If you’re passing through Union Station on this hot and muggy day, grab yourself an icy treat at the brand new Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop! It’s located next to Famima! and adjacent to the Amtrak ticket windows.
The waffle cones are made on site, and the tempting smell of them cooking up will definitely lure in passing travelers. You can try free samples of the flavors as well – which proved to be my downfall, as I immediately ordered a scoop of the banana peanut butter frozen greek yogurt after trying it.
Ben & Jerry’s will be open from noon to 8 p.m. every day, making your commute through Union Station just a little bit sweeter.
@Anna Chen
What, it’s going to cost billions in taxpayer money to figure out a study on something that is common sense as this?
Ban food and drinks to be sold at Union Station for a year and see how well that works out for you in terms of revenue. Is it worth it to skimp on janitorial costs for Union Station and drive away businesses like Famima! and Ben & Jerry’s there because food and drinks are now banned at Union Station?
@SandraDee
You also have to wonder what the biggest different why places like shopping malls, airports, Dodgers Stadium, clearly places where there are no bans on food or drinks, are able to open every day freshly clean, in sharp contrast to say, like the train stations like the Blue Line.
Where do they get the revenues to help pay for janitorial staff? Who picks up the trash and litter at these places? Where do they get the funds to make it so clean?
It’s really simple if you think about it; trying to enforce an unenforceable policy with things like “culture change” (sorry, it’s not gonna happen overnight) just ends up wasting money when the easiest and most common sense answer is to just end the ban, use sales revenue and hire janitors instead.
Whitman Lam -
Where exactly would you put retail on the Gateway side?
Well Frequent Flyer, we’re just going to have to agree to disagree on this topic. I’d love to see more newstands and snack shops at stations, but I personally don’t have a problem with the food and drink ban on Metro trains and platforms.
Cheers,
Anna Chen
The Source, Contributor
As if nobody was bringing food through LAUS before…
I used to go to Famima at 7th and Metro; i’d buy a Chai latte and a Chocolate croissant, and I would munch on the train almost always. Was very respectful and cleaned up after myself. One day a deputy saw me munch my croissant. He politely said, “You gotta wait to eat your breakfast after you ride.” I appreciated this because he had a sense that I was just another person on my way to work with very little time to have a meal. Now lets not be cynical, if your child is crying, it would be a lot less annoying to just feed the kid.
I think LAX Frequent Flyer makes a good point.
There are lot of places in LA that has a lot of people like shopping malls which don’t ban eating and drinking. Yet, they still manage to keep it clean with janitors cleaning the place up after hours.
Why can’t Metro be more like that instead of banning eating and drinking and expecting people to follow rules when it clearly can’t be enforced?
There’s a cost to everything, but clearly shopping malls don’t use taxes to hire janitors to clean the place up every night.
And if eating and drinking isn’t banned on Metrolink and Amtrak, which should it banned for Metro? Why does the ban apply to Metro only? Clearly eating and drinking aren’t banned on other forms of transit like airplanes or Greyhound either. So why just Metro?
I agree with Frequent Flyer in that food should be allowed on the train. Although most people do throw away most of their trash, there are some that do not. I think the problem that we have is the lack of receptacles in the station to throw away our trash. The (few) ones I see throughout the various stations I use are not in conspicuous places (like behind pillars and such). If we had trash bins in trains, I think we would be able to keep our trains cleaner just because we would have a place to put our trash.
However, I do agree with Anna with the current food ban. I think the rule is to keep the trains clean, and also keep other happy. For example: Kimchi is a popular side dish in Korea and is eaten by many people, native (such as myself) and non-native Koreans alike. However, kimchi has a rather sharp/pungent smell that most people, especially people who have not smelled it before do not appreciate. I don’t think anyone would like someone munching away at their lunch with the smell permeating throughout the entire train whether it be a good smell or bad.
Yum!
Well the New York City subway allows food and drink, and they bite people there. Although I would be fine in allowing water in bottles or sippy cups, or drinks in “commuter mugs” (VTA in San Jose sells a spill proof commuter mug) the last thing we need is for a train to make a sudden stop, and someone’s soda spilling on someone else’s shirt.
The rats, that is.