They’re not gold-plated toilets but they will cost property taxpayers a pretty penny. A bond measure that will ask Anchorage voters to spend $12.5 million bond to install up to 30 “Portland Loos” or similar toilets across the municipality passed the Assembly on Tuesday.
The fancy-but-functional outdoor toilets, which are plumbed and have electricity to them, would cost taxpayers more than $416,000 apiece, according to the measure, which has been dubbed by the Assembly, “Anchorage Goes.”
Aside from the possibly awkward “Anchorage Goes” branding, it’s something that will specifically help the homeless and possibly prevent human excrement from showing up all over sidewalks and greenbelts.
“Public restrooms have been a common feature in cities, along with other public health and hygiene amenities such as drinking fountains, seating areas, and indoor and outdoor recreational facilities such as parks, transit stations, and community centers,” said the Assembly members who sponsored the measure.
The public toilets will help the people living on the streets who have no where else to go.
Portland Loos have cost a variable amount, depending on where they have been installed; but according to other cities, they each cost about $12,000 annually to maintain.
In Chicago, the loos have been subjected to vandalism and have been used for prostitution. They have attracted tent cities that grow around them.
“Problems there have included drug use and prostitution within the loo and homeless people living nearby in small tents. Vandals and users have also broken the loo’s door off the hinges and destroyed the lock several times, and there was flooding when the nozzle on the loo’s outdoor sink was broken,” reported the Chicago Tribune in 2015.
San Diego, a city with 1.4 million people, spent spent more than $500,000 installing just two of the loos. But with various maintenance costs and complaints from residents, the city put one of them in storage.
Anchorage Assembly members Chris Constant, Meg Zaletel, and Anna Brawley were the sponsors of the bond measure, which voters will decide on the April 2, 2024.
If you are wondering how a toilet costs more than your house, the money is going to the unions that fund their campaigns.
Talk about flushing money down the toilet!
But, that’s our illustrious ass-embly.
you are correct, sir.
These would be completely trashed by the wild animals masquerading as humans (i.e. “the homeless”) within a couple of days. I would elect Chris Constant to clean each one of them up.
PS: This proposal coming from the ass-embly’s Marxist Nine, I wonder if they are budgeting for each loo to be supplied with a copy of “Das Kapital” as mandatory reading material.
So your cruelty extends even so far as to deny people the opportunity to use the bathroom?
And you complain about people using the alleys downtown…
Dog you want them you pay for them.put your money where your mouth is.
Tax it, and you will get less of it.
Subsidize it, and you will get more of it.
(Whatever “it” happens to be.)
A lesson lost on the innumerate and the ignorant, i.e., the radical leftist.
Dawg, does your complete lack of generosity barricade these poor folks from using your toilet facilities
in your home?
But then you lefties are always generous with other people’s loot, right?
How about we put one in front of your house?
Will you still be all interested in helping the vagrants do their business?
.
And, I am more than willing to provide transportation to them if needed. If taking care of them is so important, show us how.
Only if you drive them to dogs place yourself, which ain’t never going to happen.
I will do that in a second.
They only way leftist morons learn is by suffering the consequences of their actions. Until then, they will willingly spend everyone else’s time, money, and destroy their lives.
I have already told my assembly representatives that if I see homeless within a mile of my house, they are getting delivered to their neighborhood. (I may even toss in a bottle of booze as well. You know, be kind to the homeless kind of thing.)
Unlike the leftists, I am willing to put in that personal effort, instead of just legislating that others do it for me.
Das Kapital and the Communist Manifesto alongside copies of Rules For Radicals… Can’t use Sears catalogs anymore!
Nutmeg likely found some wipe in her yard…
Seriously, that much money for plastic outhouses? You could issue every homeless person in Anchorage with a honey bucket and a lifetime supply of bag liners and wipe for the cost of only a few of them.
If the Assembly members who sponsored this is willing to have their names installed on these units I would gladly vote for them and make it a daily ritual to use them often.
Its is not everyday one gets to poo on Royal Thrones.
They can become monuments to commemorate the value of those Assembly members service to the homeless empire where users can take care of business and a great place to do drugs privately. Dont forget the needle dispensary and the High flow toilet flushers for the used paraphernalia.
The tourists will be so thrilled to have a place to poo they will decide to stay year round.
For his scintillating brilliance in sponsoring this initiative, I am thinking of sending Chrissy Constant a cake. A urinal cake.
