[HN Gopher] Public restrooms are hard to find in America
___________________________________________________________________
Public restrooms are hard to find in America
Author : linusg789
Score : 184 points
Date : 2023-09-09 14:52 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.washingtonpost.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.washingtonpost.com)
| novelwere wrote:
| A show called 'How to With John Wilson' did an episode on exactly
| this topic recently, and as a non-American it was truly bizarre
| to see what the situation is like in New York. Not sure how
| embellished it was, but I was shocked.
| plants wrote:
| As someone who lives in New York and has seen the episode
| you're referring to, it is not embellished at all. New York
| might be the hardest city to find a public restroom that I have
| ever been in. Sometimes buying something isn't even sufficient
| grounds for using a bathroom - a business might only have an
| "Employees Only" bathroom in the back.
| digitcatphd wrote:
| The real problem is homelessness this is just another symptom
| SirMaster wrote:
| This must be regional.
|
| There are public restrooms basically everywhere by me in WI.
|
| Every gas station, every restaurant, fast food etc, every store
| in general has a public and unlocked restroom in my experience.
| There are public restrooms at most parks too.
| dmatech wrote:
| I've personally never had trouble going to a restaurant or other
| place with restrooms for customers, but I'm sure things are very
| different in places known for people who are homeless, drug-
| addicted, mentally ill, or criminals.
|
| If people use few consumables and keep the restroom clean, it's
| probably more likely to remain open to the public. But I'd
| imagine the staff doesn't want to clean up a biohazard or deal
| with dirty needles.
| tough wrote:
| In france you've public urinals by the beautiful siene lmao
| bombcar wrote:
| Until recently the Siene _was_ the beautiful urinal.
| supportengineer wrote:
| Somebody should make a subscription membership that allows you
| access to any bathroom you want.
| aeternum wrote:
| Public restrooms are hard to find in America but even harder in
| most other countries.
|
| Yes this is a problem we should solve but it's kind of ridiculous
| to imply it's an issue only in America. In the vast majority of
| countries on earth, you must either pay or purchase something to
| use the restroom.
| zzzeek wrote:
| > Public restrooms are hard to find in America but even harder
| in most other countries.
|
| the third graphic in this article refutes this directly.
| dcminter wrote:
| "Spend a penny" is a common euphemism in the UK for using a
| toilet precisely because that used to be a typical fee on a
| public one; well before my day though (and I'm middle-aged).
|
| Free public ones do exist but they're not common (and the ones
| with a charge are a lot more than a penny).
| floodedburner wrote:
| The outright paying to pee blew my mind. Especially when you
| don't know that the UK has different money than the EU.
| okeuro49 wrote:
| I found paying to use the convenience to be much more
| common in Germany than in the UK.
|
| It was especially annoying at railway stations and shopping
| centres, both places which usually have free conveniences
| in the UK.
| [deleted]
| throwawaymaths wrote:
| Came here to post this. If you think the US is bad, try Paris.
| haunter wrote:
| >try Paris
|
| Literally the worst example. There are +400 automated self-
| cleaning toilets (accessible to people with disabilities)
|
| https://capgeo.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Media/index.html?appid=5.
| ..
|
| https://www.paris.fr/pages/les-sanisettes-2396
| throwawaymaths wrote:
| Ok, that's not been my experience, perhaps I just don't
| know how to find toilets _en francais_
| vladvasiliu wrote:
| Just make sure you don't need to go at night, since many
| (most?) are only open during daytime.
| croisillon wrote:
| according to the link, a third of them is open 24/24
| msla wrote:
| Are they free to use?
| vladvasiliu wrote:
| The rounded ones in GP's link are free to use, yes.
|
| There are some public restrooms which aren't, mainly
| around tourist areas, but there's usually a sign and an
| attendant. The ones in GP's post are fully automated.
| rufus_foreman wrote:
| Pay toilets used to be common in the US, they were banned in
| many US states after lawsuits alleging sexism and lobbying by
| the "Committee to End Pay Toilets in America", not making this
| up:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_End_Pay_Toilets_i...
|
| See also
| https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/11/ma...
| p3rls wrote:
| Suckers. I do NFPA25 fire protection inspections throughout NYC
| and let them know they will be getting a visit from the fire
| department if they do not let me use their bathroom.
|
| I have an entire map of private luxury bathrooms in NYC I can use
| now.
| sharkweek wrote:
| It won't be for everyone but there's a show on HBO called "How To
| With John Wilson" where he picks a theme for the week and deep
| dives down multiple threads around the chosen topic.
|
| A few weeks ago he did one called "How to find a public restroom"
| and it was shocking to me how unavailable such a necessity is in
| even major cities with high population density. I get that in
| general public restrooms end up in disarray but I also think that
| represents more that we just aren't willing to fund the required
| maintenance to keep them in better shape.
|
| Side note: the funniest part from the episode was when he tricked
| one of the self cleaning bathrooms in New York to run a cleaning
| cycle while he was inside filming, was hilarious.
| JSavageOne wrote:
| Plenty of public bathrooms in Japan and Korea.
|
| Hell even India seemed to have piblic bathrooms within reach
| when I visited
| mike503 wrote:
| Was coming in here to mention John Wilson. Such a slow-paced
| yet interesting show. This season has really caught my
| attention better.
| circularfoyers wrote:
| For anyone curious, this is the clip mentioned,
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D5qK8oh5lY
| jameskraus wrote:
| Oh, I'm so glad you brought up "How to with John Wilson". I
| didn't know there were new episodes and now I've got to watch
| these! I was floored by the first season, especially ending on
| Covid, so my hopes are high!
| plasma_beam wrote:
| So sad that John Wilson is over now. One of the weirdest best
| shows ever. The S1 E2 episode How to put up scaffolding about
| all the scaffolding in NYC was one of my favorites. Never has a
| show loved and showcased a city so authentically, except maybe
| the Wire with Baltimore.
|
| If you've watched the final episode (absolutely riveting in
| typical Wilson fashion) the conversation with "Mike" is just
| shocking. But in some ways it makes sense the show had to end.
| Similar to the Ali G show back in the day, once you achieve
| some fame, ironically strangers will know who you are and be
| less likely to tell their true stories and opinions. And at
| that point the show would be dead anyway.
| triyambakam wrote:
| I keep a small urinal, an expanding toilet and travel bidet in
| my car. I feel liberated and so glad to never deal with that.
| coffeebeqn wrote:
| You just pop that bad boy onto the sidewalk/parking lot ? Or
| is this some van/RV setup?
| makz wrote:
| Do you have any name or link to specific products?
| scruple wrote:
| I've had a Zojirushi travel bidet for years and years now.
| Battery operated. The thing is a champ. I keep it in the
| downstairs bathroom (both upstairs bathrooms have bidets
| installed) but take it with us if we travel anywhere by
| car.
| covercash wrote:
| Do you mean Toto? I have the Toto travel bidet as well as
| a few Zojirushi products and I've never come across a
| bidet by Zojirushi...
| p1mrx wrote:
| This design looks good in theory:
| https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4753565
|
| It's a 3D printed urinal with a captive lid that attaches
| to a standard plastic bottle.
| ghaff wrote:
| >in even major cities with high population density
|
| I'd say that was typically where the issue is. I wouldn't
| expect to find a bathroom in the middle of random forest of
| course but pretty much anywhere in suburbia/exurbia has grocery
| stores, Walmarts, McDonalds, gas stations, with restrooms you
| can use. Worst case, make a small purchase.
| jedberg wrote:
| When the poop is literally falling out, you don't always have
| time to make a purchase.
|
| Anyone with kids understands this plight well.
| tough wrote:
| What abides you from shitting first and buy later?
| jedberg wrote:
| Usually a key or door code.
| tough wrote:
| Right
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| You can just ask for that, you don't need to buy
| anything. People are pretty understanding.
| bombcar wrote:
| More reason why those with kids stay out of the high
| density urban areas, or plan ahead.
|
| Around here there are any number of 24 hour gas stations
| with easily accessible restrooms with no locks or anything.
| sharkweek wrote:
| Edit: completely misread the above as a suggestion and
| not as a description of what people are doing. My bad.
| carbocation wrote:
| I interpreted the statement as descriptive, not
| normative.
| sharkweek wrote:
| You're totally right after I reread.
| scruple wrote:
| We had one accident like this when our twins were 3 and
| immediately bought a portable potty. It uses heavy plastic
| bags, which sucks, but I'm not going through that again. It
| goes everywhere with us.
| jedberg wrote:
| Yeah we have one too, which is great when you're near the
| car... We don't usually carry it with us though. I
| suppose we could, never really considered it.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| In that case it would be really hard to believe a worker
| would hold you up. Ask for the code and they will give it
| to you if they need it. No one is so rigid about these
| things especially when you are a shift worker paid minimum
| wage.
| jedberg wrote:
| When your kid is actively pooping their pants, the last
| thing you want to do is waste time asking for the code,
| but yes, most people are pretty understanding.
| [deleted]
| 1-6 wrote:
| Some public restrooms in other countries are well kept without
| frequent maintenance. Most restrooms in America are gross and
| it'll take more than a couple generations to fix this.
|
| This will be an unpopular opinion but I think parents should
| teach their children how to go #1 or #2 properly. For example,
| water tension will make pee drizzle splash everywhere. Pee on the
| left or right side of the porcelain.
|
| Good habits begin at home and most are being taught in daycare by
| teachers who would rather not stare at kids while they go.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| All you have to do is learn to lift the seat to pee and not
| hover over the toilet while having the worst poop of your life.
| Those two points would go a long way as far as cleanliness
| goes.
| black_13 wrote:
| [dead]
| paul7986 wrote:
| In cities yes because of vagrants yet in the suburbs and rural
| areas ... public bathrooms are easy to find everywhere. I think
| Ive been to some places of businesses in cities that gave me the
| keycode to the bathroom once you buy something.
| electriclove wrote:
| Except at the Asian shopping plazas in the US suburbs. They
| make the restroom situation quite difficult.
| jncfhnb wrote:
| I feel like restrooms are much easier to find in America than
| anywhere else. Restaurants and hotels usually offer them for
| free. It's weird to have to pay for them in Europe
| seanhandley wrote:
| I wonder if this is the death of public spaces. If you want
| community you need people to be able to leave their homes for
| extended periods and join each other in public. It should be
| stable stakes for any civilised democracy to have public
| conveniences IMHO
| [deleted]
| Madmallard wrote:
| How exactly is it legal to charge people to use bathrooms when
| it's not something you can control for long? Seems like inhumane
| logic.
