SF has finally figured out how to put affordable bathrooms in parks after that $1.7 million Noe Valley toilet fiasco, plopping down a new modular bathroom in Precita Park whose price tag is quite reasonable.

We all remember when the shit hit the fan over a $1.7 million estimate for installing a public toilet in Noe Valley Town Square, which released a stream of outrage over profligate SF City Hall spending that even the national press got their intestines in a bundle over. Governor Gavin Newsom was so pissed that he yanked the state funding for the project unless the SF Board of Supervisors found a way to make the bathroom cheaper.  But everything came out okay in the end, because the supervisors did approve a much cheaper modular bathroom at the cost of just $300,000, a discount deal we only got because a Nevada manufacturer donated the toilet and restroom structure for free.

But relief is on the way, because last year the SF Rec and Parks Department announced that their next public park toilet scheduled to be placed in Bernal Heights’ Precita Park would only cost $262,000 total. That is just 15%, or barely one-seventh, of the cost of the notorious original $1.7 million estimate for the Noe Valley bathroom.

Well, that new Precita Park modular bathroom was just literally plopped into the park this past Thursday, January 8. It is not yet operational, still requiring plumbing hook-ups and such, but is expected to be flush-ready to relieve parkgoers “in the next few weeks.”

Rec and Parks describes this modular powder room as a “prefabricated, single-stall, all-gender accessible restroom." They’ll be adding a working drinking fountain onto the exterior, it's going to have a trash receptacle, and there will be some new landscaping around the unit.

And if you know Precita Park, you know the facilities have been rather modest there for quite some time.

Here we see the current state of affairs with this not-yet functioning public restroom, and Rec and Parks delivered an update on the installation last week. “Now that the facility has arrived, our contractor will begin connecting the utilities to the structure and complete the surrounding landscaping, with the aim of opening the new restroom in early 2026,” the department said. “Once the restroom is open, the Precita Eyes Muralists will begin the final artistic phase in the spring, installing custom tiles that will add color, character, and community storytelling to the exterior.”

That area of Precita Park is still largely fenced off, so the installation is currently eyesoring up a fairly substantial section of the park next to the kids’ playground.

But work is coming along, and this should be a nice and highly useful (albeit not terribly glamorous) facility — and at a $260,000 price tag, that sounds a hell of a lot more reasonable than $1.7 million.

Above is a rendering of what Rec and Parks says the Precita Park washroom will look like once complete. The artists of Precita Eyes Muralists are currently working on the external artwork that will be unveiled this spring, with the bathroom opening to the public well before that artwork is complete.

Related: Notorious Formerly $1.7 Million Noe Valley Public Toilet Opens With ‘Potty Party,’ Scatological Costumes [SFist]

Image: SF Rec and Parks

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

There are two ways to best judge a restaurant's quality: the soup and the bathroom. Both signify a venue's subtle, yet overall, attention detail. Visiting a new restaurant's bathroom is one of the most titillating moments of a meal for your editor. So, much to our delight, today 's Michael Bauer discusses restaurants' cans, giving top ratings to Gitane on Claude Lane. "The somewhat quirky interior, designed by Mr. Important Design, has a sexy aura that's also encapsulated in the bathroom. It feels like walking into an extension of the dining room, starting at the draped foyer," he gushes. Our favorite has to go to Orson. See, they have seven private bathrooms, all of them complete with low-lighting, black walls, and bowls of coffee grounds. Have a favorite? Let us know in the comments.