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Where did all the public bathrooms go?

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Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#571

Post by latexr »

hgomersall wrote: post #565
panta wrote: post #521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is money, but at a different level. When you deal with the homeless it's too late. That money must be spent before someone becomes homeless, on welfare: unemployment benefits, accessible healthcare and housing. A minor cut taken care of immediately is nothing, but let it turn into gangrene and you won't be able to fix it at all.

Even benefits etc are too late. The money should be spent on providing hope for people. It's 45 years of neoliberalism that we are reaping.

> The money should be spent on providing hope for people.

How do you suggest that would work? Obviously you can’t just buy hope, so could you provide some specific ideas?

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#572

Post by jimnotgym »

defrost wrote: post #537
jimnotgym wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what does one learn, if one is ignorant and is only reading ignorant comments?

The reason red-backs have the publicly visible red stripe is so others can identify them for what they are. You're advocating for making red-backs less visible? Consider Meta-borg, it's their own comment history that may damn them in the multiplying deliberate child manipulation trials as common people clearly see how they think.

I don't get the references, sorry, but I do see your underlying point.

I just wish the people who value critical thinking so highly when we are talking about the js ecosystem or llms, didn't turn into Victorians when we talk about poverty

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#573

Post by miningape »

nailer wrote: post #448
xyzelement wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think bottom quintile refers to the worst people not necessarily the poor or whatever.

> > I'm actually in the UK > I think bottom quintile refers to the worst people not necessarily the poor or whatever. Yes. In the UK the rate of incest is increasing due to migration from Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan. An NHS Genomics Education Programme blog in Sept 2025 acknowledged the risk of birth defects doubling, but cited the benefits of 'stronger family support', 'economic advantages' and argued ag…

Honestly one of the most egregious things I've read about the NHS - actively promoting behavior that makes the lives of innocent children unnecessarily harder, and forcing everyone to contribute to supporting frankly disgusting behavior.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#574

Post by OroPla »

cortesoft wrote: post #405
annzabelle wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japan will lock people up for a long period of time if they show the sort of anti-social behavior that the most visible homeless people in North America are famous for.

The US “locks people up” at a much higher rate, and for longer, than Japan does. About 1% of the adult population is in jail in the United States, and it’s about 0.03% of the population in Japan. The US puts people in jail at 30x the rate Japan does. It is not because the US doesn’t lock people up enough.

We are not talking jail, we are talking closed institution. The kind of hospital you check in but do not check out from, as many mental illnesses are incurable.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#575

Post by OroPla »

zhivota wrote: post #505
vintermann wrote: post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the police is underfunded in the US though?

It simultaneously is and isn't. It's overfunded on things that don't matter for the problem at hand - traffic enforcement using full fledged officers in expensive vehicles, militarized SWAT teams, regulations requiring huge officer presence at all events, etc. But it's underfunded on what would change things for the better - foot patrols, investigation, etc. This is why you can get pulled over for a broken taillight…

Reminds me of a story I read recently where they deployed a SWAT team to deliver a letter. I thought it must have been fake, but maybe not..

(It was news because the old building's stairs couldn't support the weight of the SWAT team and collapsed, injuring many of them.)

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#576

Post by latexr »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #179
leviathant wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first job was "stockboy" at Kmart in 1996, at 1996 American minimum wage, and part of the job involved cleaning toilets. And, honestly? If more people had to clean toilets in use by other people, maybe we wouldn't have so many folks expecting other people to clean up after them. I see countless posts in my Facebook group about trash on the street. In the time it took to take a photo and post it to social media, th…

Cleaning up trash, wiping tables, mopping the floor is one thing. Cleaning up bodily fluids, which likely come from drug users, is a whole other thing.

> which likely come from drug users

OK, come on, you don’t know that. I doubt we have any serious data that bodily fluids in public bathrooms are likely to come from drug users. And if you’re cleaning it up, presumably you have equipment and are not using your tongue, the residual drugs won’t jump on you. Don’t stigmatise hard drug users, many of them (maybe most) were given a rotten hand early on and now want help. Policies such as Portugal’s decriminalisation have shown we can make a bigger difference when we treat those people as people.

Either way, the point of your parent comment is that most people don’t even pick up trash, which is itself a problem.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#577

Post by kakacik »

jimnotgym wrote: post #519

I feel like HN should ban discussion of homelessness, due to the extreme ignorance and prejudice of the comments. A bunch of people who don't know the first thing about it jumping to conclusions. The quality of the comments here is so so poor.

Nah problem doesn't go away if you hide it, it just festers in echo chambers and then bites back when you least expect it, with unexpected ferocity (cue last elections).

This is open forum, let people voice their ideas even if you strongly oppose them. At least then folks don't live in illusion how rest of society has similar opinions on it as they do. I strongly oppose apple or meta for example, but asking for bans on this topic here would be ridiculous and put me into crank territory, right.

You don't like the discussion? Close that tab and move on into something more productive is the best advice I can give you

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#578

Post by alt227 »

diogenescynic wrote: post #251
leviathant wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first job was "stockboy" at Kmart in 1996, at 1996 American minimum wage, and part of the job involved cleaning toilets. And, honestly? If more people had to clean toilets in use by other people, maybe we wouldn't have so many folks expecting other people to clean up after them. I see countless posts in my Facebook group about trash on the street. In the time it took to take a photo and post it to social media, th…

The toilets you cleaned in 1996 were no where near as disgusting/dangerous as what the public toilets look like now from fentanyl zombies and meth heads. I doubt you had to worry about pricking yourself on a recently used needle ever. Those people simply didn't exist on this level back then and there were more options. Please stop with the 'I hiked uphill both ways' routine... life is worse now than in 1996 in almost…

Meth and heroin were massive problems in the 80s and 90s. Go and watch Trainspotting which was literally made in the year you mentioned and then come back and defend your point about public toilets in the 90s not being drug litter riddled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB6rig1lYTc

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#579

Post by pjerem »

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…

> And EU is a freaking horror show. In many public toilets there's a used syringe compartment as well. Truly a 5-star service.

What does that mean ? There are massive differences in EU between not only countries but even also regions of one country. How can you say that toilets are horrendous in 27 different countries with 27 different cultures ?

edit : and disclaimer, I live in France and I'm not proud of our public toilets because we are clearly amongst the bad ones (even if again it really depends on where you go, that's still too random to be acceptable) but my experience have been pretty positive in most other EU countries I visited.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#580

Post by ragazzina »

mstaoru wrote: post #558
mns wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this some sort of psy-op here against EU, this isn't the first message like this where someone is praising China and accusing EU, as if it's a unitary entity, about being a "horror show". If only we would have some dictators or extremist parties back in power to break up the EU and take our countries back to the good old days. I'm finding it harder and harder to come back to Hn with all of this stuff.

Sure, it's a psy-op. ONLY POSITIVE EU OPINIONS ARE PERMITTED! :)) I lived 12 years in China and now 1.5 in EU. Traveled both fairly extensively. The above is just my experience. We left China in big part due to authoritarian politics. But if what's happening in EU (and US? never been there tho) is "democracy" then maybe we need to rethink. I like many things in EU, and I dislike many things as well. At least here I'm…

Can you point at specific experiences?

In the EU countries I have visited you can ask most coffee shop and restaurants to use their toilet without any issue. In the most touristy places you are supposed to buy something, which usually is a coffee or a small bottle of water.

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