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Where did all the public bathrooms go?

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241–250 of 873 posts

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#241

Earlier 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.…

Public urination is not a sex offence, it's a misdemeanor.

You don't get arrested for public urination. You get a citation, if you are drunk they might haul you to the jail for public intoxication, but you are out when you sober up.

As long as you don't pee near a school and what not you should be fine.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There has to be a line draw somewhere. Generally people who say this don't actually have regular interactions with aggressive, hostile, homeless. Or are you just really cool with going to a coffee shop and have someone screaming in a pile of their own feces 20 or so feet away?

The problem is that once you draw "the line", then what? Warehouse a bunch of helpless people in overcrowded prisons? Bus them to some other less-draconian municipality? Forcibly drug them into quasi-submission and then turn them loose again until the depot injection wears off? Or perhaps we should "just kill 'em", as Fox & Friends cohost Brian Kilmeade once suggested?

If they're doing lots of vandalism then yes put them in prisons. Get rid of 90% of drug charges to make room.

You get a much better score if the imprisonment is trying to rehab them, of course.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess if you don’t have a massive population of antisocial people who destroy the public facility, you can provide them. It’s a shame we in the west surrendered that. Not the worst thing in the world, but I do find it frustrating often to not have a bathroom available nearby (small bladder) But, while the toilets aren’t the worst sacrifice, the cumulative sacrifices made on the alter of our huge antisocial populati…

I was picking up some lumber today (USA) and they were blaring some country song about "Try that in a small town" which was basically a gun owner's fantasy about shooting people. One of the lines was something like "we look out for our own". And that right there describes half the USA: outsiders not welcomed. ingroup/outgroup is nothing new, and its not like any country has really fixed it, and the countries that hav…

It takes a brave person to be selfless. The golden rule is how.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. However it becomes unstable and a massive liability for society to maintain public restrooms. So yes the 10% fuck it up for everyone unless cracked down on.

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

You don't see how maintaining a bathroom where the worst of society engage in public sex, do drugs, and shit it up in general - is more of a liability than without those things happening?

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#245
The same people complaining about this are the ones who supported decriminalizing drug possession and use in public and public camping then they wonder gee why did all the local businesses go out of business and make their bathrooms private? It's because laws are no longer enforced and having a public bathroom makes you attract the worst of the worst of society--proof go check out any Starbucks or McDonalds bathroom in any major city.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#247
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong about syringe disposal? A significant portion of population has diabetes. And even if a drug addict uses it, still better than throwing to the trash, similar to how cigarette disposals are mandatory in typical airplanes.

> What's wrong about syringe disposal? A significant portion of population has diabetes. Ask yourself if that's truly what motivated those being installed... > And even if a drug addict uses it, still better than throwing to the trash The problem is they still throw their needles all over the ground. As is typical, the intentions are noble, but what ends up happening is people who can't even be bothered to not shoot…

Nobody's choosing to use heroin because it's slightly easier to not litter needles. The tiny harm reduction measure is good.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#248

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…

It's because 50% of voters are choosing to decriminalize laws and make everything into the oppression olympics. California legislature just proposed allowing 'crimes of necessity' this week. We can't have nice things now because crimes are not enforced/prosecuted and there are no consequences. We're moving from a high trust to low trust society in rapid time.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#249

One advanced civilization has tens of thousand of free public toilets. https://lazyholidayplanner.com/essential-tools/japan-toilet-... https://www.cnn.com/travel/gallery/japanese-public-toilet-ph... https://www.toilet-map-jp.com/en https://toiletrix.org/toilets/japan https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Public_toilets_i...

Plus, virtually every convenience store in Japan has a clean and ready-to-use bathroom. And there is a very high density of convenience stores. Bathrooms everywhere!

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#250
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…

> As a person with IBS I basically cannot peacefully go outside in EU.

Try Poland. Basically every restaurant needs to have a toilet and every one of those must be made available to passers by, not just customers. They are clean and plentiful.

It's mandated by law. Your country is just one political decision from this luxury.

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