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Residents: City bureaucracy keeping drug hangout in North Seattle

North Seattle Chamber of Commerce members wants a Porta-Potty that is creating problems moved out of the busy business center in Lake City.

Currently, the portable toilet is positioned in the mini-park at 125th and Lake City Way. It is a common sight to see signs of drug use and feces on the sidewalk near the toilet.

However, Chris Leverson of the NSCC said his group wants it moved for an even more basic reason.

"It's not good to look at, and being right in the middle of our high traffic corridor, it just seems shoddy," Leverson said.

The chamber pushed to have the Porta-Potty moved about two and a half blocks away to a now city-owned lot near God's Lil Acre, a day center for the homeless. There is also a plan for a homeless shelter for drug addicted veterans that will soon be built on the block.

But the city rejected that idea without explanation, Leverson said.

Mark Jensen said he thinks the Porta-Potty looks bad in the business area as well, but said no one in Lake City really wants it.

The plan to move the toilet near the day center would have put it right in front of the Seafair Pirates Charity Foundation where Jensen is the executive director. Jensen added that his block already has crime problems thanks in part to a low-income housing development.

"Nobody wants it there," Jensen said.

Others would disagree. KIRO 7 spoke with two people near the Porta-Potty who argued that if the homeless did not have a place to go to the bathroom then there would be more disgusting behavior near the businesses.