The good people of Noe Valley won’t have to endure much longer.

City officials vowed Friday that they will accept a donated modular toilet for the neighborhood’s lovely town square — and that they’ve eliminated much of the bloat in their initial, stomach-churning budget estimate for the installation.

Now the long-awaited toilet won’t cost as much as a house in San Francisco — just as much as a substantial remodel. And it will be operational by the end of this summer, much sooner than the original projections.

The bathroom brouhaha is happily coming to an end, but let’s hope this is just the beginning of a much deeper investigation into why San Francisco’s $14 billion annual budget seems to be buying us so little. And finding ways to cut costs, especially as the city faces looming budget deficits.

“It’s not easy navigating the city’s procurement and construction processes, which of course is of small consolation when your 2-year-old needs a diaper change,” said Phil Ginsburg, general manager of the city’s Recreation and Parks Department, in an explanation.

Crucially, he pledged to support efforts to prevent future projects from throwing such a stench at the city government. Originally slated to cost $1.7 million, the 150-square-foot, single-toilet bathroom wouldn’t open until 2025, an incredible waste of time and money that drew ridicule across the country.

“We will fully support the efforts of our city leaders to make small public works projects like this — which are not always saved by philanthropy — less costly and more efficient,” Ginsburg said in the statement, referring to $200 million private philanthropy the department has received over the past 12 years to help realize park projects. He did not respond to a request for further comment.

The Noe Valley toilet saga began in October when Assembly Member Matt Haney announced he had secured $1.7 million in government funding to build the toilet and was planning a press conference to celebrate. The town square was built in 2016 on a converted church car park – complete with plumbing but no toilet – and neighbors had been asking for a bathroom for years.

But when that column raised questions about the crappy cost and schedule, Haney canceled his potty party and Gov. Gavin Newsom put toilet funds on hold until the city could install the dresser without flushing so much money down the drain.

Chad Kaufman, president of the Public Restroom Co., offered to give the city a free modular bathroom. And his buddy Vaughan Buckley, CEO of Volumetric Building Cos., promised he would provide free architectural and engineering assistance to get the site ready. They also agreed to fund the installation and hire local union workers.

But three months later, the city still hadn’t accepted his potty gift on a silver platter. And as I told you last week, Rec and Park Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, representing Noe Valley, said that even with the donated toilet, the cost to the city could still be close to $1 million.

It was all enough to send San Francisco taxpayers, who yearn for a responsive, productive, and cost-conscious city government, to their tums.

But sweet relief has finally arrived. Last week’s column bemoaning the still-exorbitant costs may have prompted Rec and Park to take action. Because on Friday she announced movement.

It will take over Kaufman’s toilet and associated plumbing, which together is worth $425,000. Rec and Park also appears to have saved $491,000 from its own estimated costs, eliminating construction line items, project management fees, architectural and engineering fees, regulatory costs and other items, according to a department press release.

The department said it still has $300,000 to come up in costs, including hiring a landscaping firm to create construction illustrations depicting building details, site improvements, and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing work. Rec and Park said it would in-house permit and contract management and coordinate environmental reviews and permits itself. Usually she pays other city authorities for these services.

The goal, the department said, is to convince the state to release the $1.7 million to cover the $300,000 cost of the Noe Valley toilet and the rest to buy one modular bathroom for Precita Park.

That shows it’s possible to install toilets for $725,000 — a million less than originally estimated. It’s still an insanely high number, but not as outrageously as initially projected. And it also shows that the timeline can be significantly shortened.

Because the donated restroom and installation are gifts, the city can accept them, although the Public Restroom Co. is headquartered in Nevada, a no-go along with 29 other states for city contracts due to their stance on abortion rights, voting rights, or LGBTQ rights.

Mandelman has asked the city attorney general to draft legislation that would remove the contract ban in 30 states, saying it hurts San Francisco financially and fails to convince officials in those other states to be more tolerant. He would keep the ban on city-sponsored travel to those states.

He has also asked city manager Carmen Chu to draft a recommendation streamlining the process for signing small contracts in hopes of making projects like the toilet cheaper and faster. He expects to use the recommendation for bills he will present this spring.

“That’s a better result,” Mandelman told me of the $725,000 toilet, which will arrive 18 months earlier than expected. “But the whole exercise has shown that there are ways that the city could drastically reduce costs if we were to be more cost conscious.”

Supervisor Myrna Melgar said she believes part of the problem stems from Mohammed Nuru’s corrupt leadership of San Francisco’s public works and that he regularly surcharged the cost of his department’s services to other departments, rates now considered normal, although they are excessive. (Nuru was sentenced to seven years in prison last year after pleading guilty to federal fraud charges.)

Melgar expects to soon receive the full accounting of the projects she has requested from Public Works, which she will use as the basis for a hearing on the Noe Valley toilet and other overpriced projects.

“After you published that toilet story, I heard from a number of departments who said, ‘Keep it up!'” she said, meaning they believe the contracting process is also broken and need help fixing the issue .

She said it’s critical that a city that wants to build 82,000 housing units by 2031 — and that also needs to improve its public transit system — figure out how to build much cheaper and faster.

