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Comment by antiterra | Hacker News Reader

Price doesn’t seem that outrageous to me.

Public bathrooms in cities get destroyed and are very difficult to maintain; a lot of cities give up on free restrooms entirely. One of the biggest perks of working downtown in a moderately sized or larger city is being able to go to the bathroom there outside of work hours.

I priced out some relatively minor kitchen/bathroom renovation work in 2018 at around $100k. Put it off during covid times, and today the quote for the same work is well over $300k. Sure, some company with modular units is gonna sell you a stainless steel box public bathroom for that price, but it’s far from the same thing as a proper building.

To those touting ‘cheap’ self cleaning toilets:

https://missionlocal.org/2019/02/how-san-francisco-flushed-a...

https://dcist.com/story/19/07/29/this-self-cleaning-toilet-c...

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/nyregion/11toilet.html

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I know this is a forum for tech bros who are generally well paid but responding to a story about a million dollar public toilet with "that's no big deal, I'm currently spending six figures on minor kitchen renovations" seems pretty out of touch to me. That is a ton of money to so many people.

'Out of touch' is putting it lightly.

Construction costs are construction costs, none of that would change if I was still struggling to pay for food and utilities for a rundown apartment, as I have in the past.

Thank you. I laughed out loud when I read this part: <<I priced out some relatively minor kitchen/bathroom renovation work in 2018 at around $100k. Put it off during covid times, and today the quote for the same work is well over $300k.>>

In many parts of the United States, you can buy a whole house for $300k.

In many parts of the United States, you can buy a whole house for $100k.

One of my dearest friends lives on government assistance in a section 8 listed house with a mold problem in rural Oklahoma that is worth well over $150k now. Things are getting expensive, out of touch or not.

> In many parts of the United States, you can buy a whole house for $300k

And you’d likely get anywhere from a third to half the house you’d have gotten in 2019. That’s the point.

They clearly were emphasizing how expensive things are; they didn’t make a value judgement as to why. “Minor” conveyed that the work to be done is small.

This is a shit take, there’s no evidence for this person being out of touch with respect to anything

But this is the SF Bay, things are actually outrageously expensive here.

The point is that construction/materials are incredibly expensive compared to just a few years ago. Further, home construction is generally cheaper than public facilities in a huge city that must withstand a ton of abuse and use.

> One of the biggest perks of working downtown in a moderately sized or larger city is being able to go to the bathroom there outside of work hours.

I'm in a big city in Canada and there was a downtown farmer's market here for a while. Literally smack in the middle of the city, went up and down a few streets on Saturday mornings. Loved going, was a short walk and had lots of good eats, local produce, etc.

But no bathrooms. None of the local places would let you in if you weren't paying, and the only way I could make a head call was at the local YMCA -- and the only reason they let me in was cuz I was a member of their gym.

It's crazy to me how you can be in the center a huge edifice of planning, piping, conduits, etc. and still not be able to find a toilet.

edit: they did normally have porta-johns but didn't this morning. On at least one occasion I'd seen people tip them over, hopefully with no one in them.

>I priced out some relatively minor kitchen/bathroom renovation work in 2018 ... today the quote for the same work is well over $300k.

Lmao what. 300k for minor renovations? Is it a minor renovation on the international space station or something?

I'm in the process of building a new kitchen in the NYC area and I can't really find a way to make it cost more than $150,000. And that's including demo work to expand the size, new floors and windows, and entirely new appliances, countertops, and cabinetry.

Please don't pretend that spending 100k on "minor kitchen work" is normal.

All you're telling me right now is that if I were a contractor, you'd be my favorite client because you don't ask questions.

Even in the bay area, those prices are astronomical. You're getting ripped off.

I’m not getting ripped off. I’m not doing the renovations.

> I priced out some relatively minor kitchen/bathroom renovation work in 2018 at around $100k

I still don't see how that will justify the 1.7m public toilet because someone spent 6 figure on minor renovation work.

Did the multi year timeline not raise your eyebrows either?

It reflects San Francisco values

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