Features

BART travels to airport in June 

After decades of planning and months of delays, BART announced last week that it will open its extension to the San Francisco Airport on June 22. 

Local commuters, who will pay $5.15 to reach SFO from the Downtown Berkeley BART station, have heard announcements like this before. 

In 1997, when BART broke ground on the extension, which includes four new stations on the Peninsula, officials predicted the trains would roll south by the end of 2001. But construction delays, caused in part by a couple of endangered snakes, pushed the date back to late fall 2002. 

BART officials have postponed the start date twice since then. But with construction finally completed and only tests remaining, they insist the June 22 date is a firm one. 

The extension, which departs from the current southern terminus at Colma, includes stops in South San Francisco, San Bruno, at the airport, and in Millbrae. 

BART commuters will be able to hook up with Caltrans at the Millbrae station and travel further south along the Peninsula.  

Professor wins fellowship 

UC Berkeley geography professor Michael Watts, who is researching oil, politics and violence in Nigeria, was named a Guggenheim fellow earlier this month. 

Watts, who declined to discuss how much money he won, said he will use his fellowship dollars to travel to Nigeria and complete a book on crude oil in the West African nation. 

“At this moment in history, in which oil and war appear daily on the front pages of every newspaper around the world, it is critically important to fully understand the long and bloody history of oil and its fundamental relation to imperialism and the making of the modern world,” he said. 

Watts is focusing on the political and environmental history of the Niger Delta, which has produced $300 billion in oil revenues since 1958 but remains largely ungovernable because of conflict between local ethnic groups, the government and oil companies. 

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, established in 1925, provides fellowships for professionals in all fields but the performing arts. This year the foundation selected 184 winners from a field of 3,200 applicants and awarded a total of $6.7 million. 

County looks to build green 

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors is moving toward adoption of a “green building” ordinance which would require environmentally friendly construction of county buildings. 

The ordinance, sponsored by Supervisor Keith Carson, requires contractors to demonstrate that 50 percent of construction waste would be re-used or recycled. The bill also calls for public buildings to meet environmental standards, set out by the U.S. Green Building Council, on water conservation, energy conservation and indoor air quality. 

Final adoption, expected next Tuesday, could increase construction costs in the short term, but county officials predict long-term savings. 

“The county’s investment in green building will result in significant savings in building operation, maintenance and improved indoor air quality,” said Wendy Sommer, senior program manager for the Alameda County Waste Management Authority. “In the long run, this ordinance will save taxpayer money.” 

—David Scharfenberg