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

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#761

Post by lux-lux-lux » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 4:42 PM UTC

hansvm wrote: post #699

lux-lux-lux wrote: post #692

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 easi…

Per dollar recovered. Paying law enforcement officers overtime and directing police attention away from more significant criminal behavior (as opposed to redesigning turnstiles or pursuing alternative strategies like no-fare systems) is extremely expensive and time-limited in terms of impact.

It does shovel a lot of dollars at law enforcement and let the Adams administration pretend to be tough on crime despite engaging in a lot of it, which was the actual intent.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#762

Post by mrguyorama » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 4:44 PM UTC

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.

Every single front end employee in the new england grocery chain has cleaned the toilets.

Every single employee in a fast food establishment has cleaned toilets, including the horrors you blame on homeless people, like shit smeared on things.

Every single Circle-K employee has cleaned toilets.

The cost for hiring someone to clean toilets is minimum wage.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#763

Post by lux-lux-lux » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 4:48 PM UTC

xp84 wrote: post #707

lux-lux-lux wrote: post #692

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Capitulating to the antisocial persons by just giving up just sends a message to others that this behavior is acceptable. It moves the Overton window. Someone who used to think turnstile hopping was the kind of thing only crooks and low-lifes do sees people doing it more and more, witnesses and hears about how there are no consequences, and can't help but reframe it as more like driving 70 in a 65mph zone -- a harmle…

I much prefer targeting more pressing antisocial behaviors while not excessively wasting public funds, something the Mamdani administration has been doing quite efficiently e.g. with the pied-à-terre tax. You seem angry about that, for some reason.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#764

Post by lotsofpulp » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 4:49 PM UTC

lovich wrote: post #759

lotsofpulp wrote: post #732

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I am writing that supply and demand curves can shift such that the job you used to for minimum wage is no longer a job one can expect to hire for minimum wage in Aug 2026. >Its literally one of the lowest paid jobs there is. Today, real life says that is not sufficient pay if we want more public bathrooms (in the places lacking them, such as urban, high density areas). My conclusions are not based on my feelings…

ah I see. Anything that is currently not being done is infeasible.

No, anything that was being done that changed to not being done usually has a reason.

Businesses don't spend money to put locks on bathrooms for the fun of it.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#765

Post by lux-lux-lux » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 4:52 PM UTC

meric_ wrote: post #703

lux-lux-lux wrote: post #692

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Because those trivial offences are a nuisance. BART spent millions implementing fare gates which so far, is at a huge loss, but it's dramatically lowered maintenance cost and crime on the transit. Similarly stores with loss prevention guards are probably losing money, but I'd much rather that than having to click a button to unlock items, etc.

The fare gate redesign was cost-neutral; that’s the kind of solutions that should have been on the table, not setting money on fire with cop salaries.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#766

Post by Tallain » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 4:58 PM UTC

annzabelle wrote: post #404

Tallain wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In every part of Thailand I've been to outside BKK, there's a gas station almost every few kilometers on every major road. Almost every gas station has a public restroom that's open 24/7, unattended. The ones that don't have a public restroom are typically right next to a string of restaurants that have a restroom you can use during the day for free if you ask.

That's also true of the US.

For the most part, yes, but I've gone much longer stretches without seeing a gas station in the US. To be fair, there's also no point in building gas stations at regular intervals in the desert or the many other long stretches of nothing across much of the country.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#767

Post by samus » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 5:02 PM UTC

parineum wrote: post #757

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…

> EU/US just think that's dumb thing to teach because "eww collectivism" and even the weird conservative people going on about rules usually don't even want that. It's interesting to me to call out conservatives here as they are typically the ones touting community responsibilities through social norms. Despite the socialism (non-derogotarily) lean of the left, I would still consider them more individualistic, social…

> I think you'd find less graffiti in a rural bathroom than a large city bathroom.

IMHO that's purely due to differences in population density.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#768

Post by Tallain » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 5:03 PM UTC

herbst wrote: post #502

Tallain wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In every part of Thailand I've been to outside BKK, there's a gas station almost every few kilometers on every major road. Almost every gas station has a public restroom that's open 24/7, unattended. The ones that don't have a public restroom are typically right next to a string of restaurants that have a restroom you can use during the day for free if you ask.

I've seen people shit in the jungle because what you describe has only been the case near Bangkok and Chiang Mai for me. Just because they smile when you ask a random restaurant for using the toilet does not actually mean they are happy when people do.

I've driven from Mukdahan to Kanchanaburi to Trang provinces so my experience is not centered around the major cities at all. I don't know what poor luck or exotic adventures you may have had, but I never once struggled to find a bathroom.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#769

Post by charcircuit » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 5:13 PM UTC

NalNezumi wrote: post #617

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…

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…

The US has public toilets.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#770

Post by CrimsonCape » Tue, Aug 25, 2026, 5:17 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…

I do think it's closely related to women, because like you say, girls go for runabouts. Girls think the communal farm hippie is romantic, the satan-woshipping metal band member is romantic, the (2000s) kid rock punk trailer trash is romantic. Girls who have looks but are born poor seem to have no choice but encourage it. Murphy's law rules: if it's stupid (breaking windows) but it works (she likes me), it isn't stupid.

I feel like society kinda ran out of rebelliousness with kid rock and then rap culture (late 2000s Jay-Z, Chris Brown). It seems to have dried up. Modern lookmaxxing and gym rat culture, travel vlog, influencers are now the cool kids, van-life and nomadic travel are the new stick-it-to-the-man.

Young people are going to look at Ukraine and realize that flower power and stick-it-to-the-man are utterly bizarre. Who in Ukraine is doing the John Lennon routine? John Lennon's message is totally bizarre now.