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The city's Bureau of Environmental Services has sold a second Portland Loo—to Ketchikan, Alaska.
The Ketchikan Gateway Bureau has ordered one of the city's patented stainless steel, solar-powered, open-air public toilets. But Portland can't complete the sale until the City Council gives environmental services director Dean Marriott the power to sign off on deals.
The council is scheduled to grant that authority on Wednesday.
The city began marketing the Portland Loos—a pet project of former Commissioner Randy Leonard when he ran the Water Bureau—last year to other cities in an effort to raise money for twice daily cleaning of the six Loos already installed in central Portland.
Until now, Portland had sold just one Loo, to Victoria, B.C. for $100,000—that's a $40,000 profit. The city is also in talks with Cincinnati, Oh. and Nanaimo, B.C.
Victoria's Langley Street Loo was voted "Canada's Best Restroom" last year in a national poll.
The Loos haven't always been well received in Portland. In 2011, Portland Police Association president Daryl Turner blamed the Portland Loo between 5th and 6th on Northwest Glisan for exacerbating the drug and prostitution trade in Old Town.
"This is Crack Alley, and that's Randy Leonard's crack house right there," Turner told The Portland Tribune.
In case you were wondering: The average January temperature in Ketchikan, the southernmost Alaskan cruise port of call, is 35 degrees.
WWeek 2015