When You Gotta Go…Is Grand Rapids Short On Toilets?

Imagine...You're out having a lovely day enjoying Grand Rapids. And then, you know the feeling. Your teeth are floating. The thought of someone touching your tummy makes you squirm. Anything related to water is uncomfortable. You become frantic. If you don't find a place to go soon, there will be an accident. Is Grand Rapids short on public bathrooms?

That was the thought posted by RatBrainedManAnimal on Grand Rapids reddit. He added,

"There's 1 public bathroom on each side of the river in the downtown area, the only one open today is the women's room on the west side of the river. My wife nearly p*$$ed her pants trying to find somewhere to go. Every restaurant has signs up about not using their bathroom. What's the deal? This has been an ongoing complaint for as long as I've lived here."

Actual-Mushroom-3525 agreed,

"True. The challenge of needing to use the restroom has become shameful even though we all have the need."

WOOD TV reported in June that the Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority approved up to $15,300 to hire a contractor to identify potential spots and start engineering work for the city’s next Portland Loo. The first Portland Loo at the corner of S. Division Avenue and Weston Street SE cost about $400,000 to purchase and install.

Dustinhavinga offered this information,

"Rosa parks circle usually has one and I believe they have portable ones now. HeartSide park has one, Division and Oaks has one and then the Gerald Ford park has public restrooms. But yeah buy a beer or use a hotel is my go to."

Fapper_Keeper came through with this solution,

"Here's a life pro tip for everyone: Use hotel lobby restrooms. They usually have very nice restrooms, and they don't know if you have a room there or not."

Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. Operations Manager Melvin Eledge said the first Portland Loo has been "extremely well-received by the community” since its first flush last year, but added “one restroom isn’t enough to address the needs that exist in our downtown.”