Urban Bathrooms, European Style

[Jason]

They're just doing their part to water the plants while the rain is away.  Pee is a great fertilizer.

[thelakelander]

Lake, we agree on almost every point.

Except.  How do you solve 750 guys peeing in public over every square inch of the landscape every day?

Jailing, public shame and the availability of bathrooms 10 blocks away hasnt worked so far.

Most of the bathrooms that one would put on a list are only available after 10 and before 5.

My advice would be to disperse the things that make downtown a homeless mega destination.  Right now Hemming is the epicenter and is shouldn't and won't be if the things around it are dispersed.  Using limited public funds to add toilets all over downtown limits the possible funding of greater needs like lighting.

[Driven1]

i think the bathrooms for the homeless should have baby-changing stations.  and attendants inside the bathroom who wear bow-tie tuxes and keep them clean for the homeless.  they would have to be tipped of course.  i think there should be $20,000 set aside in the city budget each year that could be given out to the homeless each month and specifically ear-marked for tipping the attendant.

[Driven1]

They're just doing their part to water the plants while the rain is away.  Pee is a great fertilizer.

urea from omnivores or carnivores is not a good fertilizer...only from herbivores.  i haven't met a homeless vegan.  i've seen vegans who dress and/or smell like the homeless, but never an actual homeless vegan.

[Driven1]

I think beer is pretty vegan

as is water and hi-c.

[Downtown Dweller]

Why not just give the vagrants one bathroom and let them use it unmolested, but keep the rest for the consumers?  I think some are missing the point I have tried to make, one woman, two children. Children can’t hold it as long as an adult so the bathrooms need to be convenient and safe, it just seems everyone is considering an adult, and perhaps even an adult male needing to use facilities downtown. I hope we have room for more than adult men downtown! BTW, are there any women who post here?…..While there are bathrooms around town, Lake is right in that they are hard to find, and when you do they are filthy gross, or full of people I don’t really want to be around, much less have my children around. Why are the bathrooms on the children’s library floor so full of vagrants? Let them use another floor, enforce it and then you wouldn’t have to spend additional money for more bathrooms in that area,  and mom and kids could use the bathroom feeling safe and for free. If the city can’t or won’t address Hemming Plaza, put a bathroom there for vagrants alone. There shouldn’t be any criminal issues since the park seems to be filled with cops every time I have been down there.

A dog water fountain is a GREAT idea, along with doggie poop bags. People water fountains I am not so sure about, studies show they are a breeding ground for germs; they are actually dirtier than a public toilet seat! Of course I would rather rail then any of the above!

[deadtank]

good add campaign to get some more bathrooms.

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/04/09/ads-using-trees/

[Downtown Dweller]

 
Sozo Wee Wee Man Wee Block
 

Say no no to wee wee. 

 

[Downtown Dweller]

They are a "cover" with a sponge inserted inside. That way when you can’t make it to the bathroom, you have a 'sponge" to soak it up. It is washable and therefore reusable and green!

[zoo]

We may have unknowingly (and some would say, inhumanely) stumbled upon the solution to dispersing the homeless from Hemming. Pay to pee there, free pee spots over by stadium and west end of downtown!

Oops, forgot... why walk more than 1500 steps when there is a perfectly good planter within 10?

[Kathryn]

I am a mother with two young children and we go to the Main Library weekly.  We have had no problems with the bathrooms in the children's dept.  I even have used the bathroom on the second floor by the 2nd floor reference desk (had to get a key first)--it was ok also.  I also have been in the bathrooms on the ground floor (Main St side)-no problems.  We also have used the bathroom at Shelby's often---you also have to be a customer and get a key--again, no problems there.  I noticed that the vagrant problem seemed more acute on a Sunday that I was there vs. during our normal time during the weekday afternoon.  More were coming in as the library opened with suitcases on Sunday.  When we are usually there during the week, they are already settled reading the newspaper. 

I also wouldn't hesitate going into MOCA or the restaurant if either was was open and asking to use the bathroom if one of my children was in urgent need.  I also have in other cities just walked into a restaurant/store with one of my kids unannounced and taken them to the bathroom.  I think this is an unwritten mommy rule or something.  No one has ever stopped me either.

[Ocklawaha]

Oh Shit!

The Colombian solution works just fine too... Employ a few of those homeless and re-open the old restrooms. Each homeless guy or gal gets 3 square meals, a sponge, uniform, mop, pay-check and all the tips he can carry... The patron just pays the guy at the door.

Failing this idea or some form of Euro-Potty, we could always issue brown bags and piss jars to everyone who enters downtown.

As for going in the bushes, well, properly heat treated the stuff makes for great and harmless plant food...




 

Ocklawaha

[Jason]

Actually, not a bad idea Ock.

Great graphic too!

[Driven1]

glory, glory, glory.

[Ocklawaha]

As you can see, even the poorest area's have clean a clean potty. Call it Potty Pride!

All kidding aside, I must confess to being a "user"... Bathrooms that is. I managed to come out of Vietnam with a royal case of poisoning, which proceeded to eat my guts up pretty good. It gets me a handicap sticker and free tags, but I'd rather have my digestion back. ANY TIME I go ANYWHERE without my medicine, it is always "TOUCH AND GO"... If we're ever together downtown, and Ocklawaha suddenly runs off, just figure I've been touched and I GOTTA GO! While I've learned to live with it, and laugh at it over the years, a system of clean restrooms would be a godsend to me and others like me.


Would you believe? These guys even place world class art in the RESTROOMS! !SI!

I love the idea of attendents for the restrooms as not only does it keep them clean, and offer employment to someone in need, it's a comfort to folks with medical problems or families, women and small children to know that another adult is nearby and "on patrol". It's a simple idea, which allows for some pride in workmanship. We saw "Potty competition" in Medellin, and the potty patrol wears a "tip me" shirt. Some of the guys and gals to the extra mile of adding flowers, waxing the floors, adding candles or scented sprays, some even have a line of perfumes and toilet articles that they peddle from their spotless throne rooms. People in downtown have their favorite rest stations, you learn the name of the "potty guards"... This is an idea that works, it's a matter of: "Let's go over to Hemming Plaza, I need to use the facilities and Jose keeps that place cleaner then a kitchen. Last week he gave out carnations to everyone who tipped over a $1.00. He always keeps a bottle of "ANGEL" or "PAUL SEBASTION" and since I didn't have time to find mine before the meeting, I'll just get Jose to... etc... etc..." REALLY JACKSONVILLE, we could learn from the so-called-3Rd World and hence lead the 1St World in Potty tech.


Pick the poorest place in town... add security and a potty patrol and you can come on in, sit down and take a load off your mind. BTW, the photo is of a Potty Maid and a local policeman. This is not a war scene, just a nice day in a bad neighborhood.

Those of you headed South of the border? Don't dispair, they have you covened in the end. THEY could teach US how to fix this...

Ocklawaha
VIVA LA REPUBLICA DE COLOMBIA!