Bus drivers see it all. Especially 49 route Muni drivers, who navigate down Mission Street and through the heart of San Francisco.
On Sunday, one driver described the 16th Street BART plaza conditions he observes every weekend from behind the wheel.
By the time he begins his 6:30 a.m. shift, people are already gathered at the plaza to buy and sell goods, he says as he drives towards 16th Street. It doesn’t matter what time of day it is, or how many officers are there to deter activity; he continues to see both illegal street vending and drug use until his shift ends in the afternoon.
Sometimes, when police officers push the activity out, he sees people move down the line to his stop at the 24th Street BART Plaza.
On Sunday afternoon, the 49 takes off from the Marina with a handful of people scattered on a near-empty bus. A woman stretches in jogging clothes. A man thumbs through a book. The driver wears sunglasses and a mask.
Within a few stops of Civic Center, the bus has filled. The driver says he is trained to avoid obstacles in the road, and he’s always looking one stop ahead. At 16th Street, he says, the obstacle is not people blocking the bus stop, but cars, including police vehicles.
Drivers, he adds, are also trained to “shoo out” passengers who disturb the peace, which happens “all the time.”
When we pull onto Mission Street and 14th Street, all the seats are full. A woman sits in her boyfriend’s lap. A man stands so a family can sit together. Music plays aloud.
We drive south past a line of vendors between 15th and 16th streets. When SFPD’s mobile command unit and police car with flashing lights come into view, we have reached the plaza.
Third world country..this is where we are now. We can claim to be the 4th largest economy in the world but we are rock bottom regarding development and standards of living. What i see at 16th street is what i see in undeveloped countries; get real.
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Again the status quo with wrong doings like poluting the world War corporate greed and keeping the poor down in every way these are just another way they can ride in luxury off of the poor. They are not right use or free of tarnish by far yet they are free to blame and persecute nit all but all who are poor