Pioneer Square plagued by potty problem

All that green beer, corned beef and cabbage from the
weekend’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations is making for a
disgusting day of cleanup in Pioneer Square. Businesses
and residents alike say they’re sick of dealing
with the growing problem around the neighborhood.

“When there are major events in the square and around
weekends, it’s pretty obvious that we have vomit, we have
urination, we have defecation,” complains public affairs
consultant Anne Fennessy, who’s lived in Pioneer Square on
and off for the last 15 years.

She is part of a group of locals working with the
city to come up with ways to help keep the streets and
alleys from turning into toilets.

The Metropolitan Improvement District reports crews had to
clean 1,211 instances of human waste in February 2012, up
from 744 the month before. It also reported seeing 36
instances of public urination in February, compared to 15
in January.

But Fennessy says while it would be easy to blame the
homeless, it’s actually people from all walks of life.

“I have seen people in business suits, I have seen people
that you think are on the breadline and the boardroom,”
Fennessy says.

The Pioneer Square Alliance, a neighborhood coalition of
residents and businesses, is pushing for more public
toilets. They’ve asked the city to reopen restrooms in a
historic fire station and install new public toilets
modeled on a successful program in Portland (which
in turn was designed with the failings of Seattle’s ill-
fated multi-million dollar debacle with self-cleaning
toilets.)

The Alliance has also published a map identifying the
locations of public toilets around the neighborhood.

Ultimately, Fennessy says the city and visitors alike need
to take a much greater interest in the issue.

“So I think we need say to people this is not acceptable.
You wouldn’t accept this kind of behavior in Wallingford,”
she says.