Three months ago, a nondescript beige building was carefully lowered by crane into Runyon Canyon Park, one of the most heavily used hiking areas in Los Angeles.
Once fully operational this summer, the building’s two stalls will offer a permanent public restroom for the very first time at the Hollywood-area park, which sees about 2 million visitors each year. The public bathrooms were a long time coming; the lack of a place to go had long left Runyon Canyon out of compliance with city standards for park service.
Los Angeles overall is in the midst of both a public parks crisis and a public bathroom crisis, lagging behind other major cities on both metrics. Los Angeles city parks have approximately 1.4 bathrooms per 10,000 residents, according to the Trust for Public Land, compared with 3.8 public park bathrooms per 10,000 residents in San Francisco.
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Despite those stark numbers, Runyon Canyon’s approximately $1 million bathroom still quickly found itself the target of fierce neighborhood opposition after city council member Nithya Raman announced the project last fall, with detractors arguing that offering bathrooms at an already crowded park space would draw more visitors, including people experiencing homelessness (who are underserved by LA’s lack of public restrooms). Some have also taken issue with the cost of the project.
People hike the trails at Runyon Canyon Park in Los Angeles on Feb. 27, 2025.
Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
One new meme-filled online account, Runyon Canyon Guardians, has emerged as a particularly aggressive opponent of the park restrooms. “Runyon Canyon is being destroyed right in front of us,” the group wrote in a December 2025 Facebook post. “… We’ve begged for enforcement, for cleanup, for basic safety. Instead we get a million-dollar magnet for more chaos. Enough.”
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By most standards, adding a public restroom in a park that sees thousands of visitors per day, but doesn’t have any easily accessible restrooms nearby, seems like a logical solution. By LA’s own standards, it’s an update should have happened years ago, maybe when the park first opened some 40 years ago, or about a decade ago when Thrillist penned a piece titled “The 10 Best Places to Pee Around Runyon Canyon, Ranked.” (The options included the park’s entrance gate, an overlook bench and a “Please Clean Up After Your Pet” sign.)
While joking in tone, the Thrillist piece underlined an undeniable truth about bodily functions: Taking away bathrooms doesn’t take away the urge to go. The city of LA noted this (and cited the Thrillist piece) in an official, 76-page report commissioned in 2019 on the future of Runyon Canyon Park.
“The article pokes fun at the absence of public restrooms, instead listing trees and structures around the Park as places to pee. This article, while meant to be humorous, highlights the gravity of the situation,” stated the otherwise staid report.
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A close-up of the Runyon Canyon Park sign in Los Angeles on April 17, 2024.
Ashley Hayes-Stone/SFGATE
Runyon Canyon covers 160 acres of protected hillsides and prime real estate just a couple of blocks north of the busiest stretch of Hollywood Boulevard. Much of the rest of the surrounding Hollywood Hills is dotted with multimillion-dollar homes, and Runyon Canyon was similarly slated for development several times over the decades. Back in the 1940s, neighboring residents fought off plans for a new country club development designed by famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The city acquired the canyon as park space in 1984.
In the years since, the park’s relatively short hiking trails have become a destination in their own right. The wide main trail remains a favorite for locals, visiting tourists and celebrities alike. And what all those people have in common? The need for bathrooms.
Many first-time visitors and tourists might not know in advance that there aren’t bathrooms at the park, noted the 2019 report on the park. And after fighting off other cars and circling the surrounding area for 20 minutes looking for parking — Runyon Canyon also lacks a parking lot, and many of the surrounding streets are resident-only parking — visitors probably aren’t eager to immediately jump back in their car to search for a public bathroom (which are also far and few between on Hollywood Boulevard) before starting their hike.
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“Go before you go or hit some of the bushes,” one visitor wrote on Tripadvisor.
Individuals walk at Runyon Canyon Park in Los Angeles on April 17, 2024.
Ashley Hayes-Stone/SFGATE
The 2019 report noted some concerns about the potentially negative impacts of restrooms in the park. Surveyed stakeholders expressed concern about potential “drug use, vagrancy, maintenance and upkeep, and an increase in Park visitation.” And ultimately, the report noted, those concerns should be weighed against the alternative: public urination and defecation in the park and its surroundings.
“Ultimately, the City should not ignore the public health and sanitation issues that are apparent without restrooms. There have been instances of public urination and defecation within the Park and even outside or on nearby private properties,” the report stated.
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A few portable toilets were added to the park in December 2022 as a temporary fix while the city worked on a permanent solution. Tackling other issues at the park, such as trash, visitor management and enforcement, also relies in part on having bathrooms available. The city couldn’t fairly ask a park employee to spend the day staffing the park when there’s no bathroom available — “an important consideration for suitable working conditions.”
In 2015, officials conducted outreach to park users in an effort to make the space better for all. Adding restrooms ranked second in “things to change” about the park. Two additional surveys in June and October 2018 found 75% and 65% support, respectively, for public restrooms at the park. Support was slightly lower among nearby residents (who by definition already have a place to do their business near Runyon Canyon) but still came in at or above 50%.
Hikers walk the winding trail in Runyon Canyon Park in Los Angeles.
Adam Mustafa/Getty Images
Bathroom opponents have criticized the total cost of installing the permanent bathroom at Runyon Canyon Park, which adds up to around $950,000. The restroom purchase itself cost $283,796, but site prep and adding utilities cost another $528,650, plus $134,570 in permit fees and contingency funds. Building much-needed public restrooms and their required infrastructure (plumbing, water hookups, electricity) can be expensive.
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In San Francisco, a proposed $1.7 million public restroom in Noe Valley received similar criticism over the project costs, but the total cost was reduced to around $725,000 after two vendors essentially donated their services and didn’t charge for building and installation costs. In New York City, a 2019 investigation by THE CITY, a local outlet, found that the city’s park restrooms cost an average of $3.6 million each.
Runyon Canyon Guardians, which seems to have launched social media accounts in early 2025 after the Sunset Fire near the park, became an oft-quoted voice against the bathrooms. The ad hoc organization was name-checked in a variety of news stories about the project last year, though lately, the group has been less focused on the bathroom and more focused on elevating Spencer Pratt, the former reality star and Republican mayoral candidate. The group’s social media pages also repeatedly use slurs to describe other candidates, including Nithya Raman, a progressive candidate for mayor who currently represents the City Council district covering Runyon Canyon (and who championed the park’s restrooms).
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In February, the group described the bathroom as “a small scale microcosm of why Nythia Raman and her comrade handlers at the terrorist group Democrat Socialists of America must not be near the Mayors office and removed forcefully by our military from all offices.”
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The view from Runyon Canyon Park in Los Angeles.
Getty Images
Meanwhile, Friends of Runyon Canyon, a longstanding nonprofit focused on the park, has heralded the bathroom’s arrival.
“No more people forced to hide behind bushes or deal with awkward, makeshift “bathroom” situations along the trail. That’s a win for everyone and a major step toward keeping the park cleaner, safer, and more welcoming for families, kids, seniors, runners, and visitors alike,” the group said in a February Facebook post.