The stench of urine wafted through the third-busiest stop in the BART system Thursday morning.
The stench of urine wafted through Powell Station Thursday morning — the norm inside the third-busiest stop in the BART system.
What was unusual were directors of BART’s governing board holding its regularly scheduled meeting inside Powell Station instead of in Oakland inside their board room.
The BART Board of Directors and the public were given a guided tour of the station to have a first-hand look at the issues or inside the station.
Those issues have been publicly well-known such as people urinating and defecating inside the station, the homeless sleeping throughout the station, drug users, and the condition of the station itself.
Towards the end of the tour, Tim Chan, planning manager for BART and who guided the two-hour tour, took directors to the shared Muni and BART elevator that takes riders to the platforms.
As the doors opened, a puddle of urine welcomed directors. Paula Fraser, BART assistant chief transportation officer, said:
“What’s interesting is often times a we even have a tissue with it.”
Fraser added:
“It is automatically used as a restroom once it goes up to the street.”
BART officials said they want people who need to use the restroom to use the portable and JCDecaux restrooms, which are part of the San Francisco Public Works Pit Stop program.
Chan said BART is working with Public Works in the near-term to put pit stops near the Montgomery and Embarcadero stations.
BART’s underground stations in The City have been closed due to security reasons, but Chan said the transit agency is working on a pilot program to possibly reopen them at Powell and the 19th Street stations:
“We’re not quite there yet.”
The transit agency has also partnered with The City’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing in a new initiative that will have a dedicated outreach team focused on the four-shared Muni and BART stations.
Scott Walton from the department said:
“The idea is not that we will immediately remove people. It’s too approach them where they are at. It’s to find out what their needs are to see what pathways are available.”
San Francisco tourism and Union Square business representatives also addressed some of the current conditions inside the station.
Jessica Lum with the Hotel Council of San Francisco said they are not only hearing complaints from tourists, but also from their own employees about cleanliness, safety, and lack of police presence inside the station.
Claude Imbault, director of strategic initiatives for the Union Sqaure Business District, read a testimonial from a Macy’s director about the department store’s employees who now get off at Montgomery Station instead of Powell Station:
“The Powell Street station is nicknamed the toilet due to the over smell of urine while walking in.”
The BART Powell Station will undergo some major changes over the next few years.
First a new ceiling. The station has been without a ceiling for a number of a years now.
Chan said the transit agency plans to begin installing a new suspended metal grid ceiling within a month and complete the installation by Thanksgiving.
Other improvements BART is working on are canopy entrances from the street-level of the BART Powell Station and moving ticket vending machines in the middle of mezzanine level of the station to the side of the station walls.
Chan said this would help free up space inside the station.
Another problem inside the station is BART riders avoiding paying the fare by using the Muni and BART shared escalator, which takes riders to the paid platforms of both transit systems, said Chan.
Part of modernization project includes extending the barriers around the paid area to include the elevator.
Chan said the modernization project inside the BART Powell Station will cost approximately $80 million.
Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.
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Someone needs to do a MUCH better job with copy-editing.
1. “Chan said BART is working Public Works….” working WITH
2. “in a new initiative hat will have dedicated outreach team focused the four-shared Muni and BART stations.”
that* will have a* dedicated outreach team focused on* four* shared* …
3. “19th Street stations” I didn’t know a BART station at 19th magically popped up. Wow! I must’ve been living under a rock. You mean 16th street, yes?
4. “BART’s underground stations in The City have been closed due to security reasons” you mean the BATHROOMS in the station? Because SF seems unusually quiet about all these stations closed!
And these are only the ones I have time to post about. This is pathetic.
While ignoring all the typos in this story, the easiest solution would be to alarm the “emergency” exits. Nobody takes the trouble to use the elevators to avoid paying, they just walk through the gate. I see it done at every station nearly every time I ride BART. But it’s much more fun to waste 80 million dollars at Powell. The whole lot of BART directors need to be replaced.
They’re all out to score political points with measures like “sanctuary transit system” that don’t change anything (BART police already do not work with federal immigration agents on immigration status issues). It’s just a platform (no pun intended) for them to advance their own political aspirations. Money gets thrown around and wasted. No problem, because a new set of directors will come in promising to save the day and then leave with BART still in a mess!