I was in France recently and used a public restroom. It had an attendant, and a fee of €0.50. Charging for the restroom is unfortunate, but this setup is certainly better than eliminating public restrooms entirely.
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Where did all the public bathrooms go?
41–50 of 873 posts
Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?
#42> Notably, they were only intended for use by men. this complicates public bathrooms quite a bit, and ADA requirements do too... once you've got a place to sit and doors on rooms you've got the vagrancy and drug use problem though China does ok with the model of a big room with holes in the ground and almost no dividers or affordances at all (everyone brings their own toilet paper, old people bring their own chairs).…
Sounds like the Romans had it better than your description of the Chinese, though I am sure in the modern world someone would be stealing the sponges for unfathomable reasons.
Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?
#43Downstream of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_End_Pay_Toilets_i...
Another example of completely counterproductive interference in the free market, this time eliminating public toilets more or less entirely because you can't make money from them and the state is too incompetent to provide them.
Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?
#44I think it stopped once public bathrooms became used for things other than taking a whizz
Yeah you have to actually hire people to clean them and patrol for homeless weirdos. Which is why in my country they cost money. I never really understood the economics of public restrooms in America. Who pays for them?
We all pay for it. We do this whether publicly-accessible restrooms exist or do not exist.
Everybody poops; shit happens. The only real question is: Where does this shit happen?
Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah you have to actually hire people to clean them and patrol for homeless weirdos. Which is why in my country they cost money. I never really understood the economics of public restrooms in America. Who pays for them?
We thought it was mean to homeless people to make them pay for bathrooms and made it illegal to charge. Then once bathrooms because a massive cost center, we closed all the public restrooms and made it a sex offense to piss outside. So now instead of making homeless people pay $1 for a toilet, we throw them in jail at a cost of $100k/yr. Thank these folks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_End_Pay_Toilets_i.…
We're not throwing the homeless in jail here, but all the streets smell like urine and you have to watch your step on the sidewalk.
Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?
#46Something else I've noticed, garbage cans are disappearing. I had some trash in my car I needed to get rid of: McDonalds? None outside, Tacobell? none outside, CVS? none outside OR inside, The entire rest of that shopping center? nope. Luckily gas stations still have them but its sad to see these community service type things disappear.
Blame the raccoons!
Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah you have to actually hire people to clean them and patrol for homeless weirdos. Which is why in my country they cost money. I never really understood the economics of public restrooms in America. Who pays for them?
The problem with homeless is also what do you do with them when you find them?
Several bathrooms at the openings to hiking trails near me had been smeared with feces. The local newspaper reported someone was caught and taken to a homeless shelter. I remain suspicious that simply resulted in the shelter's bathroom meeting the same fate.
Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?
#48Something else I've noticed, garbage cans are disappearing. I had some trash in my car I needed to get rid of: McDonalds? None outside, Tacobell? none outside, CVS? none outside OR inside, The entire rest of that shopping center? nope. Luckily gas stations still have them but its sad to see these community service type things disappear.
You would think it's in the interest of whoever is responsible for keeping those areas clean to offer garbage cans.
I live by a park. These places don't care for the same reason the park doesn't care: the wind blows it all in my yard, not their problem anymore.
Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?
#49Strange "For the Classroom" question. Men seeking same-sex encounters transformed the pissoir into something its planners never intended. Who ultimately determines the meaning of a public space: its designers, authorities, or the people who use it? The law determines that public space can't be used for any sexual activity. I'm not sure what constructive classroom discussion you can have when the example is based on t…
Surely there are all kinds of interesting and constructive classroom discussions to be had about lawbreaking.
Classrooms teach about reality (among other things) and there are many things in reality that don't involve obedience to the law, as it exists at a particular time and place.
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_wha...
Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah you have to actually hire people to clean them and patrol for homeless weirdos. Which is why in my country they cost money. I never really understood the economics of public restrooms in America. Who pays for them?
We thought it was mean to homeless people to make them pay for bathrooms and made it illegal to charge. Then once bathrooms because a massive cost center, we closed all the public restrooms and made it a sex offense to piss outside. So now instead of making homeless people pay $1 for a toilet, we throw them in jail at a cost of $100k/yr. Thank these folks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_End_Pay_Toilets_i.…
Having lived in SF, LA and NYC, I find it very hard to believe that the homeless or the addicts roaming the streets in big cities are being thrown into jail for much of anything short of overt violent behavior. You can see people drop a deuce in the middle of Mission St any day of the week and nobody bats an eye. As people say, "it's just a normal part of life in a big city".