A public restroom along Park Avenue on Wednesday, April 26, 2023 in Emeryville, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)

Everyone poops. It’s the title of a children’s book and a fact of life. But a lack of public-access bathrooms in the Bay Area — and across the US — often forces people to either pay at a local business, sneak into restricted areas, explore a secluded corner, or just stay home.

For a quarter of a million dollars, Berkeley is one step closer to helping its residents, visitors and workers.

The city will soon install its first 24-hour public toilet, called the Portland Loo, on Telegraph Avenue and Channing Way. This week, the Berkeley City Council approved a $262,666 contract with GradeTech Inc. to install the toilet in the dense residential and commercial corridor just blocks from UC Berkeley and People’s Park.

The results of a 2018 study of Berkeley’s toilets — conducted by Hyphae Design Laboratory, a local expert in public sanitation and ecological design — showed that Telegraph was one of the areas where public sanitation was most needed.

The citywide study, completed in 2020, reported that Berkeley owned and managed public restrooms in 46 locations — spread across recreation centers, parking garages, athletic fields, schools and the marina. However, an online poll found that 82% of locals would use public toilets more often if they were better cleaned and maintained, while 63% would like access to a sink and soap.

A pedestrian walks past a public restroom along Park Avenue in Emeryville, Calif. on Wednesday, April 26, 2023 (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)

If the Portland Loo is a success at the Telegraph and Channing, it will act as a pilot for future public toilet locations across Berkeley. Possible locations include the intersections of San Pablo Avenue and University Avenue, as well as Alcatraz Avenue and Adeline Street, according to a presentation from the 2022 community meeting.

With the upcoming 24-hour latrine being installed in the coming months, it will be only the second such location in the East Bay; Emeryville approved its Portland Loo during the construction of the city’s Joseph Emery Skatepark circa 2015 for $99,000, and an additional $41,000 was needed for installation.

These standalone restrooms are also located in Davis, Monterey, Sacramento, Salinas, San Diego, and Santa Rosa.

While both the US and California have declared access to sanitation a basic human right, according to a study by the National Coalition for the Homeless, 65% of homeless people have been denied access to a toilet in private businesses. But these efforts will also help others the American Restroom Association classifies as “toilet-challenged,” including pregnant women, young children, and seniors.

“As homelessness continues to rise in Berkeley and throughout the Bay Area, cities must take steps to protect the human dignity of their homeless people,” Robinson wrote in 2019. “Additionally, public restrooms serve as a boost to tourism and foot traffic. People are more likely to cycle, walk, and explore a public space if they know a toilet is available.”

These pre-engineered, self-contained, stainless steel structures provide users with a single ADA-compliant booth with a separate, pedal-powered hand washing station, water and sewer hookups, LED lights for drug use prevention, and a solar-powered battery.

That project has been a long time coming for Council Member Rigel Robinson, who in October 2019 first applied for $100,000 to research a free-standing public toilet facility and an additional $93,000 in outside funding from the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Office and the developer of a nearby student residence building he concluded.

Speaking for the district, he said Tuesday’s vote was a turning point for nearby small business owners, students, homeless neighbors and visitors.

“I think having bathroom access at all times is an essential component of a livable, equitable city and a thriving business district,” Robinson said in an interview, adding that discussions are brewing about adding art to the exterior walls of the Portland Loo. “This is an urgent need and I am very pleased that after years of discussions and technical delays – due to operational restrictions in the utility roads – this project will soon be tackled and completed.”

According to the Public Toilet Index in 2021, there are on average only eight public toilets per 100,000 residents. In particular, Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose were among the top 10 cities in the country for toilets per capita.

But as one UC Berkeley student pointed out four years ago, the Telegraph neighborhood isn’t doing so well: “We offer 12 different types of boba tea, but you won’t find a public restroom if you’re here after dark.” “

The city will only be on the hook for effectively 1% of the Portland Loo’s acquisition cost, as $260,000 comes from a 2021 settlement with UC Berkeley, which has agreed to pay the city $4.1 million annually to pay for the use of city services by their students. The remaining $2,666 will be taken from T1 bond action funds voters approved in 2016 for city infrastructure and facility improvements. Other base bids to complete the contract were $440,000 and $538,000, according to city records.

In addition, the Public Works Department is currently compiling a maintenance funding application to be provided by the Telegraph Business Improvement District. While Portland Loos are designed to be difficult to deface and easy to clean, existing structures are still prone to some plumbing, graffiti, and spatter issues — much like most accessible public bathrooms.

Berkeley’s six-figure financial commitment is comparable to public latrines across the country. Remarkably, that price tag isn’t as ridiculous as the controversial $1.7 million single-seat toilet proposed in San Francisco. Extensive backlogs and red tape at City Hall were blamed in part for the crappy financial plan, which led Gov. Gavin Newsom to keep federal funding for the project on budget until the city “comes up with a plan to use those public funds more efficiently.”

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A pair of work trousers recovered from an 1857 shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina and described as the oldest known pair of jeans in the world have sold for 114,000 dollars (£93,000).

The white, heavy-duty miner’s trousers with a five-button fly were among 270 Gold Rush-era artifacts that sold for a total of nearly one million dollars (£800,000) in Nevada, according to Holabird Western American Collections.

The trousers predate by 16 years the first pair officially manufactured by San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co in 1873. Some say historical evidence suggests there are links to Strauss, who was a wealthy wholesaler of dry goods at the time, and the trousers could be a very early version of what would become the iconic jeans.