| swozey wrote:
| I got kicked out of the house by my dad when I was 16. He let me
| keep my car thankfully. I lived in Florida and I would park at
| the beaches that had public bathrooms + showers just to get by..
| Weird time of my life. No pub bathrooms anywhere else..
| LAC-Tech wrote:
| There's a touristy little town about half an hours drive from me
| (NZ not America) that has a few cafes and what not. We used to go
| there multiple times a year, but recently they cut their number
| of public toilets down to about a third. Now I just don't go. I
| don't want to queue up to take a piss with a bunch of tourists.
| vuln wrote:
| It's things like this that prevent more public restrooms.
|
| https://ibb.co/CzpmTR6
| adolph wrote:
| Isn't it odd that there hasn't been created a better method of
| dealing with poop and piss? Why aren't we all wearing waste
| recycling systems already?
| [deleted]
| bandyaboot wrote:
| Seems like it would be possible to come up with partnerships
| between local businesses and governments. A business could be
| paid a certain amount to make their bathroom publicly accessible.
| As I'm writing this it's sounding familiar, so maybe this is
| already a thing in some places? Could maybe even have the local
| government send out crews to do the cleaning.
| hartator wrote:
| I am just back from Naples. Even in restaurants, restrooms are
| not a given. And for sure no toilet seat, toilet paper, or paper
| towels. Never had this issue in the US.
| JSavageOne wrote:
| Plenty of public bathrooms in Japan and Korea.
|
| The U.S can't have many nice things because it has an epidemic of
| homeless people, many of whom are mentally ill and/or addicted to
| drugs, but can't get treatment.
| pirate787 wrote:
| It is a breakdown in US culture and law enforcement, not the
| lack of treatment options.
| tough wrote:
| I was a bit shocked when in some Canada's Horton's there was a
| disposable needle trash for the junkies, so I get why WiFi might
| be free for all but restrooms not so much
| callalex wrote:
| Those boxes are also for people with diabetes, especially at
| eating establishments.
| speakfreely wrote:
| The fact that people with diabetes make up any notable
| percentage of Tim Horton's customers is scary.
| morkalork wrote:
| Pretty much the only times I'll go into a Tim Hortons is
| when taking a break on a long drive. There's a lot of
| highway out there where Timmy Ho's will be your only
| option, especially at night, so it's not surprising to see
| the drop boxes. Proper rest stops have them too.
| bombcar wrote:
| That's pretty common everywhere in the USA now, even places
| where it's clear the box has never ever been used.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| People are prescribed iv drugs its not only addicts
| tough wrote:
| Right insulin and such
| s5300 wrote:
| [dead]
| nerdchum wrote:
| People think its the homeless pooping on the streets of San
| Francisco but I was an employed software engineer making 6+
| figures and pooped on the street one time since I could find a
| restroom.
| cvccvroomvroom wrote:
| Shit. Pun intended. Try finding a public restroom in LA. Almost
| every business there sports a prominent sign proudly
| proclaiming "no public restroom."
| nerdchum wrote:
| Los Angeles was rough for public restrooms I remember when I
| was there!
|
| I do remember if you were on the west side the Santa Monica
| boardwalk and the beaches all having public restrooms which
| was a lifesaver numerous times for me!
|
| But that was around 2015ish not sure how it is now.
| adrianmsmith wrote:
| Was there a possibility of finding a cafe or Macdonalds and
| just buying a coffee or something so you could use their
| restrooms? (as you said you were making 6+ figures) I mean I
| imagine that would be preferable to pooping on the street. But
| I don't know San Francisco, was there a reason why that wasn't
| possible e.g. no cafes open or something?
| cvccvroomvroom wrote:
| Starbucks the world over. If they might give you any trouble,
| stare vaguely at the menu on the way in. One can always
| change their mind to not order something on the way out.
| nerdchum wrote:
| Starbucks has restroom codes in large cities with homeless
| populations. They won't give out unless you buy something.
|
| One of the Boulder Colorado Starbucks has a biohazard
| needle disposal box. Either that's for people with diabetes
| or there a high population of IV drug users.
| nerdchum wrote:
| Yeah the lines in those places are incredibly long just to
| get to the counter at least in the market street area where I
| was. I desperately tried.
| [deleted]
| hackerfooze wrote:
| Same except with cum. I just couldn't wait for a Waffle House
| bathroom.
| nerdchum wrote:
| @dang
|
| Id bet probably the same IP addy as the other troll on this
| thread
| google234123 wrote:
| Could you turn yourself into the police for shitting in the
| street please (San Francisco Police Code Sec 153) and pay
| the fine
|
| Did you come back to clean it up?
| [deleted]
| Zetice wrote:
| [flagged]
| reedf1 wrote:
| Have you considered seeing a psychologist? Not being able to
| control your effusions is the sign of a significant problem.
| Zetice wrote:
| [dead]
| nerdchum wrote:
| Coffee effects around 30% of people with a strong
| laxative effect.
|
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2338272/
| Zetice wrote:
| And yet 30% of people aren't shitting in the street.
| nerdchum wrote:
| Yeah because they have public restrooms available.
| Zetice wrote:
| No, because they can still manage their bowel movements.
| nerdchum wrote:
| weird that youre not getting the meaning of: "Strong
| laxative effect"
| Zetice wrote:
| I am, you aren't. If it meant what you suggest, coffee
| wouldn't be served.
| nerdchum wrote:
| It probably shouldn't be in places where there's no
| public restroom access.
|
| It's probably still a holdover from when San Francisco
| wasn't as crowded and had adequate access to public
| restrooms.
|
| It's not really an issue in most of the country because
| there's at least adequate public restroom access.
| Zetice wrote:
| No, coffee doesn't cause people to involuntarily shit,
| that's not what a strong laxative is or does.
| nerdchum wrote:
| You're sort of a broken record at this point.
|
| You just say whatever you think with no supporting
| evidence.
|
| Viewing ones unsupported opinions as more accurate than
| science (especially in a medical context) is considered
| delusional thinking by the psychiatric community and it's
| definitely indicative for a referral to a psychiatrist.
| Zetice wrote:
| You haven't provided any relevant scientific evidence to
| support your claim that it's healthy to shit in the
| street.
|
| Further, if you find the statement that uncontrollably
| shitting in the street is unhealthy to be repetitive, too
| bad. You need to seek medical attention.
| nerdchum wrote:
| .Your opinions have been voted down so many times this
| thread is filled with your dead comments and not a single
| person has vouched for you other than me. I can no longer
| vouch for you.
|
| Also youre flame baiting which is a clear violation of HN
| policy. @dang
|
| You probably need to take a class on improving your poor
| reasoning skills and as another poster said: seek mental
| health care.
| Zetice wrote:
| Not that it matters, but I gained ~60 votes from
| repeatedly telling you to seek medical advice for your
| uncontrollable bowels.
| nerdchum wrote:
| Anybody can say anything on the internet...
|
| Because of all your flagged dead posts. It's literally
| impossible to navigate this thread.
|
| Takes more than one person to flag a post to a dead
| status also.
|
| Best of luck to you!
| toast0 wrote:
| I hope it's a lot more than 30% of people not shitting in
| the street.
| Zetice wrote:
| Good lord based on this guy I am now worried...
| nerdchum wrote:
| Your opinions have been voted down so many times this
| thread is filled with your dead comments and not a single
| person has vouched for you other than me. I can no longer
| vouch for you.
|
| Also youre flame baiting which is a clear violation of HN
| policy. @dang
|
| You probably need to take a class on improving your poor
| reasoning skills and as another poster said: seek mental
| health care.
| Zetice wrote:
| I don't think saying you need to talk to a doctor is
| flamebaiting...
| nerdchum wrote:
| In the manner you have been doing it... yes.
|
| It doesnt matter what we think only what the mods think
| friend.
| Zetice wrote:
| I don't think they care...
| rmilejczz wrote:
| one instance of shitting in the street is hardly a sign of a
| "significant problem" calm down hoss
| Zetice wrote:
| [flagged]
| rmilejczz wrote:
| "shit happens" as they say
| nerdchum wrote:
| Thanks Doctor.
| Zetice wrote:
| Telling someone to see a doctor isn't medical advice.
| Telling someone not to shit in the street is also not
| medical advice; it's basic human decency.
| nerdchum wrote:
| your opinions in this thread have been flagged so many
| times I can't vouch for them anymore.
|
| you really need to take a class to improve your poor
| reasoning skills.
| Zetice wrote:
| None of this changes the basic fact that you need medical
| attention if you are shitting uncontrollably in the
| street.
| nerdchum wrote:
| Your opinions have been voted down so many times this
| thread is filled with your dead comments and not a single
| person has vouched for you other than me. I can no longer
| vouch for you. Also youre flame baiting which is a clear
| violation of HN policy. @dang
|
| You probably need to take a class on improving your poor
| reasoning skills and as another poster said: seek mental
| health care.
| Zetice wrote:
| Like I said before, none of this matters to the core
| point; regardless of SFs lack of public restrooms, no
| healthy person is shitting in the street.
| nerdchum wrote:
| @dang
| Zetice wrote:
| Are you at all aware how your behavior has been during
| this conversation?
| DoreenMichele wrote:
| You and OP appear to agree there is a significant problem,
| you just disagree where the "blame" lies.
|
| OP suggests the built environment is insufficient. You
| baselessly assume OP must have a serious medical issue as,
| apparently, you can't imagine that the built environment is
| really the appropriate villain to finger in this case.
|
| Before anyone jumps up to accuse me of nefarious intent and
| of being secretly on the side of "America's built environment
| could stand to be improved" I'll just openly admit that's
| exactly where I stand and save you a bit of furious typing.
| lesfts wrote:
| [flagged]
| Zetice wrote:
| Er, here I'm simply trying to make it clear that it's not
| normal or in any way reasonable to shit in a city street in
| the US if you are a healthy adult human.
| nerdchum wrote:
| over half the world shits in the streets because of
| inadequate public restroom access.
|
| You're clearly not educated on this.
|
| https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-
| ind...
| dmix wrote:
| And India has launched campaigns to stop that behaviour
| including ads telling women not to marry a man who
| doesn't have a toilet in his house
|
| If you watch videos on street shifting in India it's
| clearly not just a necessity or poverty, it's something
| they actively seek out and prefer
|
| Emergencies are Emergencies, like explosive vomiting or
| something, but as a rule it should be an extreme
| exception.
| Zetice wrote:
| [flagged]
| nerdchum wrote:
| This entire post is literally about public restroom
| access starting from the original article.
