The City of Olympia responded to my request last month that they include public bathrooms in the Artesian Well improvement and reported they don’t have the funds to include public bathrooms at the Artesian Well.  That’s fine for now.  But the national and state economy are putting more people on the streets every day and public bathrooms seem like the least we can do for folks and let it not be said that we did not do the least we could do, right? [1]

Last week, I sent a message to the City Council asking them to open the bathrooms at City Hall 24/7 to improve the lot of people living on the street and to reduce the public blight of sidewalks, alleys, doorways, etc, being used as after-hour toilet facilities.  I did not get a response last week, so I am renewing my request today.   I suggest that those of us who support public bathrooms 24/7 let our voices be heard.  I think there is a City Council meeting on Tuesday at 7 pm at City Hall.

Here is my email to the City Council:

Dear Sirs and Madams:

I did not receive a response to my earlier email, so I am sending it again.  I hope you will consider this proposal.  I believe that a lot of the groups that work with the houseless population in Olympia are eager to work with the City to resolve any concerns that the City might have regarding public bathrooms.  The bathrooms need to be in areas that are routinely patrolled by police or security officers and they need to be seen as a private/public partnership to improve the downtown area.

I look forward to hearing from you regarding this proposal.

Sincerely,

Mike Coday

On 09/23/2011 09:02 AM, Mike Coday wrote:

Dear Sirs and Madams:

Could the City make arrangements to have the public bathrooms at City Hall open on a 24 hour basis?  We have already paid the construction cost, there is pretty good security in that building and there is daily maintenance of the bathrooms.  We really need to increase access to public bathrooms in downtown Olympia.  This is a win-win situation.  We could “clean up” downtown Olympia in a meaningful way by making sure that visitors and residents of downtown Olympia can find a bathroom when they need one. 

Thank you for considering this request.

Sincerely,

 Mike Coday

Want to add your voice?

[2] Doug Mah <dmah@ci.olympia.wa.us>

[3] Craig Ottavelli <cottavel@ci.olympia.wa.us>

[4] Stephen Buxbaum <sbuxbaum@ci.olympia.wa.us>

[5] Karen Rogers <krogers@ci.olympia.wa.us>

[6] Jeannine Roe <jroe@ci.olympia.wa.us>

[7] Rhenda Iris Strub <rstrub@ci.olympia.wa.us>

[8] Steve Langer <slanger@ci.olympia.wa.us>