Tuesday 13 October 2015

Close Call



I love to walk.  I can walk for hours on end—half searching for quirky architectural gems, half to clear my mind.  Walking brings me peace.  Until I need to pee.  I usually find the nearest McDonalds or Starbucks and slink in and scramble out as swiftly as possible.  But one time, while I was abroad in London for my Master’s degree, I could find no McDonalds, no Starbucks, and nowhere else to go either.  I kept walking and walking, growing ever more desperate.  And then I found a community college.  I figured—perfect!  They’ll have a washroom I can use.  They did indeed have a washroom, but it was for students only—students of that community college, not students of other educational institutions (of this the security guard was quite clear).  So, I begged.  I begged and begged and promised that I would run in and out as quickly as possible and not make a mess and not do anything in there that I shouldn’t and please let me use the washroom because my bladder is about to burst and I can’t keep it in.  I almost was in tears.  The security guard finally and thankfully took pity on me and let me through the gate, telling me to hurry up because he really wasn’t supposed to let me in.  I sped in and out, thanking him profusely, but that was a terrible experience.  You know, people who smell alright and look alright and don’t have a cartful of belongings and don’t mutter to themselves generally do have a trouble-free time finding an “away from home” toilet to use when they need one.  I never had an experience like this before.  I’ve even been able to walk into a hotel and use its washroom.  It’s relatively easy for housed people to take it for granted that they will find a public toilet to use when they need one.  And it’s easy for housed people not to appreciate that finding a public toilet to use often is impossible for homeless people, and can lead them to urinate and defecate in alleys and other quasi-public spaces.  Indeed, undesirable behaviours associated with homeless people, including vandalism, drug use, and sexual activity, repeatedly have been named as leading reasons for the closure of existing public toilets and the reluctance of cities to provide additional public toilets.  But if housed people can walk into public institutions, malls, food service establishments, and even hospitality establishments to use the restrooms, then why should cities provide public toilets?  Should cities provide public toilets primarily for the use of homeless people?  Cities need to provide public toilets beyond what can be found in malls and cafés and restaurants and hotels, and provide them for all people, not just for homeless people, because going when you need to go should be a civil right.  Yet, as the public toilet situation in North American cities stands now, not everyone can go when she or he needs to go.  People with physical disabilities and mobility impairments, parents and attendants of children with disabilities and mobility impairments, people who travel with a companion for assistance, people with certain medical conditions, elderly people, moms or dads with babies and young children, people with complexity or ambiguity in gender presentation, homeless people, and everyone else should be able to go to the bathroom when they need to go.  And it is morally incumbent on cities to ensure that their citizens have this right.  Perhaps homeless people understand best the indignity that could come from not being able to access a toilet when needed.  Yes, public toilets can be dirty, disgusting places and no, they’re not always used only for peeing and pooping (whether or not they should be is a whole other matter).  But if they get to be dirty and disgusting then it’s because of the way they’re viewed, not because of who uses them or how they’re used/what they’re used for.  If public toilets are looked at as expensive nuisances used by offensive people for improper purposes and the people who are hired to clean and maintain public toilets are underpaid, inadequately trained, and undervalued, then, yes, even the newest and most modern public toilet, no matter how technologically complex and expensive, quickly will become dirty and disgusting and most people will not use it.  So, should cities hire attendants to monitor public toilets?  Should there be video surveillance outside public toilets?  There are so many questions to ask regarding public toilet provision.  Questions about design and about location, about cost and about security.  And I want to address them all.  But, regardless of all the questions, cities still need public toilets.  So, where do we start?  How about with two apt quotes from my favourite television show (not to minimize the issue):

Sheldon: I do not have to urinate.  I am the master of my own bladder . . . . Drat!

The Big Bang Theory, Season 3, Episode 13

Sheldon: I have to skip the chit chat.  Emergency.

Leonard: What kind of emergency?

Sheldon: Mathematical.  32-ounce banana smoothie, 16-ounce bladder. 

The Big Bang Theory, Season 4, Episode 21
 

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