San Jacinto Plaza to host thousands this weekend; still no restrooms

We are just a couple of days away from the annual Celebration of Lights Parade and Christmas Tree Lighting at San Jacinto Plaza in downtown El Paso.

The new and improved Plaza has been opened for about a year and half, but an important element is still missing: restrooms.

As the city’s crown jewel, the San Jacinto Plaza is the perfect setting for a holiday celebration. Thousands turn out every year for the annual tradition.

That’s a big number when you compare it to the number of restrooms at San Jacinto Plaza: 0.
Installing restrooms at the renovated San Jacinto Plaza, a two-acre park, would have cost $400,000, so the city originally decided against it.

Council later changed its mind and approved seven hundred thousand dollars for the project. That was about four months ago. Bathrooms came up again at this week’s city council meeting.

Robert Cortinas, with the city manager’s office, updated Council on a laundry list of projects.

“Interesting topic, but one that is very important to users of all of our parks. So the San Jacinto restrooms were funded in the recent budget process,” said Cortinas.

That’s the good news. The bad news is the thousands of people who turn out for this year’s Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony and Celebration of Lights Parade will have to rely on porta potties when the time comes.

Rep. Peter Svarzbein asked Cortinas about the restrooms slated for the San Jacinto Plaza.

“We are going to put together a list of timelines for those projects,” Cortinas said, “So we will bring that back to you, also keep you up-to-date on where we are with those projects. We will get back to you on that.”

The city is reportedly looking into locating the restrooms inside a building across the street from San Jacinto Plaza.