“How are we supposed to manage all this if we can’t do a toilet?” she said.

Haney said he also takes lessons in toilet troubles.

“When the city asks me to bring funds home for important projects, I ask a lot more questions,” he told me. “But hopefully the city will also ask more questions of itself.”

He said he will be at Noe Valley Town Square this summer to see the first day of the toilet in action. Call it Party Party #2. I asked who he thought should have the honor of the first flush.

“Definitely a kid who grew up near Town Square and should have had a bathroom five years ago,” he said.

Sounds like a plan to me.

Heather Knight is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf

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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — San Francisco is a city of controversies and there is a new one brewing. This time over the estimated cost of a public restroom that will make your nose scrunch.

There is also a competition of sorts in America to earn the right to be in the hall of fame for public bathrooms. Bryant Park and Greeley Square Park, both in New York City, and Bancroft Park in Colorado, all of them shown here in full glory.

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San Francisco public toilets have never reached that claim to fame.

“We have not had any winners from San Francisco,” revealed Julia Messinger of Cintas Corporation, the large restroom supply company actually honors the best, brightest and most innovative public bathrooms.

“It’s not something that people talk about often, but I think everyone values ​​a clean and functioning bathroom,” she added.

Maybe San Francisco is not ready to give up yet. Why not? The plumbing already exists. The city has secured state funding to build a small, 150-square-foot public bathroom right in the heart of the Noe Valley neighborhood at a cost of $1.7 million.

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“Put it to better use. It’s ridiculous. $1.7 million for a stupid bathroom,” expressed Augusto Illidge, a San Francisco resident.

That’s the estimate given by the Department of Recreation and Parks because of all the permits, planning, union labor, etc. that would be involved.

City officials hope it won’t cost that much.

“They have an idea of ​​what it will be but I don’t think they have the formal final plans but now they will be in a position to be able to put that together,” said State Senator Scott Wiener.

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Still, people here wanted to have a commode in place. By the way, commode comes from the French meaning suitable or convenient.

“You know it would be nice to have some facilities like that,” said George Matiasz, a resident of Noe Valley.

“Having public access rather than having to go into a restaurant and say can I use the bathroom, I think that’s what a neighborhood should have,” added Kay Taneyhill, also a resident of Noe Valley.

New York, for example, is considering legislation that would force the city to build public restrooms in every ZIP code.

“We don’t have nearly enough public restrooms in San Francisco,” said Wiener.

Like most things in San Francisco, big dreams start in small places at a high cost.

If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live

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Bay Area // san francisco

May 26, 2022Updated: May 26, 2022 8:46 am

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PG&E crews work to restore power to around 750 customers in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood after what appeared to be a blown transformer scorched a utility pole.

Andy Reinhardt / The Chronicleshow moreshow less

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A PG&E worker addressing the burned top of a utility pole in San Francisco, Calif. An apparently blown transformer scorched the pole.

Andy Reinhardt / The Chronicleshow moreshow less

About 750 residents near San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood were without power Thursday morning following an outage that impacted more than 3,000 customers on Wednesday night, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said.

The outage was first reported at about 11 pm Wednesday and affected 3,272 customers, said PG&E spokesperson Karly Hernandez.

PG&E crews were working Thursday morning to restore power to the remaining 751 customers, and expect full restoration by 2 pm, said Hernandez.

The cause of the outage was under investigation.

Residents reported hearing a loud “bang” around 11 pm Wednesday when a transformer may have blown. PG&E crews were working to replace a burned utility pole Wednesday morning.

Jessica Flores (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jessica.flores@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jesssmflores

Jessica Flores is a reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle. Before joining The Chronicle in 2021, she worked for USA Today, NPR affiliate KPCC and Curbed LA. Originally from LA, she received her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree from Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles.

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Parking in San Francisco is a difficult part of life here. You find a spot… but get a ticket anyway.

For Judy and Ed Craine it seems especially unfair.

“We always use the carport,” said Judy.

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“Parked in that driveway every day and every night,” confirmed Ed.

They live on a steep hill where parking can be a gravity-defying challenge.

But they could slip into their driveway and park on their carpad, which they’d been doing every day for the past 36 years.

But not anymore.

“We got this email saying we can’t park in the pad anymore. I said what, that’s crazy,” recounted Ed.

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Out of the blue, the couple got a ticket for parking in their own driveway.

“It was very surprising, to say the least,” said Judy.

And worse? It came with an enormous fine: $1,542 dollars, plus another $250 per day if they didn’t get the car off their carpad.

“I wrote them back saying I thought this was a mistake,” Judy said.

But it was no mistake. And no ordinary parking ticket. It came from the city planning department, telling them it’s illegal to park in the front of a house.

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“And if we were found parking there again, it would be a $1,500 fine,” Judy said.

And so they quickly pulled the car out — but none of it made sense.

“Why are you taking away something that has great utility?” asked Ed.

Ed and Judy had been parking there for nearly four decades. And as far as they could tell, the space was used for parking since the house was built back in 1910 – one of the first in their Noe Valley neighborhood.

