Holding Your Own-Cities Responding to Need

The Economist December 12th 2020 pp32-33 |United States|”The urinal is political” “Where have all the toilets gone?” “Long time passing”

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Read the article for full detail

2244 no doubt like others has been at least annoyed from time-to-time about the lack of access to relief. This brief article reviews the amazing number of controversies on this topic over time.

Summary of Article

Maybe before our time or just have forgotten issues around public access to toilets.

1) 1950s and 1960s “civil rights protestors decried ‘whites only’ latrines”

2) March Fong Eu, an Oakland Assemblywomen, “took a sledgehammer to a toilet rapped in chains outside the state capital in 1969 to protest against pay toilets in public buildings, arguing that they placed an undue burden on women because urinals were often free.”

3) In 1973 activists protested for “potty parity” at Harvard noting that their wasn’t “equitable distribution of male and females toilets.”

4) In 1977 disability protesters “occupied a federal building in San Francisco for 26 days” demanding Grip Bars be mandatory.

5) The “Committee to End Pay Toilets in America” were effective in banning pay toilets in many states during the 1970s.

6) Most recently, in 2016, “a North Carolina law requiring transgender people to use the toilet of their birth sex upset the nation’s stomach.” The law was repealed but issues on this topic played out throughout private and public organizations in America.

In response to much of this controversy and other reasons such as “Vandalism and cost of upkeep”, the potential for nefarious activities, the Oklahoma City Bombing, 9/11 and now COVID has resulted in a notable decline over the years to public and private access to toilets. Private companies typically, the last refuges sans the outdoors, post “Restrooms are for customers only…creating a barrier to the poor.” Public urination etc. is illegal in many places adding to the woes of those stranded and the homeless. This is especially problematic for gig workers, taxi and Uber drivers etc.

Finally, not having access is a public health issue from handwashing to medical consequences of “holding” off. Without giving details the article notes “spurred on by America’s homelessness crisis, some cities are answering the call.” (See Image Above)