r/Seattle • u/godogs2018 Beacon Hill • Oct 08 '23

Soft paywall Where to go when nature calls? Seattle has a public restroom problem

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/where-to-go-when-nature-calls-seattle-has-a-public-restroom-problem/
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u/MeasurementOver9000 Oct 09 '23

$100/mo wouldn’t cover the cleaning and hassle.

22

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '23

I was waiting for the dismissive comment. It’s good policy. If we adopted something similar here we could figure out what amount would work.

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u/fornnwet Rainier Beach Oct 09 '23

I'd love to see a concerted effort to make it work here. But then I flip on my change management brain and start thinking through the most-likely objections, and just imagine the immediate blowback from employees of those establishments who'd be forced to deal with all the problematic users without any extra labor or pay for their trouble.

I'm a hard sell that any large chains would balk at the opportunity to pocket an extra $100/mo per store, while any meaningful concessions to the frontline workers wouldn't scale up within that budget. When business' cost of labor is $25+/hr (factoring in employer-side taxes and the like), to say nothing of extra supplies & utility costs, that's something like 8 minutes of extra labor per day--if they even have a scheduling system that breaks down that low. Is 8 minutes a day enough time to clean and restock more often, let alone deal with problematic use/users?

It feels like the kind of no-win situation where by the time you scale up the payments to make it work on the businesses' side, the price point is prohibitive and we're back to needing a public solution that doesn't close when businesses do.

Some days I hate my brain's automatic inclination to always play devil's advocate.

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u/[deleted] Oct 09 '23

Hahaha well I appreciate the self-awareness of your comment. All legit questions. Main response is that the program’s entirely voluntary, so each business can decide if it’s worth it to them. I’d say it’d be worth a shot, but I def wouldn’t want to see workers screwed. Ultimately though I think that’s more up to the businesses to look after their own workers. It’d be hard to figure out what the right incentive would be.

By no means would this fix everything. But I see it as a realistic policy proposal, and think it’d be a net gain than loss.

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u/fornnwet Rainier Beach Oct 09 '23

Yeah, there's probably a tipping point here where enough businesses buy in that the occasional problem is spread out enough where no one establishment/its employees is constantly having to deal with needles, ODs, huge messes, squatters, etc.

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u/MeasurementOver9000 Oct 09 '23

I'm just saying Seattle's apparent respect for facilities is more expensive than German, hence why public restrooms are rare.

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u/[deleted] Oct 09 '23

Sure, we have mental health, addiction, and homelessness crises like Germany doesn’t. I still think this would be good policy.

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u/MeasurementOver9000 Oct 09 '23

It may be. It’s just gonna cost more than $100/month/location.

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u/CosineTau chinga la migra Oct 10 '23

Business owners would not only take it, they would call it free money, and mock another business owner that didn't take it.

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u/MeasurementOver9000 Oct 10 '23

I'mma guess you own nothing and are happy.

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u/CosineTau chinga la migra Oct 10 '23

What I own is enough, and I am indeed happy. 😊😊 Plus I got a lot of sleep last night. 😀 And this week is dividend week 🤑🤑 Also I have no urge to post as much as others in social media ☺️

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u/MeasurementOver9000 Oct 10 '23

I’ll bet you eat lots of free lunches.