BART service to both San Francisco and Oakland international airports is taking a multimillion-dollar shellacking from ride-hailing companies.

Compared with the high-water mark in 2013, BART estimates it has seen about a 10 percent drop in rides to and from SFO in the past year, resulting in a $4 million loss in fares.

Oakland airport connector trips have dropped 6 percent in the past two years, resulting in a $619,109 loss.

Meanwhile, ride-hailing services snagged more than 8 million pickups and drop-offs at SFO last year. At Oakland, the total from January to October of this year was 1.6 million.

“When these connectors were built, we didn’t see that something like ride shares was going to happen,” said BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost.

One reason for the decline in BART business may be the price.

The average cost of a one-way trip to SFO is more than $9. To Oakland International, the fare runs about $9.50.

It’s a reasonable price for a single traveler, but for a family of four, it can end up costing more than hailing a Lyft.

So, in the hope of becoming more competitive, BART has embarked on a yearlong trial of an app that includes a 25 percent discount for groups of two or more. It’s available in the iTunes App Store and on Google Play.

But there is a bit of a tech gap.

BART doesn’t have scanners at its stations for people using the app, so riders need to show the ticket image on their phone to the station agent.

BART has posted a phone number on station agents’ booths for riders to call if the agent isn’t around. A BART employee monitoring a closed-circuit TV camera will buzz riders through the gates.

That’s BART for ya.

En garde: A spokesman for San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón is under fire for tweeting a video that appears to poke fun at a recent machete attack that injured three people in the Tenderloin.

District attorney spokesman Max Szabo sent the tweet Dec. 7 on his personal account. It shows a hooded figure with a samurai sword slashing his way through a series of thick white stalks.

Szabo posted the tweet in response to a Chronicle story on the Tenderloin slashings.

In a letter to Gascón, Police Officers Association President Tony Montoya said the tweet “mocked” and “made jest” of the attack.

“We believe in freedom of speech, but this was posted in a public format by someone in the office that will be handling the case,” Montoya told us.

“If one of my members had done something like this, they would have been crucified,” Montoya said.

And indeed, officers have lost their jobs in recent years for racist and homophobic texts that the union says were intended as jokes.

There is a bit of a backstory here as well.

Gascón has long been at odds with the police union, in part over his calls for cleaning up a culture that he said spawned inappropriate behavior.

Szabo deleted his tweet, but not before it was seen by police officers.

Alex Bastian, another spokesman for the district attorney, said the office does not talk about personnel matters. Szabo declined to comment.

Double boost: Both of California’s senators, Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, are backing former Police Commission member Suzy Loftus in next year’s San Francisco district attorney race.

“It’s one thing to say you’re going to fix a broken system, and it’s another thing to chart a path that will actually get us there,” Harris said in her statement of support.

Loftus worked as a prosecutor when Harris was the city’s district attorney from 2004 to 2011.

“She is a prosecutor who understands the need to prioritize prevention and tackle the root causes of crime while holding people accountable,” Feinstein said in her statement.

The boost from the senators is the latest in a string of out-of-the-gate endorsements for Loftus, whose opponents include former Police Commission member Joe Alioto Veronese and Leif Dautch, a state deputy attorney general.

Others on Loftus’ side include Mayor London Breed and Supervisors Katy Tang, Ahsha Safaí, Vallie Brown and Catherine Stefani.

In the family: The late San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee used to refer to City Hall as the “city family” — and from the looks of things, Mayor London Breed is keeping it in the family as well.

Breed has announced the appointment of Judson True, a longtime top aide to Assemblyman and former Supervisor David Chiu, to serve in the newly created position of director of housing delivery. His job will be to “ensure that new housing projects are not held up in San Francisco’s complicated approval and permitting system,” Breed said.

The job pays $188,000 a year — nearly double True’s state salary.

True is also the husband of Breed’s deputy chief of staff, Andrea Bruss. We’re told he won’t be reporting to his wife, but rather to the mayor.

True said he is “thrilled to be back in the city full time with my family to work on one of Mayor Breed’s top agenda items.”

The job is a bit of a consolation prize for True. He was also a candidate to be appointed to Breed’s old District Five seat on the Board of Supervisors. Instead, the mayor picked one of her former aides, Vallie Brown.

True and Bruss are the latest in a long line of couples working together under the dome.

Nicole Elliott, the director of the Office of Cannabis, is married to Jason Elliott, who was chief of staff for Mayor Lee.

Current mayoral Chief of Staff Sean Elsbernd is married to Jennifer Johnston in the city administrator’s office.

And City Administrator Naomi Kelly is married to city Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan Kelly.

There are more — but we only have so much space.

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross