The BART Board of Directors on Thursday elected Lateefah Simon as the transit agency’s new board president for 2020.
Simon, who replaces outgoing president Bevan Dufty, was first elected to the board in 2016.
Her biography on the BART website says she’s a “nationally recognized advocate for civil rights and racial justice” and that she formerly served as executive director of the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights and program director at the Rosenberg Foundation, a San Francisco-based civil rights organization.
BART must “regain the trust of weekend and night riders” by delivering safe, cost-effective and reliable service, Simon said in a statement.
The BART Board of Directors elects a new president every year.
I can’t help but wonder what Bart would be like if they had a President of the Board with a strong background in successful public transportation and business management?
Beautiful just what we need.
Not.
wondered what happened to this article… welcome back.
I wondered the same thing. I commented on the article and questioned her, apparent, lack of experience with public transportation ….. then the whole article disappeared. Now that it’s back – I’m still wondering why Bart would hire a Civil Rights Advocate rather than a person with a background in logistics, transportation, and management. Sounds like a stupid waste of money. Hire more security. Hire people who know how to run a business effectively and move people safely and efficiently. Bart wants to offer “safe, cost-effective and reliable service”? Then hire someone which the experience and know-how to do the job.
She wasn’t hired… She was elected by the people (some of them anyway); she is only a figure head or talking head. The position is rotational amongst the Board. God save the Queen.
“Advocate for civil rights and racial justice”. 48% of the fare jumpers/people without proof of payment are African American. Guess that number is going to drop for the next year
And their whining it was done by profiling. BART then said look at the video (which of course the advocates won’t) because it proves that BART checked whole trains and whole areas without using race as a determining factor. Everything time they show a TV news at a station broadcasting it’s 90% African Americans jumping the gates. Take the report for what it is, the truth.
They’re not “their”
Agree with Cellophane, could she really do all that in one year on the job? Wait until she runs up against the rest of the board and unions.
So instead of coming to taxpayers (even those who do not ride BART) or raising fares, I’m sure Mz Simon will get right on the Top problems of BART ~ One of them being FARE JUMPERS.
New BART Board President $750.000 for 1 year
@ Cellophane: well said!! You are spot-on.
At the Board meeting in Pittsburg last year, when presented with data on fare evasion said that it is statistically impossible for African Americans to make up 11-12% of the ridership and be 47% of the fare evaders. She also was recently quoted as saying she doesn’t believe that African Americans fare evade at a higher rate than other groups.
I think the first step she should make is to take a statistics class, as she clearly has no understanding of what statistically impossible means.
Imagine if she actually accepted that the data is correct, and she worked with the black community to understand why and figure out ways to turn around that number. She wants to lift people up instead of drag down, but you can’t do that if you make excuses and refuse to believe what’s actually happening.
You can look at her twitter and see all of the retweeting of hatred and racism from “her” community.
Fare evasion is about to get Worse.
$750,000 for one year then a then a golden parachute worth???? Fare jumpers rejoice
She doesn’t get $750,000 per year. I believe the annual pay for being on BART board of directors is less than $20,000 per year. It’s not a full-time gig.
Really? Remove one nut job for another? She has absolutely no creditable qualifications to be in that position. The entire board needs to be kicked out on their arses. They have NO concern for the safety and well being of the hardworking people that depend on this transportation. This should do wonders for the turnstile jumpers and the shady characters that continue to threaten public. I’ve lived here over 30 years and I refuse to ride because of the mismanagement of this system. Pathetic.
Let’s see. ‘They’ tick several boxes.. Female (assuming the gender).. Non white(assuming the race identity).. activist.. uh oh.. I foresee issues. LGBTQ+ will be underrepresented here, unless I’m missing something not otherwise listed in her wiki, she was not qualified after all.
The BART board doesn’t care about riders and the taxpayers, who are the ones who have to pay for disastrous public transportation system. The board can and does talk like they are striving to make the system better. In reality, they are inept failures. As the old saying goes: The proof is in the pudding.
She says she sees no evidence of blacks evading fares more then other folks.
I believe her.
Wiki says she is legally blind.
A waste of money and a waste of time. This rudderless transportation agency will only get worse and it will only be a matter time before BART hits rock bottom.
Bart is supposed to be public transportation – that’s all. Why can’t “everyone” just pay their fare – abide by the regulations- get off at their destination – and move on with their lives. Why does a public transportation system need a Civil Rights Advocate??? Bart needs more police and security. They need to stop the fare evaders and homeless from getting on the trains. We don’t need more snowflakes looking for lawsuits.