|
| You delusionally have some other discussion going on in
| your head and you clearly need psychiatric help.
| Zetice wrote:
| [flagged]
| nerdchum wrote:
| I see. You have no idea what's going on right now.
|
| You might even be posting from inside a mental
| institution for all I know.
|
| Well good luck to you.
|
| Hope you get the mental health care you need.
| Zetice wrote:
| I'm not shitting in the street because I drank too much
| coffee, so maybe figure that out before worrying about
| me.
| nerdchum wrote:
| Your opinions have been voted down so many times this
| thread is filled with your dead comments and not a single
| person has vouched for you other than me. I can no longer
| vouch for you.
|
| Also youre flame baiting which is a clear violation of HN
| policy. @dang
|
| You probably need to take a class on improving your poor
| reasoning skills and as another poster said: seek mental
| health care.
| Zetice wrote:
| ? Did you double post this?
| AussieWog93 wrote:
| Just stop engaging, bro. You're literally wasting your
| weekend arguing with a guy who thinks that shitting on
| the street is an acceptable thing to do, on a forum full
| of terminally online nerds who are being swayed by social
| arguments in favour of street shitting.
| mitthrowaway2 wrote:
| Whether the GP has a medical issue or not, people with bowel-
| control problems still deserve to be able to travel the city.
| There just need to be restrooms available for them. There's
| no simple cure, so their doctor won't be able to solve that
| problem for them.
| subsistence234 wrote:
| [flagged]
| Zetice wrote:
| I didn't make any statements about any of that, he said he
| shat in the street uncontrollably. That's a medical issue.
| mitthrowaway2 wrote:
| Presumably "since I could find a restroom" was a typo,
| and they meant the reason it happened was that they
| [couldn't] find a restroom.
| Zetice wrote:
| Nothing should result in a healthy person being unable to
| control their bowels to the point of shitting in the
| streets.
| nerdchum wrote:
| Says your uninformed medical opinion.
| Zetice wrote:
| Lmao yes, my uninformed medical opinion does say that.
| nerdchum wrote:
| I don't know if being proud of having ignorance regarding
| healthcare is a good thing.
|
| Does not bode well for your future.
|
| Do you also think doctors are a scam?
| Zetice wrote:
| I'm not a doctor, but you should see one if you're
| shitting in the street.
| nerdchum wrote:
| Your opinions have been voted down so many times this
| thread is filled with your dead comments and not a single
| person has vouched for you other than me. I can no longer
| vouch for you.
|
| Also youre flame baiting which is a clear violation of HN
| policy. @dang
|
| You probably need to take a class on improving your poor
| reasoning skills and as another poster said: seek mental
| health care.
| Zetice wrote:
| Who or what I am is irrelevant; you shat in the street
| due to a lack of control over your bowels. That's not
| healthy, you should seek advice from a doctor.
| nerdchum wrote:
| @dang
| Zetice wrote:
| Not sure what you expect to happen here...
| nerdchum wrote:
| I just drank a huge amount of Starbucks.
| Zetice wrote:
| Yeah that's my point; you shouldn't be literally unable to
| control your bowels after consuming a beverage, even "a lot
| of starbucks". That's a sign something is wrong.
|
| There is no world in which a healthy person must shit on
| the street.
| nerdchum wrote:
| having regular bowel movements is actually really
| healthy.. it's only an issue if youre in a place with no
| public restrooms available
| Zetice wrote:
| This isn't a regular bowel movement.
| nerdchum wrote:
| Regular as in "occuring at uniform intervals"
| Zetice wrote:
| If your regular bowel movement involves shitting in the
| street, you need immediate mental health intervention.
| nerdchum wrote:
| Your opinions have been voted down so many times this
| thread is filled with your dead comments and not a single
| person has vouched for you other than me. I can no longer
| vouch for you. Also youre flame baiting which is a clear
| violation of HN policy @dang.
|
| You probably need to take a class on improving your poor
| reasoning skills and as another poster said: seek mental
| health care.
| Zetice wrote:
| I feel like this is a live view into a mental breakdown.
| nerdchum wrote:
| @dang
| Zetice wrote:
| There aren't actually tags on HN, just fyi, but if there
| were it'd be a backtick.
| nerdchum wrote:
| Coffee affects me strongly. What can I say. I get a
| cleanse every morning for 3 bucks. Cleansing your
| digestive tract is actually really good for you. People
| pay big bucks for cleanses.
| Zetice wrote:
| [flagged]
| nerdchum wrote:
| thanks for your concern! I get a check up every year!
| healthy as a horse!
|
| Having regular bowel movements is actually a really
| healthy thing.
|
| It's only really a problem when there's no public
| restrooms available.
| Zetice wrote:
| [flagged]
| nerdchum wrote:
| If actual an scientific white paper from PubMed with
| research and data does not convince you that coffee has a
| strong laxative effect on around 30% of people, then
| there's not much else to say. There's still people who
| believe the world is flat despite all evidence to the
| contrary.
|
| It's very difficult to have a discussion with someone who
| prefers their own opinions over science.
| Zetice wrote:
| Your citation is irrelevant; being unable to control your
| bowels to the point of shitting in the street is not
| healthy, and you should seek a doctor.
| nerdchum wrote:
| You probably need to see a psychiatrist for thinking your
| inaccurate medical opinions are true.
|
| I feel sorry for your family.
| Zetice wrote:
| You feel sorry for my family because you shat in the
| street and refuse to accept that you drinking Starbucks
| is not a valid reason to do that?
| nerdchum wrote:
| Your opinions have been voted down so many times this
| thread is filled with your dead comments and not a single
| person has vouched for you other than me. I can no longer
| vouch for you. Also youre flame baiting which is a clear
| violation of HN policy. @dang
|
| You probably need to take a class on improving your poor
| reasoning skills and as another poster said: seek mental
| health care.
| Zetice wrote:
| Why did you spam this all over the thread?
| subsistence234 wrote:
| he thinks whether something is true or not just depends
| on how much upvotes it gets
| the_af wrote:
| More often than not: no, the cannot.
|
| Do you believe medicine has the answer for _every_
| chronic condition? Doctors are often unable to help you.
| Zetice wrote:
| [flagged]
| the_af wrote:
| > _100% of the time a doctor can help you in some way_
|
| Nothing that starts with the claim "100%" is ever true,
| you can be 100% certain of that.
|
| Seriously though, you speak as if your digestive system
| has never betrayed you, and therefore you're unfamiliar
| with these matters.
|
| Trust me: there are _some_ things your doctor cannot help
| you with, at least, not to the point you can walk in a
| city without public restrooms. Some things are not even
| medical conditions -- and IBS is "idiopathic" in many
| cases, meaning doctors don't have a clue -- and some
| conditions that you would consider anomalous actually
| fall within the normal human spectrum.
|
| You'll feel the urge to contradict me: don't. You
| probably don't know about this, but both me and the other
| commenter you're arguing with do. Realize that _your_
| experience is not everybody else 's.
| SamoyedFurFluff wrote:
| Are you a doctor or something? You're not this posters
| friend nor in a social position where it's appropriate to
| insist on their health status. (Pointing this out because
| you might simply not know you're crossing a line.)
| Zetice wrote:
| [flagged]
| SamoyedFurFluff wrote:
| Yes, you asked a question, and then insisted further
| because the answer isn't good enough for you. You're not
| this persons friend, you're not this persons doctor and
| you haven't claimed any medical experience. You're being
| a weirdo. Let it go, dude.
| Zetice wrote:
| [flagged]
| SamoyedFurFluff wrote:
| Nothing the OP said made it seem like they were fine
| pooping in the street. If anything it's pretty clear they
| don't think it's acceptable. They just don't think it's a
| medical issue. You're insisting that it is, but you're
| not their friend and you're not a doctor and you don't
| have medical training in identifying what is normal and
| abnormal bowel behavior. That's being a weirdo because
| you're crossing a social line here. Even if you
| personally think it is, you're not in a social position
| where your insistence isn't incredibly rude.
|
| Several people are telling you to chill out/back off not
| because it's acceptable to shit on the street, but
| because it's not acceptable to insist on the health
| status of someone without first establishing either
| rapport or appropriate relevant knowledge that justifies
| breaking a social boundary. You have no justification, so
| your suggest was a little nosey, and your insistence is
| flagrantly rude.
| Zetice wrote:
| [flagged]
| SamoyedFurFluff wrote:
| Dude I'm just gonna take my own advice and go play
| Baldurs Gate lol. Have a nice day
| Zetice wrote:
| I don't think anyone cares if you are "here" or not.
| nerdchum wrote:
| Bet youre fun at parties....
| Zetice wrote:
| I don't shit in the street on my way there.
| nerdchum wrote:
| Your opinions have been voted down so many times this
| thread is filled with your dead comments and not a single
| person has vouched for you other than me. I can no longer
| vouch for you. Also youre flame baiting which is a clear
| violation of HN policy. @dang
|
| You probably need to take a class on improving your poor
| reasoning skills and as another poster said: seek mental
| health care.
| Zetice wrote:
| ...are you alright dude?
| subsistence234 wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37446500
|
| >Coffee affects me strongly. What can I say. I get a
| cleanse every morning for 3 bucks. Cleansing your
| digestive tract is actually really good for you. People
| pay big bucks for cleanses.
|
| sounds like OP
|
| 1. knows that he gets uncontrollable diarrhea from
| coffee.
|
| 2. enjoys it. why else do it every morning?
| the_af wrote:
| If you have irritable bowel syndrome, it's basically hard
| to treat, very common, and solved by a simple thing:
| availability of public restrooms.
|
| It's not a shame to feel the sudden urge to take a shit.
| What's a shame is blaming people for feeling the urge.
|
| > _There is no world in which a healthy person must shit
| on the street._
|
| Healthy people are not the only ones a city must be
| designed for. From Wikipedia: "About 10-15% of people in
| the developed world are believed to be affected by IBS."
|
| And note IBS is not the only reason to feel the sudden
| urge to take a dump.
| Zetice wrote:
| [flagged]
| nerdchum wrote:
| Around 30% of people experience a strong laxative effect
| from coffee.
|
| It's actually really healthy as it keeps your digestive
| system and colon cleansed.
|
| It's only an issue if there's no public restrooms.
|
| I hope you learned something today.
|
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2338272/
|
| https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-
| science/wp/2...
| Zetice wrote:
| [flagged]
| nerdchum wrote:
| If actual an scientific white paper from PubMed with
| research and data does not convince you that coffee has a
| strong laxative effect on around 30% of people, then
| there's not much else to say.
