As an oldz who has learned that an urgent need is, many times, putting a whole lot of strain on the word "urgent", in high-trafficked commercial areas without a bathroom in sight, I commend this advancement in basic human decency.
I assume Speaker Johnson is opposed to these measures because he'd afraid people will have sex in them.
And Joe Manchin will oppose them because he's afraid people will do drugs in them.
My young son had diarrhea and the operator of a deli in Manhattan would not accommodate the urgent need of a young child. My son promptly beshat himself and, after cleaning him up, I had words with the deli guy such that my wife feared someone would need the police or an ambulance. Public restrooms should be deemed a necessity.
Have spent many years in Europe, using public toilets. The French ones, I have to say, are the worst of the lot; filthy and generally with no seats (the French apparently have great thigh muscles). I suppose they have installed a lot, but they don’t take care of them. German ones are far superior, and you know why? They usually have an attendant, who collects “donations” from the users, and keeps the toilet clean and stocked. 50 cents is standard, which is nothing for a clean restroom, and if you’ve got an event with hundreds of people it’s good pay. And from my experience it seems to be a job for people with few other opportunities (elderly, mentally or physically challenged, etc.). So I get a toilet I’m not afraid to touch anything, and they get a job. Win!
This is so freaking civilized! One of the joys of travel in Tasmania is they clearly indicate where WCs are. As I was having some medication interaction issues at the time, I was immensely grateful.
I work in a public library and we have closed the single bathroom to the public because it’s in an area that we the librarians can’t hear if someone has collapsed because they have overdosed, have collapsed because they were drunk or are having sex. All of these things have actually happened. We have bathrooms with multiple stalls so other people will let us know if any and all of these things happen. The public is free to use those.
This is great news. I look forward to the day when I don't have to duck down the alleyway to take a piss beside the dumpster and hope the cops or some annoyed neighbor doesn't see me. Already I'm very careful about what and how much I drink when Mrs. Callis and I go out to eat.
Public restrooms, available to anyone and everyone, are a basic human right. Unless you're OK with people pissing and shitting in public, that is.
However, I've run a public space with restrooms before. They have to be staffed.
The reality is, people are going to try to live in a public restroom. They will crap all over the place. They will shoot up and overdose and even die in there. They'll have sexual encounters in there. That's just, unfortunately, the reality.
So there have to be attendants regularly keeping an eye on things, so the facilities are an actual service and benefit to all members of the public.
Like public transit. Here in the Twin Cities, the Powers That Be want to have heated stations and lots of cool service, but they don't want to pay people to be there. So what has happened? People start living in the stations and on the transport. They fill up with excretions. People use drugs and have mental health breakdowns in the stations and on the rides. It's shelter. People who don't have it will die without it.
In for a penny, in for a pound. The keyword is "Public." That means everybody. Including people in crisis whose use of the facilities is not what was intended, and is antithetical to everybody else's use of the facilities. So, it has to be staffed, and policies have to be well thought-out and applied, to serve everyone's needs. Not just clean, polite, indoor-housed people, of course. Everyone.
"The reality is, people are going to try to live in a public restroom. They will crap all over the place. They will shoot up and overdose and even die in there. They'll have sexual encounters in there. That's just, unfortunately, the reality."
There’s a public restroom at the eastern entrance of Golden Gate Park, which does have attendants. They bring lawn chairs and music, and talk to people using the facilities; it is a generally chill scene.
As it’s close to a bus stop, Haight Street, and the park, all types of people use it, and I hope it is able to stay that way.
Late one night, I was riding the Metra (Chicago) home when I noticed a young couple, acting a little furtive, go into the toilet together. Mostly, I was amused, and somewhat impressed by their apparent acrobatic skills.
That would make me laugh, too. I'd say they weren't really bothering anybody.
What hasn't made me laugh was having to mop shit off the ceiling, and blood from a botched IV drug session off every single surface, in all 6 directions, in the restroom I provided to people.
I mean, I get peeing on the floor. But getting shit on the ceiling?
My state's department of transportation, where I was once employed, has rest areas long some highways. Part of my duties for a spell was cleaning them. Some mornings were worse than others, but once I encountered shit smeared everywhere and a full adult diaper stuck to the tiled wall. I backed out until I could return with full protective gear and a pressure washer.
I've had a similar experience. My wife, now working in the central downtown branch of a big-city public library; similar experience. Friends of mine who work in the city-owned Convention Center downtown; same deal.
It's reality. We have to account for it. Doesn't mean we refuse to provide public resources. It does mean we have to provide the true resources needed. Which will include protective gear and pressure-washers.
When I was a girl there were 3 Dime Stores in the downtown shopping area, and they all had restrooms people could use. There was also one in the public library, which was then downtown. Otherwise there were zero public restrooms downtown. But all the Dime Stores are gone, and the public library moved half a mile away to the outskirts of downtown, which is not convenient. I have no idea where parents take young children who have to use the toilet while the parents are shopping these days.
