Private business shouldn’t provide public restroom
Editor: As local independent business owner, I would like our community and the City of Sonoma to have a dialogue regarding our public restrooms in the Plaza. On the average, my business gets 30+ restroom requests a day from non-paying guests, both tourist and locals. (We do provide a restroom for our diners and customers of the shop. ) The requests increase on weekends and evenings, as people are walking around the Plaza.
The City does have directional signs on each corner directing visitors to the Plaza. But we hear regularly from visitors that they do not like the bathrooms, that they may be dirty or closed in the evenings.
It is really exhausting dealing with non-paying guests, who become upset with us that they cannot use our restrooms. Not to mention, for our business, the cost in water use, clean-up time, supplies and overall maintaining a clean restroom for customers who support us.
Is the City considering remodeling the bathrooms? Would the City consider having the restrooms open later, as the Plaza is getting livelier, and we have a thriving group of merchants who could all benefit from a clean, public restrooms?
As Sonoma is an international destination, I think it would be in our best interest to have a welcoming public restroom to both our visitors, along with our locals, who enjoy walking the Plaza, dining, shopping, tasting wine, listening to live local music and the Farmers Market, which when all combined, really do make the Plaza the heart of the community.
Sheana Davis, Sonoma
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Growing up in a Tourist Town, has it’s highs and it’s lows. Any business operating in California can refuse service to anyone. My Parents, ran a series of Stores in Encinitas and Point Loma, in the 50-80’s.
My father would say more than once, “it’s the cost of operating a business in a Tourist Town”. If you don’t like it, you can close your doors, I am sure there will just be another business willing too take your space.
Ask Ronnie, from the now closed Modern Eve, about how many Clients she gained by allowing Tourists to use the Facilities. I did many a Job for her, to her it was also just part of doing Business in Sonoma.