They built a subway station in one of the worst housing markets in America and put surface parking on top of it. Bare minimum housing around the station should look like this:
There is some good news here: The station is finally supposed to receive 750 housing units in the next few years, some of them even being "affordable", whatever that's defined as in the Bay Area.
That development sounds really nice for a US project:
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about 750 homes, roughly half affordable to residents with lower incomes
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new public open space over the underground BART tracks
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a childcare center and small retail, about 6,500 sq. ft in total
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a diagonal connection for the Ohlone Greenway though the site, and
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a new bike station to serve BART riders.
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Only reason it happened is because the state was about to pass a law that gave BART essentially total control over the land use of the parking stations. Until it became clear that law was coming down the neighborhood (home to infamous NIMBY Robert Reich) was basically unwilling to allow any housing. This development represents a compromise that came about before BART no longer needed to negotiate.
And of course, the rent collected will not be going to BART, but rather a private company.
The adjacent Ohlone park was the result of a failed attempt to make the line elevated.
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