City Halts Pilot Bathroom Program Downtown

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

October 13 -- City officials have suspended a highly touted program that stations bathroom attendants in Downtown parking garage restrooms that, until recently, were in disrepair and dangerous, according to Bayside District officials who manage the area.

Launched July 4 by the City, the pilot program – which placed attendants in two parking behind the highly profitable Third Street Promenade off the 2nd Court and 3rd Court alleys – provided more than clean towels for visitors to wipe their hands, Bayside officials said.

“It’s a very important project for Downtown,” said Bayside Executive Director Rawson, who described the restrooms as “unusable and unsafe” before the program started.

The bathrooms are a respite for tourists walking between parking garages and the well- groomed Promenade, she said.

In between, tourists, shoppers, visitors and residents all deal with alleyways filled with trash and scores of homeless individuals and their debris. For a few short months, Rawson said, the situation next to the bathrooms has been much improved.

“It’s much safer if someone is attending,” Rawson said. “Any extra eyes and ears are helpful. Those alleys are not hospitable.

“Attendants cleaned bathrooms, the bottom of stairwells, tended to trash that may have been thrown next to dumpsters and did all kinds of things,” she said.

The decision to halt the program, slated to end in September, was an economic one, Rawson said.

“It’s just funding,” she said, noting the program cost $12,000 per month, not including the cosmetic improvements.

Rawson said the Bayside would be flexible cutting back on hours or making the program “less labor intensive.”

Environmental and Public Works Department director, Craig Perkins, broke the news to Rawson last week and the two plan to meet about the program, Rawson said.

Perkins had not returned phone calls for comment by the time of publication.

The restrooms are accessible from Third Street Promenade through the CT Plaza Food Court passageway for the men's room in Structure #3 and through the 1316 Third Street Promenade passageway for the women's room in Structure #4.

The pilot program was scheduled from July through September 2006 and, if successful, would have been implemented in other structures.

In the meantime, Rawson said, the Bayside is anxiously awaiting a market survey about services in the Downtown expected to come out in a few weeks.

“It will be interesting to see where the program ranked,” she said.