From: Jennifer Jozwiak
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2022 12:46 PM
To: City Council
Cc: jennifer
Subject: Public comment for 2/15 meeting on Pismo Beach's bathroom problem
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Dear City Council,
I appreciate your time reading my public comment on what I perceive to be a serious health concern with the lack of adequate bathrooms at two locations: Wadsworth Street and Addie Street lot.
Over the past few weeks, I have gone to surf and parked at the Addie Street lot. Several times when I checked the bathrooms (it was after 8am), they were locked. Then I called the Pismo Police to alert the Public Works department that they were not accessible to the public. Someone later came to open the bathrooms, but it was not right away.
This is not the first time I have encountered this problem, however. Over the years, bathrooms at Wadsworth and Addie Streets have not been open to the public at 8am. Besides their not being open, they are sorely inadequate for the amount of people that frequent these beach access points. Frequently in the summer, I see lines of 4 or 5 people waiting to use the restroom at the Addie Street lot.
Not only inadequate, these bathrooms also lack basic hygienic staples like soap. Before the pandemic and now, there is no soap in the bathrooms. (I have brought my own soap in a bottle to the beach for the past two years because of this.) Meanwhile, the bathrooms at Dinosaur Park have been updated over the years and have soap. I used to have a booth at Art in the Park, so I regularly used these restrooms. Furthermore, many other bathrooms in the county-- Morro Bay, Avila Beach, Cayucos are clean, open, and have soap.
One might say that the city already has fancy new bathrooms at the pier. The Addie Street and Wadsworth Street bathrooms are too far for accessing the new bathrooms at the pier. When you are going surfing at one of these locations, it is very inconvenient (and nearly impossible to park) to have to go to the pier bathrooms and then relocate to surf.
In addition, the Wadsworth and Addie Lot bathrooms are usually quite dirty. For several years, Pismo Beach paid a cleaning service, and this service was excellent. The ladies did a good job to keep the restrooms clean and accessible. In the past year, this service was discontinued, and this new service is not sufficient to meet the needs of the beachgoers in Pismo Beach, especially at Wadsworth and Addie Streets.
Remedying the issue of unhoused individuals in Pismo is paramount as it affects the City's services. These individuals also need to use the bathrooms. But this is a topic for the entire South County to deal with, and accordingly, for the Pismo Police to enforce.
In closing, having surfed in the county for the past 18 years, I do remember the porta potties, and I do not miss them. But since Pismo has grown bigger and richer and the pandemic has brought people to the beaches in droves, the City of Pismo has not done enough to improve its facilities. It's time to spend money on improving the bathrooms--building new ones and including a regular cleaning service and soap. Cleanliness is a critical hygienic need, and the City needs to support this.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Jozwiak
200 South Burton Street
Nipomo, CA 93444
805-503-0733 cell
Professor of English
Allan Hancock College
805-922-6966 ext 3787