Welcome to Monitor Notes, a weekly roundup of news items, event announcements, and updates on past Bay Area Monitor articles.
Roll into One
A Monitor article earlier this year explored the possibility of using a single account to pay for bus, train, and other transportation costs. The executive board of Clipper, the region’s transit fare payment system, took a step toward that prospect in September. It approved a $600,000 business case study to explore ways to integrate the fares of more than two dozen Bay Area transit agencies. The study is expected to take 12 to 14 months. Continue to past meeting materials (specifically, item 3 on the September 16 agenda) to read about the study, and to see messages from advocates emphasizing the importance of public involvement in developing an equitable, convenient system. We’ll follow the study to see when feedback opportunities unfold.
Trail Mix
The San Francisco Bay Trail is celebrating its 30th anniversary and the party calls for getting out on the trail to choose your own adventures. A new feature in Estuary News by the Monitor’s Aleta George follows a group of female friends walking the entire trail one segment at a time, in order, once a month. They began two years ago in Emeryville, and to date have trekked more than half the trail, both on finished and (as best they could) unfinished segments. With over 350 miles in place, the trails connects people to parks, open spaces, schools, transit, and to each other. The goal is to build a 500-mile, continuous shoreline bicycle and pedestrian path. Where will you get on the trail? Click here for maps and information.
Comments in the Air
Consider taking time between now and October 23 to send the Bay Area Air Quality Management District comments about two proposed amendments to its Wildfire Air Quality Response Program, which Leslie Stewart covered in the October/November edition of the Monitor published yesterday. Amendments to Regulation 5 would exempt public agencies from paying open burning fees when doing prescribed burns for wildfire prevention. Amendments to Rule 6-3 would expand Spare the Air notifications year-round to alert residents when particulate matter exceeds unhealthy levels. The Air District will consider adopting the changes at a public hearing on Wednesday, November 6.
Project Gets the Green Light
A “Green Stormwater Spine” project is underway to stop polluted water from draining into San Francisco Bay. The effort is led by the San Francisco Estuary Partnership and consists of green street projects in four cities — Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville, and El Cerrito — along the San Pablo Avenue corridor. Starting in Berkeley, you’ll soon see bioswales and rain gardens, as well as special soil mixes, in place to help clean polluted runoff. The Monitor’s Robin Meadows wrote about the benefits of green infrastructure and related challenges of getting greenbacks to carry out projects in a 2017 piece. The need for these kinds of projects was highlighted in studies making headlines in the past week about plastic pollution in the bay and the efficacy of nature-based filtration.
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