Bench added at Berkeley bus stop after Cal grad, good Samaritan steps up

BERKELEY, Calif. - Back in November, Darrell Owens, a housing policy analyst and self-described "transit lover" tweeted a photo of his neighbor suffering from chronic pain, sitting on the ground waiting for a bus in Berkeley as there was no place to sit.

East Bay native Mingwei Samuel saw Owens' tweet and went to work. 

This bench, placed on Martin Luther King Jr. Way and University Avenue, is the second one he has made.

Samuel doesn't work full-time with a charity or an organization focused on city services; in fact, he's a software engineer and graduated from U.C. Berkeley. 

That didn't stop him from spending around $50 from his own pocket and a few hours putting a bench together and eventually placing it at the intersection with no seating. 

Bench-building is a one-man band, though Samuel says more people could partake in the future.

"It's a pretty easy project. You just need a bunch of framing two-by-fours…a jigsaw…a drill and the template design. Print those out and sort of trace it onto the wood to get the nice sort of seating shapes," Samuel told KTVU.

Samuel built this second bench earlier in the year, just sitting in his Piedmont home "not getting much use." 

"I've always intended to put it out somewhere in public seating. And when I saw [Owens'] tweet, it seemed like a fitting spot for it…seems to be popular," he said. "It's great to be able to make something and have it be useful and see people get use out of it in the real world…it's nice to be able to have a little positive effect on the world."

He built his first bench in November 2022 and placed it in San Francisco after it took him a weekend to create. He said building the benches is fun and fulfilling, but says it's not just for transit areas but for any areas that may need beautification. 

"I think transit is probably the most dire need of it, but I don't think it should just be limited to transit," he said.

His first bench wasn't received too kindly by all; however. 

"The first bench I made, I put it out on Lake Street after [City of San Francisco] approved that [street] a Slow Street as part of sort of a celebratory thing," Samuel said. "…The spot I chose, apparently it's like right outside one of the biggest sort of hater's houses…we walked to the bench down to the other end of the street and put it in front of the old folks' home. But then they found it there too…they moved it to Page Street where it still sits and it got a repaint there."

Samuel pointed out he was not the first person to make public benches; he draws inspiration from Chris Duderstadt, the creator of the Public Bench Project.

Duderstadt has been building these benches for over 30 years. The 77-year-old works alone but did make pieces for the Ruth Asawa High School for 20 benches with assistance from his parents. He also has people looking for possible locations and hosts for the benches. 

While they are free, hosts often contribute to material costs.

People experiencing homelessness played a factor in how he designed his benches.

"When the [City of San Francisco] proposed seating for our Muni spaces, the staff insisted that no one would want to sit on the seats for more than a few minutes. This is not my approach. The benches are for anyone needing to rest…I've had several 'folks' linger and my wife and I reach out to them, try to get them help, and have been able to get a few folks off the street," Duderstadt shared.

When asked what it's like to be an inspiration for others emulating his work Duderstadt said in part, "I have hoped that, by example, people come to understand that providing benches on their sidewalks make the world just a little better place.  Most tell me the joy of seeing others use their benches."

KTVU has reached out to the City of Berkeley and AC Transit over the DIY benches; the City of Berkeley responded, saying they will take the DIY bench as a formal request to have it officially added to the stop. 

KTVU is awaiting comment from AC Transit.

"We can always use more benches in public seating," Samuel said.