[responsive_youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHZ_6EFSTbY]
North End resident Tom Schiavoni provides a review and update on efforts to reopen the Visitor Center and public restrooms in the Michelangelo building on Hull Street. The discussion was held at the September 12, 2013 meeting of the North End / Waterfront Residents’ Association (NEWRA).
Re: Public Restrooms — The neighborhood profits from the tourists, and yet provides no facilities for them. A Japanese man asked me where the public restrooms were. I went blank. And then I remembered the firehouse, but he did not head in that direction. It would be a nice gesture to offer facilities to all the tourists, from around the world, wouldn’t it?
I like the idea but only if they were cleaned every hour — can’t have all of the tourists seeing a disgusting sight like the public restroom over by the bocce courts that someone smeared with feces.
There actually were public restrooms in the North End. They were located in that small building in the Parado near the water fountain & would seem like a logical place to reinstall them and as someone posted they would need to maintained & cleaned and locked o/n at a reasonable hour.
These bathrooms on the Prado were a rat infested dump for years. NEMPAC, the non-profit music and performing arts center renovated the space and uses it for music, dance, vocal performing arts education for children (and adults) as well as other adult education programs and free performances for the neighborhood. taking this space away from a very successful program to make public bathrooms is not logical, would be detrimental to the neighborhood and is not going to happen. There is a perfectly good space that was designed as public restrooms and a visitor center on Hull St that should be funded and reopened before the space is lost to another use.