News, San Francisco experiments with planter-based public pee stations

[MountainBiking]

I wouldn't use it. I would feel everyone is watching.

-Cheers.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by Nonesuch

Works in Europe. I noticed that Amsterdam has two different types of outdoor urinal in the city center -- they have large freestanding "nautilus" stations where your body is out of public view but not enclosed:

I thinks something like that would get used in the US. Notice that the screen on the upper portion allows the "customer" to keep an eye on the street around them, while affording a bit more privacy than the SF concept allows. This could easily combine with the "planter" approach.

On weekends they roll out these huge freestanding pseudo-pyramidal "pee stations", even putting them on the public square, these have no real privacy, but are certainly convenient!

Especially for large beer drinking events of any kind, including sports events, music festivals, brewfests and the like, these seem quite practical, and are both quicker to deploy and faster for folks to use than the Porta-Potties that are ubiquitous for temporary use now... not as a complete substitute, obviously, but as a practical option to offer.

Unfortunately, I just can't think of anyplace they would be allowed.

[notoriouskelly]

There are plenty of people peeing and pooping on the streets in San Francisco already, so these may help Some.

But the mentals will still just stop and drop trou anywhere.

[Zot]

San Francisco already has trouble getting their naked men to put towels down on chairs in restaurants. Getting them to pee into plants could be tough. Though if we could genetically modify a Venus fly trap to help solve the problem of urban men with public desires to urinate, I could be on board. General rule of thumb, don't pee outside unless camping far from civilization.

[Dakster]

Zot - I am on board with that.

As far keeping the tourists away with the planters. Until something happens and peoples behavior changes, I have no desire to see SF again. I did see it once already, so I got driving the "streets of SF" and going over the reddish/orange color "Golden Gate Bridge" off my bucket list.

[Mack Knife]

Originally Posted by randomparent

As long as the urine was diluted, it would be a great source of nitrogen for the plants. There would be no odor unlike there is now with people taking leaks against buildings, etc. The reduced privacy would bother me, but that appears to be deliberate, since the city's automated toilets that provide privacy have become a magnet for unsavory behavior.

The people that relieve themselves on the sidewalks and sides of buildings are not the compliant types. Anyone really expect them to find a pee station instead of just hosing down the walls or sidewalks? Really?

The people engaging in unsavory behavior care less about privacy. It didn't start with automated toilets and won't end with pee stations and planter boxes either.

Treating symptoms and not behavior rarely solves problems and usually creates new ones. People pee on the sidewalks so they have city workers use high pressure steam to clean the sidewalks. Solve the problem? Nope. So install automated toilets with free access. Solve the behavior problem? Nope, create a new one is what happened. Now they'll set up planter pee boxes. Great. Will you use one?

Now if you think that the same people peeing on sidewalks and building walls aren't going to crap in the planter boxes, well, good luck with that.

Ever thought that maybe, just maybe, dealing with the problems that cause people to think peeing in the street is okay might be a real solution instead of some feel good ohohah nonsense would work better?

Why not just pass a city ordinance that everyone with a street level dwelling open their homes up to those needing a respite and solve the problem that way? Nah, better to just put out planter boxes to capture the nitrogen in planter box pee.

Here's an idea, how about enforcing the laws, dealing with the free for all drug use in public, dealing with the gentrification of neighborhoods and so on? You know, solve the problems instead of creating headlines.