Death By Urinal: What a Strange Way to Go.

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anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,675
29,391
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
We had a law in Alabama that said that every store had to keep a bathroom open to the public. So, I had a child that had to go, so I pulled into a service station, and the poor English speaking person behind the counter said that I had to buy something. When I explained the law, with my child standing there crying, they told me to call the police then. I just dropped a dollar on the counter and grabbed the key myself... with a spattering of words I don't understand coming at me like a machine gun.
When I came back, I told them, "Call the police then."

There are rules, laws, and common decency.
and right there is why these laws aren't really well enforced. Also kind of hard to prove what you say. Not that you'd have any reason to make that up. But about all it really does legally is if you go into a business and use the toilet and they call the cops the cops aren't going to be able to get you on trespassing.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,675
29,391
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
I hope you didn't think that I was calling for people to just poop in the streets. That is vastly different from public restrooms, with or without privacy. Even Rome had sewage pipes for their open air toilets.
And those open air toilets would explode sometimes. And we know that because of several reasons including the regularity of people buying spells to avoid it happening.
Though just to force the issue. If you provide facilties they only work if people use them. So how much privacy is needed could vary from country to country city to city or even what part of the city.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
As a practical matter, the tourism sector of the economy implies that a city or town or other tourist area is going to be hosting a lot of people, probably feeding them and quenching their thirsts, which means said people will also be eliminating and urinating in the area. Smart tourist areas provide ample restroom facilities and keep them clean and operational. You keep a dog, you walk a dog. You keep a cat, you change the litter. You have a house guest, they use the bathroom. It's biology. So raise the hotel taxes and otherwise provide. This isn't a magic trick, it's public utilities.
 
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HawkeyeLinus

Lifer
Oct 16, 2020
5,580
40,851
Iowa
Does San Fran have open air toilets or something? Personally, if I never go into another city again, anywhere, I would be happy.
You’d have to ask a homeless person to move.

Two summers ago we tramped all over San Francisco one day then found ourselves around NW part of the wharf area, nothing but restaurants with signs that prohibited non-customers from entering to use the restrooms. My poor wife was beyond desperate and finally spotted a nice, young female “bouncer”, had a quiet word about her needs and the gal let her right in, lol.

An abandoned factory lot had already put me right about 30 minutes before but she wasn’t having any of that!
 

Briar Tuck

Lifer
Nov 29, 2022
1,109
5,737
Oregon coast
Does San Fran have open air toilets or something? Personally, if I never go into another city again, anywhere, I would be happy.
Much of San Francisco is an open air toilet now. Same with Portland.

I avoid cities as well. I live in Oregon and I haven't been to Portland since 2016. There's just not much appeal in spending a couple of hundred dollars dining in an upscale restaurant and then walking out the front door and stepping in a fresh pile of human shit.
 

Briar Tuck

Lifer
Nov 29, 2022
1,109
5,737
Oregon coast
As a practical matter, the tourism sector of the economy implies that a city or town or other tourist area is going to be hosting a lot of people, probably feeding them and quenching their thirsts, which means said people will also be eliminating and urinating in the area. Smart tourist areas provide ample restroom facilities and keep them clean and operational. You keep a dog, you walk a dog. You keep a cat, you change the litter. You have a house guest, they use the bathroom. It's biology. So raise the hotel taxes and otherwise provide. This isn't a magic trick, it's public utilities.
The problem isn't insufficient tax revenue, it's the use of tax revenue. Too much of it goes to lining pockets and paying for things that don't benefit the public utility.

The small tourist town that I live near supplements their public restrooms with portable restrooms during the peak tourist season, but they don't always "change the litter box" frequently enough, and it's not uncommon to find the shitter full.
 
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Deano

Can't Leave
Dec 28, 2022
422
3,823
Iowa
From ancient Egypt till the Dark Ages, people just sat in the open air and did their business. There are still places n Paris where you can piss in the open (or a few decades ago). I wonder why and when exactly we became such prudes that we felt a need to hide to do our business? Maybe diseases in the beginning was a reason, but we have better plumbing now, and hiding while we do it doesn't make it more sanitary.

Not that I want to see people poop, but like... it wouldn't ruin my day to just divert my eyes as I walked by. It just seems like in cities there is no where to pee anywhere. And, this city has gone to such great lengths for people to hide while they pee that they've made lethal toilets. I remember being in Chicago and having to pay $25 to go into a sucky museum to urinate, because there was no where else.
Diverting eyes seems to be a problem for many in the last few years. Complaining seems to be the latest thing.
 

mawnansmiff

Lifer
Oct 14, 2015
7,385
7,295
Sunny Cornwall, UK.
I lived in Paris in the early 90’s and the last thing you wanted was for a a cop to see you pissing in the street or up against a wall. They did have these crazy self cleaning (pay) toilets in some areas though.
My late Mother was using one of those a few years ago in Paris. She popped in her Euro coin then the door automatically opened.

In she went and after about 1 minute the damned electrically controlled door just opened up! Thankfully her female travelling companion realised what had happened and stood where the door should have been so as Mother could sort herself out.

She never used one of those again.

The old pissoir toilets (granted male only) were the way to go, no cost and no dodgy electrics to go wrong but I believe they are now done with.

Regards,

Jay.