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Comment by nomel | Hacker News Reader

I've peed in a bush in SF. I didn't want to, but that's what happens when you have humans with bladders and zero public restrooms.

I tried to not pee in the bush. I asked around, went to a few grab and go restaurants, a gas station, but none had a public bathroom. My only option was to wait in line and pay cover to get into a bar, wait in line at the high end restaurants in the area, drive across town to Denny's for a cheaper pee, or drive 45 minutes to a saner city. I peed all over that bush, with a grin, as a fuck you to the idiocy of whoever decided to force me, and everyone else, to do it.

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The S.F bathroom problem is that heroin addicts go into bathrooms, they lock the door, they pass out, and die or have a psychotic break and break everything they can or smear shit all over the walls and then the store is liable for the wrongful death or they have to clean it up.

The bathroom problem is because there is a ban on charging for toilets, nothing more, nothing less.

Most businesses would be happy to have another (minor) profit center, and most people would be happy to pay. There used to be lots available for a small fee. Instead, we get no public toilets at all because it is illegal to charge, and businesses decline to operate them at a loss. Your description is of the symptom, not the cause.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_End_Pay_Toilets_i...

If they had a charge for using the toilets, that would keep severely mentally ill homeless people and junkies from using them, so you are partially right.

...just as they are kept from using them now, along with everyone else, too.

True. In fact...

An elderly woman got evicted from the Tendernob apartment building that I lived in. Every night around 5p, she’d walk into the building, right past security, and into the bathroom. She’d lock the door and spend the entire night in there.

Australia here, Sydney. I would have assumed free public toilets are a government service, like they are here, in parks and train stations and dotted through the inner city on main streets. Are there no public toilets in the US?

The majority of toilets in the US, and all of the nice/good/clean ones, are on private property (businesses, et c). Any that are free to use for all get quickly destroyed.

California (the topic) has some of the highest taxes in the US, but some of the lowest levels of government services provided.

Hmm thanks. That's not good!

I have never had trouble finding a toilet in the 30 or so states I've been to. But I've never been to the west coast, so maybe things are different out there.

Fascinating. Looks like the original motivation for the campaign was the fact that loose change was required as payment, and not really any highbrow philosophy beyond that? This should be an easily solvable problem by now (though judging by the number of quarter-only parking meters around I’m not so sure).

That's fine as long as everyone recognizes this as a conscious, intentional, decision to put the waste in the streets/foliage. Pooping isn't a choice, after all.

My trick is to walk into a random shop, drop some change in the tip jar, and then ask to use the restroom. I’ve never been turned down. Sure, I don’t want to pay to pee, but they have to clean it at their own expense, so I don’t mind chipping in.

Hotels, hospitals and restaurants with long waiting lines.

Holy Mother, the US put men in the moon but couldn't build some public toilets and now their streets are minefields? Now a small step for man can be just a big mess to clean later.

Calling this "the US" is incorrect. SF is not "the US" and hardly reflects the country in most ways, though carries a ridiculous amount of influence.

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