I take the light rail at least once a week to this beautiful library. Removing these benches needed to be done a long time ago. Nearly every time I go the benches have been occupied by homeless people who have essentially camped out for the day even when they could go inside the library. I'm usually haggled for money and I've often seen people smoking on these benches, sometimes smoking pot at that. No one should have to walk through any smoke cloud or be haggled for cash just to go to the library or pass on the sidewalk. Though I can't say 100% who left it, there is often quite a pile of trash left around the benches too. There is no doubt that there is a huge homeless problem in Sacramento and this needs to be better addressed by the community but these benches were never part of the solution and obviously were rarely used by people who use the library.