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Thread: Why Are Public Restrooms Still So Rare?

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    Default Why Are Public Restrooms Still So Rare?

    I notice if you go into a lot of businesses nowadays, you see a sign no public restrooms?!!

    When a visiting friend asked if I wanted to go on a run in Philadelphia, I did a lot of planning. Not just our route, but where to go to the bathroom. It did not go well.

    I took the rapid-transit PATCO Speedline, which doesn’t have bathrooms on trains. The station I left from in Southern New Jersey didn’t have one either, nor did the one where I arrived in Philadelphia. When I arrived at my friend’s hotel, the lobby’s bathrooms were locked.

    Fortunately, I was able to follow a woman with a pass code into the bathroom. But that was a matter of luck. Relying on whims of fate was my only option because the United States — and much of the world — has a public bathroom problem.

    On average, the United States has only eight public toilets per 100,000 people, according to the Public Toilet Index, a 2021 report by the British company QS Bathrooms Supplies. That’s far behind Iceland, the country with the highest density of public bathrooms: 56 per 100,000 people. That number drops to four per 100,000 in New York City. Madison, Wisconsin, led the way for U.S. cities, with 35 per 100,000.

    It wasn’t always this way. In the 18th century, before indoor plumbing, bathrooms were common and generally communal, said Debbie Miller, a museum curator at Independence National Historical Park. In Philadelphia, one such octagonal outdoor toilet was located in a public garden behind what’s now known as Independence Hall. “You could have shared the privy with George Washington,” she said.

    The acceptance of public and shared bathrooms shifted during the Victorian era, Miller said, when bodily functions became more taboo. The temperance movement to limit alcohol consumption led cities to build public restrooms in the late 1800s and early 1900s: The thinking went that men wouldn’t need to enter a bar to use the bathroom.

    In the 1930s, investment through the Works Progress Administration and Civil Works Administration added more than 2 million latrines in parks, on public lands and in rural areas, as well as “comfort stations” in cities, including in Central Park.

    But as city budgets dried up in the 1970s, so did resources for maintenance. Movements arose to end the practice of paid toilets, which was seen as both sexist (urinals were often free to use but stalls were not) and classist. Cities responded by removing public toilets altogether.

    Bathrooms are “challenging spaces because they end up being, not infrequently, the places where people get needs met that they can’t meet anywhere else,” such as sex work, drug use or sleeping, said Lezlie Lowe, the author of “No Place to Go: How Public Toilets Fail Our Private Needs.” “All of these are social concerns that have nothing to do with bathrooms, but because of the nature of those spaces, bathrooms end up being used for people to meet their needs, whether it’s dependency or desperation.”

    As public restrooms closed, establishments such as coffee shops, museums, libraries and department stores — which are generally open only during certain hours — had to become gatekeepers of restroom access.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-publi...183045239.html



    Old boy taking a leak on a museum sign


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    So you answered your own question.
    What was left out was rising costs of maint due to vandalism.
    "Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything." Joseph Stalin
    The USA has lost WWIV to China with no other weapons but China Virus and some cash to buy democrats.

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    Inflation!




    S.F. is spending $1.7 million on one public toilet: ‘What are they making it out of — gold?’


    https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/bayar...t-17518443.php

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    Quote Originally Posted by cawacko View Post
    Inflation!




    S.F. is spending $1.7 million on one public toilet: ‘What are they making it out of — gold?’


    https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/bayar...t-17518443.php

    I remember that one. It is costly to make them resistant to vandalism but $1.7m is fraud.
    "Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything." Joseph Stalin
    The USA has lost WWIV to China with no other weapons but China Virus and some cash to buy democrats.

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    Public restrooms cost money for a municipality to maintain, and municipalities are strapped for cash.

    Communities already have to pay for so much with property tax revenue that elderly people on fixed incomes find it hard to keep their long paid-for homes.

    The real problem is insufficient income taxes,

    income taxes, the fairest of all taxes, are not being used to pay for more things,

    and there's a strong right-wing prejudice against taxes in general.

    Think of it this way.
    Shitkickers are actually happy to bring their own trash to the dump, something I can't even imagine doing.