I get VERY annoyed with big shopping malls with bathrooms that are always on the opposite side of the mall from wherever I am, and once you find them, they are always down a very long corridor. I used to take my disabled mother to the mall once in a while, and she had major incontinence problems, and she could never get to those distant mall bathrooms in time, so she had to wear a diaper every time we went to the mall. Also, when we finally found the women's bathroom, the Handicapped Stall was often being used by people who weren't handicapped and who didn't have small children who needed assistance.
Once when I took my mother to see a show at the Fox Theater in St. Louis, there was of course a VERY long line for the women's bathroom at intermission (no long line at the men's bathroom), but there was a bathroom attendant who, when she saw my mother was disabled, waved us to the very front of the line. That was good customer service. I don't see that anymore.
I detest it when able people who aren't wrangling toddlers and infants walk by open stalls to use the handicapped stall. Honey, you don't need that stall, but my MIL in the wheelchair can't use anything else! Grrrrrrrrr
I agree that the handicapped stalls ought to be reserved for people who are actually disabled, but in fact when I see a mother struggling with a toddler, or carrying a baby, I sometimes think that they also qualify as disabled to some extent. I don't mind that. It's when I see apparently able-bodied teenagers and 20-somethings using it that I get annoyed. Of course you can't always see a person's disability. For example, I have a cousin-by-marriage who had to have a colostomy when he was only 16 and will have to use a colostomy bag for the rest of his life, and you can't tell that by looking at him.
I really hate it when I trek all the way there and find yellow cones in the door saying it is out of service because it is being cleaned. I will use it anyway. I figure they'd much rather I peed in their toilets than on the floor of the mall.
Today I learned that you need a pilot's license to operate a public, self-cleaning bathroom.
As an oldz who has learned that an urgent need is, many times, putting a whole lot of strain on the word "urgent", in high-trafficked commercial areas without a bathroom in sight, I commend this advancement in basic human decency.
I assume Speaker Johnson is opposed to these measures because he'd afraid people will have sex in them.
And Joe Manchin will oppose them because he's afraid people will do drugs in them.
My young son had diarrhea and the operator of a deli in Manhattan would not accommodate the urgent need of a young child. My son promptly beshat himself and, after cleaning him up, I had words with the deli guy such that my wife feared someone would need the police or an ambulance. Public restrooms should be deemed a necessity.
Congressional offices not in use are the preferred spots to have sex.
And that’s what a truly progressive mayor (finally) gets you. Peeing for free.
Yeah, but there’s an alley between every two buildings.
Since I go pee roughly 25 times per day, I am delighted by this breakthrough!
Have spent many years in Europe, using public toilets. The French ones, I have to say, are the worst of the lot; filthy and generally with no seats (the French apparently have great thigh muscles). I suppose they have installed a lot, but they don’t take care of them. German ones are far superior, and you know why? They usually have an attendant, who collects “donations” from the users, and keeps the toilet clean and stocked. 50 cents is standard, which is nothing for a clean restroom, and if you’ve got an event with hundreds of people it’s good pay. And from my experience it seems to be a job for people with few other opportunities (elderly, mentally or physically challenged, etc.). So I get a toilet I’m not afraid to touch anything, and they get a job. Win!
Remember the good old days of pay toilets? Locks on the stall doors that cost a dime to unlock. Of course, the urinals were always free.
Yeah, and it provides a job!!We need this here- Portland, are you listening?
This is so freaking civilized! One of the joys of travel in Tasmania is they clearly indicate where WCs are. As I was having some medication interaction issues at the time, I was immensely grateful.
Tassie is awesome for many reasons!
We have some of these in one section of the downtown area - good idea. Beats shitting next to the Pope and that bear in the woods.
And they always argue about predeterminism the whole fucking time.
It makes too much sense but since some people do naughty things in bathroom, we must all suffer.
I work in a public library and we have closed the single bathroom to the public because it’s in an area that we the librarians can’t hear if someone has collapsed because they have overdosed, have collapsed because they were drunk or are having sex. All of these things have actually happened. We have bathrooms with multiple stalls so other people will let us know if any and all of these things happen. The public is free to use those.
I hope it works out better for Chicago than it did for San Francisco...
Or Seattle.
The Right will instead call attention to the shootings in 'Mayor [insert mayor's name]'s Chicago'.
This is great news. I look forward to the day when I don't have to duck down the alleyway to take a piss beside the dumpster and hope the cops or some annoyed neighbor doesn't see me. Already I'm very careful about what and how much I drink when Mrs. Callis and I go out to eat.
You might want to choose a higher class of restaurant, one with indoor plumbing…😉
At least Chicago has the largest alley-way system in the world.
NYC tried these about 20 years ago, ultimately decided not to use them.
"The city will be working with French Company JCDecaux to place four ready-to-be-installed public bathrooms..."
