BART employees are on strike, and the Bay Area is left without a key part of its transit system. It's the first strike in 16 years, and given the yawning chasm between BART's unions and management, it appears it could be a long one.
I awoke today to the sound of a traffic helicopter hovering close over my apartment building near the 580 freeway. A traffic reporter on KQED said he hadn't seen a day like this since the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. But then I read this Facebook post from my friend Andree: "There
is something about a transit strike that reminds me of a snow day. The
world just slowed down a thousand percent, and I get to stay in bed a
bit longer."
I surely feel blessed today that I don't have a normal commute. I need to be at work at 3; I'll take the 1 p.m. ferry from Jack London Square and, if all goes well, get into San Francisco in time for a leisurely lunch and walk to the office. (And if things don't go well, or I dawdle, there's a 2 p.m. ferry that will still get me there in time.) I took the ferry a month ago when BART was down briefly; who can complain about having to ride across San Francisco Bay on a gorgeous day?
After work, I'll take a transbay bus back to Oakland. Yes, it'll take longer, but it runs late enough to accommodate my schedule. The real challenge may come tomorrow: I am scheduled to fly out of Oakland airport, and there's a chance AC Transit employees may be on strike by then, too. (News reports say they'll strike no earlier than tomorrow.) The fact is, if AC Transit and BART are both on strike at the same time, the Bay Area will have serious issues. But if it happens, I'll call a cab (after I take out a loan to have money for the fare) and go way before the afternoon commute for my evening flight.
For
me, the key word for this is perspective: that I get to ride the ferry to work, that the strike may be over by Friday when I need to ride
again, and that these occasions are extremely rare. For me, it's all good -- and we'll all get through this.
(Speaking of perspective, the Bold Italic gets it.)
Postscript, 12:30 a.m. Day 2 of the strike ...
The inbound commute for Day 1 was smooth. The AC Transit 58L bus to Jack London Square was a few minutes late, mainly delayed by AC's jam-packed transbay NL bus in front of it. There was a long line at the dock for the 1 p.m. ferry, but everyone got on board ... so I wound up getting to the city an hour before I had to be at work. I had gelato at the Ferry Building, ambled up Market Street, browsed in a bookstore and finally arrived at the office.
Getting home didn't go as well. I left work a little early to be sure I made it to the Temporary Transbay Terminal -- a mile's walk away -- in time for the 11:05 p.m. NL bus. It didn't show up -- and then two arrived, one after the other, about 20 minutes late. On the plus side, I got one of the last seats.
Our Page 1 headline in tomorrow's story is "Nobody's talking." It appears this strike could be a long one. So far, the heroes in this young saga are the San Francisco Bay Ferry -- which ramped up admirably today to handle extra riders -- and AC Transit employees, who remain on the job while negotiations continue on their own contract. BART unions, take note.
