Midnight Moon

Last night Your Boulevardier took BART to San Francisco to see the apocalyptic thriller 2012 with friend PF and his son JDF. After dinner and a 7:30 p.m. show -- and a lost phone that required our scouring the sticky floors of a few theater rows -- a Dublin-Pleasanton train was caught for the ride home.

Upon arriving at the Castro Valley station, and being on foot, Your Boulevardier decided to make a detour by the Chabot Cinema. He was curious whether the theater was hosting a midnight show of New Moon, the latest in the Twilight vampire saga. Sure enough, the marquee was lit and people, mostly young women, were assembling. Some were walking to the theater from surrounding parking lots, looking like moths moving toward a bright light or zombies stalking fresh brains.

The theater doors were already open when Your Boulevardier passed at around 11:40 p.m., so there wasn't the stereotypical line of fans that midnight "event" movies sometimes engender; however, there was a good-sized crowd inside, purchasing tickets -- and, perhaps, coffee. Some people were sighted in pajamas and slippers and carrying blankets. It seems that, to some in attendance, the midnight movie event evoked the feel of a teenage sleepover.

Your Boulevardier did not join the fun. He is not current on the Twilight phenomenon, and one supernatural movie was enough for the evening. He walked down Baker Road (past another place haunted by denizens of the night, Spanky's Lounge) and across the pedestrian overpass over I-580 and home.

Commuting is a Gas

Your Boulevardier may have a scoop for BART commuters. A shuttle service between BART and Castro Valley's park-and-ride lots, using natural gas-powered buses, is being planned. No details are available, but the folks who run Valley Truck Rentals (the place just below Neighborhod Church on John Drive) are involved. Valley Truck Rentals also plans to add wind and/or solar power to its operations.

Zig-Zagging Into BART

Perhaps they've been up a while, but just today Your Boulevardier noticed that a zigzag of railings has been constructed at the bottom of the wheelchair ramp at the Castro Valley BART station.


Logic leads one to suspect that too many people had ridden bicycles or skateboards down the ramp at too-high speeds; those people then collided with pedestrians coming out of the station. It could also be that pedestrians and wheeled passengers going appropriate speeds from both directions had been colliding at the corner. Either way, this new slalom prevents unintended meetings from happening, which is a good thing. And it matches the stainless steel railings in other areas of the station.

CV To Lose M Transbay Bus?

Your Boulevardier occasionally takes the M bus across the San Mateo Bridge to visit Mon Petit Chou. The bus is clean and comfortable, even if the schedule is far from ideal. One works with it.

However, it appears that, because of budget cuts, the schedule will get even worse for Castro Valley residents. If Your Boulevardier reads AC Transit's current staff recommendation correctly, the bus will terminate in the East Bay at the Hayward BART station, rather than Castro Valley. The relevant section can be found on page 12:

Line M: Hayward BART to Oracle via Winton, Hesperian, Hwy 92, Chess Dr., Metro Center, Hillsdale Blvd. Hillsdale Caltrain, Oracle HQ. The Line M will no longer provide service to the Dumbarton Bridge corridor and consequently the Ardenwood Park and Ride facility.

Granted, the major cut in service has been made on the west end of the line, not on the east. Still, Your Boulevardier will miss the chance to catch the M at the Castro Valley BART station.

BART Parking Fees Kick In

Your Boulevardier drove by the Castro Valley BART station this morning at around 7:45 a.m. on his way home from yoga class. The parking lot at the station was not full, which is unusual for that time of day. So, with one day's experience, the dollar-a-day parking fee appears to be having some effect on ridership.

So you know, Your Boulevardier is not necessarily opposed to the new parking fee. He does wonder, however, how much of a revenue-generator it really will be. Because someone must check the occupied parking spaces against the records of the parking fee machines, in order to find out which spaces are not paid; then that person must write tickets. (Perhaps he is wrong, but Your Boulevardier assumes this is not done by BART police, who have enough on their hands already.) And then someone at the BART headquarters must process those tickets and send out delinquency notices when they're not paid. All of these tasks take considerable labor hours, which can equal considerable cost. And then there's the lost fare revenue, and the cost to maintain the parking-payment machine, and to keep the new parking space numbers and fee-related signage clean and up to date.

In all, there can be a lot of costs associated with collecting money.

BART Parking Fees

Your Boulevardier noticed on a recent walk that BART has posted signs that, he presumes, announce the new $1 per day parking fee that goes into effect next Monday, April 27.



On that fateful day, the brown paper will be removed.