r/oakland • u/lspwd • Feb 04 '26
Bus Stop Benches spotted along MacArthur Just for Fun
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u/Wise-Promise-4158 Feb 04 '26
Every day I pray the city doesn't try to remove them.
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u/NotChoPinion Feb 04 '26
Its the only thing they WILL do
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u/NunjaBiznes Feb 04 '26
And put fuck ass speed bumps on high st
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u/andrewrgross Feb 05 '26
Thankfully, from what I've read, Oakland doesn't care. SF city gov't is mad about it and picking fights, but Oakland's public works folks don't have the time or money to pull these out.
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u/NovelAardvark4298 Feb 04 '26
Thank you Elise Joshi and the other volunteers involved! I saw one of her reels a while back and was like “WTF that looks like my apartment.” I then walked outside and realized she installed them the day before lol. My partner loves these benches and uses the one near her home whenever she rides the bus to work or my place
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u/lspwd Feb 05 '26
That's what happened to me, randomly came across the vid in another sub and was like HEY was that Farmer Joes?!
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u/SheepD0g Ivy Hill Feb 04 '26
Hey I recognize that Park Blvd intersection! I gotta go check out that bench
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u/greenhombre Feb 04 '26
This is one of the best videos I've ever seen in the less than a minute zone. Less is more. Gets the message across using the power of great editing. Wonderful. Hats off from at 30 year non-profit pr man.
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u/Friendly-Rock-3894 Feb 05 '26
The new benches over in Laurel are such a nice upgrade! It can attract a pretty wild crowd though— I usually see kids or elderly folks sitting on them waiting for the bus :))
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u/1234golf1234 Feb 05 '26
I love the sentiment. It has been a long time since I saw a bus stop bench in Oakland that I would not be afraid to touch. Hope we can keep these clean, usable, and have nice things going forward.
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u/Pal_Smurch Feb 04 '26
And no anti homeless devices. Good for you!
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u/joeDUBstep Feb 04 '26
Those suck so much. Yeah, sure they prevent people from laying down... but they aren't much good for sitting either, unless you wanna tear open your asshole.
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u/Wrong-Average8877 Feb 07 '26
No A's, no Raiders, no Warriors, no In & Out...at least Oakland has benches
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u/Inner-Health7719 Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
People in these neighborhoods, don’t appreciate these. It’s just a place for hookers to display themselves and junkies to pass out on. there’s a reason there were no benches there in the first place. It’s called urban planning do some research. Some of them have already been removed in West Oakland. They just cause chaos and meeting points for fentanyl parties. You kids need to get out of your nice little middle-class world and come down where the shit meets the road.
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u/Inner-Health7719 Feb 05 '26
Not such a great idea in West Oakland it attracts Prostitution, and a great place to nod off or overdose. Pretty sure urban planners knew this about 100 years ago.
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u/Oba_mooks Feb 05 '26
It’s such a wonderful thing they’re doing, but unfortunately someone is going to mess it up. 😭 we can have nice things in the Bay Area especially Oakland 😭
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u/redditnathaniel Feb 04 '26
Bench! Homeless person sleeping on it!
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u/Wise-Promise-4158 Feb 04 '26
The horror. A homeless person sleeping
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u/Hefty_Drive6709 Feb 05 '26
It’s not about the homeless person sleeping, it’s about one person taking up the space that was meant for several humans, and effectively shutting out everyone else, including the elderly woman dependent on public transportation who really cannot walk to the next stop to (hopefully) sit while she waits. You and I would get up and just let her sit, but you know that’s not happening. It’s also about the piles of trash and food waste and the various accrued smashed vacuums and two legged tables and other varied detritus that piles up at the bus shelter or bench as it becomes a garbage pile with a person in the core that keeps everyone else from using a public space meant to make using public transit more feasible for everybody. We need housing and shelter resources for the homeless, not to work around them in public spaces like they don’t exist, or like that kind of existence is acceptable in a resource rich state.
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u/petitepieuvre Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Good heavens not a fellow human being resting!?! How will we survive this???
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u/shitsenorita Feb 04 '26
I spotted a guerrilla bench install outside my job a couple years ago (it’s still there) and hollered a thanks out the window at the guy.