Palm Springs Merchants Demanding Public Restrooms

Palm Springs business owner Tom Adamo and other Main Street board members collected over 1,000 petition signatures to support public restrooms in downtown.

“People are complaining they’re embarrassed to ask the business owners to use the bathroom,” he said. “They feel they have to do some shopping before they could justify the use of their restrooms.”

The last known restrooms were inside a two-story office building behind the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream store on Palm Canyon Dr.

One reason the city closed them was because they were not up to code with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The city estimated it would cost $150,000 a year to maintain and monitor public restrooms in downtown and uptown.

“I can imagine if you’re visitng from out of town it would be nice [to have public restrooms],” said Neeta Wallace, of Ventura. “It probably might cut down on the amount of public urination.”

City Manager David Ready said public restrooms is a priority. In the long term, public restrooms would be located inside the Desert Fashion Plaza, although the plaza still is undergoing renovation plans.

In the meantime, the city is looking into creative solutions, such as paying a stipend to merchants who are willing to open their facilities to the public.

Adamo will present the petitions at Wednesday’s city council budget meeting. He said Palm Springs is a world-class destination and visitors deserve a proper place to take a bathroom break.

News Channel 3 investigated whether public restrooms were provided along El Paseo in Palm Desert, another tourist destination.

According to El Paseo’s visitor center, there are public facilities located inside its building near the corner of El Paseo and San Pablo.