Portland won the public toilet battle versus Seattle (restaurants, cost of)

[usernametaken]

Seattle again in market for public toilet | Local News | The Seattle Times

[AT-AT28]

As someone who comes from much larger and non populated state, I have to ask. How/why in the hell would larger cityies have lack of toilets?

[Inkpoe]

Seattle already spent over 5 million dollars for those 5 toilets (and IIRC it was annually 2 million dollars to maintain them)... And they want to try again? This should be interesting.

[JBVirtuoso]

Large cities usually lack public toilets for the reasons the previous round of toilets failed. According to the article, "Those also were billed as indestructible but became havens for drug use, prostitution and what students of failed municipal toilets termed 'nefarious activities.'" So neither municipalities nor private landowners wish to provide such facilities. It's also pretty common for stores and restaurants to restrict their restrooms to customers only, and they'll often require people to get a key from the manager in order to use the restroom.

[Hemlock140]

It's not like one of these things is going to prevent stinky alleys and doorways at Pioneer Square, it's a drop in the bucket.

[skidamarink]

We ought to just have what a lot of European cities do, which is charge fees (like .25 cents) to use the toilet, and put a staff member there to guard the toilets. It would deter criminal activity to an extent.

[AT-AT28]

Originally Posted by JBVirtuoso

Large cities usually lack public toilets for the reasons the previous round of toilets failed. According to the article, "Those also were billed as indestructible but became havens for drug use, prostitution and what students of failed municipal toilets termed 'nefarious activities.'" So neither municipalities nor private landowners wish to provide such facilities. It's also pretty common for stores and restaurants to restrict their restrooms to customers only, and they'll often require people to get a key from the manager in order to use the restroom.

Wow, guess its one of the many things i'll learn about if I manage to move to Seattle hopefully this year. In Montana, we have no such issues, probably cause we have so much space so people can just go out in the woods

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by skidamarink

We ought to just have what a lot of European cities do, which is charge fees (like .25 cents) to use the toilet, and put a staff member there to guard the toilets. It would deter criminal activity to an extent.

A quarter apiece will not cover the cost of a city (union) employee to watch over it 24/7. That would work but it would have to be more like a dollar, and most of the people that use it would not pay but continue using the alleys.