Matier & Brown: Computer Glitches Following Contract Dispute A Coincidence?
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — There were nasty words from the unions after Thursday's board vote and suffice it to say there were big problems with BART's system-wide failure Friday morning.
"To have a meltdown of the whole system right on top of an undecided contract dispute obviously makes you very suspicious at how that meltdown actually occurred and what may have caused it," Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown said.
Brown ruminated over this latest episode all but calling it a conspiracy theory.
"If you want to have [BART Board President] Tom Radulovich go absolutely crazy, you just let the whole system go down without a strike, and believe me, that's what you got," he said.
I think what Brown means is, 'how does something like this happen?' What are the odds? In the Bay Area with Bay Bridge and BART, anything that can happen usually will happen and usually in the wrong way.
Brown reiterated that he couldn't understand how in such a technologically advanced region "the technical headquarters of the whole world (almost)" was how he put it; how something like this could happen and for so long.
Brown then reminisced about his mayoral glory days in the '90s, when protocol was to ensure a ferry system was in place to replace BART at any given moment.
Phil Matier: BART's Contracts Disputes And Computer Glitches
Then in his most solid stance against how the BART board voted on the contract, he said they should have voted to approve the contract as is; the way the unions and BART agreed to, keep the trains running, and leave it up to a lawsuit and for the courts to decide on how any lost money would be made up.
Finally, Brown called the BART board "off base" and "spineless" in their actions regarding the vote.
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