Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Highlights
id588640627
it’s never actually been about the bathrooms but rather what they represent: an unintentional (and miserably inadequate) substitute for a broader investment in public space.
✏️ Removing/not providing public bathrooms isn’t because they don’t want people to pee/shit.. it’s because there aren’t safe and public spaces for other things that people end up having to do in bathrooms. (e.g. drug users, sex workers, homeless people). A community needs:
- safe spaces and treatment centers for drug users
- safe spaces for sex workers
- unconditional housing for homeless people 🔗 View Highlight
id588640730
the fearmongering about sex workers, drug users, homeless people, and crime that we hear from community boards when cities attempt to build new bathrooms. In America, bathrooms have become breeding grounds for an anxiety of the unknown.
✏️ Without those safe spaces, people fear the existence or building of any new public toilets, because they fear all the stuff that comes with it. Again, mostly an issue of moral judgements than anything else. We judge homeless, sex workers and drug users. We don’t want them to have safe spaces, we can’t abide them to desperately use public bathrooms, so everyone must suffer accordingly. #xref with the homeless article 🔗 View Highlight
id588640922
the alternative—forcing people to urinate or defecate in the streets—cannot be an option. Nor can we rely on private businesses pick up the slack.
✏️ The alternatives are terrible, as expected.
- Public urination and defecation
- Private businesses and their iron fist approach around the usage of their bathrooms. Buy something overpriced, or maybe we just feel the need to keep it locked for “safety concerns” Governments should be providing this basic good. It can’t be ignored and it can’t be privatized. 🔗 View Highlight