(He probably wouldn’t recognize it, though, as I strongly suspect that he is a sit-down-to-pee kind of ‘guy’.)
…..not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Munching on some lunch, again a big THANK YOU to Los Anchorage for bringing a belly laugh on a sunny Wednesday.
I want to see an itemized list of where 400,000 dollars pay for each toilet. Also I want to see where the money winds up. This deal smells worse that the toilets do.
I would agree with Jefferson,they would be vandalized in weeks, would cost a fortune to repair and clean also would be a location to sell drugs and who knows what else. This assembly has no limits as to destroying Anch. Just look at what has become to people Mover covered bus stops. Anch please vote this nonsense down.
You know how cities with bad homeless problems solved their bad homeless problems? They reduced the amenities they provided to the homeless over time down to nothing. This is only encouraging the problem! This is what an assembly full of feel-good ideologues does; tries to solve the issue by (unintentionally) encouraging the propagation the issue.
You are so wrong about it being unintentional.
That’s not how it works in japan.
Why don’t these assembly members move out of Alaska and go to Portland . I think they would be welcome.
Because their goal is to bring Portland, Seattle, San Fran to every city across the nation.
They will not be satisfied until the entire nation is a dump.
And when this very expensive plan fails, they will blame Mayor Bronson since all this happened on his watch. Why don’t the Constant Zalatel team open their homes to assist the homeless with their lack of bathroom facilities?
Everyone of them will be destroyed in a month. Can we build one in Brawley’s front yard.
Betteryet,her living room
Glad to know Anchorage has money to spare.
More money flushed down the loo by our assembly. This is not a good investment in a country as cold as ours.
Maintenance will be a nightmare.
What a joke. The homeless will still crap wherever they want to. Hopefully, it’s next to some Democrat’s Mercedes SUV.
…..LOL. More likely a Suburu Outback or Honda Pilot.
We might as well just flush the money. Then it’d be a one time expense without the bill for upkeep
Uhhhhhh there’s already toilets all over the city. Have you seen our bums? We have toilets that the buses stop at, toilets in stairwells, toilets on doorsteps, toilets behind dumpsters, toilets on street corners in broad daylight, toilets on baseball fields, toilets in the woods, old abandoned cars are toilets…. Anybody been by cuddly “family” park lately? Toilet. Lyons park? Toilet. Loussac library? Toilet.
I think we’re good, assembly.
Did the Assembly (or anyone) do a cost comparison for providing portable toilets (including daily maintenance)? Are there other advantages to these permanent structures versus portable units (like reducing drug use in them)? The need for public toilet facilities is known by a broader community than just the homeless–I was a telephone maintenance technician, and much like delivery drivers or postal delivery folks, sometimes you have to go and there just aren’t any public options near you.
Do they freeze up in winter? Costs of heating them to prevent that? And if heated, they will definitely be used as a place to stay warm by whomever gets there first. If I were on the street in Anchorage, without a residence, in the middle of winter, I’d sure be hunkering down in one!!! The whole thing sounds excessive but luckily I’m not an Anchorage property taxpayer. Good luck everyone in ANC.
Yeah, so the homeless can destroy them!
I think not left-assembly morons!
That may stop homeless from relieving themselves on the sidewalks
Nothing will stop intoxicated homeless from defecating on the sidewalk. Come on Greg you know as well as anyone homeless are too lazy to walk anywhere but the liquor store.
They have portapottys in Jacksonville. They don’t have a brown trout on the sidewalks problem there.
Jacksonville is not a leftist hellhole run by children that put the wants of the homeless before the needs of the taxpayers.
Anchorage is.
Oh yes it is.
Sorry your comment proves otherwise.
No, it won’t.
Only a five year old thinks like that.
.
What will happen is they will end up trashed, of a homeless will turn it into their lodging, or they will be so overrun with people taking drugs or having sex that no one will use them, including the homeless.
.
Thinking only about the best possible outcome, while ignoring the likely negatives is how we ended up with the homeless problem to begin with. This is more of the same.
The Taj Ma sh#ter down next to the ulu factory cost 800,000.00. They’re for the salmon derby supposedly. Locked 9-10 months of the year. Ironically it funnels tourist to the bridge restaurant, and the partners that own it, and happen to be very connected. Wink wink….
Not even utilizing it during the snow sculptures right next door.
