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# Unsafe conditions may close downtown public restrooms
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/unsafe-conditions-may-close-downtown-public-restrooms/
- Published: 2002-04-12T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:14:14.000Z
- Author: Andrew Fixmer
- Tags: local, Downtown, #archive-import, Homeless

*Downtown public restrooms covered in feces, litter*

Four of the six public bathrooms in downtown Santa Monica may be closed in the next two weeks because they are perceived as havens for the homeless and illegal drugs.

At the next Bayside District Corporation board meeting April 25, board members will be asked to approve a recommendation to close the restrooms and consider safer locations for new ones, said Kathleen Rawson, the corporation’s executive director.

Bayside was planning a $2 million renovation of the public restroom facilities, but it delayed those plans because a newly-approved city parking plan may demolish several of the downtown garages where the restrooms are located.

Rawson said board members would decide the specific restrooms to be closed, though she said those in parking garages located at 1234 4th St., and 1320 4th St., may remain open.

That plan would leave one restroom each on the extreme north and south ends of the Third Street Promenade, she said. The other restrooms are located on the ground floor of the parking garages at 1235 2nd St., 1321 2nd St., 1440 4th St., and 1431 2nd St.

Regardless of what the board decides, it is clear there will be a significant change in policies regarding the public restrooms, where they are located and how they are patrolled, Rawson said.

Santa Monica Mayor Mike Feinstein said the issue is not about the homeless but about making the restrooms safer. He said criminals often lie in wait and rob people when they enter the rest-rooms.

“We’ve been struggling with these safety issues for several years,” he said. “All too many people are simply dishonest and violent and use the bathrooms to harm others.”

However, police said that while they regularly respond to calls for assistance at public restrooms for reports of criminal activities, they mostly find homeless people hanging out.

“The perception is there are criminal acts going on rather than actual crimes being committed,” said Lt. Frank Fabrega, a Santa Monica Police Department spokesman.

Homeless people often use the sinks as places to wash their clothes and fill up water bottles, he said. There are often many complaints about the bad odors and clutter.

A visitor to all six bathrooms Thursday afternoon found that while the facilities smelled mostly of disinfectant and bleach, many of the stalls, walls and toilets were covered in feces and urine. Also, nearly all the bathroom users appeared to be transients.

In two of the structures, toilet bowls were overflowing with toilet paper, making the floors treacherously slippery. Litter also was strewn about the floors.

In another structure, moans from a man in one of the stalls drove away others in the bathroom.

City maintenance workers have increased the number of times they clean the bathrooms, making them much cleaner than in recent years.

“They are not unclean because of their design or because our staff isn’t doing their work,” Feinstein said. “The problem is that people are classless when it comes to how they treat public restrooms.”

> “The problem is that people are classless when it comes to how they treat public restrooms.” — — MICHAEL FEINSTEIN Santa Monica mayor

By decreasing the number of public facilities there will be fewer places for homeless people to go to the restroom, other than in public streets, alleyways and parks or on private property.

Bayside officials believe the decrease in the number of public restrooms won’t affect businesses or act as a deterrent to shoppers coming downtown.

They said public restrooms located in Santa Monica Place and private ones in shops along the Third Street Promenade, including many of the larger bookstores and the movie theaters, would remain open.

“There are a lot of bathrooms downtown,” Rawson said. “There happen to be more options if you are a patron visiting stores than if you’re just hanging out.”

The Bayside District Corporation is a public-private management company in partnership with the City of Santa Monica, charged with the responsibility of overseeing public safety, security, and maintenance of streets surrounding the Promenade, including the alleys and the six city-owned parking structures.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/041202-04_01.jpg)

Many of the public toilets are covered in urine and feces, like this one at the parking structure located at 1440 4th St. (Photo: Andrew H. Fixmer/Daily Press)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/041202-04_02.jpg)

A homeless man wheels his shopping cart Thursday afternoon into the men’s public restroom at the parking garage located at 1321 2nd St. (Photo: Andrew H. Fixmer/Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 12, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/041202.pdf?ref=smdp.com)