A stream of yellow and brown balloons and toilet-humor costumes came out for Sunday’s official opening of the Noe Valley public bathroom that was once supposed to cost $1.7 million, though its cost plopped down to just a few hundred thousand dollars.

It was way back in October 2022, a full year and a half ago, when a Heather Knight mini-exposé in the Chronicle decried that a new public toilet in Noe Valley Town Square was going to cost $1.7 million. That story blew up nationally, and Governor Gavin Newsom yanked the funding unless the city could somehow make it cheaper. Which the city did, when a Nevada company donated a prefab public restroom for free, which arrived last month but still needed its plumbing hook-ups completed before opening.  

The public bathroom technically started functioning last week, but a “Potty Party” was scheduled for Sunday to celebrate its grand opening. And Heather Knight was on the scene again, now in her role with the New York Times, describing the scene at the toilet-themed Noe Valley bathroom opening party where children “sipped lemonade and ate chocolate cupcakes while they tossed bean bags into plastic training potties on the ground.”

The Chronicle has more color from the Potty Party, including video of an acrobat doing a dance routine with a plunger, dressed in full Mario costume.  Apparently about 100 people attended Sunday, and the Chronicle says that “Children circled a maypole clutching long strands of toilet paper,” and we will note that maypole was scatologically decorated.

"Noe Valley, let's hear it for our 'not-1.7-million-dollar-bathroom,'" event organizer Leslie Crawford announced to the crowd, according to KPIX.

And state Assemblymember Matt Haney came too, straight from Cherry Blossom Festival duty, and declared on Facebook that “It wasn't 1.7 million (just a couple hundred thousand) and isn't gold plated, but it's worth its weight in gold to this community!” Note the tightrope act Haney must walk here, considering he’s the one that got the $1.7 million approved before this became a scandal, and he must now pivot from a bring-home-the-bacon lawmaker to a guy who’s appearing to root out government waste.  

The Chronicle notes that the final cost of this prefab public restroom came out to “about $200,000” though we've seen other numbers tossed around in recent months.

Related: Formerly $1.7 Million Toilet Has Arrived In Noe Valley (But Won’t Function For Another Three Weeks) [SFist]

Image: @NoeValleyDems via Twitter

United Airlines really managed to outdo themselves with their latest mechanical problem this weekend, as a flight bound for SFO had to be diverted because of sewage flowing into the flight cabin.

Mechanical issues on board United Airlines flights to or from SF International Airports are starting to feel like an everyday occurrence. The latest of these was on Thursday night, when a flight from SFO to Paris had to be diverted to Denver because of engine issues.

But boy did United Airlines passengers have a terrible Friday night, the very next evening. The Hill reports that seven passengers had to be hospitalized after turbulence and high winds forced a flight from Newark, New Jersey from Tel Aviv to be rerouted to New Windsor, New York. Then according to the Chronicle, another United flight Friday night from Frankfurt, Germany to SFO had to be rerouted because its toilet was overflowing into the flight cabin.

Man, talk about a shitty flight!

The plane was reportedly forced to fly over the North Sea for a while a flummoxed crew tried to figure out how they were going to resolve this mess. After two hours that must have been excruciating for passengers, the flight did eventually divert back to Frankfurt. And notably, this was a Boeing 777, the same company that is currently facing a criminal probe by the Department of Justice over a January incident where a plane’s door plug blew off during a flight.  

With regard to Friday's incident, United Airlines said in a bare-bones statement to The Hill simply that there was a “maintenance issue with one of the aircraft’s lavatories.”

But there certainly have been maintenance issues with a lot of United flights lately. In addition to the above-mentioned incidents, there was a tire falling off a jet and landing on cars in the SFO parking lot on March 7. Two weeks prior to that, a piece of a wing flap tore off of a United flight from SFO to Boston. On March 8, a United Airbus jet from SFO to Mexico City had a hydraulic problem and was forced to land at LAX. And three days later, an SFO-bound United flight from Sydney, Australia had to turn back to Sydney over an unspecified "maintenance issue."

