in a park. Hell with BART.

Since I last posted, BART has begun charging for parking-way to encourage people to not use their cars guys! Someone at BART had the brilliant idea to alternate trains during rush hour on the Pittsburg line with every other train being a Pleasant Hill. The result is that the Pittsburg trains are standing room only from SF to Pittsburg. The other option is to take a Pleasant Hill train, still standing mind you, get off at Walnut Creek or Pleasant Hill and wait for another 10-15 minutes for a Pittsburg train. Oh and fares will be going up soon in order to, you know, keep that great service going! So if I take the train, it will take me longer and cost more than if I had driven to work. Brilliant BART!

Just Brilliant! I completely agree with your comments. I pay a whopping $250+ each month for this monstrosity! The trains are always disgusting and overcrowded and the rules are never enforced. When the trains are delayed for ANY reason, I still have to pay full fare.

And when there is a strike (OFTEN), some folks are forced to stay at home with NO pay. I agree that it is (for me, most times) a better option than driving. BART, how about ENFORCING your “rules”: No eating, smoking or loud music on the trains, including smoking weed and crack? How about booting out those using BART as a motel?

What about those that hog the priority seats while those who need them stand? BART, you suck!!! I am looking for work elsewhere so that I no longer depend on your broken system. I am a visitor to the area and thought the public transport system would be state of the art in East Bay and SF.

The first time on the BART, I walked on to see a dingy interior and old gross upholstered seats. And expensive. Why not one fare for the whole system? The AC Transit as well. Could not believe there is no transfer system – had to pay a second fare when taking a connecting bus. And there is little benefit in having a Clipper card beyond convenience!

I lived in Toronto which has an excellent and integrated clean affordable transit system – one fee to ride the whole subway system, free transfer to and between buses and streetcars, significant discount for buying a monthly pass and free transfers to commuter trains going out to other cities. Parking is free at those further stations to encourage taking the trains. BART and AC – you cater to people in one of the premier cities in the world! I have been a BART train operator for almost twenty years! Automatic is not the only way these trains run! Manual mode is used quite often!

I speak very clearly, but nowadays many patrons are absorbed with their smart phones and don’t pay attention to anything! Push buttons is all I do?not at all! I have been assaulted, put out fires, handled many emergencies, stopped possible derailments from occurring, interacted with people you don’t want to look at, and had the disgruntled public blame me for everything wrong in their life! I make the same amount of money I made three years ago, because BART management takes my “extra” money to cover health and my pension now! I don’t work overtime!

So to all you complainers, try to look at the true picture before you speak! The smiling Board of Directors should be who you contact first! My oh my, the unmitigated nerve of your employer that you actually have to pay for your health insurance and contribute to your own retirement?

My “extra” money has been doing that since I began working. I stopped taking BART. It is filthy, unreliable and the employees are beyond surly. The vast majority of the patrons on the system are just trying to get to work. I work with the public and some of them can be beyond challenging but I am not allowed to be rude and dismissive. A few times I have had to ask a station agent a question, after I finally got their attention (they were quite obviously aware but feigned being totally unaware of my presence) I received a complicated and annoyed response. I finally just asked another commuter and my question was answered.

I’m pretty sure the lady who passed out and fell into the track way last week appreciates the overpaid Train Operator who was paying attention and managed to stop the “automated” train from ending her life. I’m also pretty sure that the kid, who was shot outside of Hayward BART, appreciated that overpaid Station Agent (who just sits in the booth) when he put himself in harm’s way to save that kid’s life. I’m also pretty sure the lady who lost her kid on the train, courtesy of some of the most insensitive people of all time as they rushed the train and wouldn’t let her off, trapping her kid on board while the train doors closed, appreciated the station agent that was in the booth doing nothing, just so happened to get the train operator to stop so we can get the kid to his mom. The base pay is not whats listed they like to include benefits etc in the pay grade. The people that make 75 plus a year are working tons of overtime. This overtime is happening because they don’t hire enough people. If the Train Operators and Station agents didn’t work the Overtime then their would be more delays and problems.

As far as the nasty trains and homeless. We live in the Liberal Bay Area.

BART has tried for years to get rid of them. The problem is many of the areas BART runs have protections for the homeless. All they need to get on the train is 1.85 ticket.

There’s nothing that any BART employee can do. As far as the broken train cars, nasty stations etc. This is something that you can only blame on the Board of directors. They take these budgets and spend them on things like the little tram to the Oakland airport.

It worked fine the way it was. Do you know how many new trains and cleaning employees they could of hired with half a billion bucks they spent on it. The board cut the cleaning staff almost in half from what it used to be. Now they have one person cleaning 3-4 stations. They used to have 1 or 2. There’s no way you can keep those huge stations clean with one person doing that many.

The employee pay does not change whats spent on new cars or maintenance. That’s a totally different budget and can’t be used or interchanged. Since funding come from so many places the funding is for specific things. The BART board would love to have you believe that it’s the employees making things bad.

Actually it’s the huge contracts to build trams to the airport and new stations that they give to friends and relatives. Heard of kick backs? But people just keep electing the same people.

I ride BART everyday and actually go to the BART board meetings as I wish more people did. I do not work for BART. The more I see how this board runs things the more I get involved.

