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Revitalizing the Downtown.
The restroom challenged avoid strolling downtown areas that lack public
facilities. Enclosed Mall's have numerous restrooms.
Being in the Mall after the stores close is not a problem. Why risk
heading into a town with no alternatives. Asking permission to use a
restaurant's restroom, when not a customer, is not
always an acceptable alternative.
Many are familiar with the negative spiral caused by long standing graffiti.
People also react to the smell of urine near an underpass or crevice in the
inner city. No police force is sufficiently staffed to stop
public urination when facilities are unavailable. Cities with thought-out distributions of public restrooms and portable toilets have
few 'civility law' violations.
Public
restrooms, housing top list of downtown concerns" Citizen
Times - Ashville NC Feb. 18, 2003"
Visitors
frustrated by lack of facilities" Detroit
News Mar 26 '02
Search
for a public bathroom became an odyssey humiliation The Onion V38#31
Public
restrooms in sad shape Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Aug
26 '02
Get people out of cars and into Mass Transit.
During periods of peak traffic congestion, everyone wishes other
drivers would use an alternative transportation mode. For someone
sensing a filling bladder, traffic jams are a concern, but there are
options. Using a Mass Transit with restroom-less terminals leads to
a trapped feeling. Even when faster mass-transit doesn't allow the
emergency pull-off. Conversely, a transit system with convenient toilets
is preferable to hoping one get off the highway soon enough to locate a fast-food establishment.
Public Facilities allow a broader range of non-motorized commuter.
Bicyclists and particularly walkers, typically experience extended commute
times. The restroom challenged map amenities along the way.
If not available, they are forced to drive.
Improve the Public's Health
'Holding it' directly
impacts an individuals heath, but know there may not be a restroom when you
need it can reduce fitness activities. Not
only does it reduces one willingness to leave the car, the restroom challenged
or parents with children are loath to walk in a town or any area where
facilities are lacking. Some young women will avoid participation in
sports if played at an athletic field without at least a chemical toilet.
Many people are struggling with obesity. In the United States obesity is a
National concern. Lack of public toilet facilities is an
addressable 'impediment to fitness'.
When the lack of public facilities force even the most
law-abiding person to find relief in the wrong place, everyone suffers.
Not only does it smell, it spreads disease. Properly cleaning a subway stairwell
or worse a subway car is significantly more difficult and expensive then swabbing a toilet.
Help Children Learn
When school children are allowed
sufficient restroom breaks, not only does it improve their physical
health it improves their classroom concentration. Recurring
restrictions can cause a child to dread class time.
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A city worker in the northern Chinese city of
Datong parks a public toilet mounted on a bicycle outside the city's train
station Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2002. The characters on the side read, "A
clean Datong environment, a toilet for the masses.'' Providing more public
toilets has become a key urban planning issue in China, which is trying to make
its cities cleaner and more pleasant.
Source: PSAI
President George Bush ... we
want there to be a visitor's center that's worth going into. We
want the toilets to flush.... ... so that the people, when it
comes to using their own park, are able to do so in a
comfortable way. Office of the Press Secretary Aug 15, 03 Strengthening
and Caring for America's National Parks
 Audio
Topeka,KS ... in addition to the concrete, skaters complain about the lack of a
restroom nearby. Park regulars say it is not uncommon for kids to urinate in public and it causes an unpleasant smell.
WIBW-TV 'Skaters Complain New Skate Park Isn't Adequate'
6/20/08
ARCATA CA -- ... the Chairman of the County Association of Governments,
arguing that public restrooms are “an essential part of a civilized city”
Source: Meserve: 'A progressive voice' The Times-Standard
10/21/2006
Now Salisbury's Downtown is reputed to be a place where people are forced to urinate in public if they must relieve themselves...
These are for the most part people with jobs and money who are using public transportation to get to and from work and/or shopping. Desperate people do desperate things.
Source: Demarva
Daily Times Sep 26, 2005
NASHVILLE, Ind. [public
restrooms] for our visitors," "If
they are not comfortable, and if we do not have the things they need,
they will not want to come back." Source:Associated
Press Mar 1'05
...Seattle business owners have said the lack
of public restrooms was the top issue facing downtown...
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Wash DC ..."They have a musky, urine smell
all the time," said Angel Spates, a federal worker from Manassas
who rides the Orange Line. "You can smell it as soon as you get on.
It's awful." Gregory Robinson, 31, who cleans Green Line cars from
8 p.m. until 4:30 a.m. each weeknight, acknowledged that urine in the
trains is a problem
"Metro's
Not-So-Sweet Smell of Success" Washington
Post August 3, 2002; Page B01
Fairfax VA ...You've probably run across this, but if
Metro allowed access to bathrooms,
maybe people would stop using their elevators for urinals.
We took our
bikes on Metro Saturday (using the elevators) and as usual, it
smelled like
pee...
Source: email dtd Aug 18 '03 from Scott
O
San Francisco CA Source: Increasing homeless presence draws attention
By Eric Kurhi Staff Writer, Contra Costa Times
Often school children are not allowed sufficient restroom breaks, it impacts
their physical health and reduces their classroom concentration. Many school teachers view toilet use as a privilege rather than a human need. Read more
about this issue as a human rights violation at the following link:
Laurie Courture [Child Health Advocate]
....There was a time when it used to cost
a dime to use public bathrooms. But this retail establishment knew how
to keep their shoppers happy: “FREE TOILETS” is spelled out in
classic Art Deco typography... ...Excuse yourself for a visit here
today....
Source: 'Lunchtime tourist'
Linda Koutsky Downtown Journal, Minneapolis, MN 10/11/06
VT WOODSTOCK — The lack of public facilities has been a longstanding problem in this tourist destination... ...The facilities were open only during the fall tourist season, however, ... ...there was a hue and cry when it closed for the season."...
Rutland Herald 'Woodstock weighs keeping public restrooms open' 12/14/06
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