PHLUSH believes that Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human. Here’s how we have put commitment into practice since 2005.
2012 City of Portland Bureau of Emergency Management endorses Twin-Bucket emergency toilet. Public leaflet based on The Cloacina Project‘s Sewer Catastrophe Companion produced and distributed at 15 community events.
2011 Researched on ecological sanitation for new section on website. Continued collaboration with international partners. Regularly replied to inquiries from grassroots North American groups promoting public restrooms. Toilets for Emergencies fall campaign in collaboration with The Cloacina Project, Pacific Northwest College of Art, and compost toilet team of the New Zealand Permaculture Guild. CPTED research for World Toilet Summit paper “Building Safe Toilet Design into Shared Urban Space.”
2010 New partnerships enable us to broaden our mission to include research on ecological sanitation options suitable for adoption in urban areas. Year-long participation on committee led by International Code Council to draft global toilet design guidelines. Signage campaign entitled “Telling Visitors to Old Town Chinatown where to go” implemented with funding from the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. Presentation at the World Toilet Summit in Philadelphia on “Sanitation Policy Advocacy in Flush-and-Forget America.” Celebrated World Toilet Day opening a new Portland Loo with city officials.
2009 Local community fundraising enables two PHLUSH Co-Founders to travel to Singapore following invitation from the World Toilet Organization to present the PHLUSH Public Restroom Design Principles. First PHLUSH Awards honor public restroom heros. PHLUSH website and blog are launched. Neighborhood Hospitality Campaign provides restroom locator cards and window signage to direct visitors to public restrooms.
2008 PHLUSH Public Restroom Design Principles win approval of neighborhood groups. PHLUSH supports the launch of The Portland Loo and serves on design team for Ankeny Plaza restroom complex.
2007 Appointed by Portland Mayor Tom Potter to the Restroom Implementation Team, which among other activities, opened 7 new toilets in downtown Portland and put contemporary signage on historic comfort stations. In collaboration with Central City Concern and with the Village Building Convergence 7 of City Repair, PHLUSH hosts community toilet design workshops.
2006 PHLUSH presents Public Restrooms for Old Town Chinatown: A Report to the Community for adoption by the Old Town Chinatown Neighborhood Association and other local groups. Advises Relief Works, a graduate team at Portland State University School of Urban Studies, on publication of Going Public: Strategies for Meeting Public Restroom Need in Portland’s Central City. Collaborates with City Repair to participate in Village Building Convergence 6.
2005 Formed as an informal work group to study public restroom options for Old Town Chinatown.
Media coverage of PHLUSH is here.
How PHLUSH Began
For decades the lack of public restrooms had been a problem for business owners, employees, residents, and visitors in Portland’s Old Town Chinatown district. Located at the heart of the city, this is the place where Portland began. It was home to the historic skid road of a timber-dominated economy driven by workers from Oregon and around the world. By the late 20th century it would have two National Historic Districts and a dozen social service agencies serving Portland’s poorest citizens.
In early 2005, the Old Town Chinatown Neighborhood Association invited newly-elected Portland Mayor Tom Potter to visit the neighborhood. As a result of the ensuing dialogue, the neighborhood took on the challenges of engaging the issue of public toilets as a part of a collaborative process with the city. The PHLUSH initiative originated in mid 2005 when a small group of residents, business owners and staff of human services organizations stepped up to study the restroom problem and recommend ways to address it.
Following the PHLUSH report to the community in February 2006, Relief Works, a group of graduate students from Portland State University’s School of Urban Affairs and Planning joined PHLUSH efforts. They partnered with the Office of the Mayor to recommend formal policy and practice in their June 2006 report “Going Public! Strategies for Meeting Public Restroom Need in Portland’s Central City.”
In late 2006, City Council allocated funds to increase public restroom availability in Portland’s downtown core and Mayor Tom Potter appointed three PHLUSH co-founders to the Restroom Implementation Team. Working alongside specialists from Portland Parks and Recreation, Portland Office of Transportation, Portland Police Bureau, the Portland Business Alliance and others, we had the opportunity to follow through on several key recommendations.
A number of stalls were reopened, including those in the circa 1920 historic comfort station in Ankeny Park. In addition, the Restroom Implementation Team negotiated a 20 year city lease to open to the public facilities in a privately owned downtown parking structure. Opening hours for downtown toilets were standardized as were scheduled cleaning and security patrolling. Additional work included the installation of new restroom signs on the facilities themselves and of distinctive bicycle racks on sidewalks nearby.
Finally, the Restroom Implementation Team launched a community based design process which involved local community members, artists and planners. Community attitudes and preferences regarding facility design, safety and siting informed planning for the Portland Loo when additional funding became available.
