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Where did all the public bathrooms go?

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Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#161
post #140
post #136

San Francisco has few (French JC Decaux) public toilets (pit stop, etc.), but some are inside other public properties that are not open 24/7 (e.g. rec centers). https://data.sfgov.org/City-Infrastructure/Map-of-Public-Bat... Similarly, free public bath/shower disappeared in SF. Some wealthy person (forgot his name) built some free public showers in the 1900, but they eventually got all closed. Paris still have about…

Yeah. Once in SF I was rejected by 5 businesses in a row to use their restrooms. The nearest public park had its restroom locked. I, a non-homeless person, was forced by nature to pee behind a building in a parking lot. I had no choice. The businesses had a choice. The parks manager had a choice. And now I understand why SF stinks.

SF is still the only place I worked where I walked out to my car parked on the street and a homeless person was openly peeing on my tire as people walked by.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#162
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only place in France I have seen this happen was Paris and public toilets are free there. I haven't seen paid toilets at all in France for a long time, actually. Maybe in train stations though.

I went to Paris a month ago and saw paid public toilets. Those enclosed things on the sidewalk.

I was just in Paris and I never had to pay for the public sidewalk toilets. Where did you see paid ones? I didn't get to all the arrondisements, so I'm curious.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#163
post #75
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, even if you don’t get your 50 cents back you usually have an incentive to leave the restroom when you’re done.

Does stretching the analogy help to ameliorate the difference betwixt a payment and a returnable deposit?

Be...twixt?

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fascinating stuff. And what a logo. > Starting a national crusade to cast away coin-operated commodes, Gessel told newsmen, "You can have a fifty-dollar bill, but if you don't have a dime, that metal box is between you and relief." I'm sympathetic to this argument. Carrying around loose change with US-style billfold wallets has never been convenient, and back in the day you'd often find yourself without change for a…

> Today, though, almost everyone carries either a contactless credit card or a phone with an NFC wallet. I would pay $0.25 for access to a clean public toilet if I could swipe one of those instead of having to carry change. This is one of those things that gets ruined by credit card transaction fees though, right? It is kinda depressing that after all these fintech companies and society's ~decade long scam-filled obs…

It gets ruined by the government choosing to not operate an electronic money transfer system as infrastructure similar to cash.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#165
post #159

People don't want to “abuse” commons like public restrooms, parks, buses, and so on. They do so because they have no choice, having been displaced out of having a private place to do the things they're now forced to do in public places. This is all just an outcropping of the housing crisis, which is itself an outcropping of the billionaire crisis. End billionaires, and we have the resources to de-gild this age.

I disagree. A lot of people do not care about public facilities. They do not believe in leaving things better than they found them. You've seen these people around, you know who they are. These are the same people that don't rerack weights at the gym or don't put the cart back at the supermarket. That attitude has nothing to do with income, housing, race, or activity they are interested in. It's simply a result of narcissism. The only way is stopping excuses and enforcing the public etiquette. The world will be much better off.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#166
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> China > toilets are... clean Okay I'm going to have to say that this _really_ depends on where you are. Sometimes, yes, especially newer buildings, but man I have seen some horrors there in the past few years when it comes to bathrooms in terms of cleanliness and smell (the frequent smoking in a lot of bathrooms doesn't help). This is coming from someone primarily experiencing Canadian and American bathrooms, for r…

The worst toilet I ever saw was in China, but at 5000 meters in Sichuan, it was two slippery two by fours that you had to straddle on over a big open pit (don't slip or lose balance!). That was such an awesome trip circa 2005.

Well the worst one I ever saw was in New York City, of all places.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#167

Something 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.

> I had some trash in my car I needed to get rid of

Bring it home and use your own trash can? I don’t really understand why you need to immediately get rid of it.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is maintaining public restrooms a "massive liability"? Surely its an inconvenience but massive liability seems a bit of a hyperbole.

Try hiring someone for a job where the job could sometimes be cleaning up bodily fluids and odors in a bathroom. Even the government deems it infeasible. Or, think about how much someone would have to pay you to do that job.

Also: the liability of getting stuck with a needle.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#170
post #136

San Francisco has few (French JC Decaux) public toilets (pit stop, etc.), but some are inside other public properties that are not open 24/7 (e.g. rec centers). https://data.sfgov.org/City-Infrastructure/Map-of-Public-Bat... Similarly, free public bath/shower disappeared in SF. Some wealthy person (forgot his name) built some free public showers in the 1900, but they eventually got all closed. Paris still have about…

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