Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Where did all the public bathrooms go?

daily.jstor.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 873 posts

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#261

Post by deadbunny »

nxc18 wrote: post #253
deadbunny wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good thing that stops the "destitute, on drugs, mentally ill etc" from doing this simply by removing the public toilets right?

Portland put out portable toilets during the pandemic. They had big signs on them about how toilet access was a human right, or something like that. One by one, they were all burned down. Homeless people seem to be really good at destroying stuff. My apartment building is taking on new low income tenants and the rate of fires - with sprinkler activation - is boggling. The public park I walk by often is losing a littl…

Seems like the problem is the utter lack of mental health support to me.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#262

Post by lesuorac »

curtisblaine wrote: post #138
lesuorac wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you throw a bomb into a garbage can? Who loiters next to one? 100% just drop it behind you as you exit the tram. Way better metal container for blasting. "Counter-terrorism" just means nobody thought about it more than 2 seconds or else they'd have a more specific reason.

It was pretty common with the IRA, apparently. They hid bombs in metal garbage cans and used the shrapnel as a damage multiplier. I think they did that at a commercial center and killed several people. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-23695239

> More than 2,000 bins were cleared from the Square Mile after a truck bomb killed one person and injured 44

While I'm not intimate with the difference between British English and American English, I'm pretty confident "Truck Bomb" does not mean a bomb inside a rubbish bin.

But yes, vehicles are a great vector for terrorism and I'm honestly surprised at how few instances there are of people just running other over. But it's also one of the reasons in the US basically every government building has large concrete planters around them (can't ram a truck through it).

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#263

Post by 8f2ab37a-ed6c »

gdevenyi wrote: post #180
8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to find a good term for this trend and the best I could do is "defining deviancy down" defined as "the tendency of societies to respond to destructive behaviors by lowering standards for what is permissible." It's like a behavioral Overton window that grows downwards.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41212064

Exactly. Just need to find time to properly read this.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#264

Post by xboxnolifes »

toast0 wrote: post #88
xboxnolifes wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I've seen a public bathroom in America in my lifetime. They're all privately owned, usually required through regulation. But to answer your question, public things are paid for by the public .

Never been to a public park with a bathroom, or a state provided highway rest stop? Many transit centers are owned and operated by a municipal transit agency and typically have restrooms, especially large airports and train stations.

Public parks and transit centers make sense. I was thinking more in urban areas, not large public land. For example, if I was in a town and needed to go to the bathroom, usually the only option is hoping a business will let you use their restroom.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#265

Post by gamblor956 »

scheme271 wrote: post #252
yodelleehoo wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

That thing about cities bussing their homeless elsewhere seems to be a pretty common urban myth. I don't think anyone has really shown that it's definitively happening on any large scale manner. And it should be relatively easy to show given that governments publish their budgets.

Governor Rick Perry of Texas openly bragged about bussing the state's homeless to California for years.

Abbot does the same thing; he simply doesn't brag about it anymore.

The LAT did a series of articles (back in 2018, and sporadically since then) in which Steve Lopez tried to humanize the homeless in Hollywood. It took him over 2 days to find someone who has actually a local. The vast majority of the homeless came from...Texas. They were given bus tickets by local authorities and told that California would overlook their drug issues and even give them free drugs.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#266

Post by xboxnolifes »

happyopossum wrote: post #128
xboxnolifes wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I've seen a public bathroom in America in my lifetime. They're all privately owned, usually required through regulation. But to answer your question, public things are paid for by the public .

> I don't think I've seen a public bathroom in America in my lifetime. You've never been to the beach, a city park (or state or national park), a highway rest stop, or any of the thousands of other places public restrooms exist? What a weird take...

Its not a take, it was a personal observation that ive since realized is wrong because I wasnt considering bathrooms on large public land, I was thinking about small plots of public bathrooms within large urban areas. Obviously publicly owned airports have bathrooms.

I was also not considering things like port-a-potties during public events, since i was only considering permanent structures.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#267

Post by shermantanktop »

forinti wrote: post #110
forinti wrote: post #38

I used one these things in Portugal a few years ago. They are definitely not thought for women.

But I have to say that if you have a very cheap solution for 25% of your use cases you should definitely use it. What you can't do is neglect the other 75%.

I had to stop and think, but I follow your mathematical reasoning. Although 1:1 is not a realistic number; i'd think more like 4:1 or more? and if men over 60 are around, it's going higher for sure.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#268

Post by nradov »

scheme271 wrote: post #252
yodelleehoo wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

That thing about cities bussing their homeless elsewhere seems to be a pretty common urban myth. I don't think anyone has really shown that it's definitively happening on any large scale manner. And it should be relatively easy to show given that governments publish their budgets.

It's not a myth.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/dec/...

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#270

Post by nradov »

LoganDark wrote: post #229
talon8635 wrote: post #115

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…

Antisocial people who destroy the public facility don't just come out of nowhere. People get driven to this. Not to say that you can simply ignore them when they're already everywhere, though.

People aren't driven to this, they escalate to this when there are no consequences attached to lesser antisocial behavior.
Post reply on HN