<story><title>Public restrooms are hard to find in America</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/09/08/public-restrooms-hard-find-comic/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lolinder</author><text>That&amp;#x27;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.</text></item><item><author>koolba</author><text>&amp;gt; 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?&lt;p&gt;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.</text></item><item><author>lolinder</author><text>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?</text></item><item><author>Animats</author><text>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]&lt;p&gt;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&amp;#x27;re also far too expensive. The cleaning machinery is standard industrial automation equipment from Telemechanique. I&amp;#x27;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.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;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&amp;#x27;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.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Sanisette&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Sanisette&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;portlandloo.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;portlandloo.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JumpCrisscross</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;that is not a problem in most other cities&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;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.</text></comment>
<story><title>Public restrooms are hard to find in America</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/09/08/public-restrooms-hard-find-comic/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lolinder</author><text>That&amp;#x27;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.</text></item><item><author>koolba</author><text>&amp;gt; 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?&lt;p&gt;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.</text></item><item><author>lolinder</author><text>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?</text></item><item><author>Animats</author><text>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]&lt;p&gt;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&amp;#x27;re also far too expensive. The cleaning machinery is standard industrial automation equipment from Telemechanique. I&amp;#x27;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.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;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&amp;#x27;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.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Sanisette&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Sanisette&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;portlandloo.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;portlandloo.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ethanbond</author><text>Eh, New York City would absolutely benefit from more public restrooms (paid or not). Central Park is a prime example.</text></comment>