I know there’s some Bad BART employees out there but there’s also some great ones. I for one wouldn’t want a train of 800 people coming screaming at me when a train goes out of service for more maintenance neglected and there’s nothing they can do. Try to be put the blame where its deserved at the Board of Directors. Even though the media makes it like the greedy BART employees are doing it all. Come to a Board meeting and see whats really going on.

I ride fart I mean BART everyday. I contend with the overcrowding of the trains, the piss and poop on the seats the damn homeless begging for $$$ all the time. It’s what we have unfortunately but maybe people above should be listened to. Get all the damn homeless out of the stations, open up these closed and abandoned warehouses so they can go to.

Clean up the damn trains and re open the bathrooms. Also, the Powell street escalator on the south east side of market and 4th, was open for 2 hours Monday then closed because of poop again. Get rid of the homeless out of there. Seriously, if at least that happens BART could be better. Also, putting on 8 trains to go from Powell and Montgomery to San Bruno???

Bart, get 10 cars per train through the commute and get over yourselves. I concur with all the points made here (with the possible exception of the tax break which I know nothing about). My additional pet peeve: Why on earth does Bart insist on using an 8-car train out of San Francisco to the East Bay during the evening commute when there are clearly more passengers than can be handled I sometimes have to “go upstream” to an earlier station just so I can get on board a Dublin train at 6:00 p.m., and forget about actually finding a place to sit. Throw on a few extra cars for Pete’s sake! It seems that everything has gone downhill after the last strike. I don’t know who makes the decisions on holding up trains for medical emergencies daily or the police activity every other day, but if I had a medical emergency during rush hour, I would want you to take me off of the train at the next stop and keep it moving. And the whole trying to be ‘civil’ and waiting in line to get on the train it’s stupid, since 1) as you mentioned people in front of you get in your way 2) the lines are so long during rush hour that it extends to the opposite platform and the idiots waiting in line don’t clear way for you to get past, meaning you have to walk on the yellow platforms to get by anyone.

I would add the VIPs of BART, the ones who clog up the doorways and block the entrances/exits as if nobody else needs to get by, I’m sorry if I elbowed you in your face, you shouldn’t be blocking people. You’re right about almost everything in this piece. And I have the exact same thoughts when I’m stuck in the tunnel (during about half of my trips into the city). Only thing you should check your facts on is salary. Your figure likely represents total compensation including benefits – not annual salary or take home salary. So workers are not exactly rolling in dough. Plus, the cost of living here in the bay is so high that even $50K is sad for a longtime worker.

As for hiring teens to drive trains, that’s not who I’d like in charge of things got real in the TransBay Tunnel. My apologies to all genuine and striving artists, victims of your screed, who are actually not a blight in the BART corridors.

By the way, the cowboy you disdain is Eric and he has a great voice; and Robert is the accordionist and his dog is Ginger. Your atta boy couched in the whole negative piece about artists is regrettable and unfair. My apologies to all artist in the tubes for this unfair diatribe against them: Hi Robert and Jonah: The inclusion of artists as a blight in the BART environment, has a subtle impact on projecting an undeserved public screed and diatribe regarding one of the things in the BART environment that actually enlivens and brightens the actual ‘blight’ of everything else that is wrong about BART. Too bad the author’s narrow mindedness and negativity included artists in general in such a disparaging way!

Saw a brief mention of you Robert, and Ginger in this BART rant blog. The mention was couched in a negative rant about all things wrong about BART, however the mention about you was positive, but clouded by everything wrong with BART.

I think the cowboy the author mentions is Eric, don’t know of any other cowboys down there. This piece needs to be countered with all good things about the positive vibe echoing through the tunnel ways. There is a lack of sense of prioritizing the problems or of proffering solutions, so this screed is pretty much a venting. The long musically boring video about BART in the Blog is pretty much a anglicized depiction of a pristine underground system, though the ‘sandhogs’ depict the grimy underground reality.

Still, it would be nice to at least, clean up the piss and poo, if for nothing else, to provide healthy environment for the musicians who sometimes have to put up with all kinds of crap down there. Please pass on to Sammy the Slam, if possible! Your friend in the corridors, Robert. I HATE BART TOO!! 1) It’s a system that was supposed to get people out of their cars and yet, they charge for parking. 2) It’s the most expensive subway on Earth.

3) The trains are decades old and money that should have been spent on maintenance was give to the employees for their raises. 4) If BART employees were paid half of what they’re getting now, they’d still be overpaid. 5) The best day on BART for me will be the last day I have to ride on it. To the BART Directors and employees – you suck! I’m a bus operator for AC and would like feedback. Let’s face it, when your dealing with public transit anywhere in this country yet world your never going to satisfy everyone.

Tons of reasons why public transit can be late, traffic if it’s bus lines, the more people you pick up the more time goes by, especially picking up seniors, wheelchairs, that takes time to make sure everyone is boarded safe, sometimes buses brake down, or someone on our bus has caused a problem. Two months ago two guys had guns on my bus and had to call that in, not only did that make me late, everyone had to get off my bus and wait for another while police investigated the situation. A lot of factors can make us late, especially on my 1 & 1R lines, they are the busiest.