Two Railroad Workers Charged For Being The Smartest And Thriftiest Men In History Because They Built Secret, Underground Apartments
Two Bay Area railway workers gave new meaning to “transit oriented development” when they allegedly built two illegal apartments inside train stations.
San Mateo prosecutors allege that two former Caltrain officials built two secret office-to-apartment conversions in two Peninsula stations south of San Francisco, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
Former Caltrain Deputy Director Joseph Navarro and contractor Seth Andrew Worden face felony charges for misusing public funds to build the mini apartments in the historic Burlingame and Millbrae stations. Neither facility is being used by the public.
Worden, a 61-year-old resident of Oceanside in San Diego County, was arraigned March 27 and released on his own recognizance, court records show. He pleaded not guilty, according to media reports.
Navarro, 66, formerly of the Bay Area and now of Newtown, Pennsylvania, is scheduled to be arraigned April 29.
Sometimes people just gotta let people live underneath the train tracks. Look, rent is fucking expensive all across the country. Greedy landowners and large banks are buying up single-family homes to jack the prices up. Some one-bedroom spots in large cities start in the 2500 range and that's for cheap places that poors live in.
If you're working a job that pays 20-25 bucks an hour in these cities, it's a struggle to even live decently. Being able to reduce your rent budget is the goal for… oh I dunno… everyone. Mortgage rates are high and down payments are impossible to come by because for years… and years… and decades… the rate of average pay was less than the rate of inflation. In fact, the last two years are the only times in recent memory when wages were increasing at a higher rate than inflation.
You can't just sit around on your hands and wait for prices to come down because they simply wont. Ever. If you cant afford to live somewhere, you do what you gotta do and sometimes that's living below a train track.
Listen, if you're in a spot where you can handle living under a train in a little cove where no one ever goes and you're happy in there, stay. Who gives a fuck? Why on earth would that matter to a single soul… UNLESS you take public money to do it. If you're paying the bill to renovate a little bit and getting that thing to your standards, more power to you. In my opinion, this is a pure example of finders keepers, and losers weepers. The losers in this situation are those of us paying regular mortgages or regular rent.
Their building process was incredible.
For a mere $42,000, Navarro allegedly installed a kitchenette, shower, plumbing and security cameras, prosecutors said.
The duo are accused of trying to fly below the radar by making sure none of the invoices exceeded $3,000, which would have triggered further authorization from Caltrain and TransAmerica Services, the firm that employed Worden.
That's an incredibly cheap renovation and is substainly less than governmental housing assistance would pay over a few years. You could argue that these guys did the public a service by saving money. We're too prudish to do that though and it's all rooted from jealousy.
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All charges should be dropped immediately.