Has anyone ever seen it unlocked?
So total debt service to maturity will be about $40 million. That is around $2 million per toilet over the life of the debt, plus maintenance and servicing. I expect that soon after installation the toilets will become too disgusting for real people to use.
Juneau just voted two years in a row to turn down debt authorization for a new city hall. I hope that Anchorage voters are just as clever.
Upon the vote this year one bitter Assembly member told the Juneau Empire that because voters turned down a new city hall the Permanent Fund Corporation will have to move to Anchorage as the city government will have no place to be housed unless they boot out the Permanent Fund. This is the kind of city government Alaskans have now!
Just one more eye sore feature to uglify Anchorage with spray painted broken door port-a-potties.
OMG 12 million would go a long way to awarding a contract for portables to one of the local portable potty businesses. Or more than one of them. Come on, 400K per loo?
they did this in some other cities. such as San Francisco and the became places where hookers plied there trade
But…the children…. errr….. I mean the leftists (same thing) on the assembly will never pay any attention to the problems other cities have had. Instead, they will only see the most optimistic outcome. Because that is the way toddlers think. Nothing but good will come from this because the intent is good.
Great Idea! Now Anchorage can show everyone what a Sh-T Hole it has sadly become.
Must be 100K each for the toilets & 316K wages for the armed guards that will have watch each person use one …. but we can be JUST like Paris …. so well worth it.
A TIK TOK moment, or a You Tube moment, or Facebook moment?
$400K a pop (a poop, if you will) for the express benefit of people who will never contribute that value back to the community is insane. Move out of Anchorage as soon as possible!
Visiting several major East European cities was a bit surprising that public toilets required paying a fee. There were some that, at the time of travel, required specific coinage of that particular country, and there was NO climbing over the turnstile! The ones in Moscow had a babushka sitting in the foyer to collect the required amount of kopeks, and didn’t have TP, nor hand soap, hand driers or towels. (It was strictly ‘bring your own’.) Not at all my experience years earlier when attending UAA/ACC and riding the People Mover into town, while waiting in ZJ Loussac or at Penneys for the transfer to college.
Well, they’re going to be completely enclosed, not like the picture included with this article. Why? They’ll need to be insulated and heated. A great place for homeless to go inside, lock the door and camp out, indefinitely. Or, if you will, a perfect place to commit crimes. What a wonderful society we live in now. /s
Another permanent maintenance cost for the taxpayer…$12,000 each per year on average? So that the drags on society (aka homeless people) can have a bathroom? Here’s an idea…stop making it easier to be a homeless bum. Do everything possible to make living on the streets the worst experience ever. Drive them out of town and out of the state. Stop feeding them. Stop housing them. Shame them. Arrest them when they commit a crime and put them in work camps.
Yes. Stop enabling homelessness. Don’t feed the birds, wildlife, or homeless. Teach them to work hard and feel good about themselves and buy their own food and shelter.
Great comments! 100% Agree! “…stop making it easier to be a homeless bum.” How can any reasonably intelligent person not see the relationship between handing out benefits and the increase in the problem?
Perhaps some on the Anchorage Assembly are not “reasonably intelligent”?
You need to look into homelessness in Japan. They have it figured out.
Japan, the suicide capital of the world.
Don’t know about that. They solved the homeless issues though.
Yup.
Unbelievable. Ten million here, twelve and a half million there, and pretty soon, you’re talking about real
money. Next? Heated, portable mini homes. Just a million a pop. We only need several thousand of them.
Insanity.
Readers, please google the Infinite Hotel Paradox. It sums up why this will not work, ever.
There will always bee one more homeless to house, as the worldwide supply is endless.
Looks like Felix and Chris invested in some sh–.
Just places for their “speed dating”
At 30 below, you gotta be quick.
One will definitely be conveniently placed near Mad Myrna’s
Really.
Really.
Really?
There was also a time within this metropolis whence bus stops for People Mover were gifted not only glassed enclosed bus waiting containers, but lighted and heated as well.
Anyone care to guess what happened to said enclosers?
I shall tell you, as I was a witness unto it, as an employee, at said time.
First, the glass was broken, time after time, at a cost of $200 replacement per frame, and that was in the 1980’s, when $200 meant something.
This was incurring mostly within the Mountain View area, but within other areas as well.
Next, of course, was the ‘camping out’ of the ‘homeless’ within each shelter, as said shelters were lighted and heated, and this was at a time when the ‘homeless’ were, within pure numbers, less than a tenth of what they are today.
