I wish they just sent in the police, social workers and cleaning crews to make Union Station a safe and welcoming place for all people again. You do drugs and poop on the floor, mandatory trip to shelter and counseling. You attack other people, you get arrested. Europe is a bastion of progressive policies and they still manage to have clean and orderly train stations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The movie theaters closed years ago because of violence. Soon the station will be empty. Enforcing the law means recognizing there’s a problem.

Just because suite people are scared little b****** doesn’t mean there is a problem.

Let's see if you feel the same way after you're spat upon by a homeless person.

I wouldn’t be spat upon because unlike you, I’m kind, and regard them as human. So they’d have no cause to spit on me.

Unlike you.

I don't think you've ever been to Union Station a day in your life. They spit on people walking by. They ask for money and when there's none to be given, the spit and walk away. They don't even need to run because the know the police won't do sh!t to them because that would require doing a bit of work.

I have been commuting through it for 30 years. I have never been spit on. I am asked for money walking on 1st street some days. I acknowledge or keep walking depending on my mood. It's still a daily commuting hub for many DC workers. I think Sbarros has been there the entire time. Who eats there?

Pp who who currently works there,

There are several issues happening all at once. Amtrak wants to fix the issues in common areas and surrounding entrances and security. Paid 250 million to the courts to take over retail as common areas of Union Station controlled by bankrupt leasing company. Bankrupt leasing company out of NY wants 700 million to release their contract (good through 2084). Court battle = mess. Leasing company doing bare minimum to nothing to maintain station at this point.

Second separate issue, Texas and Arizona shipping their state level politics to our city and region, and using impoverished human beings to prove a point. Below human dignity.

If DC started sending buses of drug addicted mentally ill people to Texas and Arizona , these states wouldn't have an argument. These states are making their state level problem DC's local city humanitarian crisis. Yet don't want DC to be a state... such hypocrites!

Anonymous wrote:Who are they? Who is legally responsible to keep it clean and safe? Would someone sue them for not doing their job? This is unacceptable? Train station isn't a place for refugees, homeless, mentally ill and druggies. Send everyone to where they can be helped. Make it safe so travelers can travel, businesses can earn, dinners can ear, shoppers can shop. Add a gym , a dry cleaner, a grocery store, a barber, an express food takeout shop, a breakfast box to go place, things related to travel.

And where is that exactly, with room and resources for all of them?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The movie theaters closed years ago because of violence. Soon the station will be empty. Enforcing the law means recognizing there’s a problem.

Just because suite people are scared little b****** doesn’t mean there is a problem.

Let's see if you feel the same way after you're spat upon by a homeless person.

I wouldn’t be spat upon because unlike you, I’m kind, and regard them as human. So they’d have no cause to spit on me.

Unlike you.

I don't think you've ever been to Union Station a day in your life. They spit on people walking by. They ask for money and when there's none to be given, the spit and walk away. They don't even need to run because the know the police won't do sh!t to them because that would require doing a bit of work.

The Amtrak police have been told to do nothing. It's hands off.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t there some suspicion Starbucks is closing locations that have attempted to unionize?

Yes, but there are also legit safety issues in the locations they've picked. I don't even take the train to NY anymore because I don't want to deal with Union Station, especially at night.

+1 union station and the train was wonderful in the ‘80s+ after the renovation. Such a pathetic site now, and a disgrace to the city leaders to let it happen.

Minus the underground Metro, Union Station is federal not city owned and protected. Remember when AG Ashcroft required all the statutes removed because of nudity offenses

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I travel a lot by train to our Boston & NYC offices. I didn't mind late evening returns to DC or late weekend departures, but I've requested no more of those through my work. If I don't finish at the office until 6 pm, I'm not leaving the city until the next morning to return to DC. Thankfully, my office is very understanding. I don't want to be at Union Station after dark if I can help it. It's simply not safe anymore and it's atrocious that it's gotten that way.

The police literally stand by and laugh at the antics of the homeless (urinating in public INside of the station into a cup; hassling tourists/travelers for $$; spitting at people passing by; having freakin' sex in public!!, etc.). It's a lawless trash-hole.

I don't care if mace is illegal in DC, I have it on my person and always keep it in hand when I'm walking around there.

We don’t need vigilantes walking around terrified and macing any Black person who makes eye contact with them.

I hope you get caught with that mace and your ass gets tossed in jail for it.

Well, I'm 40 and I've been illegally carrying it since I was about 19 (not the same one, of course) and I've yet to "mace any Black person who makes eye contact with me" but okay.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The movie theaters closed years ago because of violence. Soon the station will be empty. Enforcing the law means recognizing there’s a problem.

Just because suite people are scared little b****** doesn’t mean there is a problem.

Let's see if you feel the same way after you're spat upon by a homeless person.

I wouldn’t be spat upon because unlike you, I’m kind, and regard them as human. So they’d have no cause to spit on me.

Unlike you.

