Edmonton porta-potty project flush with feedback, good and bad

Downtown Edmonton hot dog vendor Wesley Berezowskihas seen the good, the bad and the nastyof Edmonton's public porta-potties.

His stand, Hot Dog'n Concession, sits in Beaver Hills House Park, one of the locations for the City of Edmonton's two- year-old temporary public washroom pilot project.

"This is my ninth year in the park and I know what has been here," Berezowski said.

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In the past, he's seen the city introduce plastic porta-potties that he wouldn't use.

"They had the walk-in ones which normally got knocked over. Left for days after days. Totally messed up. Couldn't use them," Berezowskisaid. "They were so bad. Really bad." Needles were thrown on the toilets' floors, he said.

The city introduced the porta-potty pilot project in 2017 after complaints from businesses and citizens about the lack of public washrooms downtown, and competition for the available few after the expansion ofRogers Place.

The first 11 portable public toilets, introduced last year, received mixed reviews.

This summer the city continued the project, introducing some trailer-style porta-pottiesthat have solar powered lights, flushing toilets, running water and soap dispensers.

One of the trailers has been situated at Beaver Hills House Park at 104th Street and Jasper Avenue, nearBerezowski's hot dog stand.

The vendor and his customers are now regular users.

"This is no comparison," Berezowski said.

"This one has soap. They're not going to drink that," Berezowski said, noting that in the past, some people drank alcohol-based hand sanitizer provided in porta-potties.

Positive potty feedback

Chantile Shannon, Edmonton's director of neighbourhood services, said the city has received feedback about the project, both positive and negative. Some changes have been made as a result, Shannon said.

Some of the trailer-style units have been placed outside Commonwealth Stadium for Edmonton Eskimos games. Others have been placed at different sports fields.

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The cleaning schedule for the toilets has been changed to from twice weekly to daily.

"Overall the response has been pretty positive," Shannon said. "We have had citizens contact us saying that they are grateful. We've had people call in to tell us they were in need of cleaning.

"But the overall response has been very positive."

Based on the results of the pilot project, city administration will draft a new city-wide plan for public washrooms by next spring. The plan may recommend a mix of temporary and permanent public restrooms.

But, Shannon said, city councillors will ultimately determine the future of the program.

Ian O'Donnell, executive director of the Downtown Business Association, saidsome of the new temporary porta-potties haven't been kept clean.

Nevertheless, he would like to see the pilotcontinue and evolve into permanentfacilities like the ones atWhyte Avenue and Gateway Boulevard.

"Temporary solutions, even if they are a little bit of a nicer solution, are temporary," O'Donnell said. "And so they tend to get a bit less respect than a more permanentsolution. So we do want to see a more permanentsolution in the next year or two."

O'Donnell said more toilets are also needed west and southof Rogers Place, along Jasper and on the east side of downtown.

Clean and accessible toilets, he hopes, will relieve the conflictsbusinesses have with people who aren't customers using their toilets.

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