Human waste shuts down BART escalators
When work crews pulled open a broken BART escalator at San Francisco’s Civic Center Station last month, they found so much human excrement in its works they had to call a hazardous-materials team.
While the sheer volume of human waste was surprising, its presence was not. Once the stations close, the bottom of BART station stairwells in downtown San Francisco are often a prime location for homeless people to camp for the night or find a private place to relieve themselves.
via @DanielRaffel
Uncrunched 
Well that at least partially explains the smell that permeates the BART stations.
Where would you suggest they relieve themselves? Maybe the problem is all those “Bathroom for Customers Only” signs?
I don’t think homeless people read your blog. So, you should share your “please stop doing this” with each of them next time you’re in SF.
Do the homeless people read your blog?
these area need to be more secure any way! so that the homeless can feel they can go to the washroom in safty as well. just understand the problem and see if the cost would be effective. how much does it cost to constanly fix and clean the areas up and how much does it cost to hire someone to patrol the area and have a wash room oepn for use.? the world is here and now if i can’t pee there I will pee any wherewhen I need too it is plan as day and the nose on someones face. just help the people and it will help all others as well.
Hey Michael, homeless people pooping with their pooters don’t have time to read blogs so, writing “Please Stop Doing This” to your audience is silly. Unless… you think some of your readers actually poop with their pooters in Bart stations.
simple thing really do a cost comparision and see how much it cost to clean and repair the area time after time and then see how much it would cost for you to have someone patrol the area and have a wash room open for the homeless to use. we are human we are not devine so give them a place to pee or they will do it any where as they do. it is a social responce that we all need to have.
In my opinion, the absolute best post title you’ve ever written on this or any other site. Thanks for the laugh!
Sorry to inconvenience you, Mike. You know how it is, though. When you gotta go you gotta go. I’ll do my best to stop. I know need to try to be more considerate of the commuters and try to remember that people don’t like to be reminded of the unpleasant underbelly of our society.
Hey, do you think you can convince your pal Marissa to hook me up with a job at Yahoo!?
I’ve always wondered where those thousands of homeless people relieve themselves out in SF. Someone should get innovative with this data and figure out a good solution to the problem. Maybe Zip Car could come up with a side venture called Poop Car. Then they could convert the human waste into a biofuel, so that the cars are powered on said waste.
Mike, the problem is that there aren’t enough public restrooms in downtown San Francisco. It’s easy for you to say “please stop doing this”, you have and have always had a home to poop in. You can’t just solve the homeless problem by telling them to go away.
NY did.
New York Sends Homeless Out of City to Stay With Relatives
http://digitaljournal.com/article/276828
Not saying I support it, haven’t thought about it much, but I think this is what you are referring to.
The other option would be to build enough shelter space so that people didn’t have to do this.
At least they have the good sense to not do it in public (I’ve witnessed this, true story).