A BART restroom attendant on the profound importance of public restrooms

Paul Hurtado, a restroom attendant at BART’s 19th Street Oakland and Powell Street stations, has a succinct message for riders passing through his stations: “You can come to BART, use these restrooms, and you will have a welcoming, a safe, a clean experience.”

For many BART riders, Hurtado’s words are a long time coming. Restrooms at ten underground BART stations were closed after 9/11 due to safety concerns (all above-ground station restrooms remained open). At last, the restrooms have begun to reopen, starting with two of the most-trafficked stations in the system: Powell Street and 19th Street Oakland, which reopened on Feb. 2 and Feb. 25 respectively. The all-gender, LED-lit restrooms are safer, cleaner, and more welcoming than ever before, thanks in part to the efforts of attendants like Hurtado.

For Hurtado and many BART riders, the restrooms are much more than, well, restrooms. The reopened amenities are symbols of a transit system that cares about its patrons, and they contribute to making the region more livable for individuals of all ages and backgrounds.

“Restrooms play a critical role in meeting the basic needs of riders throughout our entire system,” said BART Director Robert Raburn.

Hurtado has been serving as an attendant at the Powell Station restroom since the start of February. In that time, he said he’s gotten a “true sense” of the importance of public restrooms within the urban fabric.

“At first I was like, it’s just a restroom,” Hurtado said at a restroom ribbon-cutting ceremony on Feb. 25 at 19th Street Oakland Station. “Then gradually, I was like, wow, this is something the public really needed. It’s one of those things you take for granted.”

During his shifts, riders frequently stop to talk with Hurtado for a few minutes before they shuffle away on their commutes. Hurtado said it’s not unusual for a restroom user to throw a thumbs-up or appreciative nod in his direction. In some instances, he can see riders’ gratitude just by looking into their eyes, he said.

“What I like about this job in particular is that it allows me to see the human side of people,” Hurtado said. “Being a part of this fulfills me.”

On average, about 300 people have used the Powell Station restroom each day since its reopening. That number more than doubled during the Lunar New Year Parade in San Francisco on Feb. 19.

BART currently contracts its restroom attendants from District Works, a Bay Area company that’s “built to service urban spaces,” according to CEO Andrew Jones.

“I like to say that any downtown or neighborhood is really the public’s living room,” Jones said. “We all have a right to that space, it should be well cared for, and it should have the amenities that people need.”

Hurtado said he’s been incredibly impressed by the cleanliness and respectfulness of restroom patrons thus far (the restrooms are cleaned every hour). The worst he’s seen thus far? Some toilet paper on the floor and some refuse on the seats. Not once has an attendant required the assistance of BART Police.

Such respect for the restroom goes a long way for Hurtado, who remembered how the COVID-19 pandemic “squeezed our humanity away from us bit by bit.”

“To see the restroom open – a public restroom that’s been closed for 20 years – it’s like, thank you!” he said. “It’s like the gratitude was allowed to seep out.”

“To be a part of this,” he continued, “makes me feel good inside.”