|
| There's still people who believe the world is flat
| despite all evidence to the contrary.
|
| It's very difficult to have a discussion with someone who
| prefers their own opinions over science.
| Zetice wrote:
| You aren't arguing against what I said, 100% of people
| could find coffee to be a strong laxative and it wouldn't
| be relevant to what I actually suggested, which is you
| should seek medical attention.
|
| Shitting in the street is beyond what is considered
| healthy.
| nerdchum wrote:
| Over half the population of the world shits in the
| street.
|
| It's not a medical symptom.
|
| It's a symptom of poor access to restrooms.
|
| https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-
| ind...
| Zetice wrote:
| Also irrelevant; we're not talking about the rest of the
| world, we're talking about an American city.
|
| Coffee does not make people involuntarily shit, and if it
| does for you, please speak to a doctor about it.
| nerdchum wrote:
| Yes its sad that an American city is having the same
| public restroom access issues as third world countries.
| Zetice wrote:
| [flagged]
| nerdchum wrote:
| Its sad that so many people have flagged your opinions
| because they're so bad.
|
| This whole comment chain is just a bunch of dead posts of
| yours.
|
| I even vouched for you on all of them but numerous people
| kept flagging them.
|
| You should really look into taking a class on improving
| reasoning skills.
| Zetice wrote:
| None of that is relevant to you shitting uncontrollably
| in the street, for which you need medical attention.
| nerdchum wrote:
| @dang
| Zetice wrote:
| And you think pestering someone like this is a winner?
| SamoyedFurFluff wrote:
| I disagree with this. This could've been caused by taking a
| morning coffee and having a long commute.
| nerdchum wrote:
| Exactly. You can get a venti coffee at Starbucks and get a
| refill for 52 cents and if you're not from San Francisco,
| you don't realize how brutal the public toilet situation is
| until its too late.
| the_af wrote:
| [sharing too much mode: on]
|
| Coffee almost always makes me "move my bowels" pretty
| fast. I solve this by making sure I never have coffee
| unless a restroom is available.
|
| A corollary to this is that long flights are a nightmare
| to me. I mostly avoid having in-flight meals, if I can.
| nerdchum wrote:
| Literally been to hundreds of cities all over the world
| and have always been able to find a public restroom until
| San Francisco!
|
| Although I would imagine New York City might be the same,
| never been there.
| notagoodidea wrote:
| Not sure about the corollary as long flights always have
| restrooms and the time to use them. But maybe you are
| just uncomfortable on airplane toilets which is fine.
| the_af wrote:
| Oh, I've used them. It's uncomfortable, plus there's
| usually a long line both before and after you... Not the
| best if you're in a hurry.
| nerdchum wrote:
| 30% of us has this laxative effect.
|
| I think it's a very healthy effect to be honest.
|
| It cleanses our digestive system.
| SamoyedFurFluff wrote:
| Ugh, that sucks. You have my sincere sympathy!
| Animats wrote:
| San Francisco has tried. The first modern try was the JCDecaux
| self-cleaning street toilets. (JCDecaux is really an ad company.
| The street toilets are just a way to get ads on public property.)
| The first problem was that that the US required them to be
| wheelchair-accessable. So they were 3x as big and several times
| more expensive than the smaller units in Paris.[1]
|
| They are noted for working fine in tourist areas, and badly in
| homeless areas. Making them big enough for wheelchair
| accessibility makes them big enough for drug deals, too. They're
| also far too expensive. The cleaning machinery is standard
| industrial automation equipment from Telemechanique. I've seen
| one opened for servicing. If you built a washing machine that
| way, it would cost $20,000. It requires power, water, and a phone
| line.
|
| There's the Portland Loo.[2] This is designed for maximum
| homeless proofing. Graffiti-resistant. Gratings at top and bottom
| instead of solid walls, for reduced privacy. It's not self-
| cleaning, but can be hosed down or pressure-washed. Only needs a
| water line; power requirements are low enough to be supplied by a
| solar panel. "It's not supposed to be a comfortable place" -
| Portland Loo sales manager. Seems to work, but $500,000 installed
| is a bit much, even with all that heavy stainless steel.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanisette
|
| [2] https://portlandloo.com/
| user3939382 wrote:
| Same thing happened with accessibility of these in NYC. So
| please tell me how it's better for the handicapped that there's
| no restroom at all. It's ridiculous.
| rcme wrote:
| Requiring water and power seems like a pretty basic requirement
| for a bathroom! Or are you expecting a sunlit composting
| toilet?
| lolinder wrote:
| Most of the US gets by just fine with gas stations and
| restaurants providing them to the general public with no
| questions asked. Maybe instead of spending huge amounts of
| taxpayer funds treating the symptom, San Francisco should ask
| itself why local businesses find it impossible to keep their
| restrooms open?
| yetanotherasian wrote:
| It's not just SF. Was in the Venice/Santa Monica area
| recently, every restaurant had a prominent sign "Restrooms
| for customers only. No Exceptions"
|
| My impression is the USA is falling apart. Every year people
| get more rude, more selfish, break more laws, are less
| courteous, there is more crime. I'm not sure I believe the
| "crime is going down" stats. (hope that doesn't make me
| stupid)
|
| The problem as I see it is people stop reporting crimes
| because they know the police will do nothing about it. I've
| had my car broken into 5 times. I don't think I reported it
| more than once. Further, some places like California, have
| declared they won't prosecute property crime under a certain
| amount so again, even less reporting. So, the numbers appear
| to be going down but in reality they seem to be going up
| (That's certainly my personal perception but maybe I'm being
| influenced by sensational news and personal experience. I
| definitely see objectively going up in traffic violations.
| People don't seem to give a fuck anymore. They just do
| whatever they want)
|
| I have no idea how to fix it or influence people to be nicer
| and more respectful of the law. Maybe it's the bankers
| getting off from the financial crisis. Maybe it's the police
| being perceived as part of the problem. All I know is more
| and more I think I should go back to a 1st world country
| because this one no longer feels like one.
| RobRivera wrote:
| >My impression is the USA is falling apart
|
| In a theead about public toilets you move within 3
| sentences to a vague thesis that the US is 'falling apart'
| without any metrics to a definition of what that looks
| like, a framework that is simpke, vague, generalized with
| very little quantitative datapoints that I cannot help but
| simply disregard the rest of what you have to say as
| anything more than hearsay amateur opinions.
|
| If you want to make a comparison between a pair of nation,
| state your specific metric and bring numbers. Ive had
| plenty of rude encounters in south america and europe
| pb7 wrote:
| Have to agree with this assessment of that comment. Of
| all things to complain about, Americans are _not_ rude on
| average. Really quite nice, possibly even overbearing at
| times. Tells me GP hasn't travelled outside of the US and
| if they had, sat at resorts the whole time.
| [deleted]
| syndicatedjelly wrote:
| Whatever city or state you've chosen to live in seems to be
| falling apart. Move
| lolinder wrote:
| It sounds to me like California is falling apart, not the
| USA--your experience doesn't match mine at all.
|
| Where I'm at, decreased crime rates are very obvious. Our
| restrooms are all open, our grocery stores barely have any
| staff monitoring the self checkouts, and we barely think
| about locking our doors. People are as friendly as ever.
| justnotworthit wrote:
| You'll get a kick out of this comedic rant:
| https://nitter.net/AmericaWeek/status/1694415737790898349
|
| You can jump to 1:30.
| grumple wrote:
| The answer is pretty simple: because when you let non-
| customers use the toilets, you're letting homeless, mentally
| ill, drug addicts, or just shitty people use the toilets at a
| far higher rate. They do insane things like smear shit and
| blood on the walls and leave used needles lying around, or
| they OD in the toilet, so it ends up becoming a real pain for
| the businesses to keep them open and clean for their actual
| customers. I don't know if Europe has the same issue with
| toilets, but I do remember having to pay to use public
| toilets there (in Paris, for example).
| lolinder wrote:
| Right, but this is a very San Francisco problem. To the
| extent it is a problem in the rest of US, it's not a big
| enough problem to outweigh the benefits to the business of
| offering a public restroom. Even most major cities I've
| been in don't have trouble providing public restrooms,
| there's a very specific set of cities that do.
|
| San Francisco and Portland and Seattle _could_ spend tons
| of money trying to fill a need that most businesses in the
| US fill for free, or they could spend that money solving
| the root problem.
| WalterBright wrote:
| The root problem is drug addiction.
| sethammons wrote:
| And mental illness; which is likely related
| Modified3019 wrote:
| I cannot fathom how you could possibly think how fecal
| vandalism just a San Francisco problem.
|
| Cleaning literal blood and shit off the walls is a shared
| experience of "retail service" workers everywhere. This
| is both a hazard to workers and the customers that keep
| the place running.
|
| Hell I had to do it at least weekly in an expensive
| sandwich shop in a small midwest city downtown that was
| 99% middle/upper class whites and no homeless or druggies
| in sight.
|
| I cannot imagine having open bathrooms in an area
| populated with those more likely inflict problems.
| x0x0 wrote:
| As a data point, I personally know the owner of multiple
| restaurants in Minneapolis. He has very happily kept the
| bathrooms entirely closed to the public since covid --
| breaking the law while doing so -- because people are
| trash and, if allowed, will wreck the bathrooms.
| Including shitting on the toilet bowl, the walls, floor,
| etc; drug use; and bathing in the sink, which makes a
| giant mess that he or his employees have to clean.
| jmspring wrote:
| It's not just San Francisco, cities all over CA have
| similar issues (as well as the west coast - Portland,
| Seattle, etc).
| fnimick wrote:
| And how exactly would you solve the root problem of
| _other cities_ sending their homeless populations to
| those areas? Make it more miserable to be homeless there
| so they are forced to go somewhere else?
| pauldenton wrote:
| Law and order is one way. Homeless don't seem to gather
| in cities with Broken Window policing
| jefurii wrote:
| So your solution is to criminalize poverty and mental
| illness. I hope you never lose your job and have trouble
| paying your rent.
| rightbyte wrote:
| I guess SF just have to stop the practice of dumping
| their problem on the rest of the country?
|
| "Between 2005 to 2017, the city of San Francisco sent
| 10,500 homeless people out of town by bus.[1]"
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_homeless_relocation
| _pr...
|
| According to the Guardian the free tickets to SF are in
| the 100s, while SF sent 10 000 away.
|
| https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-
| interactive/2017/dec/...
