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A plan to build a single public toilet in San Francisco’s charming town square could be flushed down the drain as California Governor Gavin Newsom threatens to block funding after public outrage.
Assemblyman Matt Haney has been planning for nearly a year to build the communal toilet in the Noe Valley Town Square in a 150 square foot space after city officials said there was not enough funding to build a restroom when the square was constructed in 2016.
So he secured funding from the Recreation and Parks Department, not questioning the $1.7 million price tag, which is nearly as high as what a single-family home in that area costs.
But the plans were met with outrage when the price was revealed by the San Francisco Chronicle, prompting Newsom, who is also the former mayor of the city, to threatened blocking the funding.
Newsom continues to deny that he has plans to run for the presidency and on Sunday vowed he would serve a full four-year term if reelected in November, trying again to knock down speculation that he wants to replace Democrat Joe Biden on the ballot should he not seek a second term.
Officials halted plans to build a communal toilet in Noe Valley Town Square after discovering it would cost $1.7 million and take two years to open
Newsom on Sunday during a gubernatorial debate with Republican challenger state Sen. Brian Dahle, vowed he would serve a full four-year term if reelected in November, trying again to knock down speculation that he wants to replace Biden on the ballot
Newsom made the promise of serving a full term during an hourlong debate on Sunday with his Republican challenger, state Sen. Brian Dahle – the only time the two candidates will meet face to face before voting ends on Nov. 8.
He is expected to easily win reelection in November more than one year after beating back a recall attempt fueled by anger at his pandemic policies – which included the nation’s first statewide stay-at-home order.
‘A single, small bathroom should not cost $1.7 million,’ Erin Mellon, a spokesperson for Newsom, told Fox News Digital on Sunday.
‘The state will hold funding until San Francisco delivers a plan to use this public money more efficiently. If they cannot, we will go back to the legislature to revoke this appropriation.’
‘I support not spending the money — the cost is ridiculous, and it will take far too long,’ Haney told the Houston Chronicle.
‘Noe Valley should get a bathroom, but $1.7 million should pay for seven bathrooms, and it should happen much quicker. … I fully support and agree with the governor here, and we’re going to work together to get this done cheaper and quicker and also send the message that San Francisco needs to fix its broken processes.’
Residents have long complained about worsening potholes that the city has failed to fix. The city’s streets are also overrun with homeless people who have turned parts of it into an open-air drug market, with some residents claiming they are too scared to walk down the streets without a baseball bat as crime continues to spiral out of control.
The toilet is supposed to go in the Noe Valley Town Square park that was built in 2016
Haney has planned to build the toilet for nearly a year, but didn’t realize the cost and two-year timeline until he read a local news report
Festival goers walk along 24th Street as during the 10th annual Noe Valley neighborhood SummerFEST in the Noe Valley Town Square on Sunday
Haney did an about-turn on the plans later on Wednesday and canceled a glittering press conference in the neighborhood, where the average price of a home is $2 million, saying that when he first heard the cost of the projected ‘it sounded shockingly high to me.’
He then temporarily put a hold on the plans, telling the publication: ‘Noe Valley will at some point get a bathroom, but it shouldn’t cost this much and it shouldn’t take this long, and I’m angry about it.’
California has the highest income tax rate in the nation at 13.3 percent, with San Francisco among the most expensive cities to live in.
Nearly two thirds of residents said their city is going downhill because of the widespread homelessness, crime and rising housing costs, according to a new poll.
The golden city has dealt with an increase in human feces on the streets since 2011 as the homeless population has grown rampant in the city.
While city officials might be attempting to halt these issues with pricy solutions, it appears as if some residents aren’t onboard with how to clean up the city.
While city officials might be attempting to halt these issues with pricy solutions, it appears as if some residents aren’t onboard with how to clean up the city.
Despite the shocking price, the $1.7 million in the state budget is already committed to the Noe Valley toilet. However, Haney said he does want to find a way to spend less on the project.
‘The cost is insane,’ Haney said. ‘ The process is insane. The amount of time it takes is insane.
