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Seattle To Spend $1.8 Million On A Public Restroom

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Seattle will spend nearly $2 million building a public restroom on the city’s waterfront, according to multiple reports.

The $1.8 million project will produce one bathroom building consisting of six all-gender stalls located in a park on the city’s waterfront, according to the Seattle Business Journal. The project will begin in the spring, taking roughly nine months to complete.

A combination of city funds and charitable donations will pay for the bathroom, KOMO News reported.

Seattle installed five self-cleaning toilets in 2004 for $5 million, according to KOMO News. These toilets, however, were overrun by prostitution and drug use and were auctioned off by the city on eBay for pennies on the dollar.

Seattle residents were the most likely among people living in major metropolitan areas to report feeling pressured to move due to feeling unsafe, The Seattle Times reported. The city recorded its most homicides in more than 40 years in 2023, King 5 News reported.

The new toilets will be staffed when the park is open and closed off when the park closes, according to KOMO News. Security is also present all day on Seattle’s waterfront.

Seattle isn’t the only city constructing expensive public restrooms.

New York City paid $5.3 million for just five restrooms in February 2023, ABC 7 News New York reported. The bathrooms are expected to be completed by summer 2024.

Though Seattle expects the toilet to be completed in nine months, similarly priced projects in other cities have hit snags.

San Francisco approved $1.7 million for a single 150 square-foot bathroom, never began construction after fifteen months and then had their toilet funds revoked by the state, The New York Times reported.

Eventually, two private vendors offered to donate a prefabricated restroom to the city, according to ABC 7 News. The city will still be spending around $300,000 to install the bathroom.

Seattle’s Office of the Waterfront, the agency overseeing the project, did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.