Experts Offer Solutions to San Francisco’s $1.7 Million Public Toilet

San Francisco public toilet (Jamie / Flickr / CC)
Jamie / Flickr / CC

Experts from around the world are weighing in on ways to build a cheaper public toilet in San Francisco, after the San Francisco Chronicle exposed the fact that the city would pay $1.7 million, and take several years, to build a single commode in a town square.

The Chronicle‘s Heather Knight reported last month:

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.

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.

Knight inquired about the reasons for the cost and the delay. She was told that the city’s extensive bureaucracy was responsible, including rules that required public comment and an analysis of the toilet’s impact on San Francisco’s “urban environment.”

After that story went viral, Knight reported Tuesday, locals canceled the celebration for the toilet, and experts sent advice from around the world about how to build a cheaper toilet. One proposal proposed using a pre-fabricated model that could save San Francisco hundreds of thousands of dollars. The catch: “San Francisco officials must agree to a streamlined approval process.”

Red tape affects the private sector, as well: a recent study by the Institute for Justice found that San Francisco was the costliest city in the U.S. for starting a small business, thanks in large part to the large number of regulations and the opacity of the city bureaucracy.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

Photo: file

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