Thus, forth came, as a result, the ending of glass enclosed bus shelters, followed shortly by lighted and heated bus shelters altogether, hence the denigration of the bus stop for the actual user because of the denigrated usage as allowed by the controller.
And thus, shall become of this moronic and insane idea.
First, it shall cost far more than what is realistic, especially considering the fact that the most considered utilizers of said ‘facilities’ shall most likely trash them within days of their opening, if not occupy them completely, as they are, within fact, an abode with shelter, heat, and light.
So. Once one chooses to encumber others said ‘loo’, what is to stop them from living there fulltime, without recompense, or sharing of wealth?
Finally admit this, Assembly.
You wish Anchorage, to become Portland and San Francisco combined, the excrement City of the North.
Too bad you cannot accept said Citywide excrement into your own homes.
I remember the old People Mover enclosed waiting containers from the 1980s. My sister and I (teenagers) ran into one to get out of the cold and wait for the bus. We almost sat on the homeless guy who was sleeping on the bench! He was under a brown blanket and we didn’t see him until he sat up and yelled at us to get out of there. Surprised and scared both of us! These $400,000. toilets will quickly be taken over and/or destroyed by the homeless population.
More evidence that the Assembly is leading Anchorage is the “wrong” direction!
Anchorage Goes … Wee!
Anchorage Goes … Pooh!
Ultimately, Anchorage Goes … In the Toilet!!!
Portland is moving to Anchorage, enjoy.
The assembly forgot to hand out the money trees so that Anchorage taxpayers can afford to pay for all the things the assembly wants and signs the taxpayers up to pay for.
The assembly wants the toilets, the assembly should pay for them out of their own personal funds-including the maintenance, upkeep and security costs.
Public toilets are a known attractant for crime, drugs, solicitation, vandalism, homeless problems, etc. Perhaps the assembly just wants them for a new place to congregate and make new friends.
Pallet Shelter makes 2 stall bathroom units (Toilet, shower & sink x 2) for $34,995 per unit. See ‘https://palletshelter.com/products/bathroom/
AND ALSO See ‘https://www.everettwa.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/12606?fileID=77432
The City of Everett WA used ARPA funds to purchase shelters and the $34,995 2-stall bathroom unit from PALLET Shelter.
Not as TAJ MAHAL style as them PORTLAND LOOS but functional and more affordable.
No shelters, no poo pallets, NO ENABLING. Open your house to the recidivist indigents!
Every invoice to all my customers will now include a Loo Charge to help me pay my property taxes that have sky rocketed under these idiots running the assembly.
S**t Heads???
Can we get some MEGA hats made? Make Ethan great again…ConstantLY Brawley
If I’m not mistaken, the price of a toilet is the same as the average price of a home in Anchorage. When it comes to spending nobody’s money, the Assembly will never run out of uses.
MY home is worth much less, thank you very much.
Once again, the leftists on the assembly are putting the wants of the homeless before the needs of the taxpayers.
Sprinkle them pell-mell throughout the scenic byways. I’m feeling the vibe now in each golden photographic moment. Oh why didn’t we see the golden opportunities earlier. How cavalier and yet callous may Alaskans be?
The Loos are the same cost as the navigation center. How many toilets were included in the center’s blueprints?
I loo ve this idea. Hopefully it will be a opportunity for a station attendant who will provide a warm towel and provide cologne like toilets in Mexico.
This is the most ridiculous “solution” I’ve heard of. These overpriced outhouses will be destroyed. There will be glass, needles, condoms, vomit, urine & feces all around and inside them. Businesses will suffer, businesses will see reduced incremental revenue from those seeking use of their restrooms : buy something! This is Classic Dem poverty perpetuation against the taxpayers.
They are just trying to appease the downtown businesses who are tired of the homeless trashing out their bathrooms and sidewalks on a daily basis. It won’t change anything because these people have no respect for anything. When a business refuses entry to these vagrants, they retaliate because they are protected by the assembly. Also, I am sure that these outhouses could be made locally for a fraction of the price. They will be destroyed regardless of the cost, so should be made of biodegradable material. Put them on every corner. Normal people will steer clear of them.
The worst of worst ideas. Please voters, on April 2, let’s clean out the assembly and hopefully elect people that will bring governance sanity back to Anchorage.
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