“To all of a sudden to be told you can’t use something that we could use for years. It’s, it’s startling. Inexplicable,” Ed said.

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And so the Planning Department gave them a challenge: prove that parking was a historic use on the lot, and they might get a waiver.

“We could be grandfathered in. If we show them a historical photo that showed a car… or a horse-drawn buggy in the carport,” said Judy.

Right away they dug up a photo of their daughter 34 years ago – a part of the car barely visible.

But officials said: not old enough.

“I did a number of online searches,” said Ed.

And so they combed through hundreds of historic photos.

Plenty showed the early days, when there were few streets or homes.

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“Our house and our neighbor’s house had empty fields all around,” Ed said.

But to find a photo of a car or horse in their particular driveway, back before the days of iPhone cameras?

Nearly impossible.

And then, bingo.

“To me, it’s pretty compelling that was a car,” Ed said.

An aerial photo from 1938 shows their exact home – and Ed is sure he can see a car – or horse-and-buggy — pulling into his driveway!

“So this little black blob looks like it’s pulling into our house,” Ed said.

It looks like just a blob from above. But Ed says it must be a car — like all the other blobs you can see along the road.

“I don’t know what else they would be,” he said. “To me, it’s pretty compelling that that was a car pulling in or out of the parking pad.”

They rushed the photo to the Planning Department – the proof they need!

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Right?

wrong

“They said they were too fuzzy,” Judy said.

The Planning Department said this was not clear evidence.

Officials tell 7 On Your Side the couple was violating a code section banning vehicles in a setback in front of a house, even if it isn’t blocking a sidewalk.

Though it’s OK to park in front of a garage, like many of their neighbors.

Planning Chief Dan Sider said it was enacted decades ago for aesthetic reasons, to “Ensure that front yards don’t turn into parking lots.”

Yet, it’s OK to park in front of a garage, like their neighbors,

“I don’t think our car looks any worse than all the cars stacked in front of garages,” Ed Craine said.

And why enforce the rule after all these decades?

Sider said someone made an anonymous complaint to the city. Two neighbors also got tagged for the same violation, parking in a front driveway.

In an email, Sider wrote:

“I recognize that the property owner is frustrated. I think I would feel the same way in their situation. But the Planning Code doesn’t allow for the City to grandfather illegal uses on account of their having flown below the radar for a length of times.”

And so their carport sits empty — the oil stain a testament to easier days — as they struggle to park on the hill.

“I had to use my head to keep the trunk open while getting out groceries,” Judy said.

“The onus is on us to prove we’re innocent… though I don’t feel guilty,” Judy said.

The city did close the case without charging any penalties after the couple got the car off the carpad and kept it off. And the city says they could build a covered carport or garage to park there – or maybe find that old photo.

Take a look at more stories and videos by Michael Finney and 7 On Your Side.

Have a question for Michael and the 7 On Your Side team? Fill out the form HERE!
7OYS’s consumer hotline is a free consumer mediation service for those in the San Francisco Bay Area. We assist individuals with consumer-related issues; we cannot assist on cases between businesses, or cases involving family law, criminal matters, landlord/tenant disputes, labor issues, or medical issues. Please review our FAQ here. As a part of our process in assisting you, it is necessary that we contact the company / agency you are writing about. If you do not wish us to contact them, please let us know right away, as it will affect our ability to work on your case. Due to the high volume of emails we receive, please allow 3-5 business days for a response.

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But this home in the Noe Valley neighborhood is anything but typical.

The real estate website The Real Deal reports the home sold for $1.97M.

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It comes with zero bedrooms, and two baths.

However, you do get a backyard, if you want to call it that.

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The Zillow listing describes the fixer-upper as a “contractor’s special” and the “worst house on the best block”.

Report a correction or typo

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – The San Francisco Fire Department had a three-alarm alarm on the 4200 block of 23rd Street in the Noe Valley neighborhood that damaged four homes early Wednesday morning and left a firefighter with minor injuries.

The San Francisco Fire Department Twitter account about the fire was posted at around 2:12 a.m. On the Citizen app page for the incident, the fire was reported in the garage of a house just before 2 a.m.

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UPDATE 3 – Three alarm garage fire (Noe Valley, San Francisco) Live on @CitizenAppSFO https://t.co/u1yWm6bYPa

– SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) November 4, 2020

Fire officials said there was a live wire involved in the crime scene. At 2:19 a.m., a third alarm went off and the fire had spread to the roof and two other family homes.

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Firefighters said an initial search of the structure revealed no one was trapped in the home. So far there have been no reports of injuries.

At around 2:45 a.m., on-site firefighters reported that the fire was contained and had stopped spreading.

After initially saying the fire damaged three houses, the fire department later announced that four houses were damaged and six adults were displaced by the fire. The update also found that a firefighter suffered a minor injury and was reportedly treated for exhaustion.

3 ALARM FIRE 4200 BLOCK OF 23RD Street 4 DAMAGE DAMAGED 6 ADULTS ADULTS 1 FIRE BRIGADE INJURY AND OKAY – FIRE IS INVESTIGATED https://t.co/jdUfmzrVUo

– SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) November 4, 2020

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