Where did all the public bathrooms go?

readingnews

This seems to be happening in public parks also. I visit two cities literally half way across the country from one another, and have visited them for decades. All of the public restrooms in the public city parks (which are quite popular with locals and tourists) are gone. First they closed them, then they tore down the buildings. Locals thought "oh, must be putting in new ones", but no, they were torn down and never replaced.

mring33621

"Closed due to COVID-19"

jonshariat

Something else I've noticed, garbage cans are disappearing. I had some trash in my car I needed to get rid of: McDonalds? None outside, Tacobell? none outside, CVS? none outside OR inside, The entire rest of that shopping center? nope. Luckily gas stations still have them but its sad to see these community service type things disappear.

polski-g

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

izzydata

I am going to start calling the reduction or removal of minor things that helped society "micro regressions".

MrDrMcCoy

I want to know where the public water fountains went. Those are arguably a safety feature.

Simon_O_Rourke

I think it stopped once public bathrooms became used for things other than taking a whizz

baggy_trough

They were lost due to the tender ministrations of the bottom quintile.

micromacrofoot

> Notably, they were only intended for use by men. this complicates public bathrooms quite a bit, and ADA requirements do too... once you've got a place to sit and doors on rooms you've got the vagrancy and drug use problem though China does ok with the model of a big room with holes in the ground and almost no dividers or affordances at all (everyone brings their own toilet paper, old people bring their own chairs)... they have public workers to hose them out

cube00

Strange "For the Classroom" question. Men seeking same-sex encounters transformed the pissoir into something its planners never intended. Who ultimately determines the meaning of a public space: its designers, authorities, or the people who use it? The law determines that public space can't be used for any sexual activity. I'm not sure what constructive classroom discussion you can have when the example is based on the law being broken.

strbean

I was in France recently and used a public restroom. It had an attendant, and a fee of €0.50. Charging for the restroom is unfortunate, but this setup is certainly better than eliminating public restrooms entirely.

beardyw

Yes, where are you going to take a bath, in public. It's interesting that this subject is awash with euphemisms. At least pissoir is properly descriptive.

testing22321

Friends were just in Australia and were immensely impressed by not only the ubiquitous public bathrooms, but also how well maintained and clean they are. Tons of free to use BBQs too.

kazinator

A pissoir is of little comfort when you badly need a shittoir.

forinti

I used one these things in Portugal a few years ago. They are definitely not thought for women.

vondur

Here in the SoCal area the homeless were taking over bathrooms to live in.

curtisblaine

Fun that this article concentrates on gay sex restrictions and pressure by temperance advocates - two "enemies" that conveniently serve a certain social agenda - while public toilets, at least in Europe, died because of heroin users in the 70s and 80s (they used bathrooms to inject, often leaving their syringes behind, and that became a real problem and society-wide panic during the AIDS boom) and because of the increasing number of homeless people later - who used to clean themselves in public toilets with a sink and more often than not left them in terrible conditions.

jmclnx

Same place free trash pickup went, gov do not want the expense of public bathrooms. Here in the US, where I am all public restrooms were gone by the late 80s.

MengerSponge

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1248664709 Well-meaning activists lobbied to make toilets free, but they didn't build a base to support the continued use and maintenance of those now-free toilets.

jeffnash

> Who ultimately determines the meaning of a public space: its designers, authorities, or the people who use it? Restrooms are unique in that they are available to the public but, due to their inherently private nature, are a place where it is difficult to enforce social norms. Because of this, within the confines of the restroom itself, the authorities are all but irrelevant. I was scrolling through the addictive and easy to stumble into YouTube reels feature and came upon a livestream of a gentleman having some sort of 'public restroom party' in a stall. By this, I mean he had collected every roll of toilet paper available, shredded them into confetti, and was throwing the confetti up into the air while blasting music at full volume out of his bluetooth speaker. He had a few thousand viewers and people appeared to be donating money for supercomments. I didn't stay to watch the end of the livestream, but I don't imagine he cleaned up. By the time the private-but-livestreamed confetti party is over, the damage is done. You can try to anticipate every single unwanted activity in a restroom and try to prevent it beforehand (e.g. tinted lights to prevent IV drug use), but someone, somewhere will find a way to creatively make the owners decide a few frustrated customers who are told "no public restroom" is a small price to pay for the alternative.