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

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#871

Post by samus » Sun, Aug 30, 2026, 3:12 PM UTC

parineum wrote: post #777

samus wrote: post #767

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I'm not sure that matters so much, a toilet can only handle so much traffic. I suspect a wal-mart bathroom sees similar traffic, regardless of location.

Wal-Mart has a direct, strong financial motivation to maintain that public bathroom: Customers that have to leave because they have to go to the toilet will buy less things.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#872

Post by annzabelle » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 5:03 AM UTC

gamblor956 wrote: post #855

slg wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last census I saw of the Los Angeles homeless population found that the percentage of homeless people in LA that were never housed in LA was higher than either the percentage of homeless people who had a severe mental illness or substance abuse issue.

Right, that was my point. Most of LA's homeless aren't from LA. They're not our homeless.

My understanding is a lot of it is voluntary migration. If you you're not paying rent, you don't have a job, and you've burned all your social support ties, you might as well get a greyhound to a place with good weather, good social services, and where people will look the other way on your visible symptoms of mental illness and drug addictions.

Re: Where did all the public bathrooms go?

#873

Post by rendall » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 9:52 PM UTC

MathMonkeyMan wrote: post #833

rendall wrote: post #516

> "If you’ve ever been wandering the streets of Chicago or New York, wondering why there’s no place to pee..." Oh, there are places to pee, if you're brave. My last venture into a NYC public restroom was the one at Sun Yat-sen Plaza, which is under a beautiful pavilion. There was a man hanging around the urinals without apparent purpose other than staring at me because of course there was. There was only 1 working st…

That's a nice park. Most dudes I assume piss on the sidewalk.

It's a roulette which can lead to a ticket, or an entry in the sex-offender registry, or nothing. Where it stops, nobody knows. Best just buy something at a bar, restaurant, café to get bathroom privileges.