If you can’t beat them, join them. San Francisco’s Dolores Park has recently installed an open-air, public urinal in the latest attempt to curb its destructive public urination problem.
“The more options we can give them to relieve themselves, the better for the park-goers [and] the better it is for neighbors,” San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener told the Los Angeles Times.
The cement-based, open-air urinal is part of Dolores Park’s over $20 million in renovations. The Times notes that 10 of the park’s 27 new public toilets are also staffed, to encourage people to use them and to ensure people don’t use drugs or sleep inside of them.
Before the improvements, the park reportedly had just three urinals, and many visitors–sometimes up to 10,000 visitors on sunny days–would relieve themselves in trees and bushes.
The open-air urinal is an addition to other attempts by the city to fight back against public urination. Last summer, Breitbart News reported that San Francisco began painting some of its most urine-prone walls with a paint that causes the wall to “pee back” by repelling most liquids.
In 2002, the city passed legislation banning public urination and penalizing perpetartors with up to $500 in fines. However, that has done little to deter the unsavory act.
Photo: file
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