Where did all the public bathrooms go? • Hacker News Board

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#691

Post by ricardobayes » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:22 PM UTC

enaaem wrote: post #666

mancerayder wrote: post #638

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that not connected to police enforcement, though? In Europe and now the US the new generations are anti-police, anti-enforcement and generally consider authority and rules to be proof of an unjust society (X group is N percent more likely to receive a criminal summons when ..). In the US in slow motion we could see a world in which you could go to a big chain pharmacy and retrieve your own toothpaste and shamp…

I cannot speak for the US, but having been in Europe and Asian countries like Japan and Korea, the simplest explanation is the difference in tolerance for petty crime, vandalism and litter. Is related to the broken window theory. The thing is that European cities have always been kinda dirty and crime infested, and it has little to do with American culture war. I do not have an explanation for this, because you will…

That's right. We seem to have "allowed" or tolerated petty crime in most Europe. When I tell my foreign friends what kind of stuff happens in my area they always extrapolate and tell me I live in "8 mile". But it's not the case, almost everywhere in Europe has property crime (pickpocketing and burglaries), bigger stuff however is very rare.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#692

Post by lux-lux-lux » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:25 PM UTC

mancerayder wrote: post #638

NalNezumi wrote: post #617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EU(or US) can't have public toilets because it's gonna get vandalized. For fun. One thing that perplexed me endlessly during my youth living in Sweden was seeing drunk teenagers go around vandalize things for... Fun. Breaking the glass at the buss station (designed to shatter in to million pieces so you don't hurt yourself), friends enjoying graffiti, littering, throwing beer bottles on the street for fun.... During…

How is that not connected to police enforcement, though? In Europe and now the US the new generations are anti-police, anti-enforcement and generally consider authority and rules to be proof of an unjust society (X group is N percent more likely to receive a criminal summons when ..). In the US in slow motion we could see a world in which you could go to a big chain pharmacy and retrieve your own toothpaste and shamp…

NYC ended up spending $1,440 per dollar in fares recovered on stopping fare jumpers, which is probably why the decree came about in the first place. Is there a particular reason why you think setting gargantuan amounts of money on fire over trivial offenses makes sense?

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#693

Post by ricardobayes » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:26 PM UTC

panta wrote: post #521

socalgal2 wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We did as little as possible to deal with homelessness and mental illness SF would beg to differ. They have a budget of $100k per homeless person. They can't solve the problem because the problem is not money

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.

AFAIK also SF was long known as "hobo capital", meaning many homeless or drifting people just ended up there. So it's much more complex than that, since many of the homeless are not even locals.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#694

Post by MarkusQ » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:28 PM UTC

mx7zysuj4xew wrote: post #624

OroPla wrote: post #574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Buddy, I can deprive you of several days of sleep, put you under severe emotional duress and have you experience a psychotic breakdown. Are you seriously saying you yourself should then be locked up for life?

many ≠ all; chronic ≠ acute

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#695

Post by senderista » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:34 PM UTC

mmooss wrote: post #467

nradov wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a lot of large cities, local governments reacted to the 2020-2023 protests against police brutality by drastically reducing traffic enforcement. Aggressive drivers can get away with a lot more bad behavior now and have little fear of consequences. When voters elect leaders like Katie Wilson this is one of the inevitable consequences.

> drastically reducing traffic enforcement. I haven't heard of that, other than laws banning pulling people over for minor mechanical issues like broken tailights (used sometimes as coverup for prejudice). Could you give examples? > Aggressive drivers can get away with a lot more bad behavior now and have little fear of consequences. I haven't noticed driving getting worse, except around the pandemic. Is there data?

You can’t even get pulled over for having no plates at all in Seattle.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#696

Post by roryirvine » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:36 PM UTC

quickthrowman wrote: post #186

curtisblaine wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In city centers it's usually counter-terrorism: it's easy to throw a timed bomb in a metal garbage can and flee the scene, so they got rid of them (London did because of IRA, and of course now they have Islamic terrorism). Outside of city centers it's about (lack of) recycling: it's easier to check if you're recycling correctly in your home bin than public bins.

Explosion resistant trash receptacles do exist but they’re pricey so it makes sense London didn’t replace theirs. The most common place to see them is in airports.

Easiest way of doing it is to just hang a clear plastic trash bag from a simple metal hoop - that's what is commonly done at stations in London.

