Disgusting

Once again the ADA porta-potty opposite the hotel is unusable because of a broken door.  This door has the cheapest, flimsiest hinges you could buy at Ace Hardware, and they’ve been broken repeatedly over the past two years. 

What’s disgusting is not only the permanence of porta-potties in Berkeley’s largest park, but also the condition that the contractor keeps them in.  These particular units were old and beaten up, with rusty rails inside, when the company installed them.  Since then the company has done nothing to put them in workable condition. The smaller unit next to this one has repeatedly had its vent pipe fall out of the roof hole so that it vents inside the unit, and it was that way again today.  Both of them are in nauseating condition from the sanitary standpoint.  And the company has done absolutely nothing to abate the graffiti that’s all over the inside. 

It’s revolting to see our fair city fallen so low.  To blame is United Services, the contractor that supplies and services the porta potties.  Even more to blame is the City of Berkeley’s Parks & Waterfront Department, which under Boss Ferris continues to reward United Services with $105,000 per year for porta-potties in the parks.  People are asking: Is Ferris getting a kickback from United?  City Auditor Ann Marie Hogan, who should know that porta-potties cost taxpayers more in the long run than good permanent restrooms, treats Ferris’ department with kid gloves, issuing “audit reports” that are nothing but kisses for the department’s self-serving and self-composed financial papers.  This situation is disgusting.  Who on Council has enough backbone to stand up to this arrogant and backward Parks leadership?