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San Francisco is spending $1.7M on one public toilet

sfchronicle.com

661–670 of 832 posts

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

#661
post #642

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not an American, but can/would people sue for getting washed in a self-cleaning toilet? Surely some signs and disclosures would be sufficient?

They’d be injecting hard drugs, especially fentanyl, constantly in this toilet, so signs and disclosures won’t mean much. SF is a rather “special” place, you can’t easily compare to other international cities.

Spoken like someone who has not spent more than a week in SF, probably entirely in hotels or restaurants.

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

#663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's cheaper to pay someone $20 an hour 24 hours a day for 20 years than it is to pay out the $4mil lawsuit for when that sensor fails.

I'm not an American, but can/would people sue for getting washed in a self-cleaning toilet? Surely some signs and disclosures would be sufficient?

They'd sue for you suggesting they shouldn't!

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

#664
post #527

I'd really like to read an anonymous report from someone working in the government and who understands why the city is such a mess. Like, I read so many theories, but they mostly seem to be written by people with an agenda or who have no clue.

If this is anything like the $20,000 trash cans[0], the price is inflated because there's only one and so all the one time costs around design and manufacturing are put on a single item. When you amortize the costs across the entire production run, it falls to a tenth the price, but "$2,000 trash can" doesn't generate headlines and outrage because that's how much a sturdy municipal trashcan costs.[1] But to talk abou…

The bigger question is why design a new trash can in the first place? Does no current trash can exist that would work?

There are hundreds of designs now for less than $1000 each.

https://trashcansunlimited.com/amp/metal-armor-series/

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

#665

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably one of the best choices of my live was moving out of S.F to Switzerland five years ago, the culture here is a lot less focused on virtue signaling and way more focused on working, being respectful about no making a lot of noise on your house and public transport, actually having good incentives and culture about recycling and the washing machine, ultra safe place in general. It only took me about a year of a…

Is German or French more common? I knew someone in S.F. who married a woman from Switzerland roughly 5 years ago and moved out there...did you work at a software consulting company in S.F.?

Depends where you go in Switzerland, my understanding is that the country is sort of divided into two parts depending on language. Same as in Belgium.

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

#666
post #649
post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If rural areas are given disproportionate political power, why can't political parties that feel this disadvantage do better in those areas? Why change the rules of the game instead of winning it?

If a political system disadvantages a group of people then their needs will always take less precedence. “Why doesn’t the urban coalition simply win rural votes?” is a silly question. They would win rural votes by prioritizing different issues and then the issues important to urban citizens would be less likely to get addressed.

It's not a silly question. If they can't win on their merits then they deserve to loose. That's what democracy is.

Also, notice how I said political parties and not an urban coalition: these are not the same, and their needs are different. There are rural democratic voices, and they do engage in these issues, but the wider party does not seem as interested in this. And that's why they will continue to loose rural voters in the house this November. They don't care as much to spend the time and resources on these campaigns, and this whole fight against the electoral college and how seats are dived up among states is a ruse to further consolidate power while abdicating accountability on a national level.

Also, when democrats spend money on an extreme opponent campaign (which is diabolical) to make their own party look better, people see through that. It's just sick and could severely backfire on everyone. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2022/dem...

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

#667

Price doesn’t seem that outrageous to me. Public bathrooms in cities get destroyed and are very difficult to maintain; a lot of cities give up on free restrooms entirely. One of the biggest perks of working downtown in a moderately sized or larger city is being able to go to the bathroom there outside of work hours. I priced out some relatively minor kitchen/bathroom renovation work in 2018 at around $100k. Put it of…

I know this is a forum for tech bros who are generally well paid but responding to a story about a million dollar public toilet with "that's no big deal, I'm currently spending six figures on minor kitchen renovations" seems pretty out of touch to me. That is a ton of money to so many people.

'Out of touch' is putting it lightly.

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

#669

Price doesn’t seem that outrageous to me. Public bathrooms in cities get destroyed and are very difficult to maintain; a lot of cities give up on free restrooms entirely. One of the biggest perks of working downtown in a moderately sized or larger city is being able to go to the bathroom there outside of work hours. I priced out some relatively minor kitchen/bathroom renovation work in 2018 at around $100k. Put it of…

I know this is a forum for tech bros who are generally well paid but responding to a story about a million dollar public toilet with "that's no big deal, I'm currently spending six figures on minor kitchen renovations" seems pretty out of touch to me. That is a ton of money to so many people.

Thank you. I laughed out loud when I read this part: >

In many parts of the United States, you can buy a whole house for $300k.

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

#670

Price doesn’t seem that outrageous to me. Public bathrooms in cities get destroyed and are very difficult to maintain; a lot of cities give up on free restrooms entirely. One of the biggest perks of working downtown in a moderately sized or larger city is being able to go to the bathroom there outside of work hours. I priced out some relatively minor kitchen/bathroom renovation work in 2018 at around $100k. Put it of…

Did the multi year timeline not raise your eyebrows either?
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