The most hotly anticipated toilet—possibly in the world—opened to the public Monday in Noe Valley.
The $1.7 million bathroom plan made global headlines after the San Francisco Chronicle revealed its eye-watering price tag. By opening day, officials say the toilet cost the city $200,000. Still, that seems like a lot of bread for a bathroom.
But is the lavatory worth its lavish cost? The Standard popped in to find out.
At first glance, the public toilet is just like any other. It has a toilet, obviously—a changing table, a dryer and a hand sanitizer dispenser replete with an out-of-order sign. It was clean and odor-free. Still, it was just a toilet, free from any gold-plating one might expect when visiting Mar-a-Lago. And the flush sounds like a jet engine during takeoff.
Outside the restroom on Tuesday morning, Barbara Tursi and her infant grandson Danny stopped by the facilities.
"It's very much appreciated," said Tursi. "It was very well-designed and very clean. It has a hand sanitizer [dispenser] and plenty of room, even for wheelchairs and strollers."
The San Bruno grandma often visits Noe Valley and appreciates the changing table. Her only minor quibble:
"The hand sanitizer isn't working!" she said. "It's brand new, so I hope it can be maintained as well."
Beyond the hand-sanitizer snafu, there is a handwashing station outside the bathroom with a soap dispenser.
Others who stopped by were surprised the toilet had ever materialized after the long-running saga began sometime around October 2022.
"I'm surprised it's even here, to be honest with you," local resident Colin Campbell said. "Anyway, yeah, we're appreciative. That's all I can say."
Another local man, John Woodward, was also thankful for the "welcome addition."
"Especially when I'm here on Sunday alone with my two grandchildren," Woodward said. "It's been a long time needed and then once it was even announced, they were going to install one. It took an awful lot of time and kicking up dust to get it."
Joann Ricci, who lives just around the corner, welcomed the new restroom's arrival but was still frustrated with the installation saga.
"I love the design, and it's quite functional," she said. It's amazing that it took as long as it did and was kind of shrouded with permit and funding issues, which are endemic to the larger building issues that we face here in the city. It shouldn't take that long or be that expensive to build a toilet or housing."
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman told The Standard he's happy the toilet is open, as locals have wanted it since the town square opened almost a decade ago.
"I think it highlighted challenges around city procurements that we haven't resolved and still need to be addressed," he said.
Mandelman added that he had not had a chance to use the restroom, but looked forward to the Toilet Bowl, a community event Sunday.
The Toilet Bowl event will feature a crafts table, a toilet tree ceremony, a free yoga demo to activate digestion (yes, really) and live music from the band American Standard.
There will also be bathroom-inspired acrobatics with A, B, C Circus, a potty book read from the Noe Valley Library, digestive olive oil tasting, a toilet bowl toss and a toilet paper costume contest to win a whoopee cushion prize.