| foobarian wrote:
| How are there fewer homeless on display in Europe? Are the
| governments there more empowered to use force to take care
| of the problem?
| koolba wrote:
| > Maybe instead of spending huge amounts of taxpayer funds
| treating the symptom, San Francisco should ask itself why
| local businesses find it impossible to keep their restrooms
| open?
|
| SF businesses already have to deal with a near daily hosing
| down of human feces from the street in front of their stores.
| If they opened up their bathrooms to vagrants it would just
| double the number of places they're literally cleaning shit
| up.
| lolinder wrote:
| That's exactly my point: that is not a problem in most
| other cities. Which is why other cities can have the
| bathrooms open. For San Francisco to spend money on truly
| public bathrooms is putting lipstick on a pig.
| yazzku wrote:
| San Francisco has the problem of inequality and an
| incompetent management, backed by people who wish the
| "homeless problem" just magically disappeared overnight.
|
| The toilets and piles of human defecation rolling down
| the hill are a consequence of the above, and unsolvable
| until the above is addressed first. You can't borrow
| ideas from other cities around the world because those
| don't have rampant inequality.
| pirate787 wrote:
| The obsession with "Inequality" is misplaced envy. The
| issue is government policies that enable and support
| lawbreaking.
| xg15 wrote:
| So arrest all the homeless then?
| pb7 wrote:
| If they break the law then yeah, why not? They're not
| above the law.
| Gibbon1 wrote:
| General principal among civilized peoples is you can't
| punish people for breaking laws they they are unable to
| follow through no fault of their own.
| lolinder wrote:
| "Through no fault of their own" is the point of
| contention with this topic. One side believes the
| homeless are mostly victims of circumstance, the other
| that they're mostly victims of their own poor choices and
| addictions.
| acuozzo wrote:
| Wow. HN is one of the few places I'd expect to encounter
| someone stuck in Kohlberg Stage 4.
| ethanbond wrote:
| Eh, New York City would absolutely benefit from more
| public restrooms (paid or not). Central Park is a prime
| example.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _that is not a problem in most other cities_
|
| The well-meant and originally-necessary drive to end
| criminalising poverty overcorrected into absurdity by
| equating poverty with mental illness, and compassion for
| the mentally ill with not arresting people who smear
| feces over restroom walls. This fallacy, which dovetailed
| with anti-police sentiments, is most pronounced in San
| Francisco. But it's also present in other American
| cities.
| rewmie wrote:
| > JCDecaux is really an ad company. The street toilets are just
| a way to get ads on public property.
|
| At the risk of going off on a tangent, JCDecaux is actually a
| marketing company which sells ad space to the highest bidder.
| Their business model consists of offering municipalities free
| public equipment/urban infrastructure such as bus stops, public
| toilets, public fountains, etc, and in exchange have the right
| to use that to post curated ads.
| nonethewiser wrote:
| > San Francisco has tried
|
| I wouldnt say they've tried. Trying includes not letting the
| homeless ruin it.
| godelski wrote:
| At this point it seems cheaper to go about solving the upstream
| problems.
| Karrot_Kream wrote:
| America also doesn't have paid toilets like Europe and many
| parts of Asia thanks to a bans pushed by https://en.wikipedia.o
| rg/wiki/Committee_to_End_Pay_Toilets_i.... Before this America
| had many paid toilets. In Europe and Asia often the toilet
| requires a nominal fee (sometimes unfortunately expensive
| though) to keep out drug addicts or other folks at the bottom,
| but due to the bans from the campaign cities with huge drug
| problems are hamstrung from offering paid toilets.
|
| I think it's important to have free options but to blanket ban
| a paid toilet contributes to the restroom issues we see now in
| urban areas IMO.
| rightbyte wrote:
| I think we should address the root problem, which is Jack
| Nicholson, who convinced everyone that mental hospitals are
| bad.
| mjevans wrote:
| Both you, and the historical commentary reply are correct.
|
| Mental hospitals _were_ very bad, and the problem continues
| to be very bad.
|
| However the solution was never going to be END the old
| social program. We see the results in any major urban area
| today, it's what everyone in this thread is talking about.
|
| It's far too easy in politics to rally around a common
| 'goal' of 'stop doing X / being X' (E.G. BRexit) without
| the 'replacement' action selected. If 'and do nothing' is
| really what's supported that should be fine as an
| affirmative assertion. 'Stop doing X and do nothing
| instead'. Or (as an example) 'End sanitariums and make
| mental health a public drunkenness level crime while
| funding the police and jail / hospital systems for
| treatment'.
|
| The problem is lack of agreement and follow through on a
| plan leading to the default failure mode of the universe;
| everything fails in uncontrolled ways.
| lokar wrote:
| They were bad, very bad
| jl6 wrote:
| It does seem like there should be some sane middle ground
| between abusing patients and throwing them onto the
| street.
| rightbyte wrote:
| Yes, but surely giving mother nature the task instead is
| not the proper reform.
|
| Psychiatric medication have come a long way since the
| 60s, so running wards should be alot simpler than back
| then with all those insane displine procedures.
| Natsu wrote:
| Part of the problem is that it works like prison, where
| some of what makes it awful are crazy assholes ruining
| things for everyone else dialed up to 11.
| Slava_Propanei wrote:
| [dead]
| hedora wrote:
| For a while, the highway-adjacent gas station and restaurant
| bathrooms were shut down in California because of covid.
|
| I suspect that many ditches got "irrigated" that year.
| aantix wrote:
| Is this a big city, east coast, west coast problem?
|
| I feel like in the Midwest most businesses treat this as a loss
| leader and want you to come in and use their bathrooms.
| AussieWog93 wrote:
| Reading through this thread about open drug markets, cars being
| smashed into and homeless people smearing shit on the walls, I
| feel extremely grateful to live in Australia.
|
| Even in the "bad areas" of major cities, you don't get shit like
| this. Worst I've seen regularly are junkies scamming on Facebook
| marketplace, or minor shoplifting.
| lolinder wrote:
| There are a few cities that have explicitly declared themselves
| sanctuaries for this kind of lawlessness and the results are
| unsurprising. Most of the country is nothing like this.
| vladf wrote:
| What are some non-sanctuary cities which also have year round
| temperate, but not too hot or humid, weather?
| jimt1234 wrote:
| I'm a dude in his 50s now (that still feels weird to say), and I
| have to pee all the damn time. Going out in public always
| involves studying the restroom situation ahead of time. Even so,
| I've pee'ed in countless alleys, side-roads, and parking lots;
| I'm always discreet as possible, but I still don't like to do it.
|
| New York City is the absolute worst. Disgusting doesn't bother
| me, but why are the damn subway restrooms always closed?!
| Arainach wrote:
| Vandalism and drugs. It doesn't have to be everyone - just
| enough people - but if you had to go clean up blood and feces
| smeared over everything once a week, would you stay in that
| job?
| chrisco255 wrote:
| You know why they're always closed.
| jdeibele wrote:
| I had a similar problem at probably a similar age. Turned out
| that it was an enlarged prostate. Had surgery and things are
| much better now. The urologist said he typically saw it with
| men 10 years older.
|
| One bad side effect was that urine was being held in my
| kidneys, damaging them. So I'd urge you to get it checked out
| sooner rather than later.
| jupp0r wrote:
| Restrooms in the US are super easy to find, compared to Germany
| where I grew up. It's not only public restrooms (at least here on
| the west coast), but it's also completely acceptable to walk into
| a restaurant or store and just ask if you can use theirs. Several
| visiting relatives and friends from Europe were completely amazed
| by this. Contrast that to the fact that lots of public restrooms
| in Europe cost a small fee - with cash in the right small value
| coins that you of course don't have on you when you need to go
| urgently.
| standardUser wrote:
| I'll never understand why more cities haven't invested in the
| Portland Loo or similar concepts for public bathrooms...
|
| https://portlandloo.com/
| wyre wrote:
| Afaik it's cuz they cost like $300k
| standardUser wrote:
| It's literally that, a FAR more expensive permanent
| structure, or shit and piss on the streets. End of list. If
| you've ever lived in a Western US city I think you'd be
| really, really inclined towards option #1.
| mycodebreaks wrote:
| Not a big amount though for city governments. They do tend to
| overspend anyways on building such facilities.
|
| https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-20/san-
| fran...
| Overtonwindow wrote:
| Europe solved this problem ages ago with pay toilets and regular
| police patrol. Some even clean themselves which has an added
| benefit of dissuading long term residents. The problem has been
| solved but city's avoid this because NIMBY's will say it
| incentives drugs, sex, homelessness, etc.
|
| Citizens do not trust that the government will maintain and
| police them properly, and I think the homeless and sanitary
| situation in San Francisco is a perfect example.
| aeternum wrote:
| The thought that San Francisco homeless would pay to use the
| bathroom is quaint. Why pay when you can use a sidewalk/bush
| without repercussion?
| jaclaz wrote:
| Define Europe, please.
| tekla wrote:
| The problem is that some people do not want pay toilets. They
| want free public toilets and would call Europe
| backward/racist/whatever for making people pay for toilets.
| spicymaki wrote:
| I would not mind a reasonably priced pay toilet. The toilet
| should make enough revenue to pay for itself ideally.
| electriclove wrote:
| Even if you want to pay, it is hard to find toilets that are
| clean and do not have a big line. It is a horrible situation,
| especially when visiting with young children.
| ghaff wrote:
| I won't assume what people would call "Europe" which is a big
| place. However, it's certainly true that pay toilets are not
| a thing in the US in general and certainly not in train
| stations, restaurants, etc. as you at least sometimes see in
| other countries.
|
| It's probably complicated at this point in that I assume most
| people in the US don't carry change today and tap to pay
| small amounts is fairly nascent.
| Zetice wrote:
| Because it is backwards, state governments ought to supply
| and maintain enough bathrooms that the streets remain
| sanitary.
|
| Sanitation is one of the main things we need a government
| for; failure here is unacceptable.
| wkat4242 wrote:
| The only people who pee on the streets are drunks and
| they're not going to a public toilet anyway.
| Zetice wrote:
| Why not?
| harlanji wrote:
| If a person were begging outside of a toilet I'm sure someone
| would help them out until it becomes a regular hustle like
| people outside of grocery stores is.
| jen20 wrote:
| Some people don't want to pay for anything. Those people can
| be ignored most of the time.
|
| Would they rather have toilets that cost a dollar to use or
| no toilets?
