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On Monday, Sept. 18, BART is pleased to announce the official start of the One Book One BART Fall ‘23 Book Club. The novel strategy for rider and employee engagement follows on the heels of our first book club, which debuted last Spring with Hua Hsu’s Pulitzer-winning Stay True. 

Join us this Wednesday, Sept. 20, 4pm to 6pm, at Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza for our our free club kickoff event. Win exclusive merch on our prize wheel, make buttons with BART staff, play games with Half Price Books, and learn more about BART's book club and other programs. More info below. 

This fall – from September 18 to early November – we’ll be reading On the Rooftop (Ecco) by Oakland-based author Margaret Wilkerson Sexton. On the Rooftop is a novel about a mother whose dream of musical stardom for her three daughters collides with their own aspirations, set against a backdrop of a gentrifying 1950s Fillmore District in San Francisco.  

Reading while you ride has long been one of the great benefits of taking BART. And at BARTable, we know that the Bay Area is home to an amazing legion of readers, writers, libraries, independent bookstores, and publishers – many of which are accessible by BART. With One Book One BART, we want to celebrate this region’s vibrant literary culture and encourage our reading riders to get on BART and get to know one another.  

For the fall club, we are also further engaging BART employees with exclusive employee-only programming, including roadshows to stations and BART shops/yards and events at BART Headquarters. 

ALL THINGS ONE BOOK ONE BART: bart.gov/bookclub 

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? IDEAS? Email [email protected]    

Event Schedule 

The Fall club will feature a series of exciting events that are free and open to the public (for detailed event information, including what to expect and registration, visit bart.gov/bookclub): 

Mon, Sept. 18: The One Book One BART Fall ‘23 Club officially starts 

Wed, Sept. 20, 4pm-6pm: One Book One BART Kickoff Event at Downtown Berkeley Station Plaza  

• Meet BART staff and Half Price Books at Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza (free and open to the public, whether you’re entering the BART station or not) 
• What to expect:  
  • Exclusive BART and book club merch giveaways when you spin our prize wheel – including the coveted One Book One BART t-shirt and free copies of On the Rooftop  
  • Family-friendly activities with BART and HPB, including button making and games! 
  • Information about the book club and other BART programs

Sat. Oct 21, 1pm-3pm: Train Read-In from Richmond Station to Daly City Station (55 min) 

• Join BART staff for this season’s Train Read-In – a 55-minute ride starting at Richmond Station and ending at Daly City Station. Feel free to hop on along the way! Check back for full schedule. 
• What to expect: 
  • Book club-style small group discussions 
  • Trivia (with exclusive prizes!)  
  • Raffle 
  • More! 

Wed, Nov. 1, noon to 130pm: Author Talk with Margaret Wilkerson Sexton at BART Headquarters in Downtown Oakland (2150 Webster St, Oakland)

• On the Rooftop author Margaret Wilkerson Sexton stops by BART HQ for a moderated author talk and Q&A.  
• Event will be livestreamed – check bart.gov/bookclub for link and registration. 

Where to Find the Book 

BARTable will be running a sweepstakes for the One Book One BART grand prize on our Contests and Deals page. We'll also be running social media contests on our Instagram. Keep up with One Book One BART contest announcements by signing up for the book club mailing list and the BARTable This Week newsletter. 

We encourage riders to purchase the book from our independent bookstore partners below or check out a copy from local libraries, including One Book One BART partner the San Francisco Public Library. On the Rooftop is also available on the free Libby app and hoopla through your local library. For the audiobook, visit your local library’s online catalogue or purchase the book on Audible or audiobooks.com.     

Purchase On the Rooftop from a One Book One BART partner for a 20% discount: We've partnered with the following BARTable bookstores, all located within a mile of a BART station, to offer a 20% discount on the title when you show your Clipper card (Clipper on your phone works, too!): 

• Moe’s Books – Downtown Berkeley Station  

• Banter Bookshop – Fremont Station 

• Folio Books – 24th St/Mission Station  

On the Rooftop is available at many additional local bookstores and on Bookshop.org (Purchases from Bookshop.org support independent bookstores). 

