At the bustling intersection of Fourth and Mission streets, where 14 and 14R buses make their stops every few minutes, Devonta Butler parked his white truck and began putting the bus stop’s curvy red roof tiles back in place.
On a recent Wednesday, he installed wires to prepare the stop for the city’s new “next generation” LCD display screens, which will show real-time bus arrival times in a bright, multi-colored display, rather than the pixelated black-and-orange ones in use today. As subcontractors of the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency, Butler and his boss, a two-person team, are responsible for replacing all of the old displays across San Francisco.
That means opening up the electrical boxes, moving the cameras to make space for the screen, rewiring the cables and, of course, lots of screwing and unscrewing.
“I’m an electrician and crane operator in training,” Butler said. “I do digital work, I do cement work, I do concrete work, I do installing. It’s pretty much six trades mixed together to make what I do.”
On a typical work day, Butler, 31, might install LCD screens at the 38R bus stops in the Richmond at noon. That same morning, he might also put up a Nike billboard downtown and, for good measure, send a video to his sister in which he pretends to fall off a ladder.
Windy days are the worst, and there are plenty of those in a city like San Francisco. The billboard vinyl is almost impossible to remove, or flaps around incessantly, Butler said.
“Just imagine you and one other person trying to control it while the wind is blowing around,” he said. “Oh my God, your arms get so tired, they are like limp noodles.”
Butler started the job only about half a year ago, and has already been promoted to supervisor, he said with pride. Before that, he worked as a carpenter, a security guard and a traffic signal worker. A couple years ago, when there were a lot of house fires in the Bay Area, he worked to signal the trucks that came in to clean up the wreckage.
“It was kind of depressing,” he recalled. “You see people who lost their house and they’re trying to rummage through, it’s just nothing there. It’s a pile of rubble, but they are trying to salvage anything they can.”
For this new job, Butler took a small pay cut, he said, but the freedom and hands-on experience are well worth it.
He loves using his brain and doing things with his hands, something that he was passionate about when he was a little boy. His very first project was fixing the gate at his grandmother’s house, at the age of 6, with his brother, who was 10.
“All we had was hammers, nails and some paint,” he said, chuckling. “That gate stayed up for, like, six years.”
Being in his truck for 10 hours a day doesn’t seem to bother Butler at all. Instead, he sees it as a perk to drive to bus stops around the city, recognizing places he visited as a kid.
Growing up, Butler spent half his time in the East Bay and the other half in Hunters Point in San Francisco, catching buses with his dad to places across the city. “My dad was like, ‘I’m showing you around on the trolleys.’ And now I’m working on the trolleys.”
“All the bus drivers know me and just know I’m working at the bus stops,” Butler added. “You know, I’m a Black young man, and they are like, ‘Keep it on!’”
But when the kids see him, that’s the moment Butler likes most. His tools are scattered, wires are hanging loose, “it looks kind of freaky,” Butler said. But the kids always have so many questions: What are you doing? So many gadgets and buttons! That’s what’s in there?
“Go ahead, little man, take a peek,” Butler thought to himself. The children eventually leave, some murmuring, “I want to do that, too.” And Devonta Butler, he gets back to the bus stop.
“Cameras”?!