A YEAR AND A HALF after the city’s first “loo,” or public toilet, opened to cheers in December 2008 at NW 5th and Glisan, a second one is ready to be installed this week at SW Naito and Taylor. Yet another is headed to the Pearl—and not everyone’s thrilled about it.
Championed by City Commissioner Randy Leonard, the loo’s purpose is to decrease public urination and increase public restroom accessibility. Leonard hoped to install eight more public toilets soon after the first one opened. But construction has stalled. “It’s not because of lack of interest or lack of places to put them,” Leonard says.
Leonard says a new manufacturer had to be located after the first did not meet the expectations of its contract with the city. There is also a long permitting and siting process because of involvement from multiple city bureaus, including parks, fire, water, and transportation.
But as a recent battle among neighbors in the Pearl District illustrates, bureaucratic waffling isn’t the biggest obstacle to loo construction. Residents fear the toilets attract crime and poor hygiene.
On July 8, the Pearl District Neighborhood Association voted to have a loo with 24-hour access built at NW 11th, across from Jamison Square. A high-traffic area, the park has long been considered as a location for a public toilet.
Discussion of where to put the automated toilet began in late 2009. Residents were alarmed, and expressed fear that it would attract homeless people, drug dealing, prostitution, safety concerns, noise, and bad smells.
Patricia Gardner, the planning chair for the Pearl District Neighborhood Association, says five alternatives were considered, including porta-potties. Gardner says the loo was the only viable option. “There are still a lot of angry people,” she admits.
Sandra Ammerman is a resident of the Tanner Place Condominiums, located next to the future loo. She says there is no reason for it to be open 24 hours a day because people in the neighborhood are asleep at night. “Who would be walking around late at night?” she asks. “People who are up to no good.”
Carol McCreary, a member of the Old Town Chinatown Neighborhood Association and the advocacy organization PHLUSH (“Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human”), says there have been no issues with safety, noise, or other concerns related to the loo in Old Town. She estimates it is used 400 times a day.
“People use it and they move on. It’s not a negative attractor. It’s a piece of street furniture,” she says.
Ammerman refused to directly comment on McCreary’s statement. “It’s naïve,” she says, “to think the loo is going to work in every kind of neighborhood.” Ammerman says she is going to continue fighting having the loo installed, but would not be any more specific.
Additional loos are planned for construction. Leonard and McCreary say only time will tell if the neighbors’ “not in my backyard” attitude subsides. With more loos in Portland, Leonard thinks people will see what the “experience has been, versus what people are afraid of.”
Sandra Ammerman, you elitist retard, the public toilets aren’t FOR people in the neighborhood. They can use their own damn toilets. They do after all live IN the neighborhood. These are for those of us who would otherwise piss on your precious street. Last time I checked that doesn’t happen a whole lot during the day. I for one do my public pissing after dark.
“Who would be walking around late at night?” she asks. “People who are up to no good.”
WHAT?!
People who work late. People who work nights. People taking classes because they’re trying to get a GED or a bachelor’s while working and raising kids. People going to bars in the neighborhood and spending dollars in YOUR economy. People who want to watch live international sports (ie those 4:30am World Cup matches I biked downtown to watch).
In fact, I went down to Old Town last night and put some money on a few beers in the neighborhood. When I walked to downtown to catch my bus home, I realized I should have made one last pit stop at the Davis Street Tavern, and I had to wait for about 30 minutes before I got home.
Most people wouldn’t hold it.
“Sandra Ammerman, you elitist retard” – excellently put ShesMe
Man, Sandra Ammerman must be scared of her own shadow. She lives up in her rich high-rise, so why on Earth should she give a shit whether there’s a public restroom across the street from her? Any bathroom dt probably shouldn’t have to be opened 24/7, but that ought to be due to practical reasons [such as saving energy] – NOT due to the paranoid hysteria of rich residents like Ms. Ammerman. And who, besides her, is even talking about “people walking around at night”? What the fuck does that have to do with public restrooms? People USE THEM & GO ON! Noone’s going to be just hanging out in some smelly-ass bathroom, for Pete sakes! People, good or no-good, are going to be walking around day & night regardless, whether you like it or not. If you gotta go, you gotta go – you’re not gonna walk 10 or 15 blocks trying to find a “proper” loo. So, i can’t understand where this argument comes from that public bathrooms somehow attract crime, homelessness, drug-dealing, etc. like we don’t have that already!
