Cities Answering Louder Call Of Nature

Cities across the country are answering the call of nature — for more (and cleaner) public restrooms. For instance, the Washington D.C. Council passed a bill in December 2018 to address the lack of public restrooms in the downtown area.

According to the Greater Washington website, the Public Restroom Facilities Installation and Promotion Act of 2018 creates a task force that, with the participation of four non-profit organizations and an expert in urban planning, will determine the feasibility of two pilot programs to add more clean, safe restrooms to the area. One program will propose locations and a design for a clean, safe, stand-alone public restrooms available 24/7. The second will be a program that provides incentives to private businesses to open their restrooms to the public.

At the same time last year, Santa Fe, New Mexico, was considering turning a downtown parking lot into additional restroom space. The plan, which is still in the design phase, is for restrooms featuring roughly 40 toilets to be located one block from the Sante Fe Plaza.

The restroom would be installed adjacent to Cerletti Park at a cost of roughly $500,000. The plan is that they would be maintained by a full-time attendant and closed overnight, according to an article on Santa Fe New Mexican website.

And, after a decade of discussion, Palm Springs, California, recently opened downtown restrooms that are available seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., according to an article on KESQ.

The responsibility to maintain the facilities falls on the city, but Palm Springs has contracted that work out to Grit Development, which owns the building. The restrooms will cost the city $3,000 a month, plus a separate fee to secure the site.