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A lot of travelers swear by McDonalds near the highways. The restrooms are clean and I've never had an issue with using them before paying. Unlike the city,

A lot of travelers swear by McDonalds near the highways. The restrooms are clean and I've never had an issue with using them before paying. Unlike the city, where the signs are either "no public restroom" or "restroom are for paying customers only". In Portland there are a variety of restrooms built by the city but they're almost all permanently closed. Too many drug deals, drug use, sex acts, etc. The city government likes to bill Portland as "the city that works" and has spent several million dollars on automated toilets much like the one described in the article. Recently the city has put a bunch of portable toilets in neighbhorhoods so that the homeless have access. Neighbors seem mostly tolerant if not happy about it. At first there were reports of a few of them being tipped over but I haven't heard much about it recently. The portables aren't attractive but it's one way of handling the need.

jdlshore 6y ago
The Portland Loo [1] is neither automated nor millions of dollars. They're $96,000 each, and 16 have been installed, for a total of $1.5 million. So either you're talking about something else or your information is incorrect. I wouldn't be surprised if they're all shut down now, due to Covid, but prior to that, they've always been open when I tried them. The other public toilets in Portland, that I'm aware of, are in the parks. They're typically in heavy brick buildings. I could see those costing millions in aggregate, but they also seem likely fairly standard "build it to last" park construction. They're not automated either. As relatively large brick buildings, I would expect them to be expensive. Regarding the point of the article—I much prefer toilets in the US to toilets in Europe. I remember trying to find a toilet at a mall in Norway and being out of luck due to not having the appropriate coin in the local currency. That's not something that would happen in the US. (Although, when I finally got in, it was quite nice.) Another pay toilet, at a train station, was worse than disgusting. I don't know who got my coin, but that was the only deposit I made... I couldn't stand to enter the place. In general, I'm much more confident in my ability to find a spot to do my business in the US than in Europe. Maybe because I expect to be able to swan into any coffee shop, gas station, or fast food chain (as you mentioned) and use the facilities. Although I'll admit that the bathrooms in Europe do tend to be nicer, on average, and I particularly appreciate the floor-to-ceiling dividers. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Loo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Loo Edit: Apparently, only 15 Portland Loos have been installed in Portland, and the city has received $362,323 in royalty payments for the design, for a net outlay of just over $1 million.

jdlshore 6y ago

The Portland Loo [1] is neither automated nor millions of dollars. They're $96,000 each, and 16 have been installed, for a total of $1.5 million. So either you're talking about something else or your information is incorrect. I wouldn't be surprised if they're all shut down now, due to Covid, but prior to that, they've always been open when I tried them. The other public toilets in Portland, that I'm aware of, are in the parks. They're typically in heavy brick buildings. I could see those costing millions in aggregate, but they also seem likely fairly standard "build it to last" park construction. They're not automated either. As relatively large brick buildings, I would expect them to be expensive. Regarding the point of the article—I much prefer toilets in the US to toilets in Europe. I remember trying to find a toilet at a mall in Norway and being out of luck due to not having the appropriate coin in the local currency. That's not something that would happen in the US. (Although, when I finally got in, it was quite nice.) Another pay toilet, at a train station, was worse than disgusting. I don't know who got my coin, but that was the only deposit I made... I couldn't stand to enter the place. In general, I'm much more confident in my ability to find a spot to do my business in the US than in Europe. Maybe because I expect to be able to swan into any coffee shop, gas station, or fast food chain (as you mentioned) and use the facilities. Although I'll admit that the bathrooms in Europe do tend to be nicer, on average, and I particularly appreciate the floor-to-ceiling dividers. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Loo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Loo Edit: Apparently, only 15 Portland Loos have been installed in Portland, and the city has received $362,323 in royalty payments for the design, for a net outlay of just over $1 million.