| mitthrowaway2 wrote:
| Someone who needs to pee is going to pee, whether they have
| a dollar to spare or not; I'd rather they are able to pee
| in a restroom rather than on the grass, sidewalk, or
| someone's doorway. It is cheaper and healthier for society
| as a whole if people do their business in restrooms, which
| is basically the reason why we've converged on a society
| where toilets exist in the first place, rather than fleets
| of trucks circling around and washing the streets
| constantly.
| WillPostForFood wrote:
| _Citizens do not trust that the government will maintain and
| police them properly_
|
| This is the problem not NIMBYs, It is the correct assessment
| that the bathrooms will not be policed or maintained. If they
| were policed and maintained, no one would even notice them.
| thatfrenchguy wrote:
| Public toilets in France are frankly horribly maintained and
| smelly (wtf is wrong with ventilation there?) that San
| Francisco is a toilet paradise in comparaison.
| electriclove wrote:
| The toilet situation in Europe is pretty bad from the few
| places I've been: France, Italy, Greece, Spain, UK. You can't
| find clean, free toilets and there is a line to use many of the
| toilets all the time. Most toilets do not have disposable seat
| covers, some don't even have toilet seats, some don't have
| toilet paper, etc. It is a sad state of affairs and makes me
| miss the much better (though still lacking) situation in the
| US.
| Roark66 wrote:
| Perhaps it is area dependent in UK. When I lived in the North
| I think access to toilets was a lot worse than down South. We
| went visiting to many tourist places like the east coast,
| Yorkshire moors, various historic places. All these trips had
| to be planned carefully as usually there were no toilets
| available. Even in food places in such tourist areas. The
| only place one could always find a toilet at were petrol
| stations. Another thing is toilet availability for people
| going for a night out.
|
| In contrast when I lived in London I always felt access to
| public toilets was pretty good. There were lots of places
| like McDonald's, Starbucks etc that always let the public use
| their toilets for free. Then there are free toilets on many
| large rail stations past the barriers as well as paid toilets
| before the barriers. Finally there are free standing paid
| toilets dotted around the city. Back then one had to put a
| coin to open them.
|
| Personally I think London is one of the better European
| cities in this regard.
| ARandomerDude wrote:
| I don't understand this. I've lived in America my entire life
| (I'm roughly 40) and literally never been unable to find a public
| restroom.
|
| I'm sure there are certain cities where it's harder (maybe NYC,
| etc.) but "Public restrooms are hard to find in _America_ " is
| stretching the truth pretty far.
| marcusverus wrote:
| Yeah, I've never encountered this issue outside of an urban
| area.
| bombcar wrote:
| You've hit the core. Whoever wrote this is clearly an
| urbanite through and through.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| Even in cities it just depends on where you ask. A little
| hole in the wall pizza joint where the bathroom involves
| tredging through the code violations in the kitchen? Yeah
| nah they aren't letting you in there unless you have a six
| year old with you who is threatening to pee right then and
| there. Your standard urban mcdonalds or other new
| construction building will have full bathrooms by code on
| the other hand. And if there is some code or whatever, just
| ask. They say you need to make a purchase to legally
| exclude homeless people but if you don't appear homeless
| they just give you the code without having to bother with
| that in my experience. Not to mention every single bar you
| see in a city will have a bathroom and zero police that for
| patrons.
| bachmeier wrote:
| Yep. People from large coastal cities see nothing wrong with
| openly mocking Kansas when they're talking to me. I ask them
| about the public restroom situation where they live, and I tell
| them they're living in a primitive area if they don't even have
| easy access to public restrooms. For some reason they think I'm
| joking. They're just so used to putting up with that and other
| things that make life miserable that they don't know what life
| is like in the more advanced parts of the country.
| akhosravian wrote:
| While there are trade offs in every place one chooses to
| live, and can relate to the eye rolling elitism of folks
| who've never visited most of America as a person who grew up
| in Tennessee. I think you overplay your hand referring to a
| state in the bottom third of GDP and growth rate with
| slightly above median GDP per capita as an advanced part of
| the country.
| arcbyte wrote:
| Free public restrooms and other facilities. No homeless. No
| pollution, clean air and skies. Massive food self
| sufficiency. I'm not a Kansas fan exactly but I wouldn't
| balk at calling it advanced in terms of quality of life.
| ImPostingOnHN wrote:
| each of the qualities you described are also qualities of
| a sufficiently large empty plot of land
| stonogo wrote:
| There are literally thousands of homeless people in
| Kansas. Maybe "food self sufficiency" refers to farming,
| but nearly ten percent of the state is on food stamps,
| and more than ten percent lives below the poverty line.
| And there is nowhere "no pollution" is _less true_ than
| in agriculture belts:
| https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-03-29/as-fertilizer-
| pollutes-...
|
| I believe that your quality of life is great. I also
| believe that is not universally true for Kansans -- and I
| think that these issues exist across America, and
| pretending you can just move to avoid them is a little
| childish.
| influx wrote:
| Actually being able to buy a home is a big plus.
| thrusong wrote:
| Shameless plug: I developed a site to help with this in my city
| Winnipeg called Winnipee.
|
| It went viral last summer and had a flurry of activity with
| community contributions (locations, updates). Winter came,
| traffic levelled off, and it didn't spike again this summer
| (though it has remained stable).
|
| I tried to track whether it was OK to use the washroom without a
| purchase, wheelchair accessibility, size. When I worked at
| McDonald's, an executive told me they wanted their customers to
| know there was always a bathroom they could use anywhere in the
| world even if they weren't making a purchase this visit.
|
| AFAIK, Starbucks had a similar policy for a long time.
|
| It was interesting to see how some locations featured immediately
| locked down their washrooms.
|
| I had a Tim Hortons franchise owner email me and freak out, so we
| marked her location as "purchase required."
|
| It's been pretty brutal here with the meth crisis, though, so I
| also get it.
|
| At the end of the day, I would love for our governments to
| provide taxpayer funded facilities around the city and even on
| several of our major highways. We used to have a lot here but
| they closed almost all of them.
|
| You can check it out: https://www.winnipee.com
| nicbou wrote:
| If you don't already, you should strongly consider improving
| the data on Open Street Map. Many apps use that data. I
| frequently use OsmAnd to find public bathrooms.
| navhc wrote:
| Have you considered merging efforts with Where Is Public
| Toilet? Service has existed for many years and seems to have a
| decent amount of locations in Winnipeg
| cscurmudgeon wrote:
| > At the end of the day, I would love for our governments to
| provide taxpayer funded facilities around the city and even on
| several of our major highways. We used to have a lot here but
| they closed almost all of them.
|
| You are almost there. Now we should ask why this happened:
|
| > but they closed almost all of them
|
| There is no civic sense in large swathes of the population.
| Strict enforcement of basic rules will help us a lot here.
| Arainach wrote:
| > There is no civic sense in large swathes of the population.
| Strict enforcement of basic rules will help us a lot here
|
| Strict enforcement of basic rules against a subset of the
| population while letting off other groups is a major
| contributor to the lack of civic sense.
| rayiner wrote:
| I assure you that rich white people defecating in the
| streets will be treated the same way as poor brown people
| doing the same thing.
| woodruffw wrote:
| This is baselessly asserted: rich people _consistently_
| receive gentler treatment at the hands of the police for
| similar crimes[1]. Black Americans get dinged for this
| twice: not only are they poorer on average than Whites,
| but are also disproportionately likely to be brutalized
| or killed by law enforcement[2]. When Black people _do_
| die in custody, their deaths are more likely to be
| characterized with pseudomedical terms like "excited
| delirium[3]."
|
| [1]:
| https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/696355
|
| [2]: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2022/12/22/policin
| g_survey...
|
| [3]: https://www.psychiatry.org/File%20Library/About-
| APA/Organiza...
| adgjlsfhk1 wrote:
| ah yes the just and even handed laws that prevent both
| the rich and the poor from sleeping under bridges.
| chopin wrote:
| In Japan that's not a problem. It begs the question what they
| do differently.
| plagiarist wrote:
| There is no way to get half of America to wear a 1-ply
| cotton cloth for their countrymen during a pandemic, and
| much of the other half is too fucking stupid to pull that
| cloth up over their noses even after two years of practice.
| I think the idea of pleasant bathrooms is a lost cause.
| meany wrote:
| I don't think the data supports this assertion. I think
| the perception that this is true is likely due to news
| click bait designed to generate revenue based on
| fostering outrage. Here is an excerpt from USC public
| health article.
|
| Overall, since late March 2020, between 80% and 90% of
| U.S. adults consistently have viewed wearing a mask or
| face covering as an effective way to stay safe from the
| coronavirus, according to the Understanding Coronavirus
| in America Tracking Survey, an ongoing nationally
| representative internet-based panel survey of more than
| 6,000 people aged 18 and older (see Data Source).
|
| Similarly, about 90% reported wearing a mask in the
| previous seven days to keep safe from the virus, although
| there are significant differences by locale, age, gender,
| race, income, education, and other sociodemographic
| factors. Generally, people who live in rural areas, are
| younger, are male, are white, have lower incomes, and
| have less education are less likely to report wearing
| masks, the survey found (Figure 1).
|
| Source article: https://healthpolicy.usc.edu/evidence-
| base/most-u-s-adults-w...
| plagiarist wrote:
| Thank you, that is better than what my perception was.
| rayiner wrote:
| America's dysfunctional urban areas are a manifestation of
| American culture. And no--it's not about the level of social
| services. Many countries with less wealth and fewer social
| services have nice, orderly urban areas. It's that urban
| living requires enforcement of order and norms among the
| population that Americans are unwilling to do.
| ddd00001 wrote:
| One of the main issues is our system of government. It is
| set up in a way that even one veto-point allows it to
| default to lawlessness. In many urban areas you have that
| veto point in the form of a progressive Board of
| Supervisors/local government, progressive District Attorney
| or very commonly, progressive judges. Just one progressive
| in the chain of command and it results in everything being
| progressive and no consequences for disorder.
| lazyasciiart wrote:
| McDonalds in the US 1000% does not have bathrooms available to
| non-customers. Was that a long time ago, or is that actually
| the policy in Canada today?
| lozenge wrote:
| 90-95% of McDonalds are franchised, so the lofty ideals of a
| McDonalds executive are entirely detached from what
| restaurants actually do. I doubt they are sending secret
| shoppers just to check the bathroom availability.
| zzzeek wrote:
| I use McDonalds bathrooms in a pinch quite often. I don't ask
| or anything, I walk in, it's there, nobody cares. However, it
| depends very much on location, and I do this only in suburban
| areas. if you go into Manhattan, bathrooms that are easy to
| spot are very much locked down, if there is even one at all,
| so you have to try to find less obvious bathrooms that don't
| attract a lot of attention from street traffic.
