Elderly man was forced to sit on a curb at a bus stop. One Californian man ensured it wouldn't happen again

This story is a classic example of what can happen when someone doesn’t give up on an idea that matters. In Berkeley, California, a man saw his elderly neighbor sitting on a curb while waiting for the bus because there was no bench in sight. Walking with a cane due to his chronic pain, a recent surgery had left him with a piece of strict advice: Do not bend your knees. When Darrell Owens — a housing advocate and policy analyst in Berkeley, California, who posts under @IDoTheThinking — shared his neighbor's plight on X (formerly Twitter), the moment sparked something bigger: a community-led effort to make sure no one else has to undergo a similar agony.

"This is my area neighbor," he wrote, "who suffers from chronic pain, prohibiting him from bending his legs, and he just got surgery. Now he's sitting on the ground in downtown Berkeley because @CityofBerkeley and @rideact don't have benches at their bus stops." Reactions to the post have been wide-ranging. @MNWanderer3223 wrote, "Crazy, how in a big city like that, in a state that could be one of the most wealthy nations in the world if it split, how can I not afford to put benches out? I’d ask for a tax refund." @lajoiemedia added, "City should definitely install benches, but in the meantime, dude needs a cane stool." @CaSoccerProject commented, "Disgraceful. Coming from a city obsessed with climate change activism, they don't provide their citizens with rest areas for public transit. SHAME!"

Owens had long voiced concerns about the lack of benches at local bus stops but received no response from the city or transit agency. As the post gained momentum, the photo reached Mingwei Samuel, a local software engineer who had already been building benches through the Public Bench Project. Samuel offered to move one of his benches to that exact bus stop, installing it soon after and posting a picture showing it in place. That post by @MingweiSamuel alone received over 100,000 likes.

Soon, Samuel and Owens connected and started collaborating on a new effort: the SFBA Bench Collective — a website that lets people request benches or flag problem spots. Within a short span of time, they have installed around 77 benches, each one compliant with ADA regulations and AC Transit guidelines, with each bench costing about $70 to make. The group currently focuses on placing them at high-ridership stops, where the need is most visible. Sometimes, their work ends up getting discarded as the city or transit authority removes the bench and replaces it with an official one — Owens says that still counts as a win.

"That means the collective’s work is complete: We got the cities to build benches for their citizens," he said, noting how their movement continues to grow. Weekend bench-building events are now happening in other cities too, with new volunteers joining in. Owens told reporters from Good News Network, "After the election, I think there’s been more energy to do something good in the world, for once, so other people have helped step up to organize bench-building weekends."

You can follow Darrell Owens (@IDoTheThinking) and Mingwei Samuel (@MingweiSamuel) on X for more updates on the project.