I don't think you've ever been to Union Station a day in your life. They spit on people walking by. They ask for money and when there's none to be given, the spit and walk away. They don't even need to run because the know the police won't do sh!t to them because that would require doing a bit of work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I travel a lot by train to our Boston & NYC offices. I didn't mind late evening returns to DC or late weekend departures, but I've requested no more of those through my work. If I don't finish at the office until 6 pm, I'm not leaving the city until the next morning to return to DC. Thankfully, my office is very understanding. I don't want to be at Union Station after dark if I can help it. It's simply not safe anymore and it's atrocious that it's gotten that way.

The police literally stand by and laugh at the antics of the homeless (urinating in public INside of the station into a cup; hassling tourists/travelers for $$; spitting at people passing by; having freakin' sex in public!!, etc.). It's a lawless trash-hole.

I don't care if mace is illegal in DC, I have it on my person and always keep it in hand when I'm walking around there.

We don’t need vigilantes walking around terrified and macing any Black person who makes eye contact with them.

I hope you get caught with that mace and your ass gets tossed in jail for it.

That's not what PP said. You can't engage on the issue of the homeless and crime? Is it too difficult for you?

Anonymous wrote:I travel a lot by train to our Boston & NYC offices. I didn't mind late evening returns to DC or late weekend departures, but I've requested no more of those through my work. If I don't finish at the office until 6 pm, I'm not leaving the city until the next morning to return to DC. Thankfully, my office is very understanding. I don't want to be at Union Station after dark if I can help it. It's simply not safe anymore and it's atrocious that it's gotten that way.

The police literally stand by and laugh at the antics of the homeless (urinating in public INside of the station into a cup; hassling tourists/travelers for $$; spitting at people passing by; having freakin' sex in public!!, etc.). It's a lawless trash-hole.

I don't care if mace is illegal in DC, I have it on my person and always keep it in hand when I'm walking around there.

We don’t need vigilantes walking around terrified and macing any Black person who makes eye contact with them.

I hope you get caught with that mace and your ass gets tossed in jail for it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The movie theaters closed years ago because of violence. Soon the station will be empty. Enforcing the law means recognizing there’s a problem.

Just because suite people are scared little b****** doesn’t mean there is a problem.

Let's see if you feel the same way after you're spat upon by a homeless person.

I wouldn’t be spat upon because unlike you, I’m kind, and regard them as human. So they’d have no cause to spit on me.

Unlike you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The movie theaters closed years ago because of violence. Soon the station will be empty. Enforcing the law means recognizing there’s a problem.

Just because suite people are scared little b****** doesn’t mean there is a problem.

Let's see if you feel the same way after you're spat upon by a homeless person.

I travel a lot by train to our Boston & NYC offices. I didn't mind late evening returns to DC or late weekend departures, but I've requested no more of those through my work. If I don't finish at the office until 6 pm, I'm not leaving the city until the next morning to return to DC. Thankfully, my office is very understanding. I don't want to be at Union Station after dark if I can help it. It's simply not safe anymore and it's atrocious that it's gotten that way.

The police literally stand by and laugh at the antics of the homeless (urinating in public INside of the station into a cup; hassling tourists/travelers for $$; spitting at people passing by; having freakin' sex in public!!, etc.). It's a lawless trash-hole.

I don't care if mace is illegal in DC, I have it on my person and always keep it in hand when I'm walking around there.

Anonymous wrote:Who are they? Who is legally responsible to keep it clean and safe? Would someone sue them for not doing their job? This is unacceptable? Train station isn't a place for refugees, homeless, mentally ill and druggies. Send everyone to where they can be helped. Make it safe so travelers can travel, businesses can earn, dinners can ear, shoppers can shop. Add a gym , a dry cleaner, a grocery store, a barber, an express food takeout shop, a breakfast box to go place, things related to travel.

The feds own union station. DOT owns the historic building and NPS owns Columbus plaza in front. Amtrak owns the tracks and platforms, and maybe the concourse. But they may lease the concourse, I’m not sure. The DOT part is leased to a non-profit, which subleases to a for profit landlord that in turn leases all the shops, restaurants, etc. Maybe they also lease the concourse to Amtrak. That company, the “landlord” is supposed to maintain the station but I don’t know about security. My guess is they’re responsible for part of it, Amtrak is responsible for part, and the feds are responsible for some since it’s federal property. But it’s in DC so DC must have some role.

Amtrak is now trying to buy the whole thing through eminent domain.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/04/14/amtrak-eminent-domain-take-over-union-station/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More coverage about bus loads of hungry starving undocumented people https://twitter.com/nsbonsu_/status/1547970119162142722?s=21&t=17C49EoanIdACgtl6NF8lg

Hmmm I wonder if anyone has considered enforcing immigration laws.

How do you enforce a law when the bus , sent by a governor, arrives at 1am with women and small children who haven't eaten for two days. It's despicable. 3,400 people since May.

I believe the pp was referring to prior to them arriving at the governor's state. As in why should that state have to handle all the costs?

They arrived legally and are in the US legally. And they're probably thrilled to get out of Texas - I know the first buses, at least, were full of volunteers. There are many humanitarian issues with the situation but they're not here illegally.