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POO Taboo': The Difficulty of Discussing Public Restrooms
By Scott James |September 2, 2011
The Bay Citizen
http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/newsroom/poo-taboo-difficulty-discussing/
It’s the most basic of human needs — going to the bathroom — but it’s a subject few people are comfortable talking about.
“There’s this poo taboo that we have,” said Brent Bucknum of Oakland’s Hyphae Design Laboratory. Bucknum, a green designer who helped with the grass domed roof of the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, is working on an innovative new idea for reinventing the public restroom in San Francisco. The new toilets would be eco-friendly, artsy and located in parking spaces, much like the city’s famous “parklets.” Because of this, the proposed restrooms have been nicknamed “pooplets.”
Details about the pooplets plan — and the public health crisis that’s motivating Bucknum and others to take action — are the subject of my latest column. San Francisco could soon be No. 1 when it comes to dealing with number two.
Right now it’s tough to find a public restroom in the city. Many business owners have restricted access to bathrooms because they don’t want to deal with any mess left behind by transients. Some operators of shuttered bathrooms in government buildings worry restrooms could be used by terrorists to launch attacks.
Whatever the reason, it’s hostile out there if you’ve got to go. Dr. Kathleen Edmunds and her family, including three small children, just relocated to the city from Los Angeles. Even for a toddler in potty training, a request to use the restroom is almost always met with an abrupt no by local businesses.
“We’ve had a few close calls,” Edmunds said.
State law, specifically the California Plumbing Code, seems to indicate that buildings must have public restrooms.
“The codes were written so that when people are away from home they have access to proper sanitation facilities,” said Robert Brubaker of the American Restroom Association, an advocacy group for public bathroom access. “It’s a public health issue.”
But there’s some debate about whether the code is always enforceable, especially with older buildings.
One thing is clear: Practically no one speaks up publicly about the lack of public restrooms. City agencies, including the health department, say they receive few, if any, complaints when people are denied access to bathrooms.
Sure, people will tell you privately about the problem. But file an official complaint? Who wants to have their name associated with that? It’s embarrassing.
One person who is working to solve San Francisco’s restroom dearth said she had been chided for trying to tackle the issue — as if it were degrading to the community to engage in such a discussion.
Let’s face it: We’ve created barriers in our language to talking about this. The most common words in use are too vulgar to be printed in newspapers, and the euphemisms sound so silly they undermine the seriousness of the problem. (Or as one editor described an early draft of my column: “sophomoric.”)
“We’ve completely disconnected ourselves from it,” said Bucknum, who seemed quite comfortable talking in detail about the need to deal with human waste, as both a health and environmental issue.
He said that as the world’s population grows, and there’s an increased need for food, there will be intense pressure to figure out how to replenish the soil with nutrients. In 50 to 100 years, Bucknum predicts, this will be a huge environmental concern.
The San Francisco pooplet restroom concept (which involves composting, not flushing) is designed to eventually cull some of those needed nutrients from human waste.
That’s an idea worthy of discussion. But to get there, people have to be comfortable with having the conversation. Perhaps the best way to start is to come up with a better name for these eco-toilets than pooplets
Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/13ajS)
By Scott James |September 2, 2011
The Bay Citizen
http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/newsroom/poo-taboo-difficulty-discussing/
It’s the most basic of human needs — going to the bathroom — but it’s a subject few people are comfortable talking about.
“There’s this poo taboo that we have,” said Brent Bucknum of Oakland’s Hyphae Design Laboratory. Bucknum, a green designer who helped with the grass domed roof of the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, is working on an innovative new idea for reinventing the public restroom in San Francisco. The new toilets would be eco-friendly, artsy and located in parking spaces, much like the city’s famous “parklets.” Because of this, the proposed restrooms have been nicknamed “pooplets.”
Details about the pooplets plan — and the public health crisis that’s motivating Bucknum and others to take action — are the subject of my latest column. San Francisco could soon be No. 1 when it comes to dealing with number two.
Right now it’s tough to find a public restroom in the city. Many business owners have restricted access to bathrooms because they don’t want to deal with any mess left behind by transients. Some operators of shuttered bathrooms in government buildings worry restrooms could be used by terrorists to launch attacks.
Whatever the reason, it’s hostile out there if you’ve got to go. Dr. Kathleen Edmunds and her family, including three small children, just relocated to the city from Los Angeles. Even for a toddler in potty training, a request to use the restroom is almost always met with an abrupt no by local businesses.
“We’ve had a few close calls,” Edmunds said.
State law, specifically the California Plumbing Code, seems to indicate that buildings must have public restrooms.
“The codes were written so that when people are away from home they have access to proper sanitation facilities,” said Robert Brubaker of the American Restroom Association, an advocacy group for public bathroom access. “It’s a public health issue.”
But there’s some debate about whether the code is always enforceable, especially with older buildings.
One thing is clear: Practically no one speaks up publicly about the lack of public restrooms. City agencies, including the health department, say they receive few, if any, complaints when people are denied access to bathrooms.
Sure, people will tell you privately about the problem. But file an official complaint? Who wants to have their name associated with that? It’s embarrassing.
One person who is working to solve San Francisco’s restroom dearth said she had been chided for trying to tackle the issue — as if it were degrading to the community to engage in such a discussion.
Let’s face it: We’ve created barriers in our language to talking about this. The most common words in use are too vulgar to be printed in newspapers, and the euphemisms sound so silly they undermine the seriousness of the problem. (Or as one editor described an early draft of my column: “sophomoric.”)
“We’ve completely disconnected ourselves from it,” said Bucknum, who seemed quite comfortable talking in detail about the need to deal with human waste, as both a health and environmental issue.
He said that as the world’s population grows, and there’s an increased need for food, there will be intense pressure to figure out how to replenish the soil with nutrients. In 50 to 100 years, Bucknum predicts, this will be a huge environmental concern.
The San Francisco pooplet restroom concept (which involves composting, not flushing) is designed to eventually cull some of those needed nutrients from human waste.
That’s an idea worthy of discussion. But to get there, people have to be comfortable with having the conversation. Perhaps the best way to start is to come up with a better name for these eco-toilets than pooplets
Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/13ajS)
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