Perhaps they think she will help keep people like John Burris at bay. If she can do that, she is probably worth $750K. More likely, she will work damage control on violent events. Either way, that has nothing to do with making BART safer.
As for fare evaders, who cares what race they are. Some may be able to jump higher than others, but otherwise they are all the same. The Fare Evader Olympics………it’s gotta stop…….
Maybe John Burris would stay at bay if there weren’t so many people getting killed by fare evaders? BART Management and the way this transit system is being ran and taxpayers and passengers being
raped daily for the miserable passenger experience seriously sucks but BART is clueless. We’ve pay an absurd amount of money to BART employees who who can’t provide service, keeps stations cleaned up and repaired, safe, etc. BART Police is even worst. Takes them 30 minutes to respond to anything and then they don’t jack because that’s their way.
The BART Board is elected by district with five districts being more urban than the other four. There are at least three of nine that identify as LGBTQ+, so pretty well represented. Seven white, one Asian, one African American. Five women, four men.
The ones voted in by the urban districts tend to be social justice activists who are more interested in protecting people who don’t actually pay to ride than in making BART a better place for the paying riders. The votes from the more suburban directors (who listen to their riders) aren’t enough to override the decisions made by the social justice warriors.
CIVIL RIGHTS TO RUN A RAILROAD? WHAT NEXT?
I know her Dad and some of her family. Her mother was one of the original Black Panthers and initiated her kids with those values and “teachings”. That didn’t work out well for some of her siblings. Her father divorced her mother over her Black Panther associations and is a lawyer in SF, his clientele are some of SF’s political elitist “finest”. Don’t expect much to change with BART and it’s problems, thankfully I’ve never had to ride or use BART.
Civil rights activist….translation in today’s terms….advocate for those who are misunderstood, misrepresenting and wrongfully accused…i.e.criminals have rights too!!!! BE careful of what BART becomes now….a modern day utopia for the homeless, felons and drug addicts.
It’s a regular cell block 9 prison party hour at night; they know they have won the takeover of the trains and station platforms battle and now they can do whatever they want. I hope BART does hit bottom because we definitely on a train to nowhere; nothing is getting done. The system is in a worse state of repair than before Measure RR. The new train cares sway from side-to-side just like the old making you feel like derail could happen at any moment. Got to love the BART all over the trains. BART cuts back late night service but promises to run 10-car trains. Guess what, that’s a lie too. They rather run packed 9 car trains on a Friday night with drunk passengers barfing on workers; really nice BART. BART discriminates against workers and not against homeless, drug addicts, transients, murderers and any other criminal. It is free rein for robbers on BART because they know there is no security and what a bad joke BART Police is.
I posted on wrong thread, trying again.
The fare gate jumpers is actually Worse than what is being let out to the public.
You want to settle this? Put up webcams at the fare gates and livestream the footage. The public will do a way better job than BART. Prove me wrong.
They have webcams; BART just doesn’t care.
Want to boost BART safety and revenue? Create a “BART Select” train that runs from Walnut Creek to SF Montgomery. It makes zero stops between Orinda and Montgomery. Charge double the typical fare and that train will still be jam packed every time.
It’s the California Democrat/Liberal way: Don’t place a person into a position that can do the job, place a person in who satisfies a political agenda. It’s just another example of why California is failing, falling apart and dying.
Just so everyone is clear Ms. Simon is literally one of the worst Directors we have the only thing she looks out for IS the fare evaders. She could care less about the Employees or the Passengers safety. She doesn’t want tighter rules/laws she wants to help the fare evaders so it’s easier to come in and commit crimes. Let me tell you from working there, 90% of the people they catch doing crimes on BART are fare evaders. Ever since Simon and the new Janice Li things have gotten worse. Neither or them care about the paying passengers.
Why doesn’t BART get that the fare evaders are the ones committing the crimes? I’ve been saying the same thing too. They actually allow it putting everyone at risk. The fare inspectors all 12 of them are in groups of three just like the police that stand there and look stupid while passengers are boarding and disembarking the trains. I have never seen them ask one person for proof of payment; just standing around looking useless like BPD. If there is criminal activity going on at one end of the platform or train, you can bet they BPD will be at the other end of the train or platform. Disband BART; I do hope it hits rock bottom because things can’t be allowed to continue and the new GM is just another useless bobble head.