But the company’s historian and archive director, Tracey Panek, says any claims about their origin are “speculation”.

Fred Holabird, left, and Bob Evans with artifacts including a Wells Fargo treasure box lid from the SS Central America in a warehouse in Nevada (Jason Bean/The Reno Gazette-Journal via AP/PA)

“The pants are not Levi’s nor do I believe they are miner’s work plans,” she wrote in an email to The Associated Press.

The SS Central America sank in a hurricane on September 12, 1857, packed with passengers who began their journey in San Francisco and were on their way to New York via Panama. And there is no indication older work trousers dating to the Gold Rush era exist.

“Those miner’s jeans are like the first flag on the moon, a historic moment in history,” said Dwight Manley, managing partner of the California Gold Marketing Group, who owns the artifacts and put them up for auction.

Other auction items that had been entombed for more than a century in the ship’s wreckage 7,200 feet (2,195 meters) below the surface of the Atlantic included the purser’s keys to the treasure room where tons of Gold Rush coins and ingots were stored. It sold for 103,200 dollars (£84,000).

Tens of millions of dollars worth of gold has been sold since shipwreck recovery began in 1988. But this sale marked the first time any artifacts were up for auction. Another auction is planned in February.

“There has never been anything like the scope of these recovered artifacts, which represented a time capsule of daily life during the Gold Rush,” said Fred Holabird, president of the auction company.

The lid of a Wells Fargo & Co treasure box believed to be the oldest of its kind went for 99,600 dollars (£81,000). An 1849 Colt pocket pistol sold for 30,000 dollars (£24,400). A 20 dollar gold coin minted in San Francisco in 1856 sold for 43,200 dollars (£35,000).

Most of the passengers aboard the SS Central America left San Francisco on another ship — the SS Sonora — and sailed to Panama, where they crossed the Isthmus by train before boarding the doomed ship.

Of those on board when the SS Central America went down, 425 died and 153 were saved.

The unique mix of artefacts from high society San Franciscans to blue-collar workers piqued the interest of historians and collectors alike. The trousers came from the trunk of an Oregon man, John Dement, who served in the Mexican-American War.

“At the end of the day, nobody can say these are or are not Levi’s with 100% certainty,” Mr Manley said. But “these are the only known Gold Rush jean … not present in any collection in the world.”

Mr Holabird, considered a Gold Rush-era expert in his over 50 years as a scientist and historian, agreed: “So far, no museum has come forward with another.”

Ms Panek said Levi Strauss & Co. and Jacob Davis, a Reno tailor, received a US Patent in May 1873 for “An Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings.” Months later, she said, the company began manufacturing the famous riveted jeans — “Levi’s 501 jeans, the first modern blue jean”.

She said before the auction that the shipwreck trousers have no company branding — no “patches, buttons or even rivets, the innovation patented in 1873”.

Ms Panek added that the trousers “are not typical of miner’s work pants in our archives”. She cited the color, “unusual fly design with extra side buttonholes” and the non-denim fabric that’s lighter weight “than cloth used for its earliest riveted clothing”.

Levi Strauss & Co has long maintained that up until 1873, the company was strictly a wholesaler and did no manufacturing of clothing.

Mr Holabird believes the trousers were made by a subcontractor for Strauss. He decided to “follow the money — follow the gold” and discovered Strauss’ had a market reach and sales “on a level never seen before”.

“Strauss was the largest single merchant to ship gold out of California in the 1857-1858 period,” Mr Holabird said.

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SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) – While high prices and inflated bids have become the norm in the Bay Area real estate market, eyebrows rise when a house in San Francisco sold for $ 1 million more.

It’s a newly renovated 2,400 square foot home with 4 bedrooms, a two car garage, and incredible views. The house is in a quiet area of ​​San Francisco near Mt. Davidson, west of Twin Peaks.

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The interior of a house in San Francisco near Mount Davidson that grossed more than $ 1 million. (Lunghi Media Group)

Real estate agents Richard Woo and Holly Phan listed the house for just under $ 2.5 million. Three days later, they would put the sale at $ 3.5 million.

“We were all very surprised because they weren’t just over – they were way over,” said Woo.

“We expected more, a little more, but we weren’t expecting a million dollars,” Phan said.

In current market conditions, it is quite typical for homes in the Bay Area to be sold at or slightly above list price.

A house that sold $ 1 million in San Francisco. (CBS)

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“It was one of the wildest markets in history last year,” said Patrick Carlisle, Compass chief market analyst. “We saw some very spectacular overbids, not just in town but across the Bay Area.”

The housing stock available is still incredibly low across the Bay Area. This creates more competition among buyers, which can drive up sales prices.

“While a slew of new entries have hit the market, they’re being caught faster than ever – perhaps at the fastest rate in history,” Carlisle told KPIX 5. “Virtually every segment in the Bay Area has gone insane. ”

In San Francisco in particular, there has been a huge surge in home sales, according to Carlisle.

“Of course, it involves some people leaving. But the other side of it is that there are still many people who are very eager to live in the city, to own a home in the city, and are willing to pay higher prices than they have ever paid before ” , he said. “Sooner or later, upcycles end. What history has taught us, however, is that it is extremely difficult to predict when upward cycles will end. “

Potential buyers should all have their ducks in a row, according to Woo.

As for sellers?

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“It’s a seller’s market,” said Woo. “Of course the timing is important, the location is important. But the most important thing is to properly prepare the house. “

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