I grew up in Chicago, and although I haven't lived there in a long time, I still recall that it is a pretty big city. 4?
Public restrooms, available to anyone and everyone, are a basic human right. Unless you're OK with people pissing and shitting in public, that is.
However, I've run a public space with restrooms before. They have to be staffed.
The reality is, people are going to try to live in a public restroom. They will crap all over the place. They will shoot up and overdose and even die in there. They'll have sexual encounters in there. That's just, unfortunately, the reality.
So there have to be attendants regularly keeping an eye on things, so the facilities are an actual service and benefit to all members of the public.
Like public transit. Here in the Twin Cities, the Powers That Be want to have heated stations and lots of cool service, but they don't want to pay people to be there. So what has happened? People start living in the stations and on the transport. They fill up with excretions. People use drugs and have mental health breakdowns in the stations and on the rides. It's shelter. People who don't have it will die without it.
In for a penny, in for a pound. The keyword is "Public." That means everybody. Including people in crisis whose use of the facilities is not what was intended, and is antithetical to everybody else's use of the facilities. So, it has to be staffed, and policies have to be well thought-out and applied, to serve everyone's needs. Not just clean, polite, indoor-housed people, of course. Everyone.
"The reality is, people are going to try to live in a public restroom. They will crap all over the place. They will shoot up and overdose and even die in there. They'll have sexual encounters in there. That's just, unfortunately, the reality."
No notes!
There’s a public restroom at the eastern entrance of Golden Gate Park, which does have attendants. They bring lawn chairs and music, and talk to people using the facilities; it is a generally chill scene.
As it’s close to a bus stop, Haight Street, and the park, all types of people use it, and I hope it is able to stay that way.
And yes to your entire last paragraph.
Late one night, I was riding the Metra (Chicago) home when I noticed a young couple, acting a little furtive, go into the toilet together. Mostly, I was amused, and somewhat impressed by their apparent acrobatic skills.
That would make me laugh, too. I'd say they weren't really bothering anybody.
What hasn't made me laugh was having to mop shit off the ceiling, and blood from a botched IV drug session off every single surface, in all 6 directions, in the restroom I provided to people.
I mean, I get peeing on the floor. But getting shit on the ceiling?
My state's department of transportation, where I was once employed, has rest areas long some highways. Part of my duties for a spell was cleaning them. Some mornings were worse than others, but once I encountered shit smeared everywhere and a full adult diaper stuck to the tiled wall. I backed out until I could return with full protective gear and a pressure washer.
I've had a similar experience. My wife, now working in the central downtown branch of a big-city public library; similar experience. Friends of mine who work in the city-owned Convention Center downtown; same deal.
It's reality. We have to account for it. Doesn't mean we refuse to provide public resources. It does mean we have to provide the true resources needed. Which will include protective gear and pressure-washers.
I think everyone who's had to clean public rest rooms has that story.
When I was a girl there were 3 Dime Stores in the downtown shopping area, and they all had restrooms people could use. There was also one in the public library, which was then downtown. Otherwise there were zero public restrooms downtown. But all the Dime Stores are gone, and the public library moved half a mile away to the outskirts of downtown, which is not convenient. I have no idea where parents take young children who have to use the toilet while the parents are shopping these days.
I get VERY annoyed with big shopping malls with bathrooms that are always on the opposite side of the mall from wherever I am, and once you find them, they are always down a very long corridor. I used to take my disabled mother to the mall once in a while, and she had major incontinence problems, and she could never get to those distant mall bathrooms in time, so she had to wear a diaper every time we went to the mall. Also, when we finally found the women's bathroom, the Handicapped Stall was often being used by people who weren't handicapped and who didn't have small children who needed assistance.
Once when I took my mother to see a show at the Fox Theater in St. Louis, there was of course a VERY long line for the women's bathroom at intermission (no long line at the men's bathroom), but there was a bathroom attendant who, when she saw my mother was disabled, waved us to the very front of the line. That was good customer service. I don't see that anymore.
I detest it when able people who aren't wrangling toddlers and infants walk by open stalls to use the handicapped stall. Honey, you don't need that stall, but my MIL in the wheelchair can't use anything else! Grrrrrrrrr
I agree that the handicapped stalls ought to be reserved for people who are actually disabled, but in fact when I see a mother struggling with a toddler, or carrying a baby, I sometimes think that they also qualify as disabled to some extent. I don't mind that. It's when I see apparently able-bodied teenagers and 20-somethings using it that I get annoyed. Of course you can't always see a person's disability. For example, I have a cousin-by-marriage who had to have a colostomy when he was only 16 and will have to use a colostomy bag for the rest of his life, and you can't tell that by looking at him.
I really hate it when I trek all the way there and find yellow cones in the door saying it is out of service because it is being cleaned. I will use it anyway. I figure they'd much rather I peed in their toilets than on the floor of the mall.