And i don’t see what Ms. Ammerman is soo worried about. Any “dirty lowlife” seen in her nice & White Pearl will be surely beaten to death by police. Just ask James Chasse. Or ask his family.
Yeah to further emphansize, James P. Chasse Jr.(assuming for the sake of arguement he was ever even guilty of pissing behind a tree) was chased down & MURDERED by three pigs b/c they thought he was urinating in public. This happened in the White Precious Pearl district.
Not exactly crime-free.
Homeless are gonna poop somewhere.
I think Sandra Ammerman have these loos confussed with the city hall restroom made famous by Sam Adams.
I for one would more than welcome as public loo in my neighborhood. Just two nights ago I witnessed a drunk dude pissing in the entry-way alcove of some apartments a block from my house. A public loo would’ve hopefully prevented whoever lived in that building from walking in piss.
New toilet, does that mean I can’t piss in the doorway of 1030 Northwest Johnson Street like I ussually do when walking home from the bars ?
The only times I’ve ever tried to use the one on 5th and Glisan, it’s been very apparent that the current occupant was not using the device as intended.
I’ll leave it to Blogtown’s capable imagination. But yes, it was gross, and completely turned me off to using, or supporting, a public restroom. I’d rather pee outside.
White-pearl neighborhood?Damosa your a knee jerk hypocritical racist.Just go back and read your comments for clarification.As far as the bathrooms?Do it.We don’t need the plague.
Public restrooms properly monitored I don’t think anyone would be against.
But don’t try to use the ridiculous argument that public toilets would suddenly make everyone rational and sober and no one would piss on the street anymore.
I am soooooo over this snarky rag/me,me,me,pseudo intelligent bullshit employee ego trip shit.To be commenting alongside soooooo many *ssholes makes me none the better.Woooops….looks like rain!!!! Think I’ll stay in….AGAIN and mental masterbate how AWESOME I am and piss on good folks cause I can.Last log in 8/4/10.R.I.P.Mandingo !!!!*UCK this stupid commenting life.Your all just pissi’n in the wind.Lots of luck.If you hadnt noticed yet….90% of the comments are employees and their friends.Take this circle jerk to the river and illuminate the cheese.
“White-pearl neighborhood?Damosa your a knee jerk hypocritical racist.”
How on Earth does refering to the “Pearl” as White make me racist? Who’s being knee-jerk now?
I thought for a moment I may of been wrong about you being a racist.Then I read your history of comments and………..NOT !!!Anger sucks.
I used to work at the REI in the Pearl District, and the Ammerman types in the condo building across the street would get so incensed about the garbage truck coming at seven in the morning (really, Biff, who could *imagine* such a thing!). And I could never help but wonder, did these entitled pricks honestly believe that moving to the middle of what is arguably the most urban section of a large city would be a serene and bucolic experience? Guess what, Yupsters, Bo-bos and empty nesters: the root word of urbane is urban! Which implies noisy, messy, diverse and yes, a little dangerous. If you can’t handle it, there’s plenty of room for you in the suburbs of fucking Houston…
According to the PHLUSH web site, many of Portland’s public restrooms close at 11 PM:
“Downtown Portland has a number of free standing, open space comfort stations. These include the historic comfort stations in Chapman, Lownsdale and Ankeny Parks and more recent structures in Waterfront Park under the Hawthorne Bridge and at RiverPlace Marina. All are operated by Portland Parks and Recreation and maintained Downtown Clean and Safe. They are open seven days a week from 8 am to 11 pm.”
http://phlush.org/portlandtoilets/comfort-stations/
Seattle had a few and they shut them down as they were used for drug dealing and prostitution. Tourists and “average folk” were fairly frightened to even use them.