San Francisco public rest room as soon as priced at $1.7M opens to fanfare, reduction for lowered value

On Sunday, people in San Francisco's Noe Valley neighborhood celebrated the opening of a public restroom that made headlines with its estimated cost of $1.7 million before it was eventually built for a much lower price.

About 100 people filled Noe Valley Town Square to celebrate a brand new bathroom that drew international ridicule in 2022 for the astronomical pricePublic outcry forced the city to flush the idea down the toilet.

“Noe Valley, let’s hear our ‘not $1.7 million bathroom,’” event organizer Leslie Crawford shouted to the cheering crowd.

The organizers wanted to have some fun at the celebration and incorporate everything related to the toilet – there was even a live jazz band that renamed itself “American Standard” for the day.

“We couldn't bring Toto here, so…” laughed Crawford. “When everyone's laughing at you, you have to take the power back and laugh at yourself.”

Crawford admitted that San Francisco deserved all the crap it got when the city first announced the estimated $1.7 million cost of building the toilet. People thought it was the perfect example of government waste.

“This is absurd because the pipes were already in the ground when they built it. [town square] out,” said Noe Valley resident Todd Siemers.

“I found it a little ridiculous myself, everyone thought that,” added local resident Linda Maes.

A private company finally donated a prefabricated bathroom. But the cost still came to $200,000. The city said union workers would have to connect water lines and build other infrastructure to prepare everything.

We asked the people who used it: “How did it go?”

“I'm excited that they have a bathroom now,” said resident Zach D'Angelo. “And I give it a 10 out of 10.”

“It's great, it's a relief,” laughed Maes. “And we can relieve ourselves when we need to. We don't have to go into a [nearby] Restaurant.”

“It was spacious and clean and wonderful,” Siemers said.

And Crawford is glad that, at least for a while, there will be no more toilet jokes about San Francisco.

“This is a great ending to our story,” Crawford said.

The city said the bathroom is about 50 square feet. It has a metal toilet and a changing table.

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And Lin

Da Lin is an award-winning journalist with KPIX 5 News. He joined KPIX 5 in 2012 but has been covering news in the Bay Area since 2007. Da grew up in Oakland and spent five years as a news reporter for three other television stations in Texas, Southern and Central California before returning to the Bay Area. He also spent five years as a reporter for KRON 4.