BART sinks $982,000 into cleaning Mission Street plazas

BART is quadrupling its efforts to power wash the plazas at its 16th and 24th Street Mission stations.

The BART Board of Directors approved a $982,000 three-year contract with Puma Washing, Inc. who will be power washing the plazas for four hours nightly instead of usual one-hour nightly power washing.

Both plazas have been the subject ridicule from San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who represents the Mission District and BART Director Bevan Dufty.

Dufty began drawing attention to the uncleanliness of the 16th Street Mission station plaza when he began sweeping up the station last year in the morning to urge his fellow members to hire permanent janitorial staff, which they did, increasing the weekly cleaning shifts from six to 14.

Ronen had joined him in the sweeping and held a hearing at Board of Supervisors Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee to have BART staff address the cleanliness issues.

Dufty said in a statement:

“An average of more than 12,000 people use the station each day. We are responsible for providing a safe and clean environment. This commitment to increasing the power washing helps build on the progress made through our partnership with the city of San Francisco and Supervisor Hillary Ronen.”

BART said it has already made improvements last month at the 16th and Mission streets plaza with crews covering the asphalt pavers with Thermoplast, which will repel liquids rather than absorb them.

Crews also worked on repainting the fences and light poles and trimming the palm trees.

The increased nightly power washing will begin in mid-November.

Jerold Chinn

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.