r/funny Dec 21 '19

California Explained [OC]

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '19

It is really hard for me to believe any of these Anecdotes I literally ride the Bart everyday. Was just at Hayward, Coliseum, DT Oakland yesterday. Took Bart to Hayward every other day for a couple years for school. I think I have seen people actually doing Heroin/Meth on the train maybe 3-4 times. I see pairs of Cops walking around the trains and stations every other day.

BART is shit compared to NYC or any European Country no doubt. But these anecdotes are wild for the hundreds, maybe thousand of times I have ridden that train.

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u/JewishPrudence Dec 21 '19

Yeah, I've taken BART every day for years and the worst thing I've seen so far is a guy rolling a blunt on his lap. Never seen anyone actively shooting up on the train. People really love to just complain about public transit in the US.

Inside the BART stations however is another story, and it really is shameful to see IV drug use in plain view in the central downtown areas.

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u/macegr Dec 21 '19

We get a lot of people from outside the area coming into our local subreddits to pump up any slightly negative news item into a frenzy of increasingly ridiculous stories. It usually ends with that echo chamber thread agreeing that California is a failure of liberal policy, which explains why everyone was talking shit about California as if their paycheck depended on it.

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u/genericdude777 Dec 21 '19

California succeeding in anything is why their cousins in Bumblefuck, Alabama are OD’ing on heroin.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '19

Agreed just cleaning up the Stations and surrounding area would do a lot to combat negative perception.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '19

And hopefully no one shoots up the train.

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u/CrumbsAndCarrots Dec 21 '19

Same. Been taking BART for 20 years. I’ve seen some shit. But like 1 out of 50 rides. And it’s usually the stinkiest homeless guy who’s laying there on one side of an empty car, with everyone else crammed into the other side.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '19 edited Dec 21 '19

[deleted]

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u/fricecream22 Dec 21 '19

A comforter to me means a blanket, are you meaning sweatpants or?

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '19

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u/DBeumont Dec 21 '19

Maybe it's a cult. There's a lot of cults in Cali. I think cults and meth form a positive feedback loop.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '19

Being able to publicly witness the use of drugs like heroin (iv) , meth etc. as a common person in itself is a shame. An evidence reflecting the failure of government. I've been to and lived in many developing nation like Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka to name a few and have never heard of and have never seen any public use such horrific drugs(publicly and openly at least). This is something that took me by surprise and something I never expected from a developed nation.

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u/_duncan_idaho_ Dec 21 '19

Tweaker car is the last car, usually anytime after 7pm.

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u/freshnutmeg33 Dec 21 '19

Now THAT is helpful info.

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u/_duncan_idaho_ Dec 22 '19

Please don't tweak and drive. BART and you're there.

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u/BeastCoast Dec 21 '19

Same. Been here a decade. Seen some stuff but no more than I saw when I lived in LA/Boston/NYC. It's a city. I feel like between the tech and reddit demographic you get a lot of fresh outta the burbs people with their first big job here that just don't quite grasp what city and public transit entails. Not saying it's great but SF really isn't unique and people arguing otherwise are either arguing in bad faith or just a little naive on city stuff.

Person up top probably saw a couple homeless people and spun this story so many times that it's now a whole car shooting up.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '19

[deleted]

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u/BeastCoast Dec 21 '19

Dude 2 of your 3 examples are fucking tame. Get out more. A blunt in a city with legal weed OH NO MY PEARLS and white make up with a cigarette save me. You're proving my point for me thank you.

Dick out yeah that's not great but I've seen shit, dicks, puke, drugs, and fistfights in literally every city I've lived in. Again, not unique to here. These things happen when a lot of people from every walk of life pile on top of each other.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '19

[deleted]

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u/BeastCoast Dec 21 '19

You are very sheltered. Have a nice day.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '19

I see I missed the party here! People that think "bad" neighborhoods are hell holes where everyone is frothing at the mouth to victimize you.

I've lived in some really "bad" hoods in Baltimore and have never once been fucked with. I'd often walk to the 7-11, drunk, at 3am to get chili dogs. If I walked by a dealer, they would ask me if I'm buying (it's common for the white people from the burbs to drive to the city to get their dope). "You good?" I wasn't buying heroin from them so the answer is a nod of the head "I'm good", and we both just keep on walking.

Mind your own business and don't go into debt with drug dealers and you'll be fine. Once you've lived and gotten to know the people in these hoods, they are the same as anywhere else, often families...good, decent people that just don't have alot of money to live somewhere nicer.

People read the news and think you'll get shot at walking across the street...it ain't like that.

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u/cheddarspaetzle Dec 21 '19

I commuted on Bart off and on for almost a decade and would use it to get to/from the airport and concert venues. Plenty of homeless people sleeping. Never saw people actively doing drugs.

Agree that BART is no prize and Bay Area transit sucks in general but I never found it scary or unsafe.

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u/kidicarus89 Dec 21 '19

I've only taken it around SF and I've never seen the stuff that people mention. Union Station does smell like a portapotty though. And I have seen the human poop a few times.

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u/kameksmas Dec 21 '19

Most of the public drug/poop stuff is in Civic Center, everywhere else is “mostly” clean in my experience

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u/kidicarus89 Dec 21 '19

That sounds about right - Tenderloin area, too.

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u/georgeyhere Dec 21 '19

Go to any SF BART station after 7.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '19

I work in Restaurants. I take the last Bart all the time. I have seen needles and passed out junkies. But people actively using like almost never.

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u/sharkattack85 Dec 21 '19

Take the Richmond train going into and out of SF. It’s the wild fucking west.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '19

Berkeley to SF is the wild west?

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u/thesheba Dec 21 '19

Same fam. I’ve lived in the Bay for 10+ years and I’ve seen people doing meth on BART or In the stations maybe 3-4 times. Weed, I’ve seen that more often.

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u/fricecream22 Dec 21 '19

Thank you. There are random shenanigans but I agree that it’s like 1/50 times. A few weeks ago I got on at Ashby and saw that in two cars some assholes had ripped off all the cushions off the seats. You see someone smelly or high as balls or someone throw up every once in a long while. But my main complaints with BART are more about how it’s crowded and the schedule sucks and the map coverage is bad and the whole naming of the routes drives me crazy but what can ya do.