By Judy Miller
On Friday, I was at Ocean Beach. Sunny day, gentle breeze, new grass on the lawn, crowds of happy visitors spending money during spring vacation.
Then I had to use the restroom. The public restrooms at the O.B. lifeguard station are so run-down that I was embarrassed for my city, just looking at them.
These disgusting facilities are the best we can provide for our visitors (and the rest of us)? People are here spending money, helping our local merchants, and we offer them only a dump for a restroom?
Let’s take that proposed $4.5 million consultant’s fee (for determining the new single-family-home trash pickup charges, which doesn’t sound like rocket science) and apply it to the rehab of those very prominent and currently very “trashy” O.B. restrooms!
Our friend Judy’s rant first appeared in the letters in today’s SD Union-Tribune.
Editordude: Of course, these restrooms have been a disgrace for a while; here’s a rant on them from 2015 and then here’s Rag posts about them here and here.
I couldn’t agree more. This is a disgrace for our city, and it’s totally unacceptable that these restrooms are not remodeled or at least cleaned and maintained.
Have you seen the public bathrooms by La Jolla Cove? They’re impeccably clean…
Just Sayin’…
How often do you visit the La Jolla Cove public bathrooms? When you do, are there any homeless in the vicinity?
Yup, pretty bad when your cleaning kit has a hazmat suit, a hep shot, and a fire hose.
I think the biggest issue, is lack of upkeep. I was told due to funding they are only cleaned once a day.
Imagine if McDonald’s only did once a day! Hell I clean my bathroom once a day and that’s not even enough with 2 adults and 2 kids using it.
I have no desire to visit this place. If you can, post a photo of the mess inside. A picture is worth a thousand words. It would be interesting to see a side-by-side of OB and LaJolla’s facilities.
Almost took photos inside myself. Filthy. And the Lifeguard tower itself is bigger disgrace!
Yes it is and OB has been clamoring for a new lifeguard station for years! PB, La Jolla and South Mission all got new stations.
It truly is pathetic that we were having this conversation a decade+ ago and here we are still asking for a super basic thing by the beach!
And hopefully they learn lessons from the “new” one at the foot of Brighton that looks 30 years old but is barely over a decade old!
When I moved to Ocean Beach early in 2010, the bathrooms were one of the first things I noticed. Why would a beach town that had so many tourists have such dirty public restrooms (and no others around)?
Over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that the city just writes off Ocean Beach as a wild place filled with bars. No other beach town along the Coast all the way up to , and including La Jolla, suffers this embarrassment.
I guess not enough rich people live here, though this demographic is changing. Many locals don’t even go to the oceanfront here anymore – too many people hanging around down there breaking the law with outlandish behavior.