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.

Under the Weather

The skies have cleared after weeks of rain, but Your Boulevardier remains under the weather. A rip-snortin' sore throat, stuffy head, ringing ears, and aching joints have been his burden for a few days now, and it has not been pleasant.

However, he dusted himself off today and walked to Castro Village to get his hair cut. The Village Barber Shop wasn't busy, and a seat with Limbo was procured immediately upon arrival. Eventually the place filled up, but Al (proprietor Al) did his best to share the wealth as he answered phones, checked the mail, and so on.

Eventually, as so many conversations do these days, talk turned to the economy. A fellow whom Your Boulevardier assumes to be a banker came in, and Al (bicyclist Al) asked him what he thought of the Bernie Madoff scandal. (Mr. Madoff had plead guilty to all counts earlier in the day.) An unpleasant but not unlikely scenario was suggested for how Mr. Madoff would spend his 150 years in prison. Then a suggestion was made: that Mr. Madoff should be executed during halftime at the Super Bowl.

Your Boulevardier was startled at the words, but did not speak up. It's not certain if the suggestion was made in jest, or was the true sentiment of a very angry person. But nonetheless, Your Boulevardier wishes he had found the words to say that a public execution would be beneath the dignity of the United States. For as difficult as the time we must go through in the future may be -- and it's believed by many, including Yours Truly, that the coming days, weeks, months, and perhaps years will be very difficult -- we cannot allow our society to be reduced to shows of violence. We cannot allow our baser instincts to take hold. We must punish wrongdoers, certainly, but we must not make doing so a public spectacle. We cannot become like the societies we look down upon -- those that glorify vengeance over justice, humiliation over punishment, emotion over reason.

Perhaps Your Boulevardier is overreacting to some barbershop trash talking. But he is embarrassed for himself that he did not speak up in this circumstance.

Banking Crisis hits Castro Valley

Your Boulevardier is concerned about banks in Castro Valley. Specifically, he is concerned about his favorite building in town.




The former World Savings, now a branch of Wachovia, is a lovely, interesting building. Note how the roof floats lightly above the nearly-all-glass structure. Admire the gentle curve of the roof -- it evokes Ancient Greece, in Your Boulevardier's eye. Pop inside sometime and admire the spidery sculpture hanging from the ceiling. (For security reasons, bank employees generally frown on people photographing the insides of their offices; thus, no interior image is supplied here.)

Wachovia, of course, is in financial trouble. Citibank and Wells Fargo are gunning for it. Whichever bank wins, it is doubtful that they will take over this lovely building. It's a prime location but doubtless commands a commensurate price. The building itself has a few problems -- inability to expand, few spots for ATMs, and (if one remembers correctly) some structural problems with the roof that were addressed a few years ago.

Meanwhile, neither Citi nor Wells Fargo are known, at least in Castro Valley, for their interest in real estate. Citi exists in what may be the worst building in town, at the corner of Santa Maria and the Boulevard; it is unattractive, dirty, windowless, somewhat hostile and bunker-like, and has entirely inadequate parking and auto access. Compare that with Wachovia.




In Castro Valley, Wells Fargo is located in a strip mall. Perhaps that's enough said.




Castro Valley will have to wait to see how the chips fall. Fingers are crossed that the lovely building anchoring the corner of Redwood Road and Castro Valley Boulevard will keep its intended use -- as a financial institution -- or will find a new and suitable purpose.

(Note: photos of Citibank and Wells Fargo have been added and text has been tweaked.)