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Where did all the public bathrooms go?

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Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#201

Post by black6 »

slig wrote: post #189
xyzelement wrote: post #85

Lack of bathrooms has been called tragedy of the commons in this thread, but it's not the "commons" that are the problem. The worst 10% of society determine what we can and can't have. The "commons" aren't having public sex, shooting up drugs, or destroying the bathrooms with lack of... etiquette. The commons are victimized when these things happen and then there's eventually no choice but to shut them down unless th…

Ten percent is way too optimistic, I'd say 20% are destroying everything for the majority.

We are all at the mercy of the bottom quintile. The rules you follow (or are expected to follow) are based on the behavior of the bottom quintile, the taxes you pay are to support the bottom quintile, the greatest risks to your life and property come from the bottom quintile, the dearth of comfortable public spaces is because you have to allow the bottom quintile to be there, and our zoning laws (in the US) are developed for fear of the bottom quintile.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#202

Post by lovich »

mstaoru wrote: post #94

This really hits home. As a person with IBS I basically cannot peacefully go outside in EU. I lived for many years in China and Thailand, and toilets are free, clean, and plentiful there, and you can easily ask any place to use their toilet - there's no stigma. I even had to run into a police station in rural China once. They were 100% chill about it, though they had to unlock a gate for me. Xi Jinping really will be…

> Then take any shopping mall in Bangkok

That is an extremely small subset of Thailand. I wouldn’t surprised if high end malls in any western capital city also had good toilets.

Most toilets outside of malls in Thailand were bring your own soap and toilet paper and covered in water from the bum guns.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#203

Post by black6 »

paulpauper wrote: post #184
psadauskas wrote: post #157

We'll spend a trillion dollars bombing people halfway around the world that never meant us any harm, but paying a custodian to clean a public toilet (and providing help for those that might misuse it) is a bridge too far.

And then we'll brand anyone who dares to go to the bathroom a sex offender or other huge penalties. That is the paradox of a country that is so wealthy yet low trust. Public infrastructure is the first to go unless legally mandated( sufficient public bathrooms does not fall under this apparently).

[flagged]

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#204

Post by ghaff »

chrisfosterelli wrote: post #127
mstaoru wrote: post #94

This really hits home. As a person with IBS I basically cannot peacefully go outside in EU. I lived for many years in China and Thailand, and toilets are free, clean, and plentiful there, and you can easily ask any place to use their toilet - there's no stigma. I even had to run into a police station in rural China once. They were 100% chill about it, though they had to unlock a gate for me. Xi Jinping really will be…

> I lived for many years in China and Thailand, and toilets are free, clean, and plentiful there I don't know about China but this was the opposite of my experience in Thailand. The majority of public toilets I encountered had an attendant you had to pay for access. Shopping malls / hotels / other places were you were already paying to be there were the exception of course.

In Japan, I've seen attendants looking for some payment to use bathrooms in hotels.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#205

Post by why_at »

etc-hosts wrote: post #40
jonshariat wrote: post #5

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 haul my garbage home in my backpack like a good little global citizen but the lack of trash cans in San Francisco is crazy https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SAN-FRANCISCO-Trash-c...

I feel like there are plenty personally. I usually don't have to walk more than a block or two to find one.

That article is from 20 years ago by the way

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#206

Post by obelos »

zer0x4d wrote: post #165
obelos wrote: 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 na…

Sure, and thankfully there aren't nearly as many of them out and about abusing more things if they have a private place always available to spend their time. Conscientiousness is one of the handful of measurable personality traits, and there's a scale to it because some people have more of it than others. That's not going to change. What we can change is the degree to which less conscientious people are forced to lean on the conscientiousness of others around them in order to live every moment of their lives. The collapse of social safety net—pilfered in order to pay for mega yachts and renting entire cities for a wedding receiption—in the West and particularly the US pushes those less conscientious people out into the world all the time.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#207

Post by _carbyau_ »

Nifty3929 wrote: post #134
deepsun wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oook, so if according to your message, the disposals are mostly used by diabetics, then again, what's wrong with them?

They weren't saying there is anything wrong with the syringe disposal per se, but instead that it's indicative of the people who use those facilities and the priorities of the authorities that manage them. It is observed that you have junkies shooting up in bathrooms, evidenced by needles strewn on the ground. So the solution from the authorities is to install syringe disposal containers.

> So the solution from the authorities is to install syringe disposal containers.

Given the cost vs the benefits, why not? A box mounted to a wall is a pittance.

Feel free to elaborate your plan for the junkies that would be cost effective, practical and ethical.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#208

Post by lovich »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #151
mym1990 wrote: post #113

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.

Was a cart pusher at target and was frequently shanghaid into cleaning toilets.

I think you might be giving away the class you were raised in if you think it’s infeasible to pay people to clean toilets.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#209

Post by throwawayk7h »

teraflop wrote: post #49
cube00 wrote: post #17

Strange "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...

See also also: https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/come-on-obviously-the-purpo...

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#210

Post by adolph »

The article claims that "Meanwhile, as Prohibition played out, the project of constructing public bathrooms slowed to a trickle, and the few that had been built began to fall into disrepair."

If that were the story, why was there a lobby in the 1970s to remove pay toilets?

  The Committee to End Pay Toilets in America, or CEPTIA, was a 1970s grass-roots political organization which was one of the main forces behind the elimination of pay toilets in many American cities and states.

  According to The Wall Street Journal, there were, in 1974, at least 50,000 pay toilets in America, mostly made by the Nik-O-Lok Company. Despite this flourishing commerce, CEPTIA was successful over the next few years in obtaining bans in New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, California, Florida, and Ohio.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_End_Pay_Toilets_i...
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