We'll talk about the homeless situation on the West Coast a lot because well, it's because it's it's incredible. I mean it's it's awful. It shocks the conscience and the nose, scares people. It's I'm safe, it's disgusting. A lot of us have had incredibly frightening situations like my family had. It's you deal with it. Depending on where you live, you deal with it every day. Every day I come into work or walk out of a building pretty much. Um,
we got this text. My family and I live in Monterey County, and as a twenty nine year old, I've personally watched our town be ravaged by homelessness, illegals, gangs, and overcrowding. That's what I said in the city council meeting. I said, it didn't used to be this way twenty years ago when I was here. Does anybody think this is better? Does anybody like the direction it's going? Well,
then we got to do something different. Sometimes it's on your way to work that you're beset by various characters, and the question of panhandling on public transit is front and center at the Bay Area Rapid Transit District. Deborah Allen is a director Park District. Once she's been on the Armstrong and Getty Show before, and she is trying to rain in that sort of behavior. Debora joins us, Now, how are you good morning? I am doing great. How
are you excellent? We're fine and dandy. We're glad you're trying to get something done. Um. Now, listen, there are varying ways to approach this around the country. I know some places will let somebody strum a guitar and take tips in in a designated area. Um, what's the problem? What are you trying to get done? Well? So? Um? That is true. Five Transits, the five of the ten largest transit systems in the United States, actually have panhandling
ordinances that prohibit the panhandling inside of their system. Uh for example, once you go through the fairgate. But they do provide areas outside of the faregates and plazas and designated areas for artistic oppression of various sorts. At BART, UM,
we don't have an ordinance. And for the last almost three years I've been a BART director and people complain a lot about a lot of things on BART, but panhandling is one of you know those items that the average writer going to work every morning and coming home each night, they just are tired of it. So, which is for folks not familiar. Are people allowed to hit me up for money in the cars as I ride
to work at home? Yes, there is a penal code section that prohibits aggressive panhandling, and so you can imagine how hard it is to draw that line. But essentially, even though that penal code section is in place, our own Bart police department was handed a policy a couple of years ago that further defined when they could actually act up on a complaint of aggressive panhandling, and essentially
it's never. Well that that's pretty interesting. I mean when San Francisco's own mayor, former Mayor Gavin Newsom, you know, he had his big uh, he had his big push for a while for not given change to beggars. But it's allowed on the Bart. And part of the reasoning was the there there's their programs out there for people who are actually down and out for food and beds and all that sort of stuff. These people are begging for booze and drug addicts, so it's allowed for drugs.
So people on Bart are allowed to walk around and gather money for more booze or drugs. That's what's going on, yeah, or or actually, in a lot of cases it's it's a different scenario. It's actually people who have learned to do this every day, and it's it's sort of like they're living, actually making an income on it. And professional beggars yeah, fantastic. Yeah. And we have three main categories of the most common people who ask for money. One
is the dancers, the performers, the singers. Um. They come onto the trains regularly, almost every day and they do a short performance in between stations, and then they go around and pass the hat. The second one is there there is a group of women who carry around uh, infants to two year olds, and they're always sleeping. For some reason. People notice that children are and they walk
to sign ask for money. Um. And then the third one is we have what we call the tissue people who walk around in hand each writer a little package of tissues with a note that tells their sad story and ask them for money. Well, that that's interesting that you've broken it down to those three categories. I've always kind of enjoyed the performers, but um, you know, I suppose you start codifying this stuff and it gets difficult. Well, has anybody isn't there a mandatory wellness check on all
the as kids to figure out what's going on there? Yeah, it's within the transit system. Well there, I would think there'd be enough men. Men. What do you call mandated reporter? If you're a therapist of any kind of if you're a doctor, if you're in any kind of law enforcement. I think teachers, all kinds of people are mandated reporters. I think there'd be wellness checks on these children just walking around with always sleeping babies or toddlers. I wouldn't think.
But anyway, Yeah, there are actually local reporters that have um done investigative work on this, and they've followed these people out to their Mercedes and outies in the parking lot um. And then even one reporter followed the people who were doing this regularly out to their luxury condos in the Bay Area, so they're not so you know, this is sort of the conversation is around, well are these poor people or are these just people who have learned how to make a decent living off of this
type of activity. Listen, Devor Deborah Allen is a barrier, rapid transit director from District one. You know, you probably know this from us. But the the super compassionate crowd lets their own desire to be enlightened blind them to the simplest bits of logic and the idea that you can abandon all order in the name of compassion have
a society is It's just well, it's it's unrealistic. And the simple reality of it is, if I'm sitting and particularly if I'm a woman or a slightly built guy or whatever, I'm sitting there in my personal space, they're looking at me and they're asking for money. With your kids, all right, you have tremendous vulnerability. There is an element of vulnerability there, and I better comply um that people should not be subject to every single day as they
ride to and fro work. It's just not right. I don't mind if you have got some guitar, strum and zonn er, somebody can do their dance or whatever in the station or what have you. I'm okay with that. I've wanted to take my kids on bart I haven't for these very reasons. How likely would I encounter some of these situations you just described If I ride Bart with my kids. If you ride on the weekends, very likely.
If you ride in the afternoons in the core between San Francisco and um, you know they out of parts of Oakland, very likely. They tend to not do it on the really super crowded trains, uh, during the commute hours as much in the in the heaviest part of the community. Yeah, there's no room for my cello. Yeah, they're packed in there, you know, and there's really not
much room to jump to move. All right, Well, Devorah, keep fighting the fight for decent, hardworking, tax paying people who just don't want to be bothered by professional beggars. We're with you. Thanks for the time. Well thanks, I hope that if any of that your listeners are from the Bay Area. There. This is coming to our board meeting at nine am on the day. If you can be there, be there. It makes a difference. Do go there. Yeah, Bart dot gov. All right, Debra Allen, thanks a million.
Good to talk to you and to be a b a RT dot gov. So Gavin at least his theory back in the day. I don't know what the current stances, but when switch away the wind blows. When he was mayor of San Francisco. He said, look, this is how many gazillion dollars we're spending on beds and food and water and medical care. So don't give money to beggars. So her categories of I don't know if they're poor or just professional beggars, doesn't matter. There's money for them
somewhere else. They don't need to get it there. There's no excuse for allowing it, right, they're just beggars. Hey, yeah, yeah, I don't know. I live in Crazy Hill without going crazy myself. How does the society end up like this and put up putting up with this? I'd like my kids to ride the bart and get the cool experience of you know, mass transit and just the views and it's kind of fun, but not not with that crowd loves no freaking way