If you have ever used this bus stop, walked by it, or even driven by, you know that its a troublesome place.
Its a small triangular park and the bus stop serves 6 bus lines. There are a few trees and some plants. A few years ago someone put very nice steel frames around the tree boxes. 1.5 inch tube steel. They instantly became seating since there is and was only one bench serving this large bus stop. I used the "seating" often. There someone installed spikes atop the planter boxes to impede sitting down. I argued against this on the eckington message board but was brushed off. A few months later the entire planter box was covered with large plastic containers that straddled the spikes. there was seating again. i dont use these, but many people do and they leave them there. all the time. What seemed like a simple solution was crippled with a complete lack of foresight. foresight that would have been obvious to those that utilize the stop and actually take the bus.
Now this year, there seems to be a call on the eckington listserve to reinstall benches, but with perhaps bars that stop people from laying down. old school bus/ train terminal benches. i remember these as a kid. i'm not sure why they disappeared for so long.
There is also talk of moving the bus stop altogether.where? i dont know. i can only pressume that the 80/p6 stop would be moved south of florida and the X/90 buses would move.... uh... either in front of KFC or Soul Day Spa. If we want to follow neighborhood revitalization practices we WOULD NOT move the stop to be plaed in front of existing business, but move them away from store fronts. Remember the old pay less on 8th se that had a bus stop? when it became a starbucks with outdoor seating, the barracks row lobby got the stop booted.
anyway, seems idiotic to me, at least as a bus taker. I imagine if i wasn't a bus user i'd want all these "eyesores" removed citywide. damn busriders.
Now, were the city to actually enforce anti public drunkeness/ littering laws, that bus stop would probably be pretty nice. till then, the problem wont go away by inconveniencing bus riders since the troublemakers don't really take the bus. they just sit there. all day. nearly everyday. With their community liquor bottle.
1 comment:
That's one nasty intersection. For a while I volunteered in a homeless women's shelter over that way called "New Endeavors For Women." The women and people in the neighborhood got to know me. I remember how much it threw me one time, sitting at the light at North Capitol and Florida and hearing my name being shouted out. Sad to report, even the birds look beat in that neighborhood.
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