One toilet for every 787 people at Bay Area firework show as fog ruins spectacle

San Francisco’s much-hyped Fourth of July celebration went straight down the toilet.The deep-blue city lured an estimated 100,000 people to the waterfront for a historic fireworks display launched from the Golden Gate Bridge, only for the show to be swallowed in thick fog for much of night as transit and sanitation issues added to the chaos.Revelers were left fighting over just 127 toilets, or roughly one bathroom for every 787 people.The National Park Service said the restroom shortage hit some of the city’s busiest viewing areas, where massive crowds packed the Presidio, Marina and northern waterfront for the first-ever Independence Day fireworks launched from the Golden Gate Bridge, only the third fireworks display in the bridge’s history.The Golden Gate National Recreation Area had 27 permanent restrooms in those areas and added 60 portable toilets for the holiday.The City of San Francisco supplied about 40 more portable toilets at Crissy Field and Fort Mason, according to Joshua Winchell, chief of communications and special park uses for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.“These 127 toilets were not nearly enough to support our July 4 visitors,” Winchell told the San Francisco Chronicle.“We will work with the City of San Francisco and our other partners to ensure that enough bathrooms and other resources required for enjoyable park visits will be in place for future large-scale events, such as Fleet Week.”The bathroom blunder is the latest black eye for what was billed as a once-in-a-generation patriotic celebration.While the city spared little in staging a first-of-its-kind Independence Day spectacle, the basic logistics failed to keep pace with the massive turnout.Dense fog rolled over the bay just as the fireworks began, leaving many spectators staring at little more than flashes of light and the lower bursts breaking through the mist after waiting hours for the show.Longtime locals, however, said none of it came as much of a surprise.So...