BART’s new book club is just one of our recent literary-themed rider engagement efforts. Last year, we hosted our first writing contest for riders, BART Lines, and shared the winning stories in our four Short Edition story dispensers. Late winter, we’ll be announcing the BART Lines: Youth Poetry Contest for local youth poets, ages 13 to 19.  

Discover more BARTable activities and contests by visiting bart.gov/bartable and signing up for the BARTable This Week newsletter. Thank you for riding – and reading – with BART.   

Read about the first One Book One BART book club, which we launched in Spring 2023 with Hua Hsu’s Stay True, at this link.    

On September 14, 2023 the BART Board of Directors removed the vaccine mandate. 

On October 14, 2021 the BART Board of Directors voted 8-1 to approve a policy statement mandating COVID-19 vaccination of employees, board members, and contractors . 

Read the full policy statement.

Watch the video of the board meeting and item discussion. The item begins at the 2:37:55 mark.

 

Giovanna Lomanto pictured at 12th Street/Oakland Station. 

Do you have a favorite BART memory or story to share? Email a short summary to BART Storyteller Michelle Robertson at [email protected], and she may follow up to schedule an interview. 

When Giovanna Lomanto was young, her family moved from Daly City to Sacramento. After the move, she always looked forward to her family’s trips back to the Bay.  

From Sacramento, Lomanto and her sister would drive with their grandparents to Pittsburg/Bay Point Station, where they’d catch a BART train to 12th Street/Oakland Station. Their destination was Oakland Chinatown, where Lomanto’s grandma and grandpa would visit their old church friends and the traditional Chinese medicine practitioners they'd been seeing for years. They’d take BART because it was fun – a remnant of a previous life – but mostly because parking was a hassle in Chinatown and free at the BART station on weekends.  

“BART kept us connected to the Bay Area,” Lomanto said. “Especially the free weekend parking. That’s rare here!” 

Lomanto has distinct memories of riding BART with her grandparents way back when. Often, they’d give her and her sister coloring materials or tote along their My Little Pony whiteboard. The young girls would draw their fellow passengers and sometimes scribble secret messages to each other about them -- “That person has cool shoes,” or “They’re talking really loud.” Lomanto admitted her grandparents sometimes did the same by speaking to each other in Indonesian.  

Lomanto’s grandfather was a big BART fan. He’d memorized most of the fare chart by heart as well as the lines and where they went. He collected paper BART maps, too.  

“Now, every time I visit my grandma, she finds these maps and gives them to me, alerting me when the schedule has changed,” Lomanto said. “She wants to make sure I know where I’m going.”  

Lomanto’s grandmother turned 93 on Halloween of this year. Her grandfather passed away a few years ago.  

In 2017, Lomanto moved back to the Bay Area to attend UC Berkeley. She remembers the leader of her campus orientation tour guide taking her group to BART and teach them how to buy a Clipper card and read the maps. The first BART ride she took after moving to Berkeley was with her grandparents. They rode to Powell Street Station to visit SFMOMA, and one of the exhibits that left a lasting impression on them was Ragnar Kjartonsson’s “The Visitors.” Lomanto pointed out the piece recently returned to the museum. 

Lomanto, a poet and freelance writer, now lives within walking distance of 19th Street/Oakland Station with her partner, who relies on BART to get to work in Downtown San Francisco. Without BART, she noted, “He wouldn’t be able to get to work, and we wouldn’t be able to pay the bills.” They chose their apartment because of its proximity to a station.  

“BART matters to me because it gives me agency and decision-making power, while reminding me that I'm part of a larger system,” she said. “Sometimes, you get to a station and the train has just departed, and it reminds you that you’re one cog in a way bigger wheel.” Lomanto finds comfort in that. 

About the BART Connects Storytelling Series

The BART Connects storytelling series was launched in 2023 to showcase the real people who ride and rely on BART and illustrate the manifold ways the system affects their lives. You can follow the ongoing series at bart.gov/news. 

The series grew out of BART's Role in the Region Study, which demonstrates BART’s importance to the Bay Area’s mobility, cultural diversity, environmental and economic sustainability. We conducted a call for stories to hear from our riders and understand what BART means to them. The call was publicized on our website, social media, email blasts, and flyering at stations. More than 300 riders responded, and a selection of respondents who opted-in were interviewed for the BART Connects series. 

Erica Mitchell pictured at Coliseum Station.

BART runs like a thread through every stage of Erica Mitchell’s existence. You might say the system map is a tapestry of her life, woven with memories that stretch from childhood to maturity.  

Mitchell grew up in East Oakland near Coliseum Station. The trains that departed every which way from the station were “lifelines,” she said, that carried her to novel places, experiences, and possibilities.  

“At different points in my life, BART has meant different things to me,” said Mitchell, now 27 and living in San Francisco. “I wouldn’t have been as independent as I was as a kid without BART; I wouldn’t have been able to survive here; and I wouldn’t be where I am today." 

In high school, Mitchell said BART was a symbol of freedom and autonomy. Her school was located in Portola Valley, and every morning, Mitchell would ride to Fremont Station then catch a bus to campus. It was a schlep, but during the ride, she found time to think and dream about the life she wanted to have. 

Then, as a student at Laney College, Mitchell would travel from her apartment in San Francisco to Lake Merritt Station and walk to campus. On these trips, she timed her makeup routine with the ride; if she hadn't finished applying mascara when the train reached West Oakland Station, she was behind schedule. When she wasn't doing her makeup, she'd stare out the windows and draw the scenes on the other side of the glass. 

Before she graduated, Mitchell started working for the Oakland Mayor’s Office. To get to City Hall, she sometimes had to empty a water jug filled with coins in the hopes that she could scrape together enough change to buy her fare to 12th Street/Oakland Station.

Mitchell still takes BART to work. But she also uses it for fun: to get to dance class in the Mission District, to hit the town with friends, or to catch up with her mom back in East Oakland. Mitchell is a self-described “night owl,” and on late nights with pals, she frequently finds herself racing to catch the last BART train. “It’s very Cinderella and her carriage,” she said laughing.  

Mitchell has long understood the importance of public transit to the Bay Area, thanks largely to her late father. Before she was born, Mitchell's dad retrieved the cash and coins deposited in BART fare machines. Later, he operated buses for AC Transit. His bus route drove past Mitchell's childhood home, and some days, she and her mom would meet him at the closest stop to give him snacks and hugs. 

Those early exposures to public transportation left an impression on Mitchell. Among friends, she is known as the “#1 BART fan,” but she prefers to call herself a “BART babe.” 

BART has also connected her to love, she revealed, squirming slightly. The story goes something like this: During her BART rides to Laney College, Mitchell began to notice the same person on her train each morning. Later, she started seeing him in some of her classes. 

“I was excited to see him on BART every morning. When else are you going to have uninterrupted time with your crush?” she said. Eventually, Mitchell and her BART crush started dating – “It was a good time while it lasted,” she said with a laugh.  

As Mitchell described the BART meet cute, a lightbulb went off in her head. “There should be a dating car  – singles only,” she joked. “You could call it Trainder, like the train version of Tinder."

One cannot deny that BART facilitates meaningful connections, she continued in a more serious tone. When public transportation is at its best, she said, it lays the groundwork for an interconnected region, and “that’s conducive to love, to community, to relationships.” 

“Transit teaches you how to be in community with others," she said. “And from those interactions, you can learn to be more accepting and curious.” 

About the BART Connects Storytelling Series 

The BART Connects storytelling series was launched in 2023 to showcase the real people who ride and rely on BART and illustrate the manifold ways the system affects their lives. You can follow the ongoing series at bart.gov/news.  

The series grew out of BART's Role in the Region Study, which demonstrates BART’s importance to the Bay Area’s mobility, cultural diversity, environmental and economic sustainability. We conducted a call for stories to hear from our riders and understand what BART means to them. The call was publicized on our website, social media, email blasts, and flyering at stations. More than 300 riders responded, and a selection of respondents who opted-in were interviewed for the BART Connects series.