BURST
The executive director of the Gastown Business Improvement Society is relieved to finally see public washrooms on their way to the neighbourhood.
Elise Yurkowski said the society has been involved in talks with the City of Vancouver for many years about ways to address the persistent problem of poop and pee in the streets of the downtown core.
“We’ve been clear that access to safe, 24/7 washrooms is essential for businesses, residents, visitors and the broader community,” said Yurkowski.
The first of the Portland loos — so named because they were developed in that Oregon city — is expected to go up at the corner of Main and Powell streets, just outside Gastown in the Downtown Eastside, within months. The second will be in the heart of Gastown, though the precise location is still being discussed and the timeline for its installation hasn’t been set.
“Gastown urgently needs a permanent, purpose-built washroom, and it should have been included in several major public-realm projects over the past decade,” said Yurkowski. “The neighbourhood has waited far too long.”
But thoughtful planning is needed, said Yurkowski. “We’ve emphasized the need for a strategic approach to siting. Gastown serves a diverse mix of users — tourists, workers, residents, vulnerable community members — and any location must consider who the washroom is serving, how it integrates into its surroundings, and how it supports safety and street vitality .”
The Portland Loo was chosen because it can operate unattended 24/7, is resistant to crime and vandalism, and allows people walking by to see the feet of anyone inside — an important safety feature in a downtown core plagued by drug use. It also has an exterior hand-washing station to minimize time spent inside.
The city has three other Portland loos in operation at CRAB Park and Coopers’ Park downtown, as well as one in Columbia Park at Alberta Street and West 42nd Avenue that is only open dawn to dusk.
They don’t come cheap. While the sturdy steel structure costs about $150,000, the city estimated a cost of $650,000 in 2021 to install the Coopers’ Park loo — including water and sanitary connections, the concrete base and landscaping. So the total cost of the next two should easily exceed $1 million.
There are also 10 automated public toilets around the downtown peninsula and one at Main and Terminal Avenue. But city planners note those self-cleaning models are more expensive to operate and maintain than Portland loos over the long haul.
Yurkowski said that, like other areas in and around the Downtown Eastside, Gastown has been plagued for years by people doing their dirty business in public — not to mention the used needles and other garbage that are a constant concern.
“Human waste continues to be one of the most persistent and growing challenges in the area,” said Yurkowski, who said the business society spends over $60,000 a year on daily cleaning services, and a big part of that cost is for specialized feces removal teams colloquially known as the Poop Fairy program.
“While we continue to fund this work to support our members, this is not a sustainable long-term approach,” said Yurkowski. “Public washrooms are an essential piece of urban infrastructure, and until they are delivered, businesses disproportionately carry the burden.”
Public washrooms — including their design, location and maintenance — are a complicated, expensive issue not just in Vancouver but in all big urban centres.
If you think not, consider that the City of Vancouver has an 88-page parks washroom strategy completed in late 2020 by a working group of board members and nearly two dozen staff. And that was just for the washrooms in parks, field houses and community centres around the city.
In its four-year capital plan for parks from 2019 to 2022, the city spent $8.3 million on new washrooms and another $8.7 million on renewing washrooms, field houses and concessions in parks.