5 replies to this topic

[KevinKorell]

NBC Bay Area, 3/31/24:

 

 

    Former Caltrain manager charged after allegedly building secret apartments inside train stations    

 

 

A former Caltrain manager and a contractor are accused of using thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to build their own personal apartments inside two stations.

 

Story

[CNJRoss]

Boing Boing, 4/10/24

 

Railway workers built secret apartments in train stations

 

Two railway workers in California were fired by Caltrain after the company realized they had quietly converted unused offices into secret apartments to avoid the area's brutal commutes. The two men, former Caltrain Deputy Director Joseph Navarro and contractor Seth Andrew Worden, were also charged with felonies for misusing public funds to add showers, kitchenettes and toilets to historic sections of Burlingame and Millbrae stations.

 

Transit workers found Worden's Millbrae apartment in 2020, but didn't discover Navarro's secret hideaway inside the Burlingame station until an anonymous tip in 2022. Both were fired. … District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told the San Francisco Standard that the apartments were a "convenience" for the two former railway workers. "They figured the Bay Area [commute] really is lousy," he said.

 

 

 

 

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[CNJRoss]

The Mercury-News, San Jose, CA 3/29/24

 

Ex-Caltrain employee, contractor charged with building secret homes at train stations

 

 

Former deputy director and co-defendant allegedly misused public funds to construct clandestine residences inside Peninsula stations

 

REDWOOD CITY — A former high-level employee and a one-time contractor for Caltrain have been charged with felonies after being accused of building themselves secret mini-apartments inside two Peninsula train stations, all on the taxpayers’ dime, according to authorities and court records.

 

Even after one of the living spaces was discovered by employees, it would be some two years before an anonymous tipster sent authorities to the other “residence.”

 

 

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[CNJRoss]

SFGATE, San Francisco, CA 3/29/24

 

Former Caltrain exec charged with allegedly building secret apartment in train station

 

Authorities say the man had help from a former contractor with the agency, who also allegedly stayed in a secret apartment and was charged

 

Authorities say a former Caltrain executive, with the help of a former employee of a Caltrain contractor, used public money to secretly build apartments in two of the agency’s train stations on the Peninsula.

 

San Mateo County Superior Court records show that Joseph Vincent Navarro, a former Caltrain administrator, has been charged with felony theft of public funds. Seth Andrew Worden, who worked at TransitAmerica Services, Inc., the agency’s rail service provider, is accused of assisting Navarro and faces two counts of the same charge.

 

San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe told SFGATE that each man had their own secret apartment in different stations owned by Caltrain along its Peninsula route.  . . .

 

 

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[CNJRoss]

Associated Press, 3/28/24

Ex-Caltrain employee and contractor charged with building secret homes with public funds

 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A former employee of Caltrain, a mass transit system that connects Silicon Valley with San Francisco, and a former contractor for the transit agency allegedly used public funds to build two small apartments for themselves inside two train stations, authorities said Thursday.

 

SNIP

 

Prosecutors said that between 2019 and 2020 Navarro allegedly conspired with Worden and approved $42,000 in building expenses to turn an office into a small apartment inside Caltrain’s Burlingame train station.

 

The criminal complaint alleges that Worden used $8,000 in taxpayer funds to build himself similar living quarters inside the Millbrae train station, the newspaper reported.

 

More here.  

[CNJRoss]

East Bay Times, Walnut Creek, CA 3/30/24

 

Crime or peak urbanism? YIMBYs can't help but applaud the Caltrain officials who built secret apartments inside stations

 

In the Bay Area, where it can easily cost north of $900,000 to build a single new-unit of affordable housing, how did former Caltrain officials end up building two secret apartments inside two Peninsula stations for the measly sum of $50,000?

 

Not legally, San Mateo prosecutors allege.

 

 

Continue here with audio article.  

 

Note - Writer compares this to TOD.