— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
In news that'll make you never want to ride BART again, the Chronicle reveals the reason why the BART station escalators don't work for shit:
When work crews pulled open a broken BART escalator at San Francisco's Civic Center Station last month, they found so much human excrement in its works they had to call a hazardous-materials team.
While the sheer volume of human waste was surprising, its presence was not. Once the stations close, the bottom of BART station stairwells in downtown San Francisco are often a prime location for homeless people to camp for the night or find a private place to relieve themselves.
All those biological excretions can gum up the wheels and gears of BART's escalators, shutting them down for long periods of extended repairs, increasing station cleaning costs and creating an unpleasant aroma for morning commuters.
As you might have guessed, there isn't much BART or SFPD can do. With limited public restrooms for the homeless to access, especially at night, the BART escalators provide one of the few safe places to poo. And SFPD can only cite someone for letting loose if they witness the act itself—something that they rarely do (and probably don't want to, either).
Save some investment in shit-resistant escalators, this is BART's reality to deal with.
Have a lovely commute home!
[SF Gate]
Comments (7)
“the BART escalators provide one of the few safe places to poo”
Wha? Right on the escalator? How is it any safer than say, the middle of the sidewalk. SFPD, we know it’s tough, but if you see a homeless guy shitting on something that people walk on and touch all day long, you have to act. Actual public health / safety concern.
What I don’t get is how a homeless person can afford BART fares?
Ewwwwwwww.
So ready for the day when my local BART station (16th St.) doesn’t smell like human excrement. I wonder if it will ever happen?
I never did understand why they block off the broken escalators, though. It’s not like you can’t use it anymore because it’s no longer moving. A broken escalator = a staircase.
Save some investment in shit-resistant escalators…
Or, you know, putting the locked door at the top of the escalators rather than at the bottom. As a bonus, this would involve constructing a roof around the escalators, which would cut down on the other major source of wear and tear on them.
Or just bike….
Saddest thing is that many of the homeless advocacy organizations fight for the right for people to be able to live like this. In NYC they took care of this problem long ago – made street people get into shelters/treatment programs. Nearly all of the homeless in SF have mental health and/or chemical dependency issues. Is it more humane to let them live like they do, forced to shit on the BART escalators because there’s no other viable option, or to force them into treatment to give them at least a shot at getting their lives together?