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Practically Lives Here
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Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Canada
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Lezlie Lowe
AUTHOR, NO PLACE TO GO: HOW PUBLIC TOILETS FAIL OUR PRIVATE NEEDS
There are not enough public bathrooms. And I mean free, municipally cared-for public spaces where anybody can go, no questions asked. In most Canadian cities, what we have are lots of public bathrooms in commercial spaces, such as coffee shops, malls and restaurants. But those don’t necessarily meet everyone’s needs in terms of access, unlike a public bathroom that is on-street, ideally open 24 hours and free. We need to have a reckoning about the fact that publicly available washrooms in Starbucks or McDonald’s don’t actually meet the needs of everybody. If you are unhoused and haven’t had a shower for three days, you’re not likely to be able to use that bathroom. You’re more likely to get kicked out.
When you hear planners talk about cities, it’s fantastically aspirational. I’m glad we’re talking about walkability and liveability and aging in place. But you literally cannot have any of those things without public bathrooms. If there were more of them, people could spend more time using cities. Malls typically have really nice bathrooms, and lots of them, and the reason is so people stay longer.
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