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RITZY CITY: San Francisco 24-7 ‘Pit Stops’ Costing A Whopping $28.50 Per Flush

   DailyWire.com
A scooter loaded with personal items stands against a public toilet in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Monday, Oct. 14, 2019.
Photo by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

In the People’s Republic of San Francisco, where drug needles, urine, and homeless people abound, the 24 Pit Stops run by the city for public peeing and pooping that are open 24-7 are costing taxpayers $28.50 per flush.

According to The San Francisco Chronicle, “Public Works has estimated that keeping all 24 of the city’s Pit Stops open around the clock would cost an extra $8.25 million a year. Staffing is the primary cost. The attendants ensure the public bathrooms are kept safe, clean and used for their intended purpose.”

The Chronicle adds that public toilets sans attendants were often used for drug activity and prostitution; thus the city erected the Pit Stops on Sixth and Jessie streets South of Market, Market and Castro streets in the Castro, and Eddy and Jones streets in the Tenderloin, where two attendants were present to monitor the toilets 24 hours per day, costing the city $300,000 between mid-August through mid-November.

Public Works logs found that the toilets were utilized 10,518 times between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. The Chronicle stated, “So the extra $300,000 for 10,518 after-hour uses comes to $28.52 per overnight flush.”

Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, who initiated the program five years ago, defended his project, stating, “The Pit Stops provide a place for people to take care of their bathroom needs with dignity, improving neighborhood livability and reducing demands on Public Works staff to clean up human waste from the city’s sidewalks, doorways and streets.”

But the Chronicle points out that the supposed reduction in demands on Public Works staff is not entirely accurate, noting:

In the quarter-mile radius around the Tenderloin Pit Stop, calls went from 188 in the three months prior to the test to 176 during the three-month test — that’s a drop of four calls per month. Calls for cleanups in the quarter-mile radius around South of Market Pit Stop dropped to 166 from 190 — eight fewer per month. Calls in the quarter-mile around the Castro Pit Stop dropped from 68 to 61, less than three per month.

Yet Supervisor Matt Haney is bullish about the project, asserting, “We should open all of them downtown, in my district, 24 hours. I know there is a need there. The other locations we should look at in a case-by-case basis and review the use data. I’m certain there are other parts of the city with similar needs.” He added, “The people who do the work are almost entirely recently formerly incarcerated, so it also serves as a sort of jobs program. So there are significant additional benefits other than only the bathroom uses.”

The Daily Wire has noted that Fox News reported that the Tenderloin, which, according to the San Francisco “poop map,” is “ground zero” for the city’s waste problem, with dozens of reports of human feces littering the sidewalk being called into the city’s 311 non-emergency hotline every month, and despite San Francisco’s reported overtime commitment to keep the streets feces-free, the city’s “poop patrol” cleanup unit is only able to thoroughly wash the Tenderloin’s public sidewalks around once per month because demand is so high.

 

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