BART is working to provide wireless Internet access throughout their entire system. They’re planning to charge $30 a month, $9 a day or $6 for two hours. And they’ve signed a 20 year deal with the service provider (I thought that was a typo, but it says 20 years on BART’s web site).

I think this is an example of BART taking a good idea and ruining it with a poorly implemented non-customer-focused plan. Instead of charging for Internet, provide it for free (and provide power outlets) to help increase ridership, plain and simple.

BART seems to always find ways to increase fares and fees but never considers how providing more services at the regular fare price would bring in more riders, increasing revenue and actually making their customers happier.

And how could they sign a 20 year deal for any kind of technology service? What happens in a few years when newer wireless technologies usurp the current wireless technologies?

BART signs 20 year deal for Wi-Fi


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From the SF Chronicle:

A new report shows that, since the 1970s when the state government first started requiring more energy-efficient buildings and appliances, California has grown more prosperous and added jobs even as its citizens cut the amount of energy they use and the greenhouse gases they produce. Despite the current economic crisis, which finds the state in a budget and job quandary, the findings should provide ammunition to those who want Obama to launch a green revolution, encouraging renewable power and energy efficiency as a way of generating jobs during the recession.

Read more: California’s energy efficiency an economic boon


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Congratulations President Obama. All day, all over the city, people have been saying, “Happy Obama Day.” Thank you for your message of thoughtfulness, cooperation, communication, equality, inclusion, transparency, sustainability, shared responsibility and hard work.


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From the LA Times:

Decades ago, the victory gardens planted at the behest of the federal government helped the United States cope with food shortages during World War II. (In World War I, they were liberty gardens.) By 1943, Americans planted more than 20 million victory gardens — at homes and schools and in parks — that were reported to produce 8 million tons of food that one old film called “America’s hidden weapon.”

Now, in community gardens and backyards, and of course on the Internet, a new victory garden movement has captured the attention of people who want to lessen their reliance on mass-produced or imported food, reduce their carbon footprint, foster a sense of community or save on their grocery bills in a fractured economic climate.

Victory gardens sprout up again


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I just came across Garden for the Environment, a San Francisco group that maintains a demonstration garden in SF and offers classes on gardening, composting and other topics:

Garden for the Environment maintains a nationally acclaimed one-acre urban demonstration garden and offers environmental education programs about organic gardening, urban compost systems and sustainable food systems. Since its founding in 1990, the garden has operated as a demonstration site for small-scale urban ecological food production, organic gardening and low water-use landscaping.

I’ve always wanted to learn some gardening basics (it’s been a long time since I grew vegetables behind my Dad’s flat when I was a kid), so this is definitely on my list of things to check out.

Garden for the Environment


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