MTS saw loitering, violence at bus stops. So the agency removed their benches.

Transportation officials uninstalled public benches at bus stops in southeast San Diego last month following reports of crime — but residents and the area’s city councilmember question if the move was fair to transit riders.

The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System removed three benches at westbound and eastbound stops for the Route 5 bus near Market and Morrison streets in the Mount Hope neighborhood. Spokesperson Mark Olson told inewsource the agency received “significant complaints” from nearby residents about people “loitering on the benches and causing safety problems.” One person was recently assaulted at one of the stops, he said. 

Olson said MTS first increased security patrols, “which helped some but didn’t fully resolve the problems.”

Details of the assault are unclear. But police records show reports of an “unprovoked” attack about 9 p.m. Oct. 20 near the bus stops, when a man said he was sprayed with an unknown substance and struck on the back with a “hard object.”

City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera, who represents the neighborhood, said he was “surprised and frustrated” to learn the benches were removed without MTS giving prior notice to his office or the community.

Mount Hope already lacks amenities, he said, and the benches shouldn’t have been “ripped out” without some kind of accommodation for bus riders. Now, older residents and people with disabilities will be either inconvenienced or simply no longer able to wait for the bus, he said.

“That bench is not a luxury,” Elo-Rivera said. “It’s something that they need in order to make sure that they can wait for the bus in a decent way.”

Olson said MTS, which runs bus and trolley services across much of the county, uses other measures to deter loitering before removing benches.

At the Mount Hope stops, Olson said, the benches were “permanently occupied by non-riders.” Removing them was a last resort, he said.

“People loiter there because there is a bench to sit on,” Olson said, adding some of these individuals can be violent. Typically, anyone not using a bench for transit purposes will relocate once the bench is removed, he explained. 

Sitting between interstates 15 and 805, Mount Hope has been labeled by the city as a “community of concern.” That means the 4,000-person neighborhood is more likely than other parts of San Diego to have more polluted air, higher poverty, and worse conditions for pedestrians, including people with disabilities.

That bench is not a luxury. It’s something that they need in order to make sure that they can wait for the bus in a decent way.

City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera

inewsource spoke with bus riders along Market Street, including a person who carried a milk crate to sit down while waiting, a pregnant woman and several older adults.

Andrew Moering Jr., 70, rides the bus with a bad shoulder and broken leg. As he’s recovering from his injuries, he said he feels sorry for people like himself who need to sit and “take a break.” 

“I need to rest my leg and shoulder now,” Moering said. “I need to sit down, and I can’t sit down because the seat is gone.”

MTS did not confirm that unhoused residents are responsible for the activity that prompted the removal of the benches. But bus riders admit they’ve seen problems at the stops, and say that people they suspect are unhoused have occupied the benches.

The stops are now cleaner since the benches were removed, they said.

Homelessness, much of it fueled by a massive housing shortage, is more visible in San Diego than ever before. Nearly twice as many San Diegans are losing their housing as those who manage to find it, and about 3,300 people citywide are sleeping outside every night.

Meanwhile, people who want shelter in San Diego often can’t access it because the city’s shelter system remains more than 90% full.

Moering said he has seen wine bottles and cigarettes, even feces, at the stops. Police have arrested some people there, “but (that) didn’t do any good” since the people littering “came right back,” he said.

Bus rider Smooth Harris, 63,  said unhoused residents have been “taking over” and leaving trash. 

“It’s a lot that’s happening right there,” he said.

Precilia Gonzalez, 80, said she’s seen trash and drinking alcohol, even witnessing men urinating behind her as she sat at her bus stop.  

Tensions between her and rule-breakers arose at times, she said.

She has to stand for the bus now and says it’s not fair, but that the bench removals are a necessary step to bring order and deter the havoc some individuals are causing. 

“Whether you like it or not, there must be action for these things to be understood,” Gonzalez said in Spanish. “If not, they will never understand.”

Will Moore, policy counsel for Circulate San Diego, a nonprofit that promotes transportation programs such as public transit, said he finds it “hard to justify” blaming benches for a public safety problem.

“I’ve never heard of a bench assaulting anyone,” Moore told inewsource. 

Moore said that while removing bus stops would be a “last resort,” ultimately what draws people to use the bus is if it is “quick, frequent and safe.”

“Nobody takes the bus to sit on the bench,” he said, adding that people rely on a bus system to get to a destination.

Still, some research shows bus stops with benches and other amenities increase ridership. TransitCenter, a New York-based foundation that advocates for more public transportation options, has pointed to a study that suggested those amenities can make riders feel safe.

Olson said MTS plans to replace the benches, but does not have a timeline. Instead, the agency will wait in hopes that the individuals drawing complaints “will have moved on and the problems don’t persist,” he said.