| a2tech wrote:
| I've been up and down this country and outside of the
| pandemic one certainty had been that if I need to piss and I
| see a McDonald's I know I'm covered. This changed during the
| pandemic since many of their lobbies were closed. But in the
| last year I haven't seen a McDonald's that you couldn't walk
| into and use the facilities. Now they're not always the
| cleanest bathrooms, but they've always been there.
|
| People talk a lot of shit about McDonald's but there's a lot
| to be said for a rock solid never changing option anywhere in
| the country.
| riffic wrote:
| Hotel lobbies also have great facilities
| Gibbon1 wrote:
| Supermarkets. Big Box stores. Malls always. Bars usually,
| buy a soda, tip the bartender.
|
| One time I availed myself of a 24 hour porn shop at 3am.
| The bathroom was spotless.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| Even the ones where they lock the bathroom you don't need to
| make a purchase. I just ask the worker to buzz me in and they
| let me. Its not making or breaking their paycheck to police
| the bathroom so they generally don't care if you look like
| you won't cause a mess in there.
| thrusong wrote:
| This was a pretty long time ago, like early-Millennium. It
| was my first job and I was 15.
|
| I saw people come in, use the bathroom, and leave, so I asked
| the executive what I was supposed to do.
|
| We were a corporate store and usually a test site for new
| products and procedures.
| pulvinar wrote:
| >This was a pretty long time ago, like early-Millennium.
|
| LOL, yep, I'm officially old!
| thrusong wrote:
| Sorry, but as I approach 40, 20-23 years ago does seem
| like a long time. It went by in the blink of an eye,
| though.
| dylan604 wrote:
| It only gets faster
| bonniemuffin wrote:
| Yeah I've been in many urban US McDonalds where the bathrooms
| are locked and you need to get a code from the cashier to get
| into them.
| rascul wrote:
| I've never used a McDonald's bathroom where I was required to
| make a purchase. Sometimes the bathrooms are located around
| the corner from the counter, near a door, in such a fashion
| that the employees can't generally tell if someone comes in,
| uses the bathroom, and leaves. I suspect it varies based on
| location.
| bdw5204 wrote:
| I've only ever seen a McDonald's bathroom that requires a
| purchase in NYC around 15 years ago. I doubt that's changed
| in the years since unless the city made customers only
| bathrooms illegal.
| gabereiser wrote:
| This has been my experience on this planet as well.
| ghaff wrote:
| I can't speak to in US cities (where indeed restaurants tend
| to police non-customer restroom use more regularly) but I've
| never had an issue with using a McDonald's restroom when I've
| been driving someplace in the US.
| notacoward wrote:
| Same experience here. Just got back from a six-day driving
| trip where my wife and I used McDonalds restrooms without
| issue multiple times. Some of them were even quite nice, as
| such things go. But I've also found myself in dire straits
| in cities, with nothing truly public and the
| McDonalds/Starbucks all locked down. The most dangerous
| place I've been in the last several years was an MBTA
| restroom (I was desperate). So much for "walkable cities" I
| guess, but good luck finding a proponent who will engage
| with that aspect.
| paleotrope wrote:
| Boston is extremely difficult to find public bathrooms
| especially around the Common/open drug marketplace.
| ghaff wrote:
| You're not really that far from either Faneuil
| Hall/Quincy Market or North Station there. Can't speak to
| how easy it is to find one in any of the local hotels. Of
| course, in the latter case it helps to look the part and
| not look too clueless.
| dylan604 wrote:
| > Of course, in the latter case it helps to look the part
| and not look too clueless.
|
| This is not just applicable to using the restroom as a
| non-paying customer. You can pretty much go anywhere if
| you just don't look guilty of doing something your not
| meant to be doing. They also say carrying a clipboard and
| looking in a hurry increases your "getting away" with it,
| whatever "it" may be.
| barsonme wrote:
| I think this is a pretty broad generalization. Personally,
| I've never once been refused access to a McDonald's restroom.
|
| I haven't been to a McDonald's in a large city (like downtown
| Seattle), so perhaps it's different there.
|
| But so much of the world exists outside of cities :)
| toast0 wrote:
| I went to a McDonald's in Seattle's SoDo in 2021 that had a
| bouncer at the door, and the bathroom had super annoying
| blue-lighting. It certainly looked like ordering before
| using the bathroom was the right thing to do.
|
| There was a ton of street camping around there.
| rufus_foreman wrote:
| The blue lighting makes it harder to find a vein.
| rayiner wrote:
| Yikes.
| wkat4242 wrote:
| Same in Spain. There's an access code printed on the
| receipts. At least in the ones in tourist areas. Though you
| can wait till someone comes out or ask another customer.
| tough wrote:
| In some areas of Spain, restaurants and bars that occupy
| the public space with terraces are obliged by law to
| provide bathrooms to anyone asking if I recall correctly
|
| A counter-balance act
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| They have that for some restaurants in the US, but you can
| ask the worker and they will just give you the code.
| bombcar wrote:
| It's entirely a city/suburb/rural divide.
|
| If you're in an area with homeless restrooms can't be found.
|
| If you're not, they're plentiful and free.
| eyelidlessness wrote:
| It must vary a lot by location even in the US. When I used to
| bother asking, it was almost universally customer-only in
| urban and many suburban areas... and almost always got me
| strange looks for even bothering to ask in more remote areas
| (where they are often clustered next to a couple gas stations
| along a freeway exit).
| [deleted]
| rawgabbit wrote:
| A few years ago I visited three different McDonalds in
| Washington DC. All three were newly renovated in downtown.
|
| All three restrooms were unlocked and disgusting. After
| notifying the staff I figured out some homeless would vent
| their rage by literally smearing their feces on the walls. When
| the staff clean it up, they would do it again.
| nonethewiser wrote:
| They have the right to refuse entry to homeless people. They
| should exercise it.
| hattmall wrote:
| How are you going to say it's because they are homeless and
| not whatever minority.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| Wouldn't the burden of proof lie with whomever is making
| the claim of bias? And it would be easily countered with
| surveillance footage showing just one white male homeless
| guy getting turned away.
| dylan604 wrote:
| The McDonalds in downtown Dallas, at least for a time, played
| classical music outside as well as inside. The theory was
| that the homeless wouldn't hang around as much. This was back
| in the 80s when my mom worked downtown, and it was common
| water cooler conversation. I'm sure as a manager, you're
| pretty much willing to try anything to avoid the situation
| you've described. Making it even harder, the location is one
| block away from the central Greyhound bus station.
| Modified3019 wrote:
| My favorite is when places use opera music to drive away
| loiterers.
| Gunnerhead wrote:
| That's seriously disgusting. But even without mental illness,
| you still have people that seem like they don't know bathroom
| etiquette. I worked at a retailer during college that had a
| public bathroom, seemingly normal people still did the most
| disgusting messes in the toilets that I was left to clean.
| [deleted]
| wolverine876 wrote:
| > After notifying the staff I figured out some homeless would
| vent their rage by literally smearing their feces on the
| walls. When the staff clean it up, they would do it again.
|
| When you say "I figured", do you mean it is a complete
| fabrication, something that exists only in your mind? What
| should we take from that?
|
| I've lived and spent my time in major cities most of my life.
| I've used many public urban bathrooms. Like many things in
| cities, they are used much more heavily and often are less
| clean. Some have been disgusting in places, but I've never
| seen what you imagine.
|
| > some homeless
|
| What does that mean? Are you saying you think all homeless
| people are essentially people who might do what is in your
| head? I interact with lots of people who appear to lack homes
| (I wouldn't know without asking), daily or a bit less. They
| are just people, just like you are people; they might express
| similar extreme stereotypes or imagine crazy things about
| some group; they might be just about anything or anyone.
|
| If you really imagine these things, try talking to people.
| Just like every other stereotyped group, you'll find out they
| are just human beings (which are social animals).
|
| EDIT: edited quite a bit
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| [dead]
| seb1204 wrote:
| Great to see that openstreetmap is being used. The attribution
| needs to be fixed though. Did you add the toilets to OSM as
| well?
| jimt1234 wrote:
| Love it. Please scale this to other cities and call it
| "wannapee.com".
|
| I'd always assumed an app like this already existed, like Yelp
| for public restrooms. I never actually looked, though.
| navhc wrote:
| There is already an app for this, called Where Is Public
| Toilet that covers most of north America and parts of Europe
| dylan604 wrote:
| If it were to be Yelp like, I could only imagine the
| references to the worst toilet in Scotland.
| supportengineer wrote:
| Ah, laddie, ye won't believe the gem I found in the heart
| of Scotland! This public restroom, I tell ya, it's a wee
| slice of heaven for the weary traveler.
|
| First off, it's cleaner than me own shack on a good day. No
| grime, no filth - it's like they've hired elves to scrub
| the floors. And the smell, well, it's fresher than the
| Scottish Highlands after a spring rain.
|
| The facilities themselves? Aye, they've got stalls with
| doors that lock properly, and plenty of toilet paper to
| spare. The sink's got hot water that flows like a mountain
| stream, and the soap is as fragrant as a bloomin' meadow.
|
| But here's the real kicker, they've got artwork on the
| walls! You can stand there and admire the local talent
| while you do your business.
|
| So, if ye ever find yerself in Scotland, make a beeline for
| this restroom, and you'll be singin' its praises like a
| bagpiper at a ceilidh. Aye, it's a public convenience
| that's pure gold!
| lucb1e wrote:
| That sounds like this data should essentially be an overpass-
| turbo (OpenStreetMap) query away, with an overlay for reviews.
| Why build a new dataset from the ground up with (c)Winnipee at
| the bottom so nobody can reuse the data when the project is
| inevitably abandoned (even if that's fifty years down the
| line)?
|
| Edit: example data query http://overpass-turbo.eu/s/1A2I
| Symbiote wrote:
| Here: https://mapcomplete.org/toilets
| nonethewiser wrote:
| > AFAIK, Starbucks had a similar policy for a long time.
|
| >It was interesting to see how some locations featured
| immediately locked down their washrooms.
|
| If you can just walk in (no passcode or any) then it is open to
| me as far as Im concerned.
|
| The staff doesnt give a shit. The only point at which theyd
| care is if you're exploiting it or causing problems. If you
| just walk in off the street, do your business, and leave then
| no one has a problem.
