🌻 Seasoned SoulZ Reflection

🚍 When a Simple Bus Ride No Longer Feels Safe 

For almost two years, I lived just two blocks away from a bus stop where I could easily catch the #60 to work. It was simple: ride to 9th and Jefferson, transfer to the #3 or #4, and be on my way.

But the 60 bus always stopped at 12th and Jackson. And you never knew who would step onto the bus.

Sometimes it was someone so dirty and soiled that the smell was unbearable. Other times it was someone in the middle of an outburst, shouting things that made no sense. Some drivers forced them off, while other times we all just put up with it.

Bus drivers don’t have it easy. One was even killed by a homeless man. Sometimes there are transit police monitoring, but not always.

12th and Jackson is the worst. For a while, they closed the bus stop and kept police there regularly. But now it’s reopened — and the addicts, sellers, and homeless are back in the same numbers.

One day, sitting in my usual handicap seat at the front, I watched as a man high at the bus stop stepped on and lit up a pipe right there on the bus. The driver told him to get off. It took ten minutes before he finally did. And when the doors closed, he turned around and kicked them until the glass shattered.

At times, it felt like there were a hundred people high, all at once, at that bus stop.

It spread, too. An encampment grew at the corner of my own bus stop. I started carrying pepper spray, a personal alarm, even a small knife. At 5:45 in the morning, I once walked past a tent where a woman was being beaten inside. Other mornings, I passed people stumbling high, tents with fires burning for warmth.

I took pictures and reported it. Neighbors did, too. Eventually they cleared the corner — but people came back.

That was when I stopped riding the bus. I was scared. Scared to walk past that corner, scared to stop at 12th and Jackson.

It’s sad. I have a bus pass through work. It would be an easy ride to and from my job. But now I drive. Because what used to be a simple bus ride no longer feels safe.

✨ Seasoned Soul takeaway: This isn’t about judgment. It’s about reality. Public transit should connect us safely, but when fear replaces trust, something is broken — in our systems, in our city, and in how we care for people and places.