In November 2018, I was honored to be elected to represent the west side of San Francisco on the BART Board of Directors.
As a first-time candidate, I put my 10+ years of community organizing to the test by talking to people, one voter at a time from community meetings to farmers markets to Muni stops and BART stations. I secured nearly 40,000 votes in a landslide victory and I was humbled to become the first woman to ever serve District 8 on the BART Board.
In my year of service, I haven’t been shy about making headlines and keeping to my campaign promise of making sure our regional public transit system puts people first. I had an 100% attendance rate and successfully won every initiative I supported, whether it was expanding bike access on BART’s new fleet of train cars or approving BART’s first-ever low-income fare program to defeating an attempt to ban busking and panhandling. I’ve demanded answers to respond to rider concerns around weekend service and fare gate changes. I continue to work towards bringing greater staff presence on trains and at stations to ensure our riders feel safe and welcome when taking BART.
What I’m most proud of is making BART and its governance more accessible to the public. I host live agenda reviews to explain what comes before the BART Board and use social media to engage a broader public. I’ve had no shortage of media hits for the work I’ve been doing, and you can read those highlights here.
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From bart.gov:
Janice was born in Hong Kong and moved to the U.S. at a young age. She grew up in Buffalo, New York and went to college at New York University. After graduating, she returned back to Buffalo and worked for People United for Sustainable Housing, a community-based organization that intertwines grassroots, direct action organizing with affordable housing development. Through PUSH, Janice founded a community center on the west side of Buffalo in 2009, which still thrives today, predominantly serving low-income teens of color and refugees.
In 2013, Janice moved to San Francisco where she began working as a community organizer with the SF Bicycle Coalition, a grassroots nonprofit with the mission of promoting the bicycle for everyday transportation. Currently, she serves as the advocacy director, leading the organizing and policy work for one of the city’s largest membership-based advocacy organizations. She has won countless of campaigns for better bike infrastructure, more funding for transit and policies that encourage sustainable transportation.
Janice lives in the Outer Sunset and is a regular bicycle commuter and transit rider.