San Francisco Recreation and Park officials said they are working to lower the price of the single toilet – but the costs of construction have raised about 30 percent over the past few years.
‘It’s also important to note that public projects and their overall cost estimates don’t just reflect the price of the erecting structures,’ a spokesperson told Fox News. ‘They include the cost of planning, drawing, permits, reviews, public outreach and construction management.’
Recreation and Parks officials also told KTLA75 that future improvements and maintenance of the toilet can lead to the pricy million-dollar price tag.
Some were shocked at the city’s plans to unknowingly waste taxpayer dollars by building a million-dollar single toilet.
‘State legislators should have never approved that $1.7 million,’ one person wrote on Twitter.
Another added: ‘Somebody hidden in the background is getting very, very rich on taxpayer money.’
‘We need to vote on what percentage of our taxes go to what and then the government has to spend it that way,’ another person said. ‘We pay so many taxes and now fees for government employees to make $100k a year by deciding what to spend taxes on. This system isn’t working.’
California has the highest income tax rate in the nation at 13.3 percent, with San Francisco among the most expensive cities to live in.
Nearly two thirds of residents said their city is going downhill because of the widespread homelessness, crime and rising housing costs, according to a new poll.
A survey of 1,653 adults found that 65 percent said the city was declining, while 37 percent said they would live elsewhere in three years. A staggering 84 percent of people aged 65 and over said they are planning to leave.
Homelessness in the city is rampant and was tallied in February at almost 8,000, the second highest number of any year since 2005.
Funding to combat the homelessness crisis is constantly being thrown at city officials with the recent being $117 million in funding from the California Department of Housing and Community Development to build 290 affordable housing units by 2023.
Number of homeless people in San Francisco in February reached 8,000, the second highest number of any year since 2005 according to the count which takes place every three years
Homeless people setting up their few belonging near San Francisco City hall in August
However, as officials attempt to clean up the streets, some say the efforts are too extreme after a lawsuit filed in September alleged the city was violating the rights of homeless individuals by throwing away their belongings that are on the streets.
‘Instead of focusing on criminalization policies that don’t work, that are terrorizing unhoused people which is unconstitutional. The city needs to focus on what the actual problem is here which is that it’s too expensive for people who grew up and have been longtime residents of San Francisco to actually live here and survive,’ attorney Zal Shroff told ABC7.
Shelters in the city are also often not used by some homeless in the city as they can prohibit animals and the use of drugs.
The woke city is known for its open-air drug markets that allow for dealers to sell without the fear of being arrested. Under Mayor Breed’s ‘soft touch’ drug policies, open-air drug taking has surged with nearly 1,700 fatal overdoses since 2020.
Residents are arming themselves with baseball bats and stun guns as Breed recently opened a new drug sobering facility in the SoMa neighborhood in northeast San Francisco.
The facility, which opened in June, has drawn in violent druggies in the one peaceful neighborhood. The sobering facility was characterized as a safe haven for addicts looking to get back on their feet.
But SoMa resident and business owner Mark Sackett said things were not playing out nearly as the city intended.
‘They’re letting their clients come out here and get high, go inside and get sober and then get high again,’ Sackett told ABC7.
Above, homeless tents in San Francisco earlier this summer
A homeless drug addict injects fentanyl into his arm near City Hall on September 2
The center has been allocated at least $4.2million from taxpayers for 2022 and 2023, according to ABC7.
Breed recently signaled a U-turn in her approach to the rampant drug problem and pledged to crackdown on the issue by turning to police.
The mayor was joined for a press conference earlier this month by the top brass of San Francisco law enforcement as she again promised to get tough on drug dealing and ‘unacceptable’ public drug use.
She had made a made a strident speech last December declaring an official state of emergency in the Tenderloin and promising to crackdown on the ‘bulls*** destroying the city.’
But the intervening ten months have seen policies brought in which have included trialing the infamous taxpayer-funded ‘open-air drug markets’, which were shuttered in June.
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