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San Francisco is spending $1.7M on one public toilet

sfchronicle.com

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Re: San Francisco is spending $1.7M on one public toilet

#21

Post by fudidjfuf »

willcipriano wrote: post #3

The biggest problem in America: Things are inexplicably extremely expensive, especially if government is involved and nobody can give a straight answer as to why.

This isn't a universal problem across America and even from a contradictory perspective it's certainly not an equally impactful problem across America. The inability to build and excessive costs of regulatory compliance when allowed to do so are very much blue team problems.

Re: San Francisco is spending $1.7M on one public toilet

#22

Post by oceanplexian »

bergenty wrote: post #15
willcipriano wrote: post #3

The biggest problem in America: Things are inexplicably extremely expensive, especially if government is involved and nobody can give a straight answer as to why.

Getting a contractor to work on your home is ridiculously expensive too. The other day I paid $900 to replace a faucet for my tub.

I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with contractors. I had to do the exact same thing, while it wasn’t $900 it was $200-300 to have someone come out and replace a faucet. I ended up buying the tools and did it in ~20 minutes for like $20 in parts. I’ve done a lot of other projects and constantly get outrageous quotes from landscapers, plumbers, HVAC, etc.

My theory is that they prey on people that don’t know any better. Less and less people know how to DIY so they have no frame of reference for the real value of labor and get scammed.

Re: San Francisco is spending $1.7M on one public toilet

#24

Post by citizenpaul »

anm89 wrote: post #11
jimrandomh wrote: post #10

I think things in SF have gotten well past the point where people should believe that it's mere inefficiency, and start calling it what it is: corruption. This money is being embezzled, used as political favors, or otherwise misappropriated. There will be a story about a wasteful process, of course, some budget paperwork, and excuses. But unless a detective looks closely at the books, those excuses will probably be l…

Where's the corruption here? If you set up a system of regulation where a building a toilet costs 1.7M and then building a toilet costs 1.7M, that seems like inefficiency not corruption. I'm open to being proven wrong here but it seems like this statement needs to be justified.

People that think like you interest me. Exactly how much would someone have to move against you before you simply stopped them and said this is enough regardless of evidence? Like would you die instead of fight back if it came to it?

Were your parents extremely well off? I don't see how one can make it through life without being wary of the bad intent other people can have without some sort of caretaker that will bail you out.

Re: San Francisco is spending $1.7M on one public toilet

#25

Post by tracerbulletx »

Is there a cost breakdown of what goes into an estimate like this? The 1.7 million number comes from somewhere, so how was it calculated, what parts of the process result in it being so high? Cost of labor for doing the actual job, materials, administrative salaries for the planning and regulatory hurdles? Surely that exists somewhere, and so if this is corruption seeing such a document should make it more obvious who is benefiting from it

Re: San Francisco is spending $1.7M on one public toilet

#26

Post by jshzglr »

citizenpaul wrote: post #24
anm89 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where's the corruption here? If you set up a system of regulation where a building a toilet costs 1.7M and then building a toilet costs 1.7M, that seems like inefficiency not corruption. I'm open to being proven wrong here but it seems like this statement needs to be justified.

People that think like you interest me. Exactly how much would someone have to move against you before you simply stopped them and said this is enough regardless of evidence? Like would you die instead of fight back if it came to it? Were your parents extremely well off? I don't see how one can make it through life without being wary of the bad intent other people can have without some sort of caretaker that will bai…

If a proposal for a toilet needs to pass through several committees to be built, it sounds plausible that SF is just one bureaucratic monstrosity organized democratically. It doesn't need to be fraud, although frankly I wish it was. That would be easier to dismantle.

Re: San Francisco is spending $1.7M on one public toilet

#28

Post by lovich »

anonygler wrote: post #23

Meanwhile, in Florida: https://twitter.com/MyFDOT/status/1582832749681201152 California is a failed experiment.

Meanwhile in Florida

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/interactive-see-after-p...

You can find failed/failing/failing to implement infrastructure in every state in the US, it’s a national issue

Re: San Francisco is spending $1.7M on one public toilet

#29

Post by systemvoltage »

anonygler wrote: post #23

Meanwhile, in Florida: https://twitter.com/MyFDOT/status/1582832749681201152 California is a failed experiment.

Honestly, as a Californian; I see this positively. We need our butts kicked a bit to make progress. I want California to be the best place in the world. It’s trying hard to not be.

Re: San Francisco is spending $1.7M on one public toilet

#30

Post by yucky »

willcipriano wrote: post #3

The biggest problem in America: Things are inexplicably extremely expensive, especially if government is involved and nobody can give a straight answer as to why.

There is a straight answer. Government is far too big and inefficient, which adds tremendously to the cost when it is involved.
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