| Slava_Propanei wrote:
| [dead]
| ftyers wrote:
| https://archive.ph/FYK9P
| cvccvroomvroom wrote:
| The author probably hasn't been to London or continental Europe.
|
| Good luck finding a trash receptacle in Victoria station. (Yes,
| the historical reasons.) Meanwhile, the US has millions of
| potential shrapnel trash cans everywhere. After some psycho
| terrorists goes after them, then it would change. A hoop with a
| clear bag is far safer for everyone.
| throwawaywu wrote:
| How about we put the few human-animals back in their cages, so
| the rest of us can live in a civilization that doesn't need to
| have clear bags full of trash on display.
| hedora wrote:
| California effectively outlawed mental health care for
| paranoid schizophrenics back in the 1980's. (You can't even
| get future-you committed in the event of a psychotic break)
| okeuro49 wrote:
| I don't think the author is referring literally to people
| with mental illnesses.
|
| They're referring to the IRA.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents
| _...
| lolinder wrote:
| This is very much a regional thing.
|
| In most of the US, my experience has been that every gas station
| and every restaurant has a public restroom that's unlocked at all
| times. They're sometimes nasty, but always available, and even
| the ones that are nominally for customers only aren't regulated
| at all.
|
| There are some places I've been that keep the restroom locked,
| but where I've been that's a sign that you're in a particularly
| sketchy neighborhood, not a regular thing. The first time I had a
| major problem finding a restroom at all was driving through Las
| Vegas a few years ago. I've only become aware that there are
| other places like that through articles like this on HN.
| monocularvision wrote:
| 100% agree.
|
| In the Southwest, I would say 95% of the places I visit have
| plenty of public restrooms if you count businesses that have
| unlocked bathrooms. Fast food, coffee shops, grocery stores,
| gas stations, restaurants... nearly every public business.
|
| When my wife and I visited Scotland, we were flabbergasted at
| how difficult it could be to find a restroom when we were
| driving the countryside. Even when we would find signs of
| civilization, it was hard to find open businesses with
| restrooms.
| tough wrote:
| When in nature, earth becomes the restroom
| wincy wrote:
| Right, I guess maybe high crime areas have this problem? I
| drove from Kansas to South Florida last year and there were
| public restrooms literally everywhere we stopped.
| marcusverus wrote:
| I'm pretty sure that homeless folks are the main reason some
| areas (generally urban) have few public restrooms. If someone
| decides they'd rather hang out or sleep in your restroom than
| on the street, the headache associated with offering a public
| restroom rises dramatically.
| coffeebeqn wrote:
| Sleeping there is one thing. Shooting up and leaving the
| needles there and painting the walls with feces is when you
| really start to wonder
| tlogan wrote:
| It's all about homelessness and drugs. If an area has issues
| with homelessness and drugs, public restrooms are very rare; if
| they do exist, they are often out of order.
| throwaway22032 wrote:
| Is this a homeless thing or something?
|
| When travelling in the US I've just done the same thing I do
| anywhere. Enter a fast food place, coffee shop etc and ask to use
| the loo. Job done.
|
| I very rarely use truly public toilets in the UK either.
| lolinder wrote:
| It's a problem in some cities, but not in most of the country.
| Stories like this are weird to me because it feels like the
| author has never gone out into the majority of the US.
| kadang wrote:
| > Job done.
|
| Well played.
| WirelessGigabit wrote:
| Public, no, but in general every Walmart / Starbucks / ...
| (except Subway) have a restroom available.
|
| Try finding a place in Belgium... if you find one, you have to
| pay, even if you area already a paying customer (e.g. Kinepolis,
| a large theater chain) or when you're in a park there's a
| restroom with a friggin' card reader to charge you half a Euro to
| take a piss. I found a tree close-by.
|
| And grocery chains aren't even legally required to have a
| restroom available to customers.
| beardedwizard wrote:
| Sitting in Amsterdam thinking the same thing. America is
| practically covered in accessible restrooms in comparison.
| archagon wrote:
| Having just gone through Belgium and the Netherlands, it's a
| huge relief to know that public restrooms are definitely around
| if you're willing to part with some change.
| nness wrote:
| Probably most of EU, too. And the extra coins it takes means
| it is at least moderately clean. But just in case, always
| good to carry a few Euro coins around for the attendants.
|
| The card readers are all over the UK's largest parks, too.
|
| (A nasty issue I encountered in Iceland was that my debit
| card did not support Icelandic vendors, and as a result,
| could not be used to purchase anything which the strip
| reader. I jumped many turnstiles, sorry Iceland...)
| [deleted]
| sneed_chucker wrote:
| The restroom situation in the US is better than in any other
| country I've visited.
| spiderice wrote:
| Agreed. I've never once not been able to easily find a restroom
| in the US. Europe is much worse, where you often have to buy
| toilet paper or something silly to keep people from using the
| restroom.
| Lio wrote:
| What? I've never seen that in "Europe" in any country I've
| visited.
|
| Which country are you talking about where you have to buy
| toilet paper?
|
| In the UK I can think of a couple pay toilets at some of the
| big London train stations but other than that I can't
| remember seeing one.
|
| Free toilets are everywhere.
| explaininjs wrote:
| They're easy enough to find if you actually look, the problem is
| they're always locked. It's as if the city thinks people only
| poop from 9am to 8pm.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| A local park has the bathrooms in the rec center that has
| separate hours from the rest of the park. So by 5pm when
| everyone gets off work to play pickup basketball on the courts
| the only place to piss is this discrete bush that absolutely
| reeks as a result.
| rmilejczz wrote:
| This is really only a problem in densely urban areas and even
| then not across all of them. To say public restrooms are hard to
| find in America is I think a mischaracterization. It would be
| more fair to say public restrooms are hard to find in American
| cities, but then Id wager all urban areas around the globe have
| struggled with this problem in one way or another.
|
| Anecdotally, in my hometown in Florida I've never had an issue
| finding a bathroom, not even in larger cities like Orlando and
| Tampa. But my experience finding bathrooms in Seattle, Washington
| was quite horrendous.
| ugh123 wrote:
| 10 year old boy arrested in Mississippi for urinating in public
| after he couldn't find a public restroom in August
|
| https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/08/us/mississippi-boy-arrested-u...
| linusg789 wrote:
| https://ghostarchive.org/archive/H7UGS
| Aldipower wrote:
| How about wearing a diaper? Problem solved. Just kidding. What's
| the problem with providing public urinals? I don't get it. Here
| is an simple example from Hamburg.
| https://www.heringinternational.com/fileadmin/images/content...
| You'll find something similar everywhere in Europe. I had been in
| SF once. This was the smelliest city expierence I ever had yet.
| iteria wrote:
| Women and children never need to pee apparently. And apparently
| pooping is just out and out forbidden to all. Urinals are not
| anywhere near a replacement for public restrooms and really
| only fill the gap of trying to discourage public urination
| probably around bars.
| h2odragon wrote:
| It wasn't long ago that the enlightened people writing news
| stories were informing us that public toilets encouraged
| homelessness and crime. Business that allowed the public to use
| their toilets were "gently encouraged" not to do so anymore.
|
| Perhaps we could go back and see who wanted to make public
| toilets unavailable, and make sure they're not still influencing
| public policy?
| switch007 wrote:
| In the UK we mostly get that excuse from the
| councils/government because they want to cut costs, and I think
| people just parrot that excuse.
|
| Nobody seems to take 2 seconds to even ask how much vandalism
| existed only because there were no attendants (because they
| were fired) and therefore there was no surveillance.
|
| All the good public toilets I've seen have constant cleaning
| during the day with a strong staff presence. Funny that!
| jefftk wrote:
| _> It wasn 't long ago that the enlightened people writing news
| stories were informing us that public toilets encouraged
| homelessness and crime._
|
| Link?
| dreamcompiler wrote:
| > encouraged homelessness
|
| As if the only thing stopping me from trying homelessness as a
| lifestyle is the lack of public restrooms. "No restrooms? Damn!
| Guess I'll have to sleep at home then."
| wfhBrian wrote:
| Just got back from Europe and this was my biggest complaint about
| the places we visited.
|
| Living in Florida, I never have a problem finding restrooms. Not
| sure what kind of restroom oasis the author is from, but, at
| least here in Florida, restrooms are _not_ hard to find.
| shamsartem wrote:
| There is a Seinfeld joke here somewhere
| wigiv wrote:
| My company designed and built the first few prototypes for a
| startup, Throne Labs, who deploy prefab, off-grid,
| (semi-)publicly-accessible (you have to have their app)
| bathrooms.
|
| Seems like they solved some core problems: finding suitable sites
| and partners, using semi-permanent modules that don't require
| [quite as] complicated/slow/expensive permitting and utility tie-
| ins, and some clever ways to get them re-stocked and cleaned
| regularly using gig labor (I always understood this to be the
| biggest challenge for offering public bathroom - labor cost of
| cleaning and resupply.)
|
| They moved on to a higher-volume producer so I've been out of
| touch on their progress, but I thought it was a interesting
| solution in the face of what I learned to be outrageous
| expenditure - $300k, $500k(!) - on municipal bathrooms that
| quickly go defunct or get destroyed, and a lack of public
| restroom access during the pandemic.
|
| During the project I learned a lot about how rideshare and
| package delivery companies just assume stops with restrooms are
| available on the routes (I'd love to hear what the actual company
| training/guidance says! It's easy to find stories about Amazon
| drivers peeing in bottles etc...)
|
| I also gained a lot of empathy for people who have more frequent
| and urgent bathroom needs than my own - having trust in
| availability of facilities can make a world of difference!
| goosethe wrote:
| Lol another plug. People with paruresis have trouble finding
| places to pee in private. Enter paruapp.com. it's mostly a
| personal project
| WalterBright wrote:
| This isn't rocket science. Just rent a line of portapotties. The
| portapottie company will maintain them. Increase or decrease the
| number as required. Move them around.
|
| An order of magnitude cheaper than any other option.
| morkalork wrote:
| Apparently in 70s there was also a bit of a moral panic over
| "illicit sexual encounters" happening in public washrooms as well
| that might have had something to do with them being closed.
| NelsonMinar wrote:
| In the 50s, too, and before. But it's just one of many excuses.
| Here in the Bay Area our public transit system closed all
| restrooms "temporarily for security reasons" after 9/11. That
| was 22 years ago. They're finally reopening a few. One every
| year.
| storf45 wrote:
| Maybe one reason? https://abc7news.com/sf-expensive-bathroom-noe-
| valley-millio...
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-09-09 23:01 UTC)