‘Funeral Procession’ performed for BART down San Francisco Street

BART issued a statement last week outlining what those cuts would look like if the agency “plunged off the fiscal cliff” without state funding for transit operations: Trains would only run once an hour and never after 9 a.m. pm, there would be no service on weekends and some stations, along with entire lines, would be shut down entirely. SFMTA said in a similar statement that without the necessary funding, Muni service would have to be reduced to what it was at the height of the pandemic, which means 40% fewer Muni routes and no service after 10 p.m.

Saturday’s action was one of the strangest protests Market Street had seen in a long time. The crowd was led by people dressed in funeral regalia carrying cardboard replicas of BART, Muni, AC Transit and Caltrain buses and trains. The replicas were bedecked with flowers and rested on plywood coffins, and a brass quartet followed close behind and played dirges. Most of the speeches that were shouted through a megaphone began with “dear brothers, we are gathered here today.”

“The cause of death is negligence. His representatives are starving public transportation, and Governor Gavin Newsom is prepared to pull the plug,” a protester yelled at the crowd as he made his way toward City Hall.

“Can I call you back? I’m at a funeral,” a protester said on his phone, and then: “No, don’t worry, nobody died, it’s for public transport.”

The protest was organized by a coalition called Save California Transit, which is made up of 25 different advocacy organizations from across the Bay Area.

The procession began at the 19th Street BART station in downtown Oakland. Protester Alfred Twu, dressed in vintage funeral dress and a large black hat, said at the start of the event that public transport is vital for areas just beginning to recover from the pandemic, such as the one they were in.

“We have a lot of bars and nightclubs that have opened recently and they are helping to keep this hub going,” Twu told SFGATE. “They rely on public transport to get their customers here, and the night and weekend service is one of the first things that would disappear if there were no state funds.”

From Oakland, the protesters made their way via BART to San Francisco City Hall, where politicians including Mayor London Breed and State Senator Scott Wiener joined the crowd to offer their support.

Breed emphasized California’s need to focus on public transportation to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, noting that the state’s economy will suffer without robust public transportation systems.

“We won’t be as successful if there’s no way for people to get to and from work, if there’s no way for people to get to and from downtown, where most of the revenue comes from to support this city. Traffic is everything, Breed said to applause from the crowd.

Wiener said he was “naive” to think that California lawmakers would hear the alarm bells from him and other lawmakers regarding the potential public transportation fiscal cliff earlier this year. However, he expressed optimism that the problem will be resolved and that transit operations will receive the necessary $1 billion per year for five years to stay afloat.

“That’s absolutely doable in the state budget, and we’re going to continue to fight through the last week that we have to do this,” Wiener said.

The plywood coffins were placed in front of City Hall, where they were covered with more flowers as the quartet played “Amazing Grace.”