There’s an automated, public washroom at Pigeon Park in the Downtown Eastside and it’s usually broken, so the stench from the nearby alley indicates where residents are relieving themselves.
COPE Park Board candidates Brent Granby and Donalda Greenwell-Baker said Sunday they want more public washrooms – and not just at the troubled corner of Hastings and Carrall streets.
As the street market that fills Pigeon Park every Sunday began to operate and the crowd grew, Granby and Greenwell-Baker said they would press for more and better facilities if elected.
“In this neighbourhood, particularly, washrooms have been a critical amenity that has been missing for many, many years,” said Greenwell-Baker. “This particular one, unfortunately, hasn’t worked.
“People have chosen other places to go,” she said. “There just aren’t enough public washrooms.”
Both Greenwell-Baker and Granby believe it’s not just the Downtown Eastside where the problem exists.
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“It’s a critical amenity throughout the city,” said Granby, who points to the benefit to both tourism and business to have clean, functioning public washrooms.
Greenwell-Baker’s own neighbourhood of Hastings lacks enough public washrooms – although there are plenty of such facilities in Hastings Park.
“There are washrooms in that park but the public doesn’t have access to them,” she said.
The two candidates in the upcoming November municipal elections believe there needs to be more co-operation between the city, business and the park board to address the issue.
Vancouver’s automated toilets are part of its street furniture program with CBS/JCDecaux. In return for putting up benches, garbage cans and toilets, the French company earns revenue by putting advertising on the amenities.
The automatic toilets can be used for 12 minutes at a time, with a warning signal the door will open in 10 minutes. After the time is up, the toilet bowl is emptied, then cleaned and sanitized.
But that’s not the way the Pigeon Park biffy has worked, according to David Hamm, the on-site supervisor for the Downtown Neighborhood Council street market.
“I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times it’s been open – maybe one and a half hands,” he said.
Not all area residents are comfortable using the facility.
“It’s complicated,” said Hamm. “We’ve had people stuck in the toilet. It won’t open.”
The option is the alley just steps away.
“It’s used as a toilet by most of the people in the neighbourhood,” said Hamm.
There are other public washrooms – just not that close.
Both Victory Park and the Carnegie Centre have public washrooms – although those are both about two blocks away.
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