Weirdly, bins were never removed from train stations in Northern Ireland. Bin bombs were never really a thing there, it was generally easier to shut down the railway by setting something on fire at a level crossing (often a hijacked police landrover)...

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#697

Post by cucumber3732842 » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:45 PM UTC

embedding-shape wrote: post #548

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.

> Is this some sort of psy-op here against EU No, commonly here on HN it is American commentators who've visited like Italy or Greece or France once, then they extrapolate their experience in a tourist-heavy city, looking/behaving as an American, over the entire continent. Happens almost every day here. Any comment mentioning EU/Europe here has to be taken with a huge grain of salt. Usually it turns out they've visit…

Europe is Shcrodiger's continent. Nobody knows exactly what countries/regions norms are to be dishonestly projected across all of it until after you know what lie you're trying to peddle on the American internet.

Maybe you'll make it out to all be like the nordics. Maybe you'll make it all out to be like Sicily, or Croatia. Whatever lie you have, Europe has something to back you up, lol.

I'm exaggerating (less than I want to be) but not joking here.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#698

Post by JeremyNT » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:49 PM UTC

ericmay wrote: post #601

ajmurmann wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh. I encounter "customers only" signs quite frequently in the US, as well as bathrooms that require codes or keys.

They’re not uncommon but in my experience you tend to find them more in tourist areas with high foot traffic or if there are a lot of homeless people or something along those lines.

And even where the signs and procedures exist, often the rules are not enforced... at least, not against people who appear to plausibly be customers.

If you're a well groomed adult and walk up to the counter at a coffee shop and ask for the code, they'll usually just give it to you no questions asked.

The selective enforcement is the point, because they use these policies to keep away the "types" of people they don't want in the businesses (i.e. unhoused people, teens, etc).

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#699

Post by hansvm » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:55 PM UTC

lux-lux-lux wrote: post #692

mancerayder wrote: post #638

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that not connected to police enforcement, though? In Europe and now the US the new generations are anti-police, anti-enforcement and generally consider authority and rules to be proof of an unjust society (X group is N percent more likely to receive a criminal summons when ..). In the US in slow motion we could see a world in which you could go to a big chain pharmacy and retrieve your own toothpaste and shamp…

NYC ended up spending $1,440 per dollar in fares recovered on stopping fare jumpers, which is probably why the decree came about in the first place. Is there a particular reason why you think setting gargantuan amounts of money on fire over trivial offenses makes sense?

Per dollar recovered or per future fare-jumped dollar prevented?

Edit: This plays into something I observe in most "data-driven" organizations. Having a statistic available about recovery costs makes it easy to shift the conversation toward that statistic, when you actually ought to be asking questions about (in this case) the causal impact of that intervention on the subway's overall profitability, the need for easily available public transit and whether there ought to be a fare in the first place, the public good (or maybe harm -- the point is that we ought to be discussing it one way or the other) done by using fare-jumping collections as a mechanism for training people to be less antisocial in other aspects of their lives, or whether that obscene cost of fare collection is actually a reasonable baseline and should be improved. Your statistic, while interesting, is almost useless when trying to figure out what we should do next, at least by itself, and when paired with human psychology it can be actively harmful.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#700

Post by tempfile » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 2:57 PM UTC

serf wrote: post #679

NalNezumi wrote: post #617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EU(or US) can't have public toilets because it's gonna get vandalized. For fun. One thing that perplexed me endlessly during my youth living in Sweden was seeing drunk teenagers go around vandalize things for... Fun. Breaking the glass at the buss station (designed to shatter in to million pieces so you don't hurt yourself), friends enjoying graffiti, littering, throwing beer bottles on the street for fun.... During…

I don't disagree with your points, but have you ever considered it strange that you're unable to relate to why someone would want to do something for fun? you answer your own perplexity by yourself in the same sentence; they do it for fun. I know this because I was a shithead vandal teenager, and I did it for two reasons , 1) fun at the moment and 2) to impress my peers and sex partners. I think the frustrations of y…

> have you ever considered it strange that you're unable to relate to why someone would want to do something for fun?

What a bizarre extrapolation. They just don't see why smashing up bus stops is fun. Maybe you can answer, what's fun about it? I don't get it either. I was a teenager once, I don't see why destroying things that are useful for everyone (including you) would be fun.