Policy Priorities

Safety

Victor believes in increasing unarmed staff to increase safety on BART trains and stations. He will advocate to expand the ambassador program and collaborate with our county partners to provide social workers and resources to people in distress and unhoused community members. We need to expand our ambassadors' ranks and improve cleanliness at stations and trains. We must also fill police officer vacancies and bring SEPTA’s Hub of Hope model to BART. Investing in all of these tools will reduce quality-of-life calls while freeing up officers to respond to violent and serious crimes.

Financial Sustainability

The fiscal cliff has shown us the vulnerability of a transit system heavily dependent on fares. Victor will fight to expand revenues through additional amenities and steward our resources by reducing waste. BART can partner with our community members to provide small business opportunities on stations to increase revenue, provide amenities, and improve foot traffic at our stations. We can’t do anything without resources. We need to diversify revenue and what our rider looks like. We also need to pass a regional funding measure to help us implement new actions to increase our revenue. We must also incorporate a Rail+Property funding model, as Hong Kong MTR Corp does to ensure we aren’t entirely dependent on fares or the taxpayer. Victor will also use his campaign experience and region relationships to fight for a regional funding measure that can support the Bay Area’s transit network get past this challenging financial crisis.

Community Hubs

Victor wants to transform BART Stations into community hubs integrated completely with their neighborhood. With a change in work habits, BART will need to draw customers for recreation and shopping. Our stations can be hubs of programming and amenities for neighbors and customers from across the Bay Area. In Victor’s vision, Community Hubs are centers with housing, retail, office space, active programming, arts, culture, and more. This should create an enjoyable environment because it is unburdened by car-centric planning. The active programming can be implemented first to create reasons for each station to become its own destination point and encourage non-commute trips. BART’s current TOD plan is fine, however, we should seek to maximize the amount of housing that gets built using every tool available to fund developments. We should engage with local communities to identify and incorporate their needs into the mixed uses. We should also build support in those communities, but we should not limit projects based on local opposition because each project is expected to be a 100-year decision. Once our sites are developed, we can’t add units out of thin air.