Our frequent commenter Reality Checker posted a comment yesterday about city council refusing to provide restrooms in the remodeled (for the umpteenth time) San Jacinto Plaza.
The plaza renovations are one of the 2012 quality of life bond projects.
The situation is really sad in my opinion.
I’m having difficulty expressing my thoughts here. I’m gobsmacked and my thoughts are erupting faster than I can filter them and make them an appropriate part of the discussion.
How can we have reached this state of affairs?
Are our city officials incompetent? Do they not care about our quality of life? Is this some kind of sick joke?
The design work was supervised by city staff. It is possible that the city council members at the time were not aware of the lack of facilities.
What cannot be denied however is that this city council is aware of the problem and all but one member voted to go ahead without the bathrooms. Shame on them.
El Paso may be open for business but it evidently is not open to the public.
Restrooms will have to be provided. I suppose that portable johns will be the first offering.
In the meantime I agree with mamboman3‘s suggestion yesterday. Let’s close the restrooms in the city operated buildings so that our public servants can learn better how to serve the public.
Quality of life my foot.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
The City of El Paso gave the folks who remodeled the Mills building a good break on the purchase of property to build their parking garage. The Mills building has some nice restrooms. The public should be encouraged to use them until City Council gets some smarts.
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they can let the vagrants and park visitors shit and piss in starbucks rr. foster may ante up that 500k after a few weeks of sink showers
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Most all park restrooms are covered with “caca” and vomit everywhere. I REALLY would not “plan” on using ANY park restroom and certainly, not a downtown one. I used to have a business downtown and was so sorry after letting any person off the street use it.
There ARE people downtown that want to live in the public restrooms.
I dont know how they could be cleaned top to bottom every few minutes.
Remember the restrooms at the coliseum, in years past, where you had to stand in a puddle “of liquid” while you tried to do your business?
And if you were handicaped, . . . oh I felt sorry for those folks having to roll over puddles “of liquid” to get in.
Are other towns like this?
Other city downtown public restrooms?
Is this just an “El Paso” thing?
Now, any store or business facing the park COULD provide nice-clean restrooms with an attendent and I’d pay $5. to use it.
Maybe an entire small storefront with 10 restrooms and 2 full time attendents. All handicaped ready.
Also having vending machines with drinks and snacks to offset some costs.
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Public restrooms in San Jacinto Plaza? Even in the 1950s when the old underground restrooms in the Plaza were still open, the average downtown shopper stayed away because the restrooms were dangerous and dirty.
That said, most places that want to be welcoming to tourists or even to locals must provide adequate public facilities. For example, Fredericksburg, Texas has several clean, well-lit, well-marked public restrooms for tourists. Probably the shop owners put pressure on the city to provide these. Possibly, the shop owners pay for the upkeep of the restrooms, which are not staffed full-time but are cleaned and checked many times throughout the day. They are closed after 10 pm.
If El Paso’s downtown business owners want to welcome foot traffic, tourists and locals, they must provide clean, safe facilities or at least share the expense with the city. Paul Foster should lead the way on this because, after all, the buses were moved and San Jacinto Plaza is being jazzed up to make his outdoor cafe corridor pleasing.
Should we the taxpayers pay the huge expense of maintaining public facilities in order to make the Plaza area welcoming? Not only no, but hell no.
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Yes, I agree with you and homeowner about the expense and health issues at the plaza.
We unfortunately have built it again with features designed to attract people to use it with a horseshoe court, benches, café and other features.
Brutus
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Then . . . whatever they sell at the Cafe better provide enough profit for maintenance and 24-7 police protection of the property.
The Downtown Developent Association/Commission, or whatever they are called now, should divy up the operating costs of the restrooms and let the businesses downtown pay for their own customers and visitors use.
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Uh, balmorhea, if the Plaza is public, and it is, then the public should indeed bear the cost of providing services to itself. That is not only logical, but kind of necessary.
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Every city park in El Paso is public, yet the city does not provide restrooms. There have not been restrooms in the Plaza for over 60 years. Why should taxpayers suddenly have this added responsibility? The downtown business district already diverts taxes from downtown property to use in that district. Let them allocate some of that money for public restrooms. But don’t add this expense to an already overburdened city budget.
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Now that’s an idea!
Brutus
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And why is the city budget so overburdened? Maybe all that debt interest and foolish projects and all those tax breaks that benefit cronies are somewhat culpable. Yet, we can’t fund basic necessities???
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I guess I dont have to mention: drug use, needles everywhere, hookers using the restrooms to do more than “use the restroom”, sex trade, perverts, pedophiles, spray paint, “art” posters glued to the walls, drug deals and robberies while you have your pants open.
“OH, honey, lets go downtown and eat a bunch of stuff, so we have to use the restrooms in the park downtown.”
And when they have those “Fenced off outdoor concerts, outdoor events” at the park, the drunk and drugged teenagers love to puke and pee on the walls and ceilings.
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I remember the underground bathrooms and I always thought they were an adventure. I seem to remember having to pay a dime to get into the toilet. Admitedly the upkeep did not keep up over the years and we ended up with the horror stories mentioned above. The problem is that just because we make people use bathrooms elsewhere it doesn’t erase all the other problems that remain, that are only attributable to people in our community, in our public. We need proper vigilance, security, and maintenance of public restrooms and should find our way to a viable solution. Denial and shoving the problem onto our good neighbors instead of facing it head-on is absurd and is no solution.
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if the city of El Paso really wanted a vibrant downtown area they would do something about restrooms. Not doing something speaks volumes.
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If we’re not willing to provide the most basic and essential amenities for the public, then it supports the belief that all of the public investment downtown is for the benefit of private real estate developers. The San Jacinto project is just free landscaping for the owners of the buildings that surround the plaza.
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The answer is obvious: if you go downtown…just go to the ballpark with restroom facilities and not the Plaza!
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Sorry, but the ballpark is the exclusive domain of Mountainstar. That’s an expensive ticket just to use the john.
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Okay…Do not go downtown…no restroom relief!
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It seems that “downtown is a no go”
Brutus
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Whenever Im downtown and HAVE to find a restroom, the Library restroom is usually OK.
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I don’t know what the answer to this problem is, but unattended restrooms in a public space are not it. It would certainly not be my choice to enter one of these places: even women’s restrooms that are cleaned fairly often can be pretty bad – the female of the species is no less messy than the male. The facilities in the Mills Building are maintained by that building’s staff and are available by just walking in along the hall. (They are clean; Anson’s 11 restaurant relies on them). Nearby is the Museum of Art and the Camino Real, the library as noted. Does anyone know how the restroom issue is handled when large groups gather for the likes of “Alfresco Fridays?” If it becomes apparent that some kind of facility is needed, then something along the lines of homeowner777 is probably best. It is not just a question of the expense of building, but providing maintenance staff as well, or it will rapidly become too trashed to use.
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Here’s another way to look at this. The taxpayers are already funding a ballpark and various other projects downtown including the Plaza facelift. Sure, bathrooms are a necessity, but no one worried about them until the Plaza area had to be spruced up for Paul Foster. I see the vote by City Council on the restrooms as finally putting their foot down. Should have been done sooner, much sooner (like before the ballpark was pushed through but that’s history now). Sure, the city is supposed to fund basic necessities. How about starting with streets elsewhere in the city and letting the downtown business owners take responsibility for downtown like it was supposed to be.
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