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by dev-da0 3999 days ago
Public bathrooms in NE, BE, FR, GB are paid per use and far between. My mom has stories of jumping under the stalls if they didn't have the shilling, sixpence or whatever it was in the 60's. In LA, it's mostly systematic hatred targeting minorities and homeless people from completely necessary bodily functions... which is dumb to deny, because they'll do it 'round back for spite... the owner could so just be cool and ask everyone to promise (really) to not make a mess and keep it very clean so people feel slightly worse if they were to slob it up.

Also, every Starbucks in the U.S. seems to give out water or water with ice upon request. That's not the same as a community identity space and symbol of a water fountain or a Roman aqueduct with water endlessly flowing out of a hole in the wall (we're obviously not able to waste as much as in the past).

Perhaps the symbol of the commons replaced with nothing but apparent commercial options is what people are moral panicking about? Or is there (perhaps as a result of what follows) a popular, definite consumer mentality shift to eschewing anything free == not good, expensive == good?

2 comments

In UK train stations this is so that they can pay for attendants in the lavatories.

When I was growing up this wasn't the case and they were the hangout of some, ahem, undesirable folk. You most definitely wouldn't have sent a child down on their own. They'd end up with an audience...

Toilets in most UK stations are free. Only in London and some other larger cities have they adopted this anti-social practice.
They're usually free once you're past the ticket barriers in the cities.
I would be surprised if the Starbucks in San Francisco would give out water for free to someone who looked like they'd been living on the rough.
They do because they don't want the person to cause a scene. Most restaurants feed homeless people if they ask nicely too.

It's not so much a kindness thing as a shrewd prevention of costly issues.