Downtown Minneapolis has a "leaking" problem: There aren't enough good spots to take one.

Why it matters: The city's shortage of public restrooms isn't only a problem for unsheltered people or touring rock stars.

• For years, downtown boosters have acknowledged a lack of loos makes the area less welcoming for a wide range of people — from people with disabilities to parents with young children.

Driving the news: Minneapolis City Council Member Katie Cashman has proposed $700,000 in annual funding for restrooms in the Nicollet Avenue transit corridor.

• That's enough for five to eight "prefabricated, standalone restroom units," per city estimates.

What they're saying: "Great cities have public bathrooms," Cashman told Axios. "We deserve nice things."

How it works: Cashman's proposal calls for bathrooms that would be portable and winter-adaptable, and wouldn't require connections to city utilities or maintenance by city staff.

Friction points: Skeptics have pointed out there are good reasons Minneapolis hasn't already solved this problem.

• More-permanent public toilet models can be surprisingly expensive to install.
• When the Downtown Improvement District (DID) rolled out portable toilets in a 2019 access campaign, users abused them: They would barricade themselves inside, or were "aggressively unclean," MinnPost reported. (The pandemic suspended DID's initiative.)

Yes, but: DID "piloted Port-A-Potties," Cashman said. "This is totally different."

Zoom in: Cashman doesn't name a vendor, but her proposal is modeled on Throne Labs, which provides toilets to Los Angeles, D.C., Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan.

• Throne charges up to $84,000 per year to rent and maintain each of its solar-powered pods, city staff found.
• Users get inside via a mobile app or text messaging, though libraries or homeless service providers can hand out tap cards that also grant access. These credentials have a purpose: Throne bans anyone who causes a problem from future use.

The intrigue: With a tight city budget this year, Cashman turned to a unique funding source: the Nicollet Avenue streetcar fund, initially created in 2013 to pay for the as-yet-unbuilt transit project.

• Because if a streetcar can't go on Nicollet… maybe people should be able to! 🥁
• However, using this funding source means restrooms would have to be placed within a few blocks of Nicollet — leaving out much of Loring Park, the North Loop and Downtown East.

What's next: The council could take up Cashman's proposal as soon as today.

Share this with anyone who has a bladder

A nationwide rise in the number of homes losing value over the past year has reached the Twin Cities, according to a new Zillow report.

Why it matters: Over half of Twin Cities homes lost value year-over-year in October, according to Zillow. That's about on par with the U.S. average.

Yes, but: Homeowners still "have plenty to feel good about," the real estate site reports.

State of play: Since most homeowners bought before a surge in prices in the early 2020s, the median home value in October was 67% higher than when the property was last sold.

• Just 4% lost value in that time, around 8.5 years for the typical homeowner.

Reality check: There's a difference between taking a loss and being "underwater."

• Far fewer homes are underwater today compared to 2019, Zillow chief economist Mischa Fisher says.
• And here in the Twin Cities, median sale prices — which are different than home values — have continued to increase all year.

Zoom out: Losses over the past year were most widespread in the West and South, where there are more available homes and greater climate risks.

• The metros with the greatest decline were Denver (91%), Austin, Texas (89%) and Sacramento, California (88%), Zillow found.

🔎 A review of court records suggests that the total cost of the alleged fraud in Minnesota social services programs prosecuted to date is far below the "billions" figure cited by President Trump and his allies. (Star Tribune)

• Flashback: The stat started circulating last summer, when acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said the losses could ultimately surpass $1 billion.
• 👀 Minnesota's Department of Human Services says it doesn't have a full tally, but state data shows that payments for autism and housing services rocked by fraud concerns have increased by hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years.

✍️ State Sen. Jim Abeler (R-Anoka) wrote a letter to Trump defending Somalis and inviting the president to come see how the community is "woven into Minnesota's fabric." (MPR News)

• "It grieves me to see the way that the political discourse has gone in the country, both on the right and the left," Abeler, one of a small number of state Republicans to publicly push back against the president's remarks, told MPR.

🚌 A new rapid transit bus line connecting the University of Minnesota to Uptown and Edina launched Saturday. (KSTP)

🏈 The Vikings ended a four-game losing streak with a 31-0 win over the Washington Commanders. (ESPN)

Calling all local news enthusiasts! We aim to be your go-to source for timely, relevant stories that impact our community.

Help us continue our mission to keep you informed by becoming an Axios CITY member today.

• Contributions now begin at just $25+ a year, you'll receive exclusive perks and support our newsroom's growth.

Join today and make a difference!

A Seattle embroiderer's snarky stitching on a Mall of America sweatshirt went viral for its nod to the chaos of her childhood trips to the megamall.

Driving the likes: Molly Hottle, who owns the custom embroidery shop Seattle Chainstitch Massacre, found the 1990s throwback at a thrift shop.

• Using her Singer chainstitch embroidery machine from the 1930s, she added "I got a lobotomy at" in white cursive above the logo.

On Black Friday, she posted it on Instagram, hoping to "nod to the irony" of buying a shirt promoting a giant mall from a small, vintage reseller.

• The $150 crewneck flew off the digital shelf and "blew up" online.

What she's saying: The Iowa native, who calls "adding unhinged phrases" to vintage pieces her "true passion," said the design was inspired by family vacations to the mall that left her wondering how they conquered so many stores in one day "with legs and sanity intact."

• "It's my love letter to my home, and they have responded in kind!" she said of the overwhelming response from fellow Midwesterners.

What's next: Hottle tracked down five more vintage MOA shirts that she plans to stitch and post for sale later this month.