Questions

The provision of public toilets fundamentally concerns people’s mobility: how, whether, and with what level of dignity people move through space.  As such, public toilet provision is, in essence, an issue about not only equitable access to public space but also about quality of life, particularly for the aged, people with disabilities, and the homeless, social groups with an especially acute need for accessible and adequate public toilets. 

Despite the implications for quality of life, many cities throughout North America suffer from not only a lack of public toilets, but also the shutting of existing public toilets.  The lack of public toilets in North American cities is a product of the byzantine nature of these facilities. Public toilets are not simply places to pee.  Public toilets are multiple and contested spaces, and part of a larger discourse on who owns public space and on the social control of that space.  As Molotch (2010, p.2) states, “peeing is political, and so is taking a shit and washing up.”  In other words, public toilet provision is not politically expedient, nor is it a priority of planning.  Public toilet provision creates compound practical difficulties and social dilemmas for planners, designers, and city officials.  Municipalities do not have the political will to provide public toilets because public toilets are costly, invite public censure, and carry political risk.  Public toilets are regarded as dirty and often disgusting spaces.  And public toilets often are used by particular groups of people, for example, people with substance abuse issues and people who use the toilets for sexual activity, in such a way that renders the public toilets seemingly unusable by many. 

So, where to go from here?  If public toilet provision is so politically objectionable, how will public toilets be provided?  As I discussed previously, foisting responsibility for public toilet provision onto the private sector is not the solution.  There needs to be a sustainable, inclusive, and long-term answer to the public toilet problem, and it likely needs to come from the public sector.  Over my next few blogs I will examine more thoroughly some of the barriers to public toilet provision and explore what cities around the world are doing to provide public toilets.  I want to know what works and what doesn’t.  I will consider variables like cost, design, and public consultation.  And I have a lot of questions.

On that note, I end this blog with an apt quote from my favourite television show:

Rajesh: You know, there’s something I've always wondered about Aquaman.
Leonard: Yeah?
Rajesh: Where does he poop?
Leonard: What?
Rajesh: What would a toilet look like in Atlantis?  How would you flush it? And when you did flush it, where would the poop go?

The Big Bang Theory, Season 4, Episode 1

Molotch, H. (2010). On not making history: What NYU did with the toilet and what it means for the world. In H. Molotch & L. Norén (Eds.), Toilet: Public restrooms and the politics of sharing (pp. 255-272). New York: New York University Press.