Plus on March 23, a United flight from SFO to Denver had to turn back to San Francisco after the plane struck a bird.

Related: Japan-Bound United Airlines Flight Out of SFO Loses Tire During Takeoff, Gets Diverted to LAX [SFist]

Image: Arkin Si via Unsplash

According to a Facebook fan who sent me this photo, the person who was caught using @SFBART as a public 🚽 has struck again. pic.twitter.com/jQgYJvCU5K

— Stanley Roberts (@SRobertsKRON4) October 20, 2017

Faithful newshounds might recall last month's tale of a seemingly troubled woman who repeatedly used BART's trains as restrooms. We now have an update, it seems, as BART has announced they've nabbed the alleged culprit.

Back in September commuter Allen Nunley went to BART with video he captured of the woman copping a squat as she rode the train, but after no response from the transit agency he took his video to the media, saying “As BART riders, we pay a lot of money to ride BART, and it’s just really ridiculous that BART staff cannot do anything about that."

"Everyone on the train is just covering their mouths and everything. They just can’t deal with it either. This particular time I just had enough.”

Nunley is likely pleased, then, to hear that BART staff has done something: According to KRON 4, the woman was arrested by BART police Friday, after yet another rider posted photos of the suspect as she went about her business.

This time, it was BART rider Susan Greenlee Edwards who caught the suspect on camera "after watching her urinate at around 5:53 a.m. on the Pittsburg-Bay line heading into San Francisco." She sent the photos to KRON 4's Stanley Roberts, who posted them to Facebook and Twitter.

It was shortly after that that BART says they arrested the woman, taking her "into custody for a no-bail warrant."

But while BART tweeted happily regarding the catch...

...it turns out the arrest us un-pee-related. Instead, Roberts reports, she was arrested by BART police for "active warrants" including the no-bail one, which was for "fire related crimes."

She also had "methamphetamine products" on her person, BART spokesperson Alicia Trott (who, interestingly, says the situation only came to BART's attention "about a week ago" despite a September report on the woman's alleged behavior) says.

But since the suspect wasn't ticketed for her alleged bathroom behavior — according to Roberts, despite the ample photographic evidence BART cops won't ticket her unless they see her dropping a load in person or riders make a "citizen's arrest" — she won't be banned from the system. That means that when she's released from jail, there's nothing stopping preventing her future pit stops on one of the transit agency's trains.

Previously: Outraged Commuter Records BART Rider Using Train As Restroom

Cintas Corporation, a company that manufactures poo and pee toiletries, is having their annual America's Best Restroom Competition. And the Union Square Macy's 6th floor crapper made the top ten. Yay!

Although females neither urinate nor defecate -- because that's unlady-like -- for some reason they feel the need to have their own bathrooms just like men. (Blame it on women's lib penis envy; we see no other reason.) See, ladies digest food and drink into perfume, sunshine, and lollipops, so public restrooms setup for them are typically more flowery and impressive than bathrooms for men. That's why Macy's female restroom is so smashing.

The contenders are:

• Macy's Department Store: San Francisco, California, 6th floor -- "Art deco design, featuring Italian marble, chandelier with carved ceiling medallion, and full-length stainless steel stall doors.
• Shoji Tabuchi Theatre (Branson, Missouri): "Marble fireplaces, hand-carved mahogany pool table, antiques, lion's head sinks, leather chairs, stained glass and chandeliers."

• Radio City Music Hall (New York, New York): Designed in the early 1930's, restroom and lounges feature classic tile work, art deco furnishings and unique materials, including cork- covered walls.

• Canlis Restaurant (Seattle, Washington): Zen-like atmosphere, featuring handmade organic wall coverings, designer fixtures, Japanese art, with large picture windows overlooking garden.