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San Francisco approves 1.7 million dollar toilet (yes one toilet)

Pejo

Pejo

Member
www.sfchronicle.com

S.F. is spending $1.7 million on one public toilet: ‘What are they making it out of — gold?’

A public toilet in SF is projected to cost $1.7 million, about the same as a single-family home.
www.sfchronicle.com www.sfchronicle.com

San Francisco politicians will gather at the Noe Valley Town Square Wednesday afternoon to congratulate themselves for securing state money for a long-desired toilet in the northeast corner of the charming plaza.

Another public toilet in a city with far too few of them is excellent. But the details of this particular commode? They’re mind-boggling, maddening and encapsulate so much of what’s wrong with our city government.

The toilet — just one loo in 150 square feet of space — is projected to cost $1.7 million, about the same as a single-family home in this wildly overpriced city. And it won’t be ready for use until 2025.
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“It’s important to note that public projects and their overall cost estimates don’t just reflect the price of erecting structures,” the statement said. “They include planning, drawing, permits, reviews and public outreach.”
Click to expand...

Make fun of SF for having homeless turds everywhere will you? Well guess what, they're doing something about it.

Toilet Bathroom GIF
 
Daneel Elijah

Daneel Elijah

Gold Member
The city said the $1.7 million estimate “is extremely rough” and budgets “for the worst-case scenario due to the onerous demands and unpredictable costs levied by PG&E,” the possibility code requirements could change during the project and in case other unexpected circumstances come up.
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Lying The Princess Bride GIF by Disney+

If I was in the region I would bet with anybody that it will be more than 2 millions. And I promise to take inflation into account. Outside of Charmed in my youth I only remember San francisco in South park. The smug episode. Can't believe that they really are like that.
 
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J

jason10mm

Gold Member
I'm curious how many companies offered a contract for a porta-john and how many YEARS of service 1.7 mill would cover.

Were I a political candidate in that cesspool of a city I would have filmed myself doing just that, being summarily rejected because there was not enough graft involved, and then use that in my campaign ads.
 
Pejo

Pejo

Member
RiccochetJ said:
Is it because they had to do some major construction to actually get water and sewage lines to that section? That's the only thing I can think of for the reason for that price tag.
Click to expand...
From the article:
The plumbing is already there, added when the plaza was constructed six years ago, but there was never money for the actual bathroom. Until Haney stepped in.
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spawn

spawn

Member
This is the problem with government. My guess is that someone is money laundering here. Trying to make the money look legitimate by funneling it through a construction project
 
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Crayon

Crayon

Member
So in the whole city right now, there are like 25 (? last time I checked?) public "toilets".

This is like no toilet you've ever seen. It's a small building built like a bank vault. There is a single toilet inside. After each use, the door automatically locks and the thing cleans itself. I've never been in there while it's happening, but it seems like it sprays down the whole room and not just the toilet. It's fucking ludicrous.

Meanwhile what they really need is portopotty's in the slums so homeless people have somewhere to take a shit. Fucking tired of hearing all this bitching about shit on the sidewalk. You think people WANT to shit on the sidewalk? Really pisses me off.
 
J

jason10mm

Gold Member
Crayon said:
This is like no toilet you've ever seen. It's a small building built like a bank vault. There is a single toilet inside. After each use, the door automatically locks and the thing cleans itself. I've never been in there while it's happening, but it seems like it sprays down the whole room and not just the toilet. It's fucking ludicrous.
Click to expand...
If this is true then there is probably a max of 3 shits/hr for this thing. So 72 shits/day and 26000 shits/yr.

Gonna cost $65/shit give or take :p
 
L

Lasha

Member
Crayon said:
So in the whole city right now, there are like 25 (? last time I checked?) public "toilets".

This is like no toilet you've ever seen. It's a small building built like a bank vault. There is a single toilet inside. After each use, the door automatically locks and the thing cleans itself. I've never been in there while it's happening, but it seems like it sprays down the whole room and not just the toilet. It's fucking ludicrous.

Meanwhile what they really need is portopotty's in the slums so homeless people have somewhere to take a shit. Fucking tired of hearing all this bitching about shit on the sidewalk. You think people WANT to shit on the sidewalk? Really pisses me off.
Click to expand...

25 total...that's insane. Are there no toilets in the transit stations? The toilet you describe is pretty common around the world. You usually put money in, do your business, and it goes through a 1-2 minute cleaning cycle. They are definitely not space efficient.
 
JonSnowball

JonSnowball

Member
If everyone gets together and ejaculates all over this toilet they can form a club of people who've spurted cum in a million dollar bowl. I doubt that'd be possible outside of infiltrating a museum of history specifically to achieve that.
 
