Pay & Sit Benches: You Sit. You Pay.

Evelyn Munoz

Recently, a video of a man using the Pay & Sit Benches at the park has risen in popularity on the internet. The man is seen inserting a coin into the coin slot then the metal spikes on the bench retract and can then be sat on. These benches have been seen in Germany but could they eventually catch on and be seen in other places?

Fabian Brunsing is a photographer and designer in Germany and he created the Pay & Sit Benches a couple of years ago. These benches have metal spikes that will only retract when fed a 50 cent euro coin. An alarm will go off after a fixed period of time. A few seconds after the buzzer goes off, the spikes rise again. Initially, he made the benches for people who hate sharing their seats at the park, but what the public has shown is that it could be seen as anti-homeless architecture or possibly raise the possibility of people creating things that are free now but would have to be paid for after the modification. 

Students, here at Anaheim, have seen the video and formed an opinion of their own. Coral Marquez, a student here at the colony stated this after watching the video, “Honestly it seems like a good idea for a small number of people because the creator gets lots of money and the rich have no problem spending $10,000 let alone fifty cents. And its bad because it’s a possibility that it will become popular and soon all the benches could be replaced with ones that need to be paid for, plus it can spark the idea of having other things similar to that like having to pay to unlock the water fountain at the park to drink water.” This is only one of the problems pointed out. The public has also spoken out for the deaf community because they wouldn’t hear the buzzer that indicates when the spikes will rise again.

Another student here at the colony, Christina Coronado, gave her opinion on the matter, “Personally I don’t think this is a good idea because if regular benches end up being replaced, that’s just adding onto the list of all anti-homeless architecture. It may not have been the intent with that bench but that’s what it looks like.”  

The Pay & Sit benches raise a lot of eyebrows in both good and bad ways. Whether or not it’s in a good or bad way, this is just another topic we will just have to agree to disagree.