    They don't care about municipal services,
    and they piss and shit wherever they want anyway.
    Some don't even have indoor plumbing.
    Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Samuel Johnson, 1775
    Religion....is the opiate of the people. Karl Marx, 1848
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    Quote Originally Posted by NiftyNiblick View Post
    Public restrooms cost money for a municipality to maintain, and municipalities are strapped for cash.

    Communities already have to pay for so much with property tax revenue that elderly people on fixed incomes find it hard to keep their long paid-for homes.

    The real problem is insufficient income taxes,

    income taxes, the fairest of all taxes, are not being used to pay for more things,

    and there's a strong right-wing prejudice against taxes in general.

    Think of it this way.
    Shitkickers are actually happy to bring their own trash to the dump, something I can't even imagine doing.

    They don't care about municipal services,
    and they piss and shit wherever they want anyway.
    Some don't even have indoor plumbing.
    Those who make the bolded statement rarely talk about government misuse of funds or mismanagement of them. Instead of talking about making government more efficient and better stewards of our tax dollars - which would allow for more things we want, it goes back to the claim that we don't pay enough.

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    Matt Dillon (03-28-2023)

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    Quote Originally Posted by cawacko View Post
    Those who make the bolded statement rarely talk about government misuse of funds or mismanagement of them. Instead of talking about making government more efficient and better stewards of our tax dollars - which would allow for more things we want, it goes back to the claim that we don't pay enough.
    Think about the wars and bailouts we have to pay for. Wear a diaper and stfu is how our corrupt rulers deal with the peoples grievances.

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    The lack of bathrooms is just one of many proofs of the decline of our society....there is a general lack of giving a fuck about the common good.
    "Everywhere America goes it spreads war, misery, and destruction."
    The Han...every day....all around the world.

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    Matt Dillon (03-28-2023)

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    Why in one photograph:


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    Depends.
    What day is Michaelmas on?
    When is the Mass on Michael?
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    I AM,I AM's, AM I

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    Quote Originally Posted by NiftyNiblick View Post
    Public restrooms cost money for a municipality to maintain, and municipalities are strapped for cash.

    Communities already have to pay for so much with property tax revenue that elderly people on fixed incomes find it hard to keep their long paid-for homes.

    The real problem is insufficient income taxes,

    income taxes, the fairest of all taxes, are not being used to pay for more things,

    and there's a strong right-wing prejudice against taxes in general.

    Think of it this way.
    Shitkickers are actually happy to bring their own trash to the dump, something I can't even imagine doing.

    They don't care about municipal services,
    and they piss and shit wherever they want anyway.
    Some don't even have indoor plumbing.
    I know of four public, city-maintained restrooms within a two mile stretch along our waterfront. Even so, given how much coffee I drink, sometimes I barely make it to one!

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    NiftyNiblick (03-28-2023)

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cypress View Post
    I know of four public, city-maintained restrooms within a two mile stretch along our waterfront. Even so, given how much coffee I drink, sometimes I barely make it to one!
    That's the exception to the rule,especially in a good sized city.
    What day is Michaelmas on?
    When is the Mass on Michael?
    AM I ,I AM's,AM I
    I AM,I AM's, AM I

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    Some cities have experimented with porta-john trailers.

    Air-conditioning, wash sinks, wheelchair ramps etc.

    Even have maintenance/cleaning people to go around keeping them decent.



    https://i.postimg.cc/PqVCnGks/gojoe1.jpg
    C'MON MAN!!!!

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    The article really answers all the questions why. We have/had them in San Francisco and I support them. Reality says you can't have that many people on the street and not give them a place to go. But they turn into filthy drug havens, prostitution use etc. and aren't safe or sanitary. It costs a lot of money as well to upkeep them and police them and so on. I suppose one could run numbers that would possibly show the extra expense is worth it as the filth on the streets costs the City more economically.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Nomad View Post
    Some cities have experimented with porta-john trailers.

    Air-conditioning, wash sinks, wheelchair ramps etc.

    Even have maintenance/cleaning people to go around keeping them decent.



    Seems like a good idea assuming they can afford to maintain them and not turn into a place with a bunch of needles laying around and basically becoming unsanitary.

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