The current conditions of the 16th Street Mission BART Station is pissing off San Francisco supervisor Hillary Ronen.
The current conditions of the 16th Street Mission BART Station is pissing off one San Francisco supervisor.
From human feces to the smell of urine, Supervisor Hillary Ronen has had enough of the uncleanliness inside and the outside plazas of the station.
Ronen, who represents the Mission District, requested to have a hearing with BART management, The City’s department of public health and public works, to see what the agencies are doing about the current condition of the station.
Ronen said Tuesday at the Board of Supervisors meeting:
“It is one of the most disgusting sites in The City and it’s absolutely unacceptable.”
Ronen added:
“I don’t even understand how in a world-class city, one of the most important transportation hubs, can be filled with human waste every day, used needles, heaps of wet clothing, reeking of urine, trashed chicken bones, cigarette butts.”
Former San Francisco supervisor and current member of the BART Board Directors Bevan Dufty has also raised issue with the cleanliness of the station. Dufty began cleaning the plazas outside of the station last year to draw attention that the station did not have a full-time custodian.
Ronen joined Dufty in the cleanup from sweeping to cleaning up feces, said Ronen.
There was some good news as a full-time weekday custodian came onboard, but Ronen also wanted a custodian to work on weekends as well.
8:15 am 16th Street @SFBART Plaza looking good w kudos to Byron Hudson our outstanding weekday Custodian. @HillaryRonen & I swept yesterday & met w @SF_DPH service providers to collaborate & help those we see in crisis daily. I pledge a weekend Custodian in next July’s budget pic.twitter.com/ix1Fnj3oDi
— Bevan Dufty (@BevanDufty) December 21, 2017
Ronen said the station had been power washed for four hours one night, but the smell became worse.
Ronen said Dufty had explained that the station had not been adequately cleaned for so long, in which urine was “seeped into the ground,” and the smell was exposed from the power washing:
“That’s what we’re asking our constituents, our transit riders, to deal with on a daily basis.”
In addition, Ronen is calling on city agencies to explain how they are helping those with mental health issues near the 16th Street Mission Station.
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.
San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin called for a special meeting of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to discuss...
The Santa Clara Unified School District is offering every high school in the district ongoing counseling services after the...
An unoccupied vehicle was struck by a commuter train in Burlingame Wednesday morning
Tired of urine and feces on sidewalks, in BART stations, etc? Try offering public restrooms.
Absolutely! The need to expel waste is a given, a basic biological function. We seem to be resistant to the idea of free public restrooms all over the city while at the same time denouncing the homeless when they have no other options. Restrooms and safe infection sites would certainly go a long way to alleviate the problems at this BART station. Chicken bones are not as hard to sweep up as human waste; more trashcans might be a benefit.
There is a permanent JCDecaux free public toilet at 16/Mission, as well as the “Pit Stop” trailers. The latter also include safe needle disposal, although that requires junkies to care.
I agree emphatically that we need more public toilets but I’m not sure it’s relevant in this particular case.
There has been a public toilet at this location for over a decade…the dirtbags who frequent this area have chosen not to use it as it was meant, but instead as a spot to shoot up, have sex, etc.
There’s an enzymatic cleaner that a friend used to pull cat-piss out of his raw yuppie-loft concrete, should work here.
Wasn’t there a talk of putting up housing on corner of 16th and Mission that would also happen to reconfigure the plaza and clean it up. Wonder where the supes stand on that project?