A rogue group of activists won’t stand for the lack of benches at many SF Muni stops, so they went and installed a bunch of their own unauthorized benches this past weekend. But we’ll see how this sits with SF Public Works.

If you were waiting for a Muni bus in the Mission District this weekend, you may have noticed that some hearty new benches were just installed at bus stops that had not previously had benches. Seems like some nice proactive work by the city, right?

Wrong. The benches were not installed by the city, these were installed by an informal group of transit activists who call themselves the SF Bay Area Bench Collective. And these benches appear to not be in any way authorized by the city, which may set up an awfully interesting conflict over whether SF Public Works will clear these unsanctioned benches that absolutely serve the public good.

We observed this bench Sunday afternoon at Mission Street and Powers Avenue, right across the street from El Rio. It seems very structurally sound, and it’s in nice new condition, albeit with a little visible cement scrapeage from the installation of bolts into the sidewalk.

And in an obvious sign that these people are not covering their tracks at all, the SF Bay Area Bench Collective has even stenciled their name on their handiwork so the whole world knows who put these benches there. SFist reached out to the contact email listed on the SF Bay Area Bench Collective (SFBABC) website, and they were happy to respond.

“The SFBABC has installed its first eight benches in San Francisco, mostly around the Mission,” the organization said in a  statement to SFist. “This is after we have installed 80 benches at East Bay bus stops which have been exceedingly well received.”

“San Francisco is the origin of the fantastic bench design we use, the Chris Duderstadt / Public Bench Project bench,” they added. “And despite being the urban center of the Bay, SF has the worst bus stops of any cities here, almost always lacking signage, often lacking clear red curbs, lacking shelters, and of course lacking seating. So it was only natural to return here to provide seating for bus riders at bus stops.”

This “Chris Duderstadt / Public Bench Project” design refers to the “roller-skating engineer” Chris Duderstadt and the Public Bench Project that has built and installed more than 200 community benches, largely in the Sunset District.

The SFBABC says that the eight Mission District stops at which they installed the benches “serve 3,222 riders per weekday, based on SFMTA 2024/Q1 ridership data. And unfortunately these benches may become even more important due to long waits for the bus as city and state leaders may be sending Muni over a fiscal cliff. Unfortunately SF leadership are failing to give transit riders basic respect, so it is necessary for communities to step up to fill the gap.”

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The Instagram post above indicates the involvement of Safe Street Rebel, the rogue transit activist group perhaps best known for their humorous crusade to disable Waymo vehicles by placing orange cones on the hood. Some 2023 media coverage of the SF Bay Area Bench Collective from SFGate identifies the involvement of housing activist Darrell Owens and software engineer Mingwei Samuel, though niether of those two was involved with this particular project.

But that report is about their installation of a badly needed bench in Berkeley (seen above). And the group is coming off a huge legislative victory in the East Bay city of Richmond, which just legalized these renegade bus stop benches, provided that the installers acquire a required permit.

Above we see a map of where the eight new “guerilla benches” have been placed in San Francisco. You can also see a full Bay Area bench map that shows their East Bay benches as well.  

Though the SFBABC says that one of the new SF benches has already been removed. According to their website, a bench at 30th and Dolores streets was already removed because "Person did not want the bench near their house, said the Upper Noe Neighbors removed it for her."

Still, the response to these benches has otherwise been largely positive. “The SF Bay Area Bench Collective’s installation of benches at Muni stops demonstrates a clear desire from the public to improve accessibility and comfort for all people—especially children, families, seniors, and people with disabilities—at Muni stops,” the transit advocacy nonprofit Streets Forward said in a statement to SFist. “In addition to increasing accessibility and comfort for people, installing benches at transit stops increases safety, making these improvements a win-win-win for the City at a time when it faces a massive budget deficit. Streets Forward appreciates people wanting to improve the city and increase accessibility and comfort for other people.”

And people are gladly using the benches! SFist saw another on Sunday afternoon at Mission and 22nd streets (outside the Skechers) which was being sat upon by people waiting for the 14-Mission.

We cannot confirm that all eight benches were installed, but we did also observe a third bench at Mission and Valencia streets, outside Los Panchos restaurant.

I’m no civic engineer, but these “guerilla benches” certainly appear structurally sound, with carriage bolts drilled into the sidewalks.

SFist reached out to SF Public Works for their thoughts on these benches’ installation, and we've not heard back, but we'll update this post with any response.

Though for perspective, above is a photo of what a sanctioned and official city bench looks like (some, admittedly, are jankier than this one).

But will the Daniel Lurie administration put up with these renegade groups drilling guerilla benches into SF sidewalks? They might! Lurie is certainly a fan of encouraging private donations for public projects.

This fits that bill, and the SFBABC has already shown a knack for working with local governments, with their successful campaign to get their benches legalized in Richmond. These do not appear to be the typical wealthy donor-set patrons Lurie generally works with, but with Muni running a giant deficit, he may be happy to see someone else’s resources going to improving the rider experience. And to point out the obvious, ripping out benches that people are using would probably be politically unpopular, as people might not realize that rogue activists installed them, and would probably blame Lurie for the benches’ removal.

Though a fight may yet come from the unauthorized bench business, as SF Public Works might not take this sitting down.

Related: “Roller-Skating Engineer's” Public Bench Project Spawns 210 Inner Sunset Benches To Date [SFist]

Images: Joe Kukura, SFist