Sonoma Plaza bathrooms get makeover

Jul 13, 2023

The Plaza's bathrooms — notorious for their smelly, messy conditions — are getting a makeover ahead of the return of Sonoma's Tuesday Night Market, which launches next week.

"This bathroom looks exactly like what you would expect from the county jail," Sandra Lowe said in her promise to make the Plaza bathrooms a priority as mayor.

After years of grievances from the public, the city will add new mirrors above each sink, upgraded faucets, fresh flooring, larger toilet paper dispensers and a new diaper changing station in both the men's and women's restrooms. City officials did not immediately respond to an Index-Tribune query about how much the refresher will cost.

Work on the women's room happened first, which on Tuesday just awaited the changing table. The men's restroom is to come soon after. The cost of the overhaul comes from the city's Park and Facilities General Fund, which includes and annual maintenance budget of $90,000 for all city buildings.

The update was heralded by PoPo the Clown, known otherwise by her government name of Penny Byrd. For the past 18 years, Byrd has worked regularly on the Sonoma Plaza, where she she paints faces at up to 30 birthday parties a year, in addition to being a weekly vendor at the Tuesday Night Market.

"I have families that come to my booth on Tuesday... ‘Could you tell me where the bathrooms are?’" Byrd said. "And I'm too embarrassed to tell them to go there."

In a Facebook post earlier this year admonishing the conditions of the women's restroom, Byrd said more than 130 women commented to echo her sentiment.

She said the poor conditions of the bathrooms — lack of toilet paper, lack of ventilation and urine stains — forced her and other women to seek relief at the restaurants that surround the Plaza.

For the last 10 years, Byrd's pleas to the city council to improve the state of the restrooms "fell on deaf ears." She took photos, sent messages and kept hoping for change.

"I said, ‘Penny, I promise you, I’m on it," Lowe said. "It was utilitarian, it served a purposed, but we need to kick it up a notch. This is Sonoma."

Lowe praised Byrd's steadfast commitment, and the mayor made a promise to address the bathroom situation on the council.

One of the defining moments of action for both Lowe and Byrd came with the arrival of busloads of tourists. As soon as they parked, most of the visitors quickly lined up at the Plaza's public restrooms.

"These are people that are coming from out of town... I’d see the bachelorette parties and and the bride's going in there to prep for their weddings that were around in the Square," Byrd said. "And it got to the point to where the humiliation was just was too much for me."

With the return of the summer farmer's market season, Byrd said the new updated bathrooms are going to relished by her and the families who enjoy the Plaza — she even joked about a ribbon cutting.

"I hate to be the person that complains all the time, you know. But this was so so heavy duty that now to have it all fixed is like a breath of fresh air," she said.

The bathrooms were last updated in 2017, when they simply got a fresh coat of paint in new lighting. Former Public Works Director Dan Takasugi noted the problem is not cleaning them up, but keeping them clean.

"These are institutional park restrooms," he told the Index-Tribune at the time. "They’re subject to intense vandalism and abuse on a regular basis. Plumbing fixtures are occasionally broken off walls. Lighting fixtures are also broken in the ceiling. Partitions are damaged and scratched. And, unfortunately, there are ‘sanitary messes’ left behind on the floors and walls on a regular basis."

With Byrd moving to Northern California in July, she said she feels a sense of accomplishment for getting the city to clean up this long-time mess.

"Nothing makes me happier than to be able to leave my town with a beautiful bathroom for the kids," Byrd said.

Contact Chase Hunter at [email protected] and follow @Chase_HunterB on Twitter.