GeekyDad

GeekyDad

Member
RiccochetJ said:
Is it because they had to do some major construction to actually get water and sewage lines to that section? That's the only thing I can think of for the reason for that price tag.
Click to expand...
From the article listed in the OP:

"...The plumbing is already there, added when the plaza was constructed six years ago..."

From the same article:

"...
So why is a public bathroom so insanely expensive, and why does it take so long to build? A joint statement from Rec and Park and the Department of Public Works, which will work together to build this extravagant bathroom, pointed to several reasons.


For one thing, the cost to build anything in San Francisco is exorbitant. The city is the most expensive in the world to build in — even topping Tokyo, Hong Kong and New York City. We’re No. 1! Even for places to go No. 1.


Like everywhere, construction costs have risen 20% to 30% in the past couple of years due to global supply chain issues and the rising costs of fuel, labor and materials. But like always, there’s a certain preciousness to the process in San Francisco. (Just look at the years-long, ongoing quest to design and manufacture bespoke city trash cans.)


“It’s important to note that public projects and their overall cost estimates don’t just reflect the price of erecting structures,” the statement said. “They include planning, drawing, permits, reviews and public outreach. ...”
 
Pejo

Pejo

Member
Well NAYSAYERS, it look like you guys won. Matt Haney - the assembly member that was celebrating this monumental occasion - just canceled plans for the celebration of this 1.7 million dollar toilet after a lot of ridicule and backlash. You guys probably made him sad.

www.sfchronicle.com

Celebration for S.F.’s $1.7 million toilet canceled after backlash: ‘The cost is insane’

Assembly Member Matt Haney secured $1.7 million in state funding for a Noe Valley toilet....
www.sfchronicle.com www.sfchronicle.com

Tobey Maguire Reaction GIF

-Matt Haney (probably)

This new article does a pretty fun job with a few puns in the opening paragraphs.

Also, there are a few updates on the 20 thousand dollar trashcan.

I love how this guy was pumped about securing the 1.7 million and then when he got shat on for it, suddenly realized it was too expensive and too much time to get it done.
 
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Crayon

Crayon

Member
Lasha said:
25 total...that's insane. Are there no toilets in the transit stations? The toilet you describe is pretty common around the world. You usually put money in, do your business, and it goes through a 1-2 minute cleaning cycle. They are definitely not space efficient.
Click to expand...

There are toilets on the subway stations but they are always on the inside between the turnstiles!

Most public toilets in San Francisco I can think of are in shopping areas. As far as city-maintained ones, I can only think of the self cleaning toilets.

The only time I've ever seen portables out was for big street events like parades or marathons. The really need those in some areas but don't want to admit it.
 
Pejo

Pejo

Member
So one final update to this, I thought it was pretty interesting. A breakdown of the 1.7 million dollar budget and a picture of the portapotty that it replaces:
r91ty91fsdv91.png


0o1ceoehsdv91.png
 
MrMephistoX

MrMephistoX

Member
jason10mm said:
The fact that this DOESN'T have the citizens of SF kicking out EVERY SINGLE CITY MANAGEMENT OFFICAL AND ELECTED LEADER says it all. Corrupt through and through.
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The shitty part is (pun very much intended) is that a toilet is needed and now it’s not going to happen because the bureaucratic processes are so fundamentally broken that one can’t simply go to Home Depot and hire day laborers to build a simple toilet. This is literally the government procurement system working as intended. Neither party has the stomach to truly rip out entrenched systems and redesign them from the ground up because it takes time and isn’t something that will complete before their next election is up. Dems and Repubs would piss off too many people they owe favors to and Republicans largely don’t understand how to run a massive bureaucracy so their only solution ever is to cut and Dems only solution ever is to ask for more $. So Dems ask for more $ and Republicans ask to cut funding and round and round we go and nothing ever gets fixed like the IRS and DMV still running on ancient computers coded in COBOL.
 
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Havoc2049

Havoc2049

Member
MrMephistoX said:
The shitty part is (pun very much intended) is that a toilet is needed and now it’s not going to happen because the bureaucratic processes are so fundamentally broken that one can’t simply go to Home Depot and hire day laborers to build a simple toilet. This is literally the government procurement system working as intended. Neither party has the stomach to truly rip out entrenched systems and redesign them from the ground up because it takes time and isn’t something that will complete before their next election is up. Dems and Repubs would piss off too many people they owe favors to and Republicans largely don’t understand how to run a massive bureaucracy so their only solution ever is to cut and Dems only solution ever is to ask for more $. So Dems ask for more $ and Republicans ask to cut funding and round and round we go and nothing ever gets fixed like the IRS and DMV still running on ancient computers coded in COBOL.
Click to expand...
Nice story, but this is San Francisco we are talking about. Who are these mythical Republicans you speak of?
 
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