Faced with a vote they say will determine whether BART gets a quick start on a planned rebuild or sinks further into disrepair, a high-profile group of Bay Area elected officials gathered in downtown Oakland on Monday to plead for passage of the agency's $3.5 billion bond measure.
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, East Bay Congresswoman Barbara Lee, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf headlined a last-minute media event called to rally support for Measure RR.
"We know that BART is old -- it's 44 years old this year -- and no one has made a major investment in getting it into a good state of repair," Schaaf said to a throng of reporters and a small group of bond supporters. "We know that 450,000 Bay Area residents rely on BART every day to get to work. But don't forget that those of us who don't use BART are relying on it, too -- because people who ride the trains are not on the road for us exacerbating the unacceptable congestion that is choking the Bay Area."
While others talked about how the bond could pave the way for a major expansion of BART's capacity, Mayor Lee said he had a simple message for voters working through the unusually long and complex 2016 ballot.
"Go to the last measure on the last page, all right?" Lee said. "We've got 25 measures in San Francisco, 17 state measures -- seek out RR and vote yes. ... Riding BART this morning, I gotta say, you look at all the faces of the people there and you wonder what will happen to all of us if we don't maintain a reliable Bay Area system."