Union Station smells like urine, has a homeless problem, and is half deserted.

[Anonymous]

My husband took the MARC in and out of Union Station daily for work pre-pandemic and he often spoke of feeling unsafe. He's a big 6'2" guy. He's not looking forward to that aspect of returning to the office full-time next month.

[Anonymous]

As a little female college student back in the day, I used to feel fine popping off the train and hopping on to metro. Now i feel resentful down there--both safety wise and the bathrooms are really unfair to travelers. It is impossible to navigate the mess with suitcases. So unsanitary. is there a petition? What do we DC residents do? Let's take action.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Over the weekend, I was in a DC supermarket and the police were handcuffing a homeless man for destroying the men's restroom. I heard staff calling for"broken glass" clean up in the men's restroom. It sounded pretty bad. And the man smelled atrocious.

They are destroying just about every restroom they have access to. Where are the rest of us to go?

No one will go against the status quo and admit there's a critical need to involuntary commit these people.

And you know why suffers the consequences? Patrons who have increased costs and minimum wage workers who have to clean it up.

[Anonymous]

In SF they seem to be changing the rhetoric but not actions or outcomes

https://www.yahoo.com/news/can-london-breed-bring-back-san-francisco-100005232.html?.tsrc=fp_deeplink

[Anonymous]

The NYC mayor has this billiant solution to homeless on the subway. At the end of the line the police will force them off the train. He doesn't underdtand that isnt a deterrent. They will just exit/cross over the platform and get on the train going in the opposite direction.

[Anonymous]

To be fair most of DC smells like urine and has a homeless problem outside of Ward3. There is just less places for them to go inside in spots like Cap Hill

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not so new, actually. The problem is that the rest of DC has turned into Union Station. But Union Station has pretty much always been that way.

It’s been worse the last few years and has fallen off a cliff since COVID. Believe it or not but there was a time when Union Station had high end retail and fine dining.

I remember that time, but the bathrooms were urine-soaked even then.

When was that time? I worked at a restaurant in Union Station during undergrad and it was never a retail or dining destination.

2004 or so. Used to host fancy black tie parties. There was a high class restaurant on the mezzanine.

Even before that (mid 90s), there were a few good restaurants, high end shops, etc. I went to a few black tie parties and fundraisers and graduation events in the main space in the 90s, and it was beautiful

it was terrible when iwas a kid-70's-80's.
used to go there in the 90's. it was pretty nice!

[Anonymous]

Unhoused frames the problem so the solution is "build more housing" at great benefit to developers and undoubtedly involving kickbacks.

The core issues of homelessness are addiction, mental illness and criminal behavior. Framing the issue as one of building and "Housing First" does not address those problems.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-housed-the-homeless-in-upscale-apartments-it-hasnt-gone-as-planned/2019/04/16/60c8ab9c-5648-11e9-8ef3-fbd41a2ce4d5_story.html

[Anonymous]

There's a PP here who keeps bringing up meth. Last I knew, meth was not really a thing in D.C. with the homeless. PCP, on the other hand, absolutely was/is. Has that changed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gosh this thread is making me feel better about turning down a job over between Union and Judiciary. I really would have loved it, but I spent some time over there to test the commute, and I felt really unsafe. It was late afternoon, some of the streets were pretty desolate, and there were more than what I expected in terms of people seeming to be really ill or addicted (e.g., shirtless and screaming in the street and blocking traffic). I used to work over in the area about 10 years ago, and it was on its way up. This was my first time over there in probably five years, and I was really shocked. I thought about how I’d commute after dark, and I just thought it would be kind of nerve-wracking given my gender and size. But I really would have loved the job, and I can honestly say the main reason I turned it down was not wanting to work in that area after seeing it. The whole thing is really sad. People really need medical help, like long-term, consistent, quality help, and they aren’t getting it. They need homes too, for sure, but it seems to me the medical help needs to come first or concurrently. Ignoring this aspect of the issue doesn’t seem humane to me, but what do I know, I guess.

My office is near union station and my colleagues talk if a time where they had to take a shuttle to the metro station after dark because it was so unsafe. In the time I was commuting in the years leading up to the pandemic I never had any issues but I had to go a couple times recently and the area is deserted and feels deteriorated. I spent the extra few minutes walking to the NoMA station for the return trip.

Curious where your office is and how old your colleagues are. Union Station was pretty safe for a good 20+ years before COVID hit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I took a train from Union Station yesterday. First time in a while. I was stunned at the homeless encampment in the circle out front. Stunned. WTH?? Why is the city letting an essential traveler/tourist site turn into homeless village in plain site?

Because no one cares enough and Columbus Circle has a fraction of the car and foot traffic it has before COVID.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not so new, actually. The problem is that the rest of DC has turned into Union Station. But Union Station has pretty much always been that way.

It’s been worse the last few years and has fallen off a cliff since COVID. Believe it or not but there was a time when Union Station had high end retail and fine dining.

I remember that time, but the bathrooms were urine-soaked even then.

When was that time? I worked at a restaurant in Union Station during undergrad and it was never a retail or dining destination.

2004 or so. Used to host fancy black tie parties. There was a high class restaurant on the mezzanine.

Even before that (mid 90s), there were a few good restaurants, high end shops, etc. I went to a few black tie parties and fundraisers and graduation events in the main space in the 90s, and it was beautiful

it was terrible when iwas a kid-70's-80's.
used to go there in the 90's. it was pretty nice!

90s were the golden years. Recall tony Williams!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The NYC mayor has this billiant solution to homeless on the subway. At the end of the line the police will force them off the train. He doesn't underdtand that isnt a deterrent. They will just exit/cross over the platform and get on the train going in the opposite direction.

I think the point is that they don’t want to ask police to make judgments, so they have designed a neutral penalty to disincentivize falling asleep on the train. If the un-housed want to stay up all night playing a cat and mouse game on the trains, then I guess so be it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To be fair most of DC smells like urine and has a homeless problem outside of Ward3. There is just less places for them to go inside in spots like Cap Hill

Let’s bus the homeless to the bucolic circles of ward 3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be fair most of DC smells like urine and has a homeless problem outside of Ward3. There is just less places for them to go inside in spots like Cap Hill

Let’s bus the homeless to the bucolic circles of ward 3

They are already there in huge numbers, all over. Sleeping in front of tenleytown library, udc. They pack the library and churches for their racial reckoning programs, they're inside chevy chase library, around wilson...