As people return to their favorite parks for the summer, so does that unmistakable odor.
The porta-potties are back.
And with the return of the portable toilets come the complaints about people misusing and vandalizing them.
“It goes hand in hand, especially in states like Colorado where people need to take advantage of good weather,” said Bill Carroll, executive director of the Portable Sanitation Association International. “When summertime comes, you get more use at parks and special events, and with that you get more vandalism.”
Some residents near Sunken Gardens Park have complained that the portable toilets the city put in were being frequented by drug users. Residents reported finding needles and other drug paraphernalia in the units, as well as lines forming for them as early as 8 a.m.
Angela Casias, a spokeswoman for the Denver Parks and Recreation Department, said the city considers a number of factors before putting portable toilets into a park.
“We look at the volume of use and how many people are active in the park and the needs of the community,” she said.
The toilets in Sunken Garden have been removed, and the city has no plans to put them back in. The residents had initially asked for the toilets to stop people from urinating in the trees.
“They’re hygienically necessary, because if you don’t have them, you have people urinating outside, which is against the law,” said Sonny Jackson, spokesman for the Denver Police Department. “But some people use them as a shelter for illegal activity.”
The Denver Police Department does not typically keep a record of whether a crime was reported in the vicinity of a portable toilet, so statistics for crime in and around them are hard to gather.
“It’s not like we can make the porta-potties complicit in the crimes,” Jackson said. He urged people who do notice illegal activity near portable toilets to call the authorities, but damaged units are the responsibility of the Parks and Recreation Department.
“We’re educating our park rangers to be the eyes and ears of our parks, and we’re working closely with police,” said Casias, who said the city pays toilet rental companies to clean the toilets, typically once a day. “We’re doing all we can to make our parks safe environments.”
Carroll said he has seen everything from toilets being tipped over to toilets set on fire.
“It’s going to happen,” Carroll said. “Some people get a perverse pleasure from vandalizing them.
“There’s been no instance I’ve heard of people being killed in them though,” Carroll assured.
In addition to putting the toilets in well-lit and heavily trafficked areas, Carroll said, the most important step in preventing vandalism and misuse is to keep the toilets clean.
“The bottom line is, when there aren’t the proper number of toilets at an event or a park, they do get vandalized,” Carroll said. “They get messy and it’s like people take it out on the porta-potties. If they are cleaned and maintained regularly, they normally get very little damage.
“Unless they’re serving alcohol at the event,” he added. “Then anything can happen.”
Mitchell Byars: 303-954-1698 or mbyars@denverpost.com
