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.
Image: SF Rec and Parks
