When I first read about that I was like, oh, yeah right, like that is a great way to promote safety in Oakland. Having at-risk youth helping you to your cars, cleaning up, giving you directions? Sounded to me at first, like a sure way to get an already lost passenger to be the center of a mugging plot. But then I kept on reading and I thought about it some more.
I have to admit that if properly monitored and evaluated, this would be a great way to help at risk youth become a true part of the community. For them to want to trust the community and leave a positive mark, we have to trust them too.
It's worth a try and could become something life changing for these kids. When I first heard about Delancey Street restaurant in SF, I had a negative reaction too, but who says people don't deserve a second chance?
However, I may be a bit of a hypocrite. I don't want to have escorts in ALL the BART stations. I don't think escorts are necessary in all the stations. I think at-risk youth program aside, we definitely need escorts at SFO and OAK stations for travelers. We need at-platform-level info booth at key transfer stations (or easy phone access to TOs who are willing to help) too for travelers.
4 comments:
initially i thought the same thing... it's like letting the fox guard the hen house. but if there were teams of 5 helping people out AND these youths were being paid $11/hour, they may actually try to help people. obviously BART would interview and screen the right kids i hope.
Frist, I would have to say, BART will have nothing to do with this! They had some people doing something like this at North Berkely station. BART has nothing to do with them. Go with them at your own risk!
Five man teams at 11.00 is a 55.00 escort, for that cost, you could hire more cops, which is what Oakland needs!
This program is only for the Oakland stations, if oakland wanted to improve it's image, they should start buy cleaning up the streets and having the cops pupt people in jail, paying at risk kids to be escort is not Job trainning, give them real job traning and skills, not make work, which will turn out to be, kids being paid to hand out in the station and shooting the shit, doing nothing because, people don't trust them to escort them.
Bad idea all the way around! BART has enough kids hanging out in the stations. How are these at risk kids going to react, when their Thug friends show up? Bad juju, this is!
Of course in New York, the gaurdian angels, do it for free!
http://www.guardianangels.org/
nice point about the guardian angels. why doesn't bart just ask them to help walk people to their cars? it's free and they already exist.
BART has nothing to do with this. Please take the time to read the article before you post questions about if BART is going to screen these kids or why BART doesn't ask for this or that. It only makes you look stupid, even if you post as anonymous.
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