[gyardley]

San Francisco has placed quite a few public restrooms on city streets in the past - I believe as part of a partnership with an outdoor advertising company. For the most part, they became disgusting centers for drug use and prostitution. I didn't know they'd closed, but I'm not surprised they did.

Until San Francisco is willing to aggressively crack down on illegal behavior, which it's not, it can't have nice public facilities, for homeless people or otherwise. This includes things like the entrepreneur's well-intentioned mobile showers - criminals will destroy them, too.

[nkzednan]

In Seattle, they put in public restrooms but then had to take them out a few years later for similar reasons as why the ones in SF closed as they were being used for other things. For more info: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/High-tech-public-toil...

[justinhj]

There are ways to mitigate these issues, not sure if SF has tried. Canada has some timed doors that open after 5 minutes, and there is lighting that prevents intravenous drug use.