POLITICS: Poopless buses, please

It’s news that could pass for satire: LA’s Department of Transportation is urging riders not to poop on city buses.

As policy goes, the “please don’t” approach is a stinker.

Mayor Karen Bass, the City Council, and LADOT General Manager Laura Rubio-Cornejo should be embarrassed.

Moreover, they should act to end the bus pooping –– through meaningful enforcement and oversight –– rather than asking riders to report those who defecate nearby.

LADOT’s “See Something, Do Something” videos ask passengers –– on a loop –– to behave on the bus: Don’t drink, don’t smoke, buy a ticket, and don’t poop.

The campaign echoes a similar approach on LA Metro, which airs, on similar loops, requests that passengers refrain from sexually harassing others on the train.

This is what we’ve come to on Los Angeles public transportation?

It’s a wonder any woman, or any civilized person, really, would want to ride LA public transit, given a lack of safety, reliability, and basic sanitation.

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This is the largest city in a state whose governor boasts incessantly about “running” the fourth-largest economy in the world. 

LA taxpayers spend tens of millions of dollars a year on city buses.

And Bass, the council and Rubio-Cornejo can’t do better than feces-strewn buses and cartoon PSAs?

It’s a shame.

And it reflects a complete collapse of standards.

The city needs to end its permissive approach to uncivilized conduct. 

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The left uses terms such as equity and social justice to rationalize all manner of favoritism and leniency, and it’s wrong.

The bus feces predicament points to a broader need, as well: Bass and the council should address the causes of homelessness in LA –– specifically, mental illness and substance abuse.

Instead, they shovel billions of tax dollars into a homeless industrial complex that enriches developers and nonprofits while doing little to move people off the streets long-term.

Memo to City Hall, and to voters: None of this is serving the people of Los Angeles.

The mayor and council need to give the streets back to residents and public transportation back to the public.

In what world is stool on the bus seat OK?

Clean it up, LADOT.

And we don’t just mean the poop after it’s been left.