Restroom renaissance: Spokane parks officials pledge bathrooms will be cleaner, newer and more accessible if levy passes

Every park bathroom in Spokane will be renovated or replaced entirely if voters approve a 20-year, $240 million parks levy, the Spokane Parks Department has pledged in its plans for the systemwide improvements the levy would fund.

Around 10% of the levy would be spent on bathroom improvements, said Parks Director Garrett Jones, citing cleaner and more accessible bathrooms as the top priority of park users, according to surveys. In addition to the improved infrastructure, partially designed to prevent rampant vandalism, the Parks Department has also promised to hire additional park security and maintenance staff to prevent damage and clean messes more quickly.

Over the course of the 20-year levy, 40 of the parks system’s 85 bathrooms would be replaced, and the rest would receive upgrades like fixture replacements, paint and minor repairs.

The bathrooms are a small part of a much larger plan for the funding, if voters approve the tax increase in November.

The parks levy has also been tied to the upcoming 20-year, $200 million school bond voters will be asked to consider on the same ballot in a political and marketing campaign titled “Together Spokane.” But improving bathrooms and keeping them open is necessary for more widespread enjoyment of the city’s parks, argue parks officials.

“A lot of times we find that, when our crews come in the morning, they’ve been vandalized, and it can be to the point where we have to lock it up to replace a toilet or remove extensive graffiti,” said Carl Strong, assistant director for park operations.

In 2024 alone, 125 bathroom locks were cut off, 17 toilets or urinals needed to be replaced, and 24 sinks needed to be replaced, frequently due to vandalism. The parks department logged 1,504 hours of staff time just for vandalism repair, and parks officials noted this isn’t all-inclusive.

In 2023, when the Spokane City Council was considering making trespassing in the parks after hours an arrestable offense, parks officials noted in a report that the department had spent more than $160,000 in a six-month period repairing major incidents of vandalism, including a $54,000 price tag for Mission Park alone.

In other cases, older bathrooms have deteriorated with age to the point that they cannot be maintained or used safely. Eight park bathrooms aren’t expected to be opened at all this year, including at the Fish Lake Trailhead, Lincoln Park, Cowley Park, Parkwater Park, Wentel Grant Park, Courtland Park, Harmon Park and Jim Hill Park. In some cases, those closures are because of major sewer improvements that need to be done, or a decaying roof, or vandalism that is outpacing staff resources.

Twenty-five park bathrooms have been rated to have major damage or be near failure, according to a report provided by the department. The levy would provide funding for their eventual replacement, and also to make the bathrooms more resistant to damage, such as by hiding fixtures behind walls or replacing porcelain toilets with stainless steel.

The levy would also fund a 50% increase in operations staff to more quickly address issues in parks and their bathrooms.

“One of the biggest things for keeping our bathrooms clean more consistently is frequency of cleanings,” Strong said. “Our standard for decades, we get to it once a day, and that includes weekend.”

With additional staffing, the department could clean more frequently and also respond more quickly to damage or maintenance issues, he added. The department also often doesn’t have the budget needed to quickly repair more significant damage, which levy funding would address as well.

In some cases, park bathrooms could also be open for more of the year. With the additional staffing and infrastructure improvements to winter-proof the facilities, Strong said the department hopes that all bathrooms could be open from the beginning of May to the beginning of September.

Jones added that some bathrooms could be made capable for year-round use, particularly in parks with proposed all-weather fields with year-round sports programming, which is another proposal for the Together Spokane funding. In other cases, new bathrooms may be added in parks that don’t currently have them.

Park officials have also committed to increasing the number of commissioned park rangers, security personnel with limited law enforcement authority, from four to as many as 12 if the levy passes. Those rangers would more regularly monitor city parks and their bathrooms to address vandalism and illegal campers.

“The rangers will be very instrumental in this process,” Strong said. “We’ll be sending them around to shut the bathrooms down at night, and they have the training and the authority to move people on and out of the bathrooms.”

“And then, if there’s something that needs to be reported to us, we can, first thing in the morning, we can hit it right away and get the bathroom back open.”