At Denver’s crown jewel, Union Station, new signs are plastered all across the underground terminal where buses board and drop off passengers declaring drug use, vaping, and disruptive or unsafe activities to be “prohibited.” The sign warns “enforcement is in effect.”
I see the signs almost every day as I use public transportation to get to my high school. And almost every day I see groups of people using various drugs, making me wonder if enforcement is really in effect after all or if the sign is an empty threat easily ignored. The last thing students want to worry about when they get on a bus or train is whether or not they are safe.
Students such as myself and many of my peers at East High School have to take public transportation to get to school both because of school choice and a lack of school bussing options. Luckily, East High School helps provide bus tickets for students and if you qualify, a monthly pass for free, which usually costs $34.20 for local transportation only.
But the real cost of using public transit in Denver is having to constantly worry about your safety. Taking big gulps of air before going downstairs and holding your breath for as long as possible. Only for your nose to feel full of rubbing alcohol and your lungs ignite with a tiny fire of pain after inhaling the poisonous air.
At Union Station there are many people that use drugs. It could be in the early morning or the late afternoon, but either way people will stroll downstairs yelling, shouting, smoking, or pacing. And all you can think about is where is the safest place to escape just in case.
Camile Kaseray, a student at East High School, told me she will see RTD security officers “sweep people out of there, and they’ll just keep coming back. I’ve seen people blatantly smoke meth in front of me and on the bus.”
A statement from denvergov.org states “DPD officers have made more than 700 arrests at RTD’s Union Station terminal in the first two-and-a-half months of 2022, 233 of which were drug related.”
Lance Longenbohn, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, local 1001 said, “Itap a hell-hole, itap not safe for the public. Itap not safe for the employees. Itap getting worse.” If the president of the union can make such a strong statement, how is this safe for students, who have never seen or been exposed to any type of drug or drug paraphernalia?
Union Station is a major tourist attraction for the city of Denver. However, the duality between the experiences of Coloradans and tourists are extremely different. Classical music will play in the lobby while people slowly drag their luggage from the Crawford Hotel and Amtrak train. But as soon as you go towards the back of Union Station, near the trains or even downstairs to the bus terminals, you’ve entered an entirely new realm. Drug addicts roam and the smell of urine, various drugs, and feces, fill the air. In fact, New York City subways smell better than Colorado’s bus terminals. An anonymous security guard that works at Union Station said,” I wouldn’t even let my own kids go down to the bus terminals.”
At Union Station, an increase of security probably won’t help, since there have already been “more than 700 arrests.” Instead there should be separate areas at stations and on buses and trains where itap specifically for kids under the age of 16.
Just like you wouldn’t want your child to hear an adult conversation at the Thanksgiving dinner table, you wouldn’t want them exposed to drugs and unsafe conditions at Union Station.
Obviously, not everyone on the train or bus is a drug addict, but it would still keep students safe from adults that could be a danger to them.
Public transportation sometimes is the only way for kids to get to school and back home. Students should feel safe, not stressed over what they’re inhaling, seeing, or feeling.
Mattison Nunez is a student at East High School and writes occasionally for The Denver Post.
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