Local officials were scheduled to gather at San Francisco’s Noe Valley Town Square on Wednesday to celebrate the latest victory, one public restroom that cost as much as $1.7 million to build and won’t be completed until 2025.
However, the celebration was canceled after a San Francisco Chronicle columnist highlighted the project’s “mind-boggling” and “infuriating” details.
California legislator Matt Haney told the paper that he now considers the price tag “inexplicable.”
“When Wreck and Park first gave me that number, it sounded amazingly high to me,” said Haney. San Francisco Chronicle.
“I’m happy that Noe Valley will get a toilet one day, but it shouldn’t cost this much, it shouldn’t take this long, and I’m mad about it. … It’s not something I want to celebrate. Right now. .”
A spokesperson for the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department told Fox News Digital that the prohibitively high costs were due to “onerous demands and unpredictable costs imposed by PG&E,” with construction costs dropping by 20 over the past two years. He said it was because it jumped from 10% to 30%. Employment of workers who are paid a living wage with benefits.
“It’s also important to note that public projects and their overall cost estimates reflect more than just the price of building a building,” the spokesperson said. It includes the cost of drawings, permits, reviews, public outreach and construction management.โ
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By 2025, when the restrooms are actually finished, the cost could drop below $1.7 million, according to the Parks Service, at which point the rest of the money will be used for maintenance and upgrades.
Nonetheless, Haney said his constituency has been asking for public restrooms since the town square opened in 2016, a safety initiative last December.
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“Challenging cramped conditions, nasty streets and saying offensive words full of manure that the Department of Public Works cleans up every day will bring you back in just a few hours,” Breed said.