Take this inquiry from an Anchorage congregation that cannot accept a message from the public at Portland Loos.

Proposition 8, for $5 million in taxpayer funds, would have installed up to 10 modular toilets throughout the city. Voters said a $500,000 toilet was too much. Voters seem to fear that the restrooms will be occupied by vagrants and drug addicts, as so many other public facilities have been.

But this is an Assembly that will not take “no” for an answer.

“We want to know more about why the link was not adopted. Was the bond asking for too much money, did they not provide enough information, or are restrooms simply not a desired amenity in public spaces? » » asks the Assembly on its survey site on this link.

The website created to promote the survey gives all sorts of reasons why more public toilets are needed, including “mental wellbeing”.

The survey website says people benefit from clean toilets, saying “parents of young children can leave the house knowing they will be able to find a clean toilet before a request becomes an emergency.”

However, on the same page, the survey website admits that businesses incur costs to “repair damage caused by misuse” of their toilets, without acknowledging that the same problem will affect unattended public toilets at a higher rate. even greater frequency.

From questions about the survey is it: What is your gender identity?

The choices proposed by the survey are as follows:

• – Women
• – Man
• – Gender queer or non-binary
• –Agender
• – Not specified above, please specify

In a 2019 study of cities that installed Portland Loos, some of the serious problems associated with these installations have been described. These issues, including needle use, prostitution and general illegal activities, are not included among the information the public might want at the Anchorage Assembly’s public inquiry. The issues include these Portland Loo stories from other cities:

In 2014, the Salt Lake City government, at the request of Salt Lake City community members concerned about health conditions and lack of services in a dilapidated industrial area of ​​the city, installed two Portland Loos. The Loos is near a homeless shelter, a soup kitchen and a health clinic for homeless people. Although there are plans to build multi-use facilities, there are currently no residential areas nearby and very few businesses. No sooner had the Loos been established than drug traffickers took over, barring entry to anyone refusing to buy drugs. Loos also began to be used for prostitution. The toilets were constantly clogged with inappropriate objects being flushed. People were sleeping at Loos. In 2018, the Utah Highway Patrol ordered the Portland Loos to close at night. There is now a full-time monitor during the day responsible for cleaning the Loos as needed and limiting use to one person at a time. Since then, conditions have improved.

In 2017, Olympia Washington, responding to a community call for restrooms for the public, particularly for those experiencing homelessness, installed a 24/7 Portland restroom along a downtown sidewalk. Busy town, as well as taverns, restaurants, specialty stores and Town Hall nearby. Along with its installation, an adjacent parking lot was transformed into a park which was eventually closed. Before being closed, the Loos became a gathering place for park users (homeless, drug addicts) to the detriment of the use of the Loos. Since the park closed, the situation has improved significantly. There are reports of occasional use for shooting at each other and of people sleeping there at night.