Breaking News: Grassroots Bench Builders Score a Win in Bay Area

An bus bench build by Mingwei Samuel in the Bay Area. Photo from Bluesky.

Picture an elderly rider, groceries in hand, waiting for the bus with nowhere to sit. Now imagine that scene repeating itself at stop after stop across the Bay Area.

For years, transit riders have been overlooked, their most basic needs unmet. So community members took it upon themselves to offer a little comfort—and a little dignity—by building and placing benches where none existed.

Five elders sitting on an advocate-built bench in Oakland, California. Photo from Bluesky.

And in late May, the City of Richmond became the first to formally legitimize that grassroots effort. In a unanimous vote, Richmond City Council approved a new permitting process that allows residents to install benches at bus stops that currently lack them.

“This basic act of community care has been in a legal gray area,” wrote Sam Greenberg, a transit advocate who helped develop the legislation with Carter Lavin of the Transbay Coalition. “Without opposition, Richmond City Council just voted to establish a permitting process to allow members of the public to do something simple: place benches they built at bus stops.”

Took me a bit, but it’s here https://t.co/s3MkxHdlpB pic.twitter.com/dN28KKDWEB
— Mingwei Samuel 翁明伟 (@MingweiSamuel) December 17, 2023

The push for legalization follows the success of the SFBA Bench Collective, a volunteer-led initiative founded by Darrell Owens and Mingwei Samuel. Frustrated by the lack of seating across high-ridership corridors, the group has built and installed more than 75 benches throughout the East Bay, each one compliant with ADA and AC Transit guidelines. At roughly $70 in materials per bench, the effort has demonstrated just how far community-led infrastructure can go—with or without city support.

Richmond’s new permitting process is the first formal recognition of this ethos—and could open the door for more organized, legally sanctioned improvements.

“Cities have lots of competing budgetary needs, so bus riders get the short end of the stick,” Lavin told SFGATE earlier this year. “If community-led bench efforts like SFBA Bench Collective can install dozens of benches while operating in this quasi-legal space, imagine how much they can do if it were fully legalized?”

Owens has long said that the ultimate goal isn’t to be the East Bay’s bench supplier—it’s to pressure cities to take transit riders seriously. “The goal is to push local governments to provide seating for its transit riders,” he told SFGATE, “and the benches call attention to that.”

Now Richmond has said: We’re listening. Keep going.

We’ve long followed the powerful work of grassroots advocates transforming their communities. (Check out our story: No Bus Stop Seating? No Problem. (Actually, There Is Definitely a Problem.))

If you're inspired by efforts like these and want to connect with the people making them happen, consider joining a Strong Towns Local Conversation. These groups bring people together—in person or online—to discuss local challenges, share ideas, and support one another in taking small, practical steps toward change.

Wherever you are, there's a place for you in this growing movement. Find your Local Conversation—